AGS based game stopped working...?

Cerial · Sat 27/06/2009 02:59:39

Hey guys

I'm new here so please bear with me. Also, I'm not american, so excuse if my english is poor.

I was playing Yahtzee's Art of Theft game and it was going just fine. However, today it just stopped working. When I run the .exe, I just get sound and the game visually gets stuck in the first frame. I can control the game but I don't see what I'm doing, I just get sound. If I run the game in full screen, the screen refreshes when I alt+tab, and then it gets stuck in the newly refreshed frame. However, in windowed mode, it never even refreshes.

Any idea of what could be happening here? I installed a few apps today but nothing major. What could screw up the game like that? I've tried changing the buffer size to 20MB (maximum value), running it on compatibility mode (I'm running Vista 32bits here) but nothing worked.

Thanks for the help.

Gilbert · Sat 27/06/2009 16:56:28

It's likely to be a driver or DirectX problem.

Try updrading/downgrading your graphics card's driver and/or DirectX9 (note: not DirectX10 or 11, as DX10/11 is NOT a substitute for DX9, and the version of DX9 provided by VISTA is said to be severely outdated).

Also, if you haven't tried yet, try running the game in full screen (or, if you already are running it full screened, change it to 'windowed') abd see it it makes a difference.

Matti · Sat 27/06/2009 22:52:53

Quote from: Gilbet V7000a on Sat 27/06/2009 16:56:28
Also, if you haven't tried yet, try running the game in full screen (or, if you already are running it full screened, change it to 'windowed') abd see it it makes a difference.

Ahem:

Quote
If I run the game in full screen, the screen refreshes when I alt+tab, and then it gets stuck in the newly refreshed frame. However, in windowed mