Should I switch to Win10 with a new laptop ?

[evarburg]

Reading a whole thread in problems with win10, I am beginning to quake in my boots re my intent of buying a new laptop --for SC4 only. ; I would play with the Steam version, but mostly I want to use it to LOT, i.e. I NEED all the SC4 tools to work (Lot Editor, Ilive Reader, PIMX, DataNode, and SC4Tools.) As the sale ends on the 18th of this month (a really good bargain for the smallish, i3-1011OU, 15,6 screen, 256 G SSD, 8 G RAM Acer), I'd like to know : might this be a mistake ? I can also wipe win10 and install a lean, clean, mean version of Windows 8.1., of course...

[eggman121]

Hello evarburg

I switched to Windows 10 in 2018 and have had limited issues with the new operating system. Being a NAM team member means that I have to use a few more tools than the average player. Most of the issues for Windows 10 and associated programs for SC4 modding have been fixed or problems can be solved.

Word has it that if a legacy program will not work you can always set up a virtual machine with an older operating system.

I have used the following programs without a hitch...

SC4 Terraformer

SC4 Tool (Admin powers are needed for functioning)

Ilives Reader 0.9.3

SC4 Reader tool by Tropod (The latest version is x64 only!)

PIMX

GoFSH

PNGtoFSH Batch tool by null45

SC4 Mapper

SC4 BAT and Gmax

... That is just to name a few.



Usually the biggest hurdle is getting the right DLLs and Microsoft Redistribution content.

Also you have to have a digital license for SC4 on windows 10 since the OS does not accept disks.

Hope that helps.

-eggman121

[evarburg]

Oh. This look promising, thank you ! (that thread on Simtrop' was a long list of woes, so I freaked a little...)

two things :

"Usually the biggest hurdle is getting the right DLLs and Microsoft Redistribution content.

Meaning? :-))) (sorry, do not speak computerese much )

"Also you have to have a digital license for SC4 on windows 10 since the OS does not accept disks."

I used Steam. Would that be OK ?

[xxdita]

Steam is fine.

As for the dll's and such, most of the programs created for SC4 are 32bit, so will require the 32bit (or x86) version of any dependencies named. It doesn't matter if your Win10 is 64bit or not.

[evarburg]

oh my,  better and better... 

[Andreas]

I'm running Windows 10 64 bit here, and a digital copy of SC4 from Origin (provided for free by EA after chatting with the support and supplying my serial number). Apart from a few minor quirks that I had to sort out, everything seems to work fine. Since you seem to be plagued with so many issues on your Mac's Win8.1 installation, it's probably the best solution to get a dedicated Win10 machine after all, and looking at the specs, the offer that you found might be a good deal after all.

Keep in mind that the Intel Core i3-10110U CPU is a rather low-end dual core, but then again, SC4 is ancient and won't use more than one CPU core properly anyway. Do not try to wipe Win10 and install an older version, though, the "look and feel" of Win10 is almost the same, and it is much more modern.

I think the Acer model that you found is a relatively new one, so they probably don't even supply Win8.1 drivers anymore. Also, Win8.1 already dropped out of the main support two years ago, and extended support will end in three years, which means that Microsoft only supplies security update anymore.

[evarburg]

Bought it.  Thanks for the comments, everybody. Stay tuned for my next cry for help, though