Argote Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 IntroductionWith the Beta 1 release of Longhorn now just weeks away, it is time to start talking about two little-known features that will particularly appeal to modders and power gamers. These are good signs that Microsoft is getting serious about these audiences; they demonstrate the broad positive impact of actually having game developers on Microsoft's staff. WinSat: Getting The Most For Your Buck The first and most comprehensive of the two features is a tool called the Windows System Assessment Tool (WinSat). This is essentially a benchmarking tool designed into Windows, which generates scores based on system performance. It will analyze the graphics subsystem, the processor, the memory, the hard drive and other critical components of the system and calculate a total score. This score can be used to compare your system performance to that of any other Longhorn system. The system also retains individual and incredibly granular scores on each and every subsystem, and will instruct software components to activate, modify their own settings, or turn themselves off in order to optimize the software for the hardware. This means that, unlike any previous operating system, Longhorn will attempt to adjust its own parameters automatically, to make the most of the performance potential of your hardware. WinSat will set up two configurations: one for general productivity applications, and one for games. As long as the game developers make the right software call, the system will optimize itself into a generic game configuration so you can approach the most optimized performance possible. In addition, game developers can make calls to WinSat to trigger both optimization and evaluation events. For optimization, games can automatically turn off features you don't need during game play. They can also call up a screen that points out where your system bottleneck is, and suggest hardware upgrades that will correct system performance issues. The end result is that not only will advanced games play better on a wider variety of configurations, if there is a problem, the system will tell you what the problem is and what you need to do - or more generally, to buy - in order to correct it. And what if you buy or install a new piece of critical hardware, such as a faster drive, a better video card, faster memory, or anything else that effects system performance? You can run this tool again to automatically reconfigure your system to optimize it for the new hardware you have installed, once again getting the biggest bang for your buck. In addition, parts makers can build a WinSat trigger into the driver load, making this all happen automatically, so even novice users can gain benefits from the tool. You can also get access to the detailed scores that WinSat generates, and use them to manually optimize your system. While the automatic method uses a fixed set of parameters based on the average user, we all know that you are above average and have special needs and skills. Just as you can overclock your processor, you will be able to modify your system parameters to best optimize the score for how you work or play, and see what the individual and overall impact of those changes actually is. This last feature will definitely separate the men from the boys! The initial, limited view of this feature will show up in Beta One; it will be command line only until later in the Beta cycle. It will be updated and improved throughout the beta cycle and should be feature complete by Beta 3, which hopefully is due in the first half of next year. The Stealth Feature For Modders I'm not even allowed to reveal the code name for this feature, and the final name doesn't apparently exist yet, so I'm just calling it "Mod1". During the boot process, this tool looks for significant hardware changes; if it finds any, it restarts the hardware configuration process. This is the process you generally observe when you first install the operating system, which allows the system to initially boot so you can install the proper drivers. This should eliminate the need to start from scratch every time you change a motherboard, while still avoiding the dreaded "blue screen of death." This feature is not expected to show up until after Beta One, which is the reason for the secrecy surrounding it. Apparently it is intended as a Christmas present to the modder community from the Microsoft developers, some of whom are evidently modders themselves. There are a number of additional surprise features that will show up late in the Beta cycle, some of which appear designed to really torque off Steve Jobs - we'll talk about those in upcoming months. Until then, realize that Microsoft has done something significant: it has finally recognized that modders and power gamers are some of its most loyal customers. They plan to reward that loyalty with a product that has features specifically designed to make custom machines run better - now if that isn't cool, I don't know what is. SOURCE Seems very interesting... especially the Game assesment tool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealDave Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 When abouts is longhorn suppose to be available to buy? Sorry if its been asked else where. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Floyd Veteran Posted July 12, 2005 Veteran Share Posted July 12, 2005 somewhere in 2006.. I dont know the exact date Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kronik Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 now this is news and music to my ears I must add, lets hope its all true and dosent stop there. thanks for sharing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stgeorge Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Yeah it all sounds good now, but I can't wait for Microsoft to get greedy and go "Longhorn has detected a GeForce 10000, but this is Longhorn Home edition, so it has been underclocked to a GeForce TI since that is all you need. Please send the $99.95 upgrade fee to get to Longhorn Pro edition to clock up to a GeForce 5200, or $399.95 upgrade fee to get to Longhorn Xbox edition to clock up to a GeForce 10000. Or just buy an Xbox 360." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spielo Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Finally! Not only the first feature in Longhorn that has actually interested me, but a "Games Mode", essentially. I have been saying that Windows needs a Games Mode, where unnececary features are disabled during a game to free up resources since... Windows 98! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.weir Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 With features like this, it just drives me insane listening to people whine and complain about missing features, and certain visual effects not showing up in beta 1. Comon, gimme a break, this is shaping up to be an incredible OS . . . I was planning on making 'the switch' this summer, but with all the 'good' LH news I've heard, I'll wait and see what the OS is like before I make a decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kronik Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Finally! Not only the first feature in Longhorn that has actually interested me, but a "Games Mode", essentially. I have been saying that Windows needs a Games Mode, where unnececary features are disabled during a game to free up resources since... Windows 98! 