Games being released today still run on Windows 7... but they typically aren't going to run on Windows 7 any better than they will on Windows 10 and they certainly aren't less compatible.
What are the last games that, while maybe they can run on Windows 10, were really designed for Windows 7?
I can't think of a single game that runs better on Windows 7 than Windows 10 and I really can't think of any meaningful metric of how a game would be "designed for Windows 7". I would just go with the last game released before Windows 8 hit.
By "designed for Windows 7" do you mean:
Not a UWP App
Only support D3D9, or include D3D9 along with D3D10/D3D11 although some games for 7 were D3D10 or 11, the vast majority were not.
Developed with a compiler that did not support Windows 10 at the time the game was developed.
Only includes Windows 7 and below APIs.
Primarily 32bit but may have a 64bit executable but some might be 64bit only.
Game released before Windows 10 was released but games released after would likely still apply since they are in development for a long time and likely were not developed on Windows 10 machines.
I heard a rumour that GTA V stopped working on Vista due to CEF (not the steam client) but I haven't verified it yet . A very old game getting updates and dropping OS support is very rare since old games are rarely updated but GTA V makes so much money so it's one of the exceptions so I doubt it's worth worrying about overall. Of couse the online store client dropping support is a different matter.
I don't think we're quite there to peak EoL shaming yet. Heck there's a certain anticipated Windows XP MMO game slated for the Windows 10 store in 2020 with no real technical reason to require it...
Until one of Microsoft's new VisualC runtimes says so I guess, or MinGW deprecating support for the sake of "removing dead code"
They don't exist. Win10 is still based on the underlying driver/display model that Vista introduced (along with DX10). Thats why XP is the last retro era.
I'm still on 7 and haven't found a game that doesn't work on it. On top of that I downgraded to 7 for better performance.
So there are no early Windows 7 games from around 2009 that have issues whatsoever on Windows 10 and no currently released games have any issues on Windows 7, aside from not being able to use DX12 - with a rare exception like WoW.
Replace 7 with Vista and 2009 with 2007 and it will still be mostly true.
kolderman wrote on 2020-05-25, 00:21:They don't exist. Win10 is still based on the underlying driver/display model that Vista introduced (along with DX10). Thats why XP is the last retro era.
Funny. I've been thinking about this recently, trying to anticipate what I need to start setting aside if/when 7 becomes "retro." However, for the most part, I think almost all of my games for Win 7 were purchased through Steam or GOG or were purchased physically with a Steam downloader on the disc. I'm assuming that's the case for most of the folks here.
Yup. 2007 the year of widescreen LCDs, Vista and Steam. Basically the start of our now modern era.
infiniteclouds wrote on 2020-05-25, 02:42:So there are no early Windows 7 games from around 2009 that have issues whatsoever on Windows 10 and no currently released games have any issues on Windows 7, aside from not being able to use DX12 - with a rare exception like WoW.
Certain CD/DVD based copy protection schemes stopped working on Windows 10 .
kolderman wrote on 2020-05-25, 03:46:Yup. 2007 the year of widescreen LCDs, Vista and Steam. Basically the start of our now modern era.
Bioshock came out in 2007 and I'll keep that on my XP install with EAX tyvm. Also Stalker SoC google search has "windows 10 (solved) or windows 10 fixes" ... if there's anything to fix it's because there's an issue.
I played a bit of Stalker on win10 with steam no issues. But I think minor/trivial fixes don't equate to deep incompatibility requiring a retro win7 build.
kolderman wrote on 2020-05-25, 04:23:I played a bit of Stalker on win10 with steam no issues. But I think minor/trivial fixes don't equate to deep incompatibility requiring a retro win7 build.
Ironically I do have a win7 build, dual booted with winXP, but it's for emulation (games and midi), and I still like booting into what is perhaps the best OS microsoft ever did. And in some rare case where I need it for a game that doesn't run under win10, I guess I have it.
kolderman wrote on 2020-05-25, 02:52:Replace 7 with Vista and 2009 with 2007 and it will still be mostly true.
Forwards compatibility is great, but backwards less so: lots of things stopped working on Vista already; not due to graphics APIs most of the time, but simply because Microsoft's tools started targeting Win7 by default, which causes developers to compile for Win7 and access the default Win32 APIs in a Vista-incompatible way. Many times this could be fixed with a compile flag, but due to Vista's negligible user base, no one cares to do it.
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infiniteclouds wrote on 2020-05-25, 04:19:kolderman wrote on 2020-05-25, 03:46:Yup. 2007 the year of widescreen LCDs, Vista and Steam. Basically the start of our now modern era.
Bioshock came out in 2007 and I'll keep that on my XP install with EAX tyvm. Also Stalker SoC google search has "windows 10 (solved) or windows 10 fixes" ... if there's anything to fix it's because there's an issue.
A lot of people attribute errors to OS upgrades that have nothing to do with OS upgrades. It isn't meaningful in any way.
darry wrote on 2020-05-25, 04:04:infiniteclouds wrote on 2020-05-25, 02:42:So there are no early Windows 7 games from around 2009 that have issues whatsoever on Windows 10 and no currently released games have any issues on Windows 7, aside from not being able to use DX12 - with a rare exception like WoW.
Certain CD/DVD based copy protection schemes stopped working on Windows 10 .
None from the time period this topic is about that I can think of.
Personally I crack all games anyway. Who wants to spend time switching discs?
