A new version of Windows always comes with some anxious questions: will my old games and software work with the new OS? Especially for games that stood the test of time, like Age of Empires II. Especially now that Windows 10 is a free upgrade, it’s ever so tempting and the question is ever so burning.
The answer is quite simple, yes, Age of Empires II HD is compatible with Windows 10, but it does not stop there.
Windows 8
Windows 8 has always been a bit of a controversial Operating System, but it also affected Age of Empires II HD. Windows 8 has a really nasty font-related memory leak, and when we changed the code to patch the leak in 4.0, we really hurt performance for a lot of players. However, Windows 10 handles fonts far better with a superior caching mechanism. What this practically means for your computer, I cannot tell, but I can share my personal experiences.
- Patch 4.2 on Windows 8: 30 fps
- Patch 4.2 on Windows 10: 100 fps
These were measured on a laptop with the following specs:
Intel Core i7-4702MQ Quad-core 2.20 GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M
16GB DDR3 L Memory
120GB SSD + 1TB HDD
1080p resolution
If you’re not on Windows 8 and would still want some performance gains, you still have patch 4.3 to look forward to, where we managed to decouple the game’s rendering from the rest of the logic, boosting framerates up yet another notch, up to 160 here. But some of our test desktops managed to crank out 240 fps.
So should you upgrade? We cannot judge for you, but we would recommend it, especially if you’re on Windows 8. Windows 7 users will not have the gains mentioned above, but everyone will enjoy the performance boost from patch 4.3 regardless. Coming soon™.
Is it possible to have a 1080p picture of the above picture? It looks AWESOME 😀
We got a 4K one 🙂
https://www.forgottenempires.net/wp-content/uploads/age_of_empires_2_hd_windows_10.png
I’m setting that as my desktop background 🙂
My personal experience (patch 4.2):
Windows 8.1: 70 FPS
Windows 10: 80 FPS
Specs:
AMD FX 9590 8 core CPU @ 4.7 GHz (downclocked to 4.4GHz)
2xAMD R9 290 CrossfireX (only 1 GPU is being used by AOE2HD)
8 GB DDR3 RAM
120 GB SSD + 1TB HDD
1080p resolution
A small performance increase.
Of course the experiences can be different, but one thing I don’t understand is how a laptop with much lower specs can have a higher framerate than a high-end PC. Or does this game just run way better on Nvidia cards?
The game has no specific optimization for any video cards. Although with those specs, I’m curious to see your FPS on 4.3.
And… nothing about the new expansion!
Except that it’ll run smoothly 😉
any hint at an eta, I know we are not allowed to ask that from IT people, just if it’s days, weeks or month :]
I only have an ETA on the next patch: http://steamcommunity.com/app/221380/discussions/0/530645446316424075/#c541907867791832444
Expansion is still scheduled for “Fall 2015”
<3
Guys, stop making news without actual news!
Would be really nice if MS could bring AoEO back along with this ;[
There’s also a massive thread on Stream about having it there.
Hey there! Will there be an update to “Coming soon! More information coming mid June …” on the Home page soon?
Yeah, that announcement got pushed back a few times, sorry for the trouble :/
I have Windows 10.
Age of Empires can work correctly, but normally, it doesn’t. (it sends an error)
To run it, right click on the exe file (age2_x1.exe, aoc.exe, AoK_HD.exe, the main exe file) and select “resolve compatibility problems” (sorry for translate, my Windows 10 version is in German)
Then wait and click on “try recommended settings”, and finish the repair, clicking “ok” or “next”.
Age of empires should work.
confirmed, it works
works with that, but if it doesnt work when you do what “hello” says, try to go to the folder :C://program filesx86/Age of empires …./ and right click on the “Aok HD.exe” file, and in compativility mark run as administrator. I tryed that and works
how do you find the exe file?
just run age of empires and open task manager
Right-click on age of empires task (or process) and click on open fiele location, then, an explorer window opens and you find the main exe file
I still can’t get mine to work, and I’ve tried all that. Are there any drivers or patches that need to be installed?
ok, and runing it as admin?
Upgraded to win 10. AofE does not work anymore. AofE had no problem with win 8.
can i install on my laptop Toshiba Satellite l645 ??
I just had a windows 10 update yesterday and since then it doesnt work!!! the new update messed it up help!!!