Description
I want to address a few interlocking/related issues I encountered when using SK on Windows 8.1
- Which is the latest SK version compatible with Win8.1 (
README.MDneeds updating?)? Including errors thrown by a few newer versions. - Where are download links to those versions (wiki needs updating?)? Same goes for the version history.
- (SpecialK is awesome!)
1. Which is the latest SK version compatible with Win8.1
According to the current README.MD
Special K is not supported on anything older than Windows 8.1, though (as of 23.5.7) still builds and runs (massively feature-reduced) on Windows 7 (Platform Update).
I couldn't find anything on special-k.info or its wiki but from trying a few versions it seems any version >= 24.* is not compatible anymore.
I'm using SK v23.9.10.5 successfully with a few games:
- Metro 2033 redux
- Metro Last Light redux
- Metro Exodus
- Valheim
- Castle Crashers (32bit) + works with SK
v23.10.21.0too (not yet tested with the other games).
But versions 24.5.13.0 and 24.6.20.2 throw this error:
castle.exe - Anwendungsfehler
Die Anwendung konnte nicht korrekt gestartet werden (0xc0000142).
(~= The application could not be started correctly (0x...).)
While versions 24.10.22.0, 25.2.7.2 & 25.6.5.0 result in this:
castle.exe - Einsprungpunkt nicht gefunden
Der Prozedureinsprungpunkt "GetSystemCpuSetInformation" wurde in der DLL "...\common\CastleCrashers\d3d9.dll" nicht gefunden.
(~= The procedural entrypoint(?) "..." was not found in "...".)
So, what's going on? Is it possible to make newer versions compatible again? AFAIKT Windows 8.1 still has official support but in reality it just doesn't? That's quite understandable but not communicated anywhere...
Current SKIF versions can be installed on Windows 8.1 and the GUI runs fine - it's just that the games I tried don't...
2. Where are download links to those older versions.
I can't find them in the wiki tools section and there's a gap between
releases tag SK_23_8_26
and
releases tag SK_24_5_2
(at least all 23.9.* and 23.10.* versions are missing.)
Okay, guessing version numbers and manually editing available download URLs seems to work (eg. https://sk-data.special-k.info/repository/SpecialK_23.9.10.5.exe) but that's not how it's supposed to work. Btw. I got this version number by pure chance from here ...
Same goes for the versions history - there's a gap here on releases page 6 (between the
two release tags mentioned above).
3. SpecialK is awesome! (not an issue at all!)
This is Valheim being displayed as a 32:10 borderless windows on 2/3rds of three 16:10 screens (each one 1920x1200) - not on two of three displays but on the center on and one half of the left/right ones. The three displays are not configured with AMD eye-finity or nvidia's equivalent (= configured as three independent screens connected to the same GPU). :-)
Of course filling all screens with one 48:10 window works fine too.