🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 15 Aug 2014 06:53:11 -0700, Tecknomage
<tecknode@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:

>On Thu, 14 Aug 2014 23:23:40 -0400, Rin Stowleigh
><rstow...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 13 Aug 2014 06:26:44 -0700, Tecknomage
>> <tecknode@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:
>> 
>> >
>> >My Desktop rig is WinXP SP3 with a nVidia GeForce 7900GS 512mb.
>> >
>> >Every time I start Far Cry 2 a dialog says my drivers are out of date,
>> >BUT they are NOT out of date.
>> >
>> >According to nVidia I DO HAVE the latest WinXP drivers.
>> >
>> >There may be updated drivers for Win7 or Win8, but NOT for WinXP.
>> >
>> >Is there a way I can stop the Video Driver Check?
>> 
>> Where does the dialog come from?  An NVidia app?  Windows itself?  Far
>> Cry2?
>> 
>
>Far Cry 2, it's their driver check.

I've logged 500+ hours in FC2 and never seen that dialog, so I assume
you're running into a case of "code rot", a problem that occurs when
software is no longer supported and the software ecosystem (in this
case drivers) around it continues to evolve.

>
>> I run FarCry2 on Windows 8.1 with the latest and greatest GeForce
>> drivers all the time.
>
>You DID read my original post?

Yes, and I'm sorry my point eluded you cognitively,  but it was that
if FarCry 2 runs fine on Windows 8.1 with the latest drivers, so the
problem is not the game or the drivers, it's your OS.  

>My rig is WinXP and I will NEVER use hoggish Win8, especially since I
>would have to manually reinstall my 100+ apps.

As long as you are content to continue running the same 100+ apps for
the rest of your born days and don't plan to do any future gaming you
should be fine.

There will come a time when you won't even be able to get new GeForce
drivers for your antiquated OS.
>
>> 
>> The biggest problem I see is that you are on WinXP, and if it is
>> connected to the Internet there is a guy in Russia using your machine
>> as a pedoporn server right now, which will soon turn up in searches
>> from officials near you who have similarly easy access to your
>> machine.  That may or may not be related to the actual dialog you're
>> seeing, but it's something that should wake you up in the middle of
>> the night screaming.  In the day of the modern Internet, you do NOT
>> want to run an operating system for months after the vendor has
>> dropped support for it.
>
>I run a very good antivirus and I'm offline 95% of the time (not
>connected to the net).
>
>> 
>> Seriously.  Run as fast as you can from XP.  The warnings have been
>> all over, right in front of everyone's fucking faces.  For years.
>
>You actually believe Micro$oft?

No, I believe in my own 35 years of first hand computer science
experience, including game development and operating system
development, so I know exactly what I'm talking about....

>Before I retired, I was an IT Technician and Computer Specialist.
>There is nothing wrong with WinXP IF YOU KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT SAFE.

..in fact I know way more that a retired desktop PC fixer whose
skillset has obviously fallen far out of relevance.

Look man I'm going to be crystal fucking clear with you here, then I'm
going to leave you to your right to continue to ignore me and run
around in circles.

I was going to try to help you with FC2 because the MP mode is one of
my all-time favorite games, and I figured I'd logged enough time with
the game to help you out -- but helping some people is futile.

You're struggling unsuccessfully with a laughably out of date OS like
XP, plus a version of a video card driver that's trying to run a game
that was never designed to continue running on the same OS it was
originally tested on with the addition of future drivers versions in
perpetuity.  You may or may not ever be able to get it working in this
particular case, and the reason is that NVidia might continue to
release drivers for XP, but because both FC2 and XP are no longer
supported, nobody is going to test the software with that particular
driver version. 

As I said before, most likely you're hitting a wall due to "code rot"
and there's really not much you'll be able to do about that.  It will
continue to happen with future games if you continue to update your
video drivers.  If you want to keep your ancient relic of an OS going,
you need to disconnect it from the Internet and stop updating it.

As I said, FC2 will run fine with Windows 8.1 and the latest drivers,
at least the Steam version of FC2.  Picking up the Steam version on
the cheap might give you an extra potential shot at seeing this game
work one last time under XP, because sometimes the updates that are
posted to Steam are optimized a little better to fix code rot
scenarios for people who have feel out of the loop of "operating
system clue".

>I haven't had any viruses, hacks, or Windoze crashes in decades.

Microsoft tightened up their security practices a long time ago.  The
fact you don't trust them (given your statement above) makes it odd
that you trust their OS to protect not only the data on your computer
but to protect someone else from hacking it and using it as a kiddie
porn server, and the fact you don't realize you would never know if
they were is an even larger reason you should worry.