DirectX 8.1 (General Discussion)

DirectX 8.1 // General Discussion

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anduin

May 17, 2002, 3:13am
Hi,

I'm just wondering if anyone is using DX 8.1 yet and having ActiveWorlds
running. I have had one friend tell me that every 15 or so minutes his AW
now crashes with DX 8.1.

Anyone else having problems?

Thanks guys :o)

--
Anduin
Citizen 317281
http://www.anduin-lothario.com

pc hamster

May 17, 2002, 4:03am
Hi everyone:

[View Quote] DO **NOT** upgrade to DirectX 8.1 unless you *really do* like reformatting
your HD just to be able to get on ActiveWorlds!!!

I say this because I *tried* it myself on my (admittedly OLD) Pentium 166
w/MMX and not only could I not run my webcam, I *also* could not run AW or
ANY of my games!!!

I've also heard of other people having similar difficulties on MSN's Free
Computer Help Forum too (and they have more modern systems than mine!).

Long and short of it - Don't install DirectX 8.1 until it's out in final
release. Doing so otherwise will only cause more problems than it's really
worth.

Hope this helps..... :-)

> Thanks guys :o)

No problem. I'll send the bill later.... :-) j/k

Cheers for now everyone :-)

Patrick Cook
Mayor - City of Hamsterville
pchamster at msn.com
Denver, Colorado

P.S.: The above statement is only a recommendation based on personal
experience. Results may vary. Chedck to see if your system will support
DirectX 8.1 first (some systems or cards do NOT).

milesteg

May 17, 2002, 6:11am
Hi Anduin,
I installed it on two PC one with Win2000 , the other one with Win98 and it
is running smoothly,
no problem.
just be sure you got the latest driver of your video card..
You should not install it if you have an old video card which is not
supported anymore by its manufacturer, because its driver is certainly a
very old one and it won t support DIrectX8.1

you can have more info here:
http://www.activeworlds.com/help/aw33/direct3d8.html

Regards,
MilesTeg

"anduin" <anduin at NOSPAM.centercom.com.au> a écrit dans le message de news:
3ce4917e at server1.Activeworlds.com...
> Hi,
>
> I'm just wondering if anyone is using DX 8.1 yet and having ActiveWorlds
> running. I have had one friend tell me that every 15 or so minutes his AW
> now crashes with DX 8.1.
>
> Anyone else having problems?
>
> Thanks guys :o)
>
> --
> Anduin
> Citizen 317281
> http://www.anduin-lothario.com
>
>

anduin

May 17, 2002, 6:42am
Hi,

Ok, I took the chance in installing Direct X 8.1, my system specs are as
follows:

OS: Windows XP Home
CPU: P4 1.7ghz
RAM: 512mb
Video: GeForce MX/MX 400 (64mb) with latest Detonator XP (28.32) drivers
installed

All seems to be working fine, no problems so far.
I guess it may depend on your system, I installed it also on a Win98 Machine
with 128mb RAM but with an old Voodoo 3 2000 (8mb) and AW runs in software
mode... Maybe I'm missing something.

--
Anduin
Citizen 317281
http://www.anduin-lothario.com

[View Quote]

anduin

May 17, 2002, 6:44am
Hey,

> No problem. I'll send the bill later.... :-) j/k

Waiting on it:

Anduin
P.O Box 1584
Bakery Hill, VIC
Australia 3354

--
Anduin
Citizen 317281
http://www.anduin-lothario.com

[View Quote]

silenced

May 17, 2002, 9:41am
Works fine for me, I don't know what your problem is.

--Bowen--

Have $3... want a website?
http://www.smartpenguin.com/affiliate.php?id=12

[View Quote]

carlbanks

May 17, 2002, 11:42am
It worked with my old video card just alot of lag tho but when I bought a
new comp it runs smoothly now. and now with the new support it'll work
really good

[View Quote]

kah

May 17, 2002, 3:57pm
"anduin" <anduin at NOSPAM.centercom.com.au> wrote in
news:3ce4917e at server1.Activeworlds.com:

> Hi,
>
> I'm just wondering if anyone is using DX 8.1 yet and having
> ActiveWorlds running. I have had one friend tell me that every 15 or
> so minutes his AW now crashes with DX 8.1.
>
> Anyone else having problems?
>
> Thanks guys :o)

I've been running DX 8.1 retail for a few weeks now, I love it, it
brings a great little boost to apps using it (like the Revolution3D 3D
engine I program with)! I've had no problems like this with AW, it runs
fine, except that it usually crashes now and then anyway, but that
happens regardless of the DX version.

KAH

kah

May 17, 2002, 4:00pm
You're out in the woods, dude. DX 8.1 is a completely fine working release
of DX, and it *IS* in release, been since last year. The current beta
version of DX is DX 9. I have never had any problems with DX 8.1. Maybe you
should run the DX diagnostic tool, there might be a problem on your system.
(Start > Run > type "dxdiag", without the quotes). I recommend upgrading to
anyone out there, it will do you a lot of good.

KAH

zeo toxion

May 17, 2002, 5:01pm
I've been running DX 8.1 since...well....I can't really remember since I
don't even know when it came out. I don't think it was too shortly after it
did though. I've never had any huge problems with it and certainly no more
then any other version. Although I have to admit AW runs a lot smoother on
OpenGL which is what I use.

