Second Life on Windows Vista Home

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zillerbeth
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Zillerbeth

Hi,
I have recently upgraded a new laptop with Windows Vista home automatically
installed and generally find Vista very easy to use and with a lot more
useful automatic programmes such as Windows emial, calendar and contacts.
No need for MS Outlook as it seems to behave the same and is just as
intuitive.

However on my old laptop I had installed Second Life and apart from the odd
crash which was to do with their servers rather than the machine my old
laptop had Windows XP, however on this new machine with Vista I was able to
install Second Life but cannot run it. They do say in their blogs that
there are some issues in Vista running Second Life but there they seemed to
think they had sorted it to some extent.

Has anyone posting to this website been using Second Life (which by the way
is great fun) on their Windows Vista operating system and if so, can you
please give me some tips please?

Thanks in anticipation a Second Life user without a home, wanting to see all
the newest upgrades Linden software have put in.

Zillerbeth
 
Hi that is exactly the problem I have I tried downloading a driver from the
Intel website, didn't work, so if anyout out there has an intel graphics
card and Windows Vista and has managed to get Second Life to work we would
love to hear from you
 
Zillerbeth said:
Hi that is exactly the problem I have I tried downloading a driver from the
Intel website, didn't work, so if anyout out there has an intel graphics
card and Windows Vista and has managed to get Second Life to work we would
love to hear from you
Click to expand...
 
Second Life requires an OpenGL/DirectX compatible 3D Graphics
Accelerator; while some integrated motherboard chipsets like Intel will
work in Windows XP; these are far too inadequate to run Second Life in
combination with Windows Vista because the drivers for these chipsets no
longer support proper 3D rendering for high end applications and the
manufacturer of the chipset (Intel) will not provide drivers for these
platforms as they have ceased development on older Intel Graphics sets.
Your only choice therefore is to purchase a new graphics card if you wish
to run Second Life.
 
Ace said:
Second Life requires an OpenGL/DirectX compatible 3D Graphics
Accelerator; while some integrated motherboard chipsets like Intel will
work in Windows XP; these are far too inadequate to run Second Life in
combination with Windows Vista because the drivers for these chipsets no
longer support proper 3D rendering for high end applications and the
manufacturer of the chipset (Intel) will not provide drivers for these
platforms as they have ceased development on older Intel Graphics sets.
Your only choice therefore is to purchase a new graphics card if you wish
to run Second Life.
Click to expand...

Any "3D Graphics Accelerator" (Couldn't just say Video Card?) released in
the last 5 years have DirectX and OpenGL drivers more than capible of
running SL. Even low end cards should at least be able to get into the game.

Just because you install Vista doesn't mean your video hardware instantly
downgrades itself and is no longer able to do what it used to do.

Vista just saps more power away from games and stuff. Which sucks. If it's
not too late to go back to Windows XP, do it. Save yourself the headache,
but if you want to keep going, just update your video card drivers from
intel.com and go back to playing.

-A.
 
I specifically mentioned 'chipset', meaning those found on motherboards,
not those found on PCI/AGP/PCI-e/etc. expansion video cards, although
those also exhibit problems.
No specific chipset was mentioned by the OP.

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/cs-023606.htm?
iid=POR+vista_biz_perf+rhc_involvement#3

In other words, Intel chipsets starting at 945 and upward will have
driver development, any below will not, and will use the default drivers
supplied by Vista, which in turn will not support proper 3D acceleration.

Note that many machines purchased last year include the lower numbered
chipsets.
I currently have well over 50 mainboards including the lower numbered
chipsets, some 16 laptops and 18 desktops purchased last year, and
another 16 laptops purchased january 2007.
Each machine came with a 'Vista Capable' sticker on them.
None of these machines will receive further driver updates from Intel to
enable proper 3D acceleration in Vista, only the currently available
drivers for Windows XP will do that.
That is why I posted that reply on october 5, 2007 in reply to Zillerbeth
as a general notice, because no specific chipset was mentioned.
Vista sucks power yes, but the hardware manufacturers are also to blame.
Seeing also how Second Life is developing lately, you'll agree that
having newer more powerful graphics cards seems to be the way to go
according to Linden Labs, no matter what they say on their site.
Who knows what their current beta development of the quickly aging Havoc4
physics engine will do to the platform as well.
Havoc 5 was released just on september 5, 2007.
 
As I understand Vista is supported by Second Life (at a minimum since Version
1.17) . I run SL on my laptop and I have Vista Business Edition. The problems
as described sounds more like a video issue than an operating system issue.

Linden Labs lists all system requirements at
(http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php)

Here is a quote from them with system requirements for video.

" **
Second Life may not run on graphics/video cards other than the ones listed
above. Unfortunately, if your graphics card includes any of the following
words, it's NOT compatible with Second Life:
nVidia cards that report as a RIVA TNT or TNT2
ATI cards that report as RAGE or RAGE PRO
ATI cards that report as RADEON 320M, 340M, 345M, or similar model numbers
Intel chipsets less than a 945GM
Intel Extreme
3DFX
RIVA
TNT
SiS
S3
S3TC
Savage
Twister
Rage
Kyro
MILENNIA
most cards by MATROX
The following cards have not been tested with Second Life, and compatibility
is not certain:
nVidia cards that report as Quadro
ATI cards that report as RADEON IGP or RADEON XPRESS
ATI cards that report as FireGL
ATI cards that report as FireMV "
 
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