Tag: 3d effect

Windows Vista Gaming Tips

January 14, 2009 by Jason

Update Vista’s DirectX9 files for better game compatibility

One of the fixes for getting games to run in Vista that do not normally (such as FEAR and 3Dmark06 as two examples) is relatively simple. These games require the latest version of Directx 9. Vista does not actually contain a full installation of Directx 9, just some elements for compatibility purposes. So, install Directx 9.

To install Directx 9c on Windows Vista:

step 1: Download the latest DirectX 9 redistributable file from Microsoft.com here.

step 2: Unzip the file into a folder on your desktop or in your documents.

step 3: Run the DXSETUP file.

step 4: You can delete the folder after the install has finished.
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Get EAX sound effects working in Vista

October 14, 2008 by Jason

The pain…

If you’ve invested your hard earned cash on a Creative X-FI sound card and a copy of Vista, you may be feeling a bit underwhelmed right now. Some of your games may be sounding a bit flat and lifeless and you’ll have no doubt felt that sinking feeling when you edit the sound settings in your new game only to find that you can’t enable some of the fancy options. There is a good reason for this and you probably will have been told at great length about it by one of the many passengers on the anti-Microsoft bandwagon.

The Science…

If you’re an experienced PC gamer you’ll no doubt be aware of DirectX and the various functions that make up the DirectX standard, such as DirectDraw, Direct3d and DirectSound and DirectSound3D. You will probably be aware of the hype surrounding Direct3d already, given that it has now reached version 10, but that’s a story for another day. DirectSound is what we are interested in here and it is sadly missing in Vista. XP and DirectX9 featured a “Hardware Abstraction Layer” which was a piece of software that allowed Windows to talk directly to a soundcard such as the X-FI to provide hardware mixing and 3d effects for your games. Without this layer any sound you hear will be mixed using software, rendering much of your shiny new soundcard useless. Read More»

Top 4 applications for effect on XP

August 09, 2008 by Jason

People love the vista always for the fancy looking GUI effects not for functionality, and quite opposite is the case for windows XP.

Today, we have come up with top 4 applications which enables flip 3d and aero effect XP just like vista.

Let’s discuss about all these applications which will implement flip 3d effect in XP.

1. TopDesk (shareware) – It is a Alt-Tab task switcher from Otaku Software to provide flip 3d replacement for Windows XP which allows you to instantly view thumbnails of all open windows. It has almost quite the same Windows Vista Flip 3D feature which allows open windows to flip and tilt in a sliding sideway stack with transparent windows effect in 3D layout.

Download TopDesk

2. WindowFX (Shareware) – It not only allows to have flip 3d effect in windows XP, it adds special effects includes shadow under windows minimize/maximize/close/open animations. Read More»