And maybe it's just me but umm...isn't 3.3 the only one that has enhanced
graphics for 8.1? In 3.3 I think there is a new video mode for 8.1 which is
supposed to increase performance so you could judge a lot better then.

I think the reason why SO many people are having trouble is because they run
it on ancient computers. I mean...that's like trying to run XP on a 15 year
old computer heh. They just think it has ot be the software thats doing it
when its usually not the case. That's why new computers run it so good is
becuse theyre faster and usually have the latest video drivers.

--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A message from Zeo Toxion
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[View Quote]

johnny b

May 17, 2002, 7:58pm
wasted your time ;O) on the microsoft D/L page, it says dont bother
installing it for XP, it already comes with it.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/downloads/drx81.asp

JB

kah

May 18, 2002, 3:37pm
"johnny b" <uniquect at optonline.net> wrote in news:3ce57d00$1
at server1.Activeworlds.com:

> wasted your time ;O) on the microsoft D/L page, it says dont bother
> installing it for XP, it already comes with it.
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/downloads/drx81.asp
>
> JB

Actually, there *IS* a difference between the preinstalled DX 8.1 for XP
and the DX 8.1 on the DX site. Some DX 8.1 powered apps might not work with
the preinstalled version

KAH

johnny b

May 18, 2002, 3:43pm
Good point, it's always good to check, b4 installing new drivers, etc....
especially if you've got an old puter :O) as, apparently PC Hamster found
out.....

anduin

May 18, 2002, 11:06pm
[View Quote] Yes it is. I ran "dxdiag" as KAH had suggested. Everything is running fine;
thanks for the tip KAH :o)

--
Anduin
Citizen 317281
http://www.anduin-lothario.com

kah

May 19, 2002, 9:12am
"anduin" <anduin at NOSPAM.centercom.com.au> wrote in
news:3ce6fa86 at server1.Activeworlds.com:

> Yes it is. I ran "dxdiag" as KAH had suggested. Everything is running
> fine; thanks for the tip KAH :o)
>
> --
> Anduin
> Citizen 317281
> http://www.anduin-lothario.com

You're welcome :-)) Also, even though this may not seem really problematic,
if you have debug versions of DX files you should reinstall, these can
create problems as well (for some strange reason one of my DX core files
went into debug mode after a crash here, and I couldn't program in DX until
I discovered it and reinstalled DX). Hopefully DX 9 will be ready soon,
it'll probably be even better :-))

KAH

pc hamster

May 21, 2002, 12:37am
Hi everyone:

[View Quote] Obviously you guys failed to note that I mentioned I had tried it on an OLD
Pentium 166 w/MMX and 64MB of RAM. :-)

As a result, it could be that my current system simply cannot handle 8.1,
however I noticed that other people on the MSN computer forum I mentioned as
well as a few MS newsgroups (most of whom were all using more modern
systems) also had similar problems.

That (among a few other reasons I can't think of right now) is why I did not
recommend the upgrade. Hopefully whatever bugs there may have been in the
system have been fixed since I tried 8.1 earlier this year.

Cheers for now everyone :-)

Patrick Cook
Mayor - City of Hamsterville
pchamster at msn.com
Denver, Colorado

pc hamster

May 21, 2002, 12:55am
Hi everyone:

[View Quote] Yup!!! I sure did Johnny - And it wasn't fun either! :-(

However though, as I said before, since other people on other
computer-oriented forums were experiencing similar problems with newer
machines, I felt I would be doing people in this NG a misjustice if I had
recommended the upgrade anyway despite the know (at least to me anyways)
flaws OR by not saying anything at all. So hence, I spoke up!! :-)

But glad to see people in here aren't having problems. :-)

Having said all that....Back to read mode.... :-)

Patric k Cook
Mayor - City of Hamsterville
pchamster at msn.com
Denver, Colorado

kah

May 21, 2002, 4:13pm
"pc hamster" <pchamster at email.msn.com> wrote in
news:3ce9b2d8 at server1.Activeworlds.com:

> Hi everyone:
> Obviously you guys failed to note that I mentioned I had tried it on
> an OLD Pentium 166 w/MMX and 64MB of RAM. :-)
>
> As a result, it could be that my current system simply cannot handle
> 8.1, however I noticed that other people on the MSN computer forum I
> mentioned as well as a few MS newsgroups (most of whom were all using
> more modern systems) also had similar problems.
>
> That (among a few other reasons I can't think of right now) is why I
> did not recommend the upgrade. Hopefully whatever bugs there may have
> been in the system have been fixed since I tried 8.1 earlier this
> year.
>
> Cheers for now everyone :-)
>
> Patrick Cook
> Mayor - City of Hamsterville
> pchamster at msn.com
> Denver, Colorado

I'm just guessing, but I think you may be running Windows 95 on that
system? It seems the most likely for a system like that, even though the
minimum requirement for Windows 98 is a 486 66MhZ CPU... The difference
is that DirectX 8.1 is only supported on Windows 98 and up, DirectX 8.0a
is the last DX version supported on W95! And what problems did you
encounter?

KAH

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