Windows Server 2008/2012 for client application.

I was wondering if there is any reason to assume that there would be support of running the client application on Server 2008 or 2012, even if the support is not-official?

Given the similarity to Windows 7 and 8, it would probably run, but that is not a certainty.

While I am asking this, might as well ask, will the server application run on Windows Server 2008 or 2012?

As for the server application: You can be sure about that, it will work.

For the client, depends whether the graphics driver works or not, that means whether you have DX9 / OpenGL support or not. If you have, then the client should run fine.

As long as it's running on an x86-64 cpu it should run fine, though I don't know if we've tested it at all. Win 7 and Server 2008 R2 are nearly identical; I don't personally know of any compatibility issues between them. I do know of a very small number of games that have issues on Win 8 (actually just one), but PA runs without issue on Win 8 currently so I wouldn't expect issues with Server 2012.

Thanks for the reply. From what I have heard, there are some forms of DRM that don't work very well with the server versions of windows, and some programs are made purposefully incompatible.

Hopefully in the alpha I'll be able to test Server 2008 R2 or 2012 compatibility a little, assuming that is compatible with the plans for alpha.

That shouldn't be an issue, we certainly aren't going to purposefully make the game incompatible and I suspect support for the various Windows Server versions will be advantageous for server hosting. For all I know that's what we're currently running out external server tests on.

We'd love to know what you find out.

While the server versions of Windows do have some compatibility issues with some software written for the client versions of Windows it is usually restricted to highly specialized applications like VPN clients or things that interface with specialized hardware like industrial control systems.

As long as the application doesn't install some kind of special driver or virtual hardware device it usually works fine. This is because the kernels are a bit different between the client and server versions of Windows. This is where the issues with DRM come from.

The other part is that systems running a server version of Windows usually have crappy integrated VGA graphics with no hardware acceleration if they even have a console at all. This makes running game clients on real servers rather difficult but it also makes them ideal dedicated servers, which is the whole point.

The other problem is that some installer programs are written poorly and assume that any OS version they don't recognize must be too old to support the application. You'd be surprised how many older applications think that Windows Server 2008 R2 is Win9x/ME because of this. Then you have things like the free version of AVG that actually refuse to install on any server flavor of Windows for licensing reasons.

However since PA is DRM free I don't think there will be any real compatibility issues and I'm sure Uber won't release a brain dead installer.

Now if you have a nice gaming box running Windows Server 2008 R2 I'd really like to know why you spent $700 on an OS for a home PC. Your not running Active Directory at home are you? Cause if your not, then a $100 copy of Windows 7 would have done the job just fine and saved you $600.

I happen to have access to a plethora of Windows Server 2008 R2 boxes at work and I am pretty sure I can snag one to act as a dedicated server for a few hours late at night on a Saturday once the Alpha is out.

I will definitely be testing on both 08 R2 and 2012 as they are my primary serving platform.
I'm in Alpha so as soon as you let us get a hold of the server platform let me know what OSes you want me to test it on, and I'll run it through its paces on all of them.

It was free actually.