MM2 on Windows 8

[coelho20]

Hi folks, I'm new to the forum. I bought a new notebook with Windows 8 and tried to run Midtown Madness 2.

The game starts fine, but it runs extremely slow, lagging both in the menus and when I'm running. No matter if I run MM2 with the GPU or the 'integrated graphics', the problem is the same.

That's very weird, because my video card is very advanced (2 GB).

[Diatosta]

Yeah, that happened to me too. It looks like that at the moment, Win 8 still don't have the rights video card drivers for MM2. So, to the moment, the solution is to play in Win 7 or another until it is fixed. (However I know people that got it to work at the first time. It's a question of luck I guess

[coelho20]

Yeah, that happened to me too. It looks like that at the moment, Win 8 still don't have the rights video card drivers for MM2. So, to the moment, the solution is to play in Win 7 or another until it is fixed. (However I know people that got it to work at the first time. It's a question of luck I guess

What's even weirder is that other 3D games I have like Need for Speed World run perfectly fine, without any lag.

[Franch88]

Probably can't be done nothing to have no more lag or at least get some more FPS. It's since Windows Vista that MM1 and MM2 run worse with newer Windows operative systems, doesn't matter the specifications of the computer. With Windows XP the situation is less worse.
Here there are some testimonies of the better running of MM1 on Windows 98 than with newer versions of this OS, proof that old games are designed to work at best only with the systems of their times; the same concept would be applicable also with MM2.

[Spyke]

I have no experience in using Windows 8 but try this. Open the location of the MM2. Locate the Midtown2.exe then right click or something, then find Properties then Compatibility then find if there is an option for you to run the program in compatibility mode and choose Win 7 or lower versions.

PS: I don't know actually if there is kinda like that with Win 8. Just an idea to share with you. It might help idk.

[whoami]

@Spyke Won't help. Your best bet is a dual boot with Windows 7. I say that from personal experience, I tried everything. And my GPU is 2GB too.

[aaro4130]

I also have experience with this issue, It seems to be Windows 8 itself causing this, Sucks though, I can't use any MM on it. I have a triple boot at least

[Spyke]

@Spyke Won't help. Your best bet is a dual boot with Windows 7. I say that from personal experience, I tried everything. And my GPU is 2GB too.

I see. We could write on their forums about this matter. There must be a code or something on Win 8 that does not support the platform of MM game.

[CabarrubiasProductions]

Because Windows 8 have a hidden slogan message:

"Not beautiful, fast, fluid for gaming. Jerk! "

No, just a joke.

[whoami]

Actually it's better for gaming in general, because of DirectX 11 and better hardware support. Just that MM2 is a bit old, maybe they dropped support for it or something.

[Franch88]

I would say that's still better Windows 7 for gaming, it has DirectX 11 support too, but it's not only for this. On Windows 8 they're in 11.1 version, still unused in games, but the situation with the latest versions of Microsoft's graphic libraries is going to change when the next generation consoles will come out, probably this year. I've read of some working problems on it with some recent games too, that instead work fine on Windows 7. The hardware support is more related with the drivers released by the hardwares products, about the graphic cards not older than 4 years ago there's already full support, for example.
The problem in the case of MM2 it's obvious, it's because of the too old game and of the too new OS. In the above post I've linked a proof of this. With the time the things will be worse.

Microsoft already gave a bit of support for MM1 and MM2 just when Windows XP was released with the only official patch available for each, then stop. Despite the games are his properties, it's an utopia still have support from the productor for a product that's now old and no more distribuited. Almost every software producer does so. Then, there's the sensation that Microsoft has totally forgot its Midtown Madness series...

[CabarrubiasProductions]

I will explain, It's because in Windows 7, the DWM (Desktop Window Manager uses to display minimizing and maximizing effects) will automatically terminate before launching the game, but in Windows 8, DWM (Desktop Window Manager) is always still running in the background and if you want terminate the DWM.exe in Task Manager, the DWM.exe will automatically restart and Desktop Window Manager list in Services.msc is removed, so that MM1 and MM2 game will run slower.

Heres the quote of DWM Wikipedia article:

On Windows 8, DWM is now used at all times and cannot be disabled. Unlike Vista and 7, Windows 8 also supports the use of the "Basic Display Adapter", which uses software rendering and the CPU to render the interface rather than the graphics card. This allows DWM's functionality to be used without compatible drivers, but not at the same level of performance as with a normal graphics card. DWM on Windows 8 also adds support for stereoscopic 3D. Windows Server 2012, unlike previous Server versions, also utilizes DWM by default.

Microsoft explains "Desktop Window Manager is always on":

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 85%29.aspx

But, there is a trick to disable DWM in Windows 8 (WARNING: This is a experiment so please do not try this at your Main Windows 8 PC because it will cause conflicts, bugs and glitches):

How to disable DWM
Anyone want to disable DWM in Windows 8. Here is an instruction how to do so.

Please take a note that those steps shouldn't be taken by any non-experienced Windows user. If you do not know what you are doing - take a system restore point before proceeding. You can easly lock yourself out if you do not take extra caution performing those steps. But I still hope someone finds them useful

1. Go to Your Local Disk\WINDOWS\system32 (32-bit) or syswow64 (64-bit)
2. Right click on dwm.exe and select Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Change owner -> Take ownership of file.
3. Accept all changes, close the properties dialog, then right click on dwm.exe and select Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Change permissions
4. Add Everyone -> Deny Execute
5. Accept all changes and save
6. Now here is a tricky part, you HAVE to kill two programs Explorer.exe and dwm.exe by means of using Elevated Command prompt and typing "tskill explorer /a" and "tskill dwm /a".

Warning! You have to kill first explorer and then dwm as if you do it in other order, you will meet the black screen in which only "Top most" windows will be shown. During all time explorer MUST be not working. In order to use explorer (and Modern apps of Windows again you have to reverse the procedure. (One can combine this with CreateDesktop -> SwitchDesktop sort of program for automation and safety of this procedure)