Games in Games Folder

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Guest

Is there no way to have Vista automatically create a link for games you
install inside of the Games folder to go along with Minesweeper et.al? I was
under the impression that when I install a new game onto my machine, I would
get an entry in the Games folder along with the ESRB information and options
for parental controls. I see that on the games that come with Vista but
installing the latest MS game (Rise of Legends) shows it to behave just like
it did in XP. In otherwords, it appears as just another application. Dragging
a shortcut into the folder sets its default operation to "Play" but that is
about it.

Is this enhanced functionality going to exist for anything other than the
stock games? And if so, are these new features limited to Vista-friendly
games like Crysis and Halo2, or is there a way to get this functionality to
work on older titles.

As a note, I have had no problems running Rise of Legends on my machine
under Vista Beta 2.
 
Hmm it should - report this as a bug :o)
But just check around the box the disc came with - does it have an ESRB
rating or any information relating to it?

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
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» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!

--: Original message follows :--
 
I did check and apparently I have a non-American version of the game. There
is no ESRB info on it whatsoever. However, I did not think that there was any
sort of ESRB "encoding" on games and that it was up to Vista to search a
database to gather the information much as WMP does for CD cover/track info.
Regardless, I went ahead and tried installing another newer game, this time
one with the ESRB information on the front. I chose Heroes of Might and Magic
V. It did the same thing as ROL. It installed into the directory I selected
and made the Start Menu entry I specified but did nothing to copy an icon
into the Games folder. As an added bonus, this game doesn't seem to want to
run under Vista. I keep getting an error stating that the application "failed
to start because d3dx9_25.dll was not found.". I am guessing this is some
sort of DX10 compatibility issue.
 
The game installer must report itself to Vista, Vista does not do a search
for exisiting game installations, nor monitor installations of legacy games,
nor look up ESRB ratings from a database, it will only use those ratings
supplied by the game itself.

Expect Vista compatible game installers for games produced after Vista
ships.

Games will require an XML GameDefinitionFile.
See this for how it works:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/directx9_c/Windows_Game_Explorer_Integration.asp
 
Actually, this article indicates that there will be some support for legacy
titles, including metadata information like ESRB data:

http://windowssdk.msdn.microsoft.co...r/GameExplorer_PGuide_Legacy_Game_Support.asp

"In the case that your game does not install a GDF and integrate with the
Game Explorer, The Game Explorer legacy game system will use Windows Metadata
Services and and automatically download game developer information, box-art,
and ratings, which will be used in the Game Explorer in lieu of
developer-provided data. The information used by the legacy game system is
supplied by http://www.allmediaguide.com/

Windows Vista supports many released games through the legacy game service.
Each of these games is represented by a game ID that is provided in Windows
Vista..."

My understanding from various other sources is that Vista can detect an
install of a supported legacy game and will provide the necessary features
for the games that the development team is able to support. They are
encouraging people to bug games that do not install themselves into
GameExplorer. Adding this support is said to be rather difficult as they have
to create a signature of the game install and the create a GDF for the game.
 
On an earlier version of Vista (I think maybe 3 or 4 releases ago) I tried
running World of Warcraft. While the game did not get past the login screen
before crashing, Vista had automatically added a link with all the relevant
game information and box art etc to the Games folder.

I had not installed the game under Vista, I was just running the executable
from my Win XP partition. I certauinly have to say I'm dismayed that this
functionality has at least been disrupted in the subsequent builds.
 
I am also disappointed as I can confirm that Vista is not providing this
functionality in the latest Beta build. I have a separate Games partition
that I have been using for years, so I don't have to re-install all of my
games after a format. All of these games were originally installed via
Windows XP. Vista runs these games fine (WoW being one of them) but it won't
give any ESRB info or anything. By the sounds of this thread, new installs
or old installs aren't making a difference...
 
The Game Explorer picked up my installations of Baldur's Gate and Starcraft,
and they're pretty much as "legacy" as you can get.

Hell to get to run without glitches though, on current NVIDIA WDDM drivers.
 
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