Problem with Windows 7 catching the escape key

Calin Leafshade · Thu 10/02/2011 16:05:33

It seems that on my Win7 box AGS games sometimes fail to catch the escape key in AGS games.

Its difficult to reproduce and minimizing/restoring seems to fix it.

Has anyone else encountered this? Or is it likely something to do with my keyboard drivers?

Knox · Thu 10/02/2011 17:01:51

Ive noticed this aswell...Ive got the same keyboard at home and at work (both win7 64 bits) and sometimes the esc key fails...whats weird is that its "sometimes"...I couldnt figure it out, just thought it was the keyboard Im using.

ps: My keyboard is a Dell sk-8115

Ryan Timothy B · Thu 10/02/2011 17:09:12

Yeah, same here. I've noticed that once you hit CTRL that's when the escape key will stop working. Once you hit shift, it'll start working again.
I have an HP laptop, with Windows 7, obviously.

Construed · Thu 10/02/2011 17:14:06

Sounds like a program in the background might be causing the window to lose focus.
That would make you need to regain window focus before being able to sucessfully press esc.
I would assume that the first esc press is ignored because it is used to re-initiate the window focus.

Calin Leafshade · Thu 10/02/2011 17:40:34

Quote from: Ryan Timothy on Thu 10/02/2011 17:09:12
Yeah, same here. I've noticed that once you hit CTRL that's when the escape key will stop working. Once you hit shift, it'll start working again.

Reproduced.

Ryan Timothy B · Thu 10/02/2011 18:26:23

Excellent. We're one step closer to finding out what it is.

Knoodn · Thu 10/02/2011 19:43:48

I've noticed that before too.
After trying now, I have the same CTRL-Shift-issue.
I use a Mac Book Pro with Windows 7 64Bit.

Dualnames · Thu 10/02/2011 20:01:25

Quote from: Calin Elephantsittingonface on Thu 10/02/2011 16:05:33
It seems that on my Win7 box AGS games sometimes fail to catch the escape key in AGS games.

Its difficult to reproduce and minimizing/restoring seems to fix it.

Has anyone else encountered this? Or is it likely something to do with my keyboard drivers?

When you minimize the game using Alt-Tab or Ctrl-Esc it happens I think. I encountered this a lot whilst playing ~~Gemini Rue.~~ AGS games.

Adrian · Fri 11/02/2011 12:21:25

In my case that problem comes up only in debug mode (using Win7) after hitting Ctrl + S (to get all the inventory, I think). Esc will be blocked then.

Ryan Timothy B · Fri 11/02/2011 13:46:19

I gave that a try too by turning off the debug mode. Still the same issue.

I actually had it quickly skip through all the text in every dialog as though you were rapidly hitting the mouse button. Odd glitch. Just a complete output of all that they say in one instant blurp. Keeps doing it over and over with every dialog until you finally hit the shift key.

I've tested this before with IsKeyPressed. Escape will still never register if you've pressed ctrl beforehand.

Khris · Fri 11/02/2011 14:38:19

Since at least XP, Ctrl-Escape is a "shortcut" for the Windows-Key which will open the Start menu.
I guess Win7 somehow gets stuck waiting for Escape and doesn't forward it to the currently active app i.e. the AGS game unless you move Win out of that by hitting Ctrl again.

Calin Leafshade · Fri 11/02/2011 14:39:18

maybe its an accessibility function thats on by default?

Knoodn · Fri 11/02/2011 14:43:47

after more testing:

- no difference between debug mode or not
- also it happens in fullscreen and windowed mode
- it's triggerd by pressing the CTRL-key, but it's released by any other key (not SHIFT only)

bbalint85 · Tue 29/11/2011 08:54:35

Hi!
Any progress on this matter?

Calin Leafshade · Tue 29/11/2011 15:05:16

I found out that it was actually photoshop catching my escape key.

Do you have Photoshop running?

bbalint85 · Mon 05/12/2011 20:01:11

No, and I tried it on different computers, one which has no Photoshop at all...
ctrl+escape equals start button. so if you press ctrl, esc is disabled...
Anyway I tried it in a random commercial game and it doesn't get caught. So there must be some way to disable this...