586200277[/snapback] EXACTLY like you said windows should detect and hence optimize your PC for gameplay, this feature should have been implemented for XP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.weir Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Yeah it all sounds good now, but I can't wait for Microsoft to get greedy and go "Longhorn has detected a GeForce 10000, but this is Longhorn Home edition, so it has been underclocked to a GeForce TI since that is all you need. Please send the $99.95 upgrade fee to get to Longhorn Pro edition to clock up to a GeForce 5200, or $399.95 upgrade fee to get to Longhorn Xbox edition to clock up to a GeForce 10000. Or just buy an Xbox 360." 586200278[/snapback] No offence, but that was the single stupidest comment I've read in a long time. I hope you were kidding. It's not like you put a 7800GTX and an A64 X2 4800 in you system right now, with home installed and it performs below par to pro. The differences between the two (home and pro) are going to be aimed a professional users, (read: businesses). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 That WinStat thing sounds awesome! :woot: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViperSnake Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Hmm, these seem like pretty cool features . That new "WinKudsu" is pretty neat, has big simlarites to a tool in Red Hat based Linux distros called Kudsu, the "Hardware Discovery Tool". I personally thought it was annoying so I skipped it every boot. But I think that's ehat caused some of my hardware not to work under Linux. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
futb0l Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Finally! Not only the first feature in Longhorn that has actually interested me, but a "Games Mode", essentially. I have been saying that Windows needs a Games Mode, where unnececary features are disabled during a game to free up resources since... Windows 98! 586200277[/snapback] Awesome idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[bear] Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 the winstat thing sounds like an awesome idea.. when I was reading it I was skeptical about more novice users getting into the problem of their hardware optimizations not being updated because they forgot to run the wizard again, but then I read farther into the article and I saw that the drivers could do it automatically for them.. awesome.. Microsoft really gave this one a lot of thought! Nice update thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Also just a note. WinSat is also available for XP. However I doubt developers will ultilise it now, its a little late. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raskren Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 I smell something... Consider the source of this "news" story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight' Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 fluff, is all I say, to the "games mode". Since when were games generic things? Different game engines require performance in different parts of your PC; some are very CPU intensive, some needs lots of memory, others just need lots of graphics memory, etc etc. There is no one set of optimisation for all games. And, in reply to one members post, it would be a nightmare for Microsoft to turn of things IT deems unnessisary for gaming, how is it to know that some service won't cause something else to break if it is turned off? Mmm, that would be interesting during gameplay I'm sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmo Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 sounds truely awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootWind Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 fluff, is all I say, to the "games mode". Since when were games generic things? Different game engines require performance in different parts of your PC; some are very CPU intensive, some needs lots of memory, others just need lots of graphics memory, etc etc. There is no one set of optimisation for all games. And, in reply to one members post, it would be a nightmare for Microsoft to turn of things IT deems unnessisary for gaming, how is it to know that some service won't cause something else to break if it is turned off? Mmm, that would be interesting during gameplay I'm sure. 586200655[/snapback] Isn't that exactly what it does? It checks to see what a certain game is using, and where it is bottlenecking. (and game developers can include their own optimizations) :huh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.M.K Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 I smell something... Consider the source of this "news" story. 586200643[/snapback] http://www.tomshardware.com/column/20050711/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slimy Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 sounds very cool! thanks for the post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWahbinator Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 I hope the Game Mode disables some unnecessary hardware and also running processes and services that don't need to be running during the game. Download WinSAT slides from WinHEC (very detailed) which seems to be interesting for both consumers and OEMs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy2004 Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 theres an error in your link get rid of the bit after .ppt and the file works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raskren Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 I hope the Game Mode disables some unnecessary hardware and also running processes and services that don't need to be running during the game.Download WinSAT slides from WinHEC (very detailed) which seems to be interesting for both consumers and OEMs. 586200733[/snapback] Just imagine the security and reliability issues with this. What if a malicious piece of software entered "game mode" shut down everything it could, disabled other hardware (think keyboard and mouse), and locked the terminal. Just as a side note, I don't believe anything I read on THG. Oh and Pwn3r, your link is broken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy2004 Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 as i said get rid of the %5ddownload after .ppt and it works :crazy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raskren Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 as i said get rid of the %5ddownload after .ppt and it works :crazy: 586200765[/snapback] You posted as I was posting so I didn't see it. No need to get grumpy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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