1024 x 768 games can crash when switching applications

[paolo]

My monitor resolution is 1024 x 768, which means that if I play a game that is at that resolution, I can't play it in a separate window. If I then press Alt+Tab to switch from the game to a separate application, sometimes the game crashes with an error about drawing the image. I don't think it's an error in the game itself.

Is there any way of playing a 1024 x 768 game in a half-resolution window? There is no option to do so from winsetup (although the resolution can be increased), but is it possible some other way?

I am running the game on Windows XP SP3.

Thanks.

[Pumaman]

Can you provide the exact error message that you get, rather than "an error about drawing the image"?

[CShelton]

This might not be related, but I've found if you try to play a 1024x768 WINDOWED game on a 1024x768 monitor, it'll throw this error.

[Pumaman]

That's to be expected -- if your desktop resolution is 1024x768 then to play it windowed the window won't fit on the screen (since it would be more like 1100x850 to take account of the borders, title bar, etc).

[paolo]

Can you provide the exact error message that you get, rather than "an error about drawing the image"?

It's intermittent and I didn't make a note of  it, unfortunately. In any case, I think it is a Direct3D error rather than an AGS error. If I get it again, I'll let you know.

Funnily enough, I don't get the error mentioned above when I play the game windowed - it's as if the game switches to full screen automatically because the resolution is not big enough for the window.

I take it there isn't a way of playing a game at a lower resolution than the intended one, then, even by editing acsetup.cfg?

The game creator can change the game resolution in AGS, of course, but is there a risk of corrupting the game if they do this?

[Pumaman]

I take it there isn't a way of playing a game at a lower resolution than the intended one, then, even by editing acsetup.cfg?

The game creator can change the game resolution in AGS, of course, but is there a risk of corrupting the game if they do this?

Correct, you can't play at a resolution lower than the resolution that the game was designed for.

If you change the resolution to make it lower, then your room backgrounds will start scrolling around and your GUI positioning could mess up, I strongly advise against doing that.

[paolo]

OK, that makes sense.

I've managed to reproduce the crash when using Alt+Tab switch application from a 1024x768 game played on a 1024x768 monitor:


---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
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An internal error has occurred. Please note down the following information.
If the problem persists, post the details on the AGS Technical Forum.
(ACI version 3.12.1074)

Error: CreateVertexBuffer for texture failed

---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

[Pumaman]

Interesting, thanks. I'll improve the logging of that error for the next version to help track it down.