Given that Sonar X1 already runs on Windows 8 without issue, I have to ask...

What will the patch for Windows 8 actually do? 

Probably more support for touch.

Well it runs on Win 8 but does every feature work properly on Win 8? There may be some detailed fixes required to address differences between the two O/S.

There may also be some Win 8 optimizations.

Glyn Barnes


Well it runs on Win 8 but does every feature work properly on Win 8? There may be some detailed fixes required to address differences between the two O/S.

There may also be some Win 8 optimizations.

Having been running X1 in Windows 8 for a couple of weeks now, it sure seems like every feature works to me.
 
I'm hoping one of the bakers might shed some light on this.  I suspect as mattox says, it's an update for touch.

Is the patch not going to be for X2 ?

Windows 8 is much about the new Metro-interface.

To be able to run Sonar X1 (and probably X2 before the patch) in Windows 8,
you need to open the desktop first, which brings you to a similar interface as we're use to in Windows 7.

At the moment you can have a shortcut to Sonar in the metro interface, but it still jumps into desktop-mode, before starting it.

My hope is that they implement true metro support, so Sonar X2 opens up just like all other metro apps in W8. I also would find it kind of strange if this wasn't included in this coming patch, because it's as you say; You can already RUN Sonar in Windows8 as it is.

Everything in X2 works fine in Win8 as far as we know at this time. Nobody has reported incompatibilities. As Silicon Audio observed everything works, even in X1, sometimes with better performance. Though it might not be obvious to users, we were the first to invest a lot of time upfront in compliance with the newer Windows technologies (WASAPI, UAC, MMCSS to name a few) back when Vista came out. So all the typical stumbling blocks have been sorted out a long time ago. Win8 enforces compliance even more strictly in some areas. 
 
What we plan on doing is in the update is multi-touch support, something we've been thinking about for a long time, so that you can get expanded touch support on a touch enabled device. Metro is not something that we plan on doing for SONAR. Its a new programming interface that isn't designed for power multitasking applications like SONAR.  I cover the why's of that in my Windows 8 blog post. For one you wouldn't be able to run any of your plugins in Metro. Were pretty careful about the technologies we choose to back and Metro isn't one of them that is mature enough for the full blown DAW platform yet.

PS: If anyone does encounter a problem in X2 that is truly Win8 specific please send in a problem report with "Windows 8 Compatibility" in the title and we'll try and address it in the first update.

Loptec


 My hope is that they implement true metro support, so Sonar X2 opens up just like all other metro apps in W8. I also would find it kind of strange if this wasn't included in this coming patch, because it's as you say; You can already RUN Sonar in Windows8 as it is.

Unlikely in the near future, as Metro apps don't support low-level calls needed for device drivers, etc., don't support MIDI, or DLL plugins.
See Noel's blog on the subject for more details.


EDIT: Oops! Noel beat me to it (should've expected that . . .)

"Noel Borthwick"
Though it might not be obvious to users, we were the first to invest a lot of time upfront in compliance with the newer Windows technologies (WASAPI, UAC, MMCSS to name a few) back when Vista came out. So all the typical stumbling blocks have been sorted out a long time ago.

And I can confirm that using a standard user account with UAC (Win 7) works like a charm without any issues, aside a couple of very old cakewalk plugins (that I don't use). Also, MMCSS which increases the priority to CPU resources while removing the need for any additional pseudo tweaks (priority scheduling), is as you say transparent and efficient.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]

Everything in X2 works fine in Win8 as far as we know at this time. Nobody has reported incompatibilities. As Silicon Audio observed everything works, even in X1, sometimes with better performance. Though it might not be obvious to users, we were the first to invest a lot of time upfront in compliance with the newer Windows technologies (WASAPI, UAC, MMCSS to name a few) back when Vista came out. So all the typical stumbling blocks have been sorted out a long time ago. Win8 enforces compliance even more strictly in some areas.  
  
What we plan on doing is in the update is multi-touch support, something we've been thinking about for a long time, so that you can get expanded touch support on a touch enabled device. Metro is not something that we plan on doing for SONAR. Its a new programming interface that isn't designed for power multitasking applications like SONAR.  I cover the why's of that in my Windows 8 blog post. For one you wouldn't be able to run any of your plugins in Metro. Were pretty careful about the technologies we choose to back and Metro isn't one of them that is mature enough for the full blown DAW platform yet. 

PS: If anyone does encounter a problem in X2 that is truly Win8 specific please send in a problem report with "Windows 8 Compatibility" in the title and we'll try and address it in the first update.
<message edited by Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk] on 4 hrs. ago>

Ah! Thanks for the info! :)
Didn't know metro apps were so limited.. It's still new though..
Maybe this is something for the future anyway :)
This makes it even more exciting what you'll include in the Windows8 patch! :)

Luteman

Loptec

My hope is that they implement true metro support, so Sonar X2 opens up just like all other metro apps in W8. I also would find it kind of strange if this wasn't included in this coming patch, because it's as you say; You can already RUN Sonar in Windows8 as it is.

Unlikely in the near future, as Metro apps don't support low-level calls needed for device drivers, etc., don't support MIDI, or DLL plugins.

See Noel's blog on the subject for more details.

EDIT: Oops! Noel beat me to it (should've expected that . . .) 

Haha.. I guess he did.. Not by far though :)