What is with these ungodly system requirements?

[asmcint]

What kind of awful testing did you guys do?

OS: Windows 7(Okay, starting off pretty sane I guess.)
Processor: Intel Xeon W3505 @ 2.5 GHz(Wait WHAT. Why are we throwing a server CPU in here?)
Memory: 1 GB RAM(Okay, matches the visuals of the game I guess)
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro 600(AND SERVER HARDWARE AGAIN!!!)
DirectX: Version 8.0(What... What even is this? Windows 7 but it uses DirectX 8? I wouldn't even bat an eye at DX9 but this is utterly baffling)
Storage: 5 GB available space
Sound Card: Compatible with DirectX 8

EDIT: Nevermind, it turns out this is a result of both the weird PC scene in Japan and the fact that this is a localization of a game that was already released on PC over there several years ago.

[Minneyar]

That's really workstation hardware, not server hardware, and I'd bet that most of it is simply the lowest-end hardware that the developers tested and got it running on. I believe the original release targeted Windows XP, but Sara probably increased the OS requirement to 7 just because nobody bothers targeting anything at XP any more. Similarly, even though the game now targets Win7, it still uses the DirectX 8 API.

[lezzy colonel]

this game is from 2008, and it was made for low-end hardware even then

[darkjedi521]

That's a circa 2010 low end workstation GPU, equivalant to a Geforce GT 440; and a circa 2009 single socket workstation/server CPU, equivalant to an i7-9xx CPU. Not exactly bleeding edge.

[Andrew R]

Do you anticipate the game to be buggy on October 31st?

[asmcint]

Did... did nobody read the edit I made? I get it now. I got it before any of you started replying. I made that edit specifically so nobody would reply.

[Saralene]

Originally posted by Minneyar:

I believe the original release targeted Windows XP, but Sara probably increased the OS requirement to 7 just because nobody bothers targeting anything at XP any more. Similarly, even though the game now targets Win7, it still uses the DirectX 8 API.

The OS requirement is more of an "official supportted" thing than anything else.
It probably still runs on XP, though. I haven't done anything that should break that.

Edit: Tested in a VM. Game still runs just fine in XP.

[Andrew R]

Hi Sara! :)

What was your role in the game?

[asmcint]

Originally posted by Sara:

Originally posted by Minneyar:

I believe the original release targeted Windows XP, but Sara probably increased the OS requirement to 7 just because nobody bothers targeting anything at XP any more. Similarly, even though the game now targets Win7, it still uses the DirectX 8 API.

The OS requirement is more of an "official supportted" thing than anything else.
It probably still runs on XP, though. I haven't done anything that should break that.

Edit: Tested in a VM. Game still runs just fine in XP.

Makes sense. Shouldn't be anything stopping it from doing so if it's still a 32-bit application running in DirectX 8.

[Atlanter]

I´m surprised falcom still developed a game with DirectX 8 in 2008. DirectX 9 came out more than 5 years earlier and was used in almost every game in that time.

[asmcint]

Originally posted by Atlanter:

I´m surprised falcom still developed a game with DirectX 8 in 2008. DirectX 9 came out more than 5 years earlier and was used in almost every game in that time.

It's a matter of how PCs are primarily used in Japan. They're mostly work machines, and budget-oriented besides. So in 2008, if you wanted to hit as many PC users as possible over there, DirectX 8 would be your sure bet.

[Saralene]

It is easy to mess up Windows XP compatibility by merely setting the wrong variable, causing the compiler to link against newer versions of system files. But I take special care with these things, luckily.

Originally posted by Andrew:

What was your role in the game?

I am the programmer for XSEED's version of this game.

[Andrew R]

Is there adjustable difficulty in Zwei?

[TG_Judgement]

Originally posted by asmcint:

EDIT: Nevermind, it turns out this is a result of both the weird PC scene in Japan and the fact that this is a localization of a game that was already released on PC over there several years ago.

I should point out that Minneyar is right, the rather bizarre sysreqs listed is actually due to it being the lowest spec Xseed had managed to test the game on. From Tom @ xseed's forums:

http://www.xseedgames.com/forum/index.php?threads/zwei-steam-and-gog-pages-are-up.29348/#post-957174

Originally posted by Tom @ Xseed Forums:

Those specs are taken from the specific lowest-spec PC we've confirmed the game running on. And they are, of course, subject to change as testing continues -- the game very likely can run just fine on lower specs than that, we just didn't want to give "minimum requirements" that were unconfirmed.

The Japanese shop page for Zwei2 has a more sensible core2duo & Radeon9500/GeforceFX recomendation.

[Saralene]

I will note that the requirements do tend to go up a tiny bit for the XSEED versions due to modernizations and the fact that the widescreen adaptation code (and other global improvements, such as the HD assets for Trails) for these games permeate every pore of them, though. @_@ The minimums for the original Japanese versions are probably a *little* too low for the XSEED versions as a rule of thumb, but they make good guidelines.

[TG_Judgement]

Indeed, hence why I mostly mentioned their recommended specs. Their minimum CPU calls for a PIII 800MHz, which for a 2017 release is...huuuh...yeah.