Computer stopped liking AGS: Screen not updating.

Started by Charity, Thu 24/02/2011 21:09:17

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Charity

I've returned to using an old computer on a temporary basis while my laptop is out of commission.  I've had the laptop for a couple of years, but before that, I used this computer for everything and it never had any trouble running AGS or AGS games.

Since I have come back to using it, however, I haven't been able to run AGS games full screen.  I thought maybe this was due to some change in the latest version of AGS, but I tried playing some older AGS games (Ben Jordan 7 and when that didn't work 6 Day Assassin), but the problem persists.  Basically what happens is that the screen resolution will change based on the game settings and then the game window will fill the screen, so that I see the edges of the window, but nothing else (I think this is normal: it usually happens for a second when I start a full screen AGS game before being replaced with the game's visuals).  In 6 Day Assassin the screen goes black.  In either case, I will hear the games intro sounds/music if they have any, and I can still get out with alt+x, so it's not really frozen.

In Focality, Technobabylon 1 and 2, and ~Airwave~, I can get around this problem by playing in windowed mode.  In Ben Jordan 7, Gemini Rue, and Vegetable Patch Extreme Turbo 2, I encounter a problem that seems basically the same.  I will see the window outline and hear sound, but the graphics will not appear; instead I see whatever was behind the window before.  If I hold the mouse button down on the top bar (as if to drag the window around the screen) the game will animate normally until I release the mouse button, at which point the image will freeze again.  The most obvious dividing line seems to be age of the game, Gemini Rue being the exception (was it made in an older version of AGS?)

I'm not sure exactly what System specs are most relevant.  But my computer is running Windows 2000 Professsional.  NVidia.  One of the reasons I switched to the laptop was that my screen has been displaying artifacts (randomish colored pixels) and some people have suspected problems with the video card (Radeon 9200 series), so that may be my answer right there, but I don't recall having any problems with AGS games either after the artifacts started appearing or after a friend's unsuccessful fix attempts.  But it was two years ago, so I suppose I could have forgotten something like that.  And even if not, if tthe card was already deteriorating then, it has had plenty of time to get worse.

Just trying to explain this behavior to see if there is an easy fix.  Right now any computer related funds are going toward repairing my laptop, but I'd like to be able to play AGS games in the meantime, if I can.

EDIT:  I should note that I haven't noticed these problems with any other applications, as yet.

Khris

Have you updated DirectX and your graphics card drivers?

When you tried to run a newer game full screen, did you leave it at 320 or did you try changing the filter to x2?

The other important question is: what has changed with the old computer since you were able to play games on it fine?

Charity

Quote from: Khris on Thu 24/02/2011 22:17:39
Have you updated DirectX and your graphics card drivers?

Hmm.  I don't remember doing so, but it is possible.  Is there any reason why a newer version of DirectX might cause problems?  Or might gettnig the latest version solve them?

My current version is DirectX9.0c.  Not sure from when.

Quote
When you tried to run a newer game full screen, did you leave it at 320 or did you try changing the filter to x2?
It seems like most of the new games are defaulting to 2x or 3x these days.  I've tried with and without multipliers.  My screen has no trouble switching to the resolutions, but I still don't get visual.

Quote
The other important question is: what has changed with the old computer since you were able to play games on it fine?
This is essentially what I am trying to figure out.  To my knowledge when I stopped using this computer primarily, AGS games worked fine.  Since then, this computer has basically been gathering dust.  I think my parents sometimes used it for Facebook and E-mail, but little else to my knowledge.  I've installed automatic updates for some things.  Flash, Java, Windows system updates, Antivir.  I installed Skype and uninstalled AdAware because it was hogging virtual memory.  It is entirely possible that I'm forgetting something key, and that this could make it impossible for someone to diagnose from the outside, but I thought with a little luck someone with a bit more knowhow than me might be able to point me in the right direction.

Icey

Quick question as I just skimpt through. Are you still able to play any games you made on you PC and not game made by others?

hedgefield

I just started experiencing this issue today actually, with Gemini Rue! I've never seen it before with any other AGS game. But then again I haven't played many old AGS games since I got this machine.

Lyaer, these older games, they run under DirectDraw, yes? Not Direct3D? Try going into your display settings and changing the color depth of your monitor down to 16 bit. That did the trick for me.

Charity

Studio3:
Same happens with games I made on this machine in the past.  I didn't think there would be any difference, but thanks for the idea.

hedgefield:
Thanks!  That solved half of my problem.  I was able to get Gemini Rue to display properly in Windowed mode as well as an old "movie" game I made several years ago.

Now that I think about it, I used to use 16bit color on this machine based on the logic that True color probably used more of SOMETHING.  But somewhere along the way I switched to 32 bit, I think when I was trying to diagnose my video card.

I still can't run anything full screen, though.  So they must have been different problems after all?  Still no idea what's causing this.

I never noticed this behavior on my new computer, which is always True Color.  I'll have to try it out on some older AGS games when I get it fixed.

