DTA under Windows XP

diebratwurst · Civilian **Joined**: 03 Mar 2020

First post c:

So when I want to start the launcher under WindowsXP SP3, it will basically return an error message:

No suitable graphics card found.
Could not find a Direct3D device that supports the XNA Framework Reach profile.

And it won't start. So, since i have no other application open (other than the regular explorer), I wonder what the problem could be since the graphics card should natively support Direct3D. So is this game even meant to be working with WindowsXP? Do I need like an additional runtime engine or could it be a problem referring to the hardware?

I hope that's enough in order to be able to help me.
thanks c:

P.S.: The hardware acceleration is set to full.

TAK02 · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 7:08 pm Post subject:

I do believe that everyone has moved on from good ol' XP, disrespecting the old but gold classic.

That error might be because a) you don't have the latest .NET/DirectX stuff, or b) what DTA uses is beyond the scope of the latest official XP SP and you'd need at least Vista or brew your own, potentially highly explosive cocktail of DLLs (much more likely).

I heard there's an unofficial SP4, but I'm not sure how reliable it or any links to it are. I recommend you test it first in a virtual machine like VirtualBox first, if you're interested.

^Rampastein · Rampastring **Joined**: 11 Oct 2008 **Location**: Gensokyo

DTA should run on Windows XP assuming that your graphics card and driver fills the requirements of XNA Framework 4.0's Reach profile, so hardware support for DirectX 9 and Shader model 2.0.

As far as I know, no one in our staff uses Windows XP anymore however, so it hasn't been tested in a while. But even if it crashed on XP, it would crash on a different error message and get past that XNA graphics card check.

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diebratwurst · Civilian **Joined**: 03 Mar 2020

first of all, thanks for your fast replies Smile

I think my problem has been settled since I found out that the graphic card is basically too old XD
Kind of sad, but in regards to the age of the pc, I think I won't spent any more money on it, so I need to stay at this old brick Very Happy

(Nvidia Geforce4 MX 440 with AGP8X).
One last question: are there any general hardware requirements that you can rely on?

^Rampastein · Rampastring **Joined**: 11 Oct 2008 **Location**: Gensokyo

Woah, that's one old GPU.

Literally anything that you can buy from a store nowadays should be able to run DTA.

It's hard to give exact requirements, but for the XNA version any DirectX9 GPU that supports Shader Model 2.0 should suffice, although old GPUs that were low-end for their time like some GeForce FX 5200 or Radeon X300 will likely struggle with frame rate in the client. Later or more high end (for their time) DirectX9 GPUs should handle it fine.

For the best-supported DirectX11 version of the client, pretty much any Nvidia or AMD GPU with DirectX11 support should do, so Radeon HD 5xxx or GeForce GT(X) 4xx and up. Most modern Intel GPUs suffice too, but some of them suffer from driver issues.

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Lin Kuei Ominae · Seth **Joined**: 16 Aug 2006 **Location**: Germany

at the risk of making myself unpopular, but i still think that's quite some demanding system specs for a static interface that only shows some text and images.
Ok, WinXP isn't even supported by MicroSoft anymore, but it would have been nice if the client has the same specs as the game.

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TAK02 · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 6:56 pm Post subject:

Pfft, try running DTA on an old HP Mini 110 with no noteworthy GPU other than what the 1.6GHz Atom gives.

diebratwurst · Civilian **Joined**: 03 Mar 2020

Basically, this was intended as a fun project. I had this old PC laying around and wanted to use it for something "useful". Then I started to play around with the idea to make some kind of C&C-PC out of it which basically would run many easy to get older and newer C&C's on it. Ideallly it would even run "modern" games like DTA, but...

Anyway, thanks for your help c:

diebratwurst · Civilian **Joined**: 03 Mar 2020

A short Update:

as it was kind of expected, the Geforce 4 series is unable to handle the game/client due to the shader model requirements.
So, when going with a Nvidia Card, you'll most likely want to use a FX-series Card (although i wasn't able top test one yet) or newer.

diebratwurst · Civilian **Joined**: 03 Mar 2020

Another Update:

I got my hands on a MSI Nvidia Geforce 6200 which is good enough to start DTA under WindowsXP. I wasn't able to test every feature yet, but as far as I can tell, the Singleplayer works quite good. The multiplayer is another story. As you m,ight think, the loading time is quite high on such a machine but sometimes playing together with other players just doesn't work because the windows XP machine has a timeout and even if it works, the framerae might be almost painfully low. Maybe I can make out some improvements in the settings for the future...