At least now I have an acceptable work around.  Can you play any AGS games in full screen?

hedgefield

Oh yeah you're right! Gemini Rue still doesn't work in fullscreen for me either. I never play AGS games fullscreen so I never noticed this problem, but now that you mentioned it I went back to try other Directdraw games like McCarthy Chronicles (which works fine in windowed mode since it's 32bit) and La Croix Pan (which uses an older engine version so I can't even select a renderer), and it had the same problem in fullscreen! Super weird. However my own games, which run under Direct3D in 32bit, had no problems either windowed or fullscreen (aside from being stretched).

And somehow Windows 7 doesn't understand the winsetup, every time I close it it asks me whether it was installed correctly or not... but that's another problem.

Peder 🚀

I had this problem on my new laptop, Dave gave me a brilliant solution changing the battery setting to High Performance. Did the trick for me. Not sure if any of you guys are using laptops at all but worth a try. (Not sure if there are such options on desktops?)

hedgefield

Dave's suggestion unfortunately didn't work for me. Presumably because I have two GPU's in this laptop, a built-in Intel one and a dedicated Nvidia one, but somehow I cannot force AGS to use the Nvidia one on Directdraw games.

arj0n

Quote from: hedgefield on Fri 25/02/2011 10:41:57
And somehow Windows 7 doesn't understand the winsetup, every time I close it it asks me whether it was installed correctly or not... but that's another problem.
I had this thing too, but not running the setup.exe as admin seemed to be the problem.

Khris

Quote from: hedgefield on Fri 25/02/2011 11:32:14
Dave's suggestion unfortunately didn't work for me. Presumably because I have two GPU's in this laptop, a built-in Intel one and a dedicated Nvidia one, but somehow I cannot force AGS to use the Nvidia one on Directdraw games.
Shouldn't you turn off the built-in one in the BIOS config anyway?

hedgefield

Well the Intel one is quite good actually, it can run older games as well as the Nvidia would, and the laptop switches dynamically between the two to save mucho power when you don't really need to throw the full scala of Nvidia's power at something (like AGS games). They call it Optimus.

Also the other thing is there is no mention of the GPU's anywhere in the BIOS :P

Khris


Dave Gilbert

Here's a suggestion from my forum:

Quote
I had a bunch of problems running GR on my Vista 7 64-bit desktop (ATI video)... Solved them by running the game in Compatibility Mode and selecting "Disable visual themes" (probably enough) and "Disable desktop composition". After that everything worked! I'm now running the game full screen with no problems.

Jinx1337

FINALLY! A fix has been found by a gentleman by the BrainOfSweden; taken from Steam forums.

Works for ALL DirectDraw games it affects (including Majesty Gold HD, AGS Games (Gemini Rue, Space Quest 2, Trilby etc.), Neighbours from Hell etc.).

Seems like this is a specific Nvidia Optimus Bug.

Direct quote from said forum:


"Found a working fix
First of all, I want to thank everyone that gave me ideas, this is kind of a mashup of all fixes I've found that only worked partly. Unfortunately I don't remember where I read everything, so, thanks to everyone who tried to get the game running.
Second, this fix requires no extra screens or cables.

I cant guarantee it will work on every laptop, but if you have an Nvidia Optimus card, try it. Here's how to (users with external monitors, read the last section too):

Begin with opening Nvidia control panel. In the "Manage 3D settings" tab, go to program settings and click add.
Navigate to your Steam installation path, and go to \steamapps\common\Sonic Generations\ and choose the sonicgenerations.exe file. Force it to use your Nvidia card. I don't know if it's necessary, but I also did this with the config exe.
After you have applied the settings, go to your desktop.

Right click and select screen resolution. In this window you should click detect. If you can see two displays that are grayed out and named after your video cards, you're probably good to go.
Choose your Nvidia card and select "Attempt to connect anyway on (VGA in my case)". Don't remember which drop down menu it is, just fool around a little. When you found it, click apply.
Then, choose extended desktop and apply again. This will force-activate your discrete GPU.
Now the fun starts.

The guide is edited from here

Open the Sonic Config tool and check if your Nvidia card is present. But instead, choose your Intel card and whatever other settings you want.
Now start Sonic, and it will propably work.

What's technically happening is that Sonic starts on the integrated GPU, But since the Nvidia card is active through the fake monitor, it will force itself to render Sonic thanks to the changes in the Nvidia control panel.

Users with Optimus and external monitors, read this:
Thanks to cazaroonie for this solution
Quote:
Originally Posted by cazaroonie 
I have a M11x R2 as well. I use an external monitor almost always and run that through the HDMI (never ever used the displayport...). I don't extend the screen between the two, though.

Following all of the steps the OP provided I ended up with three cards showing up in the config. Two intel (#0 & #1) and the nvidia card (#2). When telling it to run #2 it wouldn't work. Cue much frustration.

Random adage... I always have two monitors showing up in the screen resolution settings (one running, one grayed) and when I completed the steps I had three, all running. Even the imaginary one.

What I ended up doing is running it on #0 which is apparently what was running the external monitor? You need to make sure the screen is extended across all "three" monitors. Make sure the nvidia settings are set to run both the sonic generations exe and the config exe using the nvidia card.
I really hopes this works for you, but leave a message if it doesn't, and I'll try to help you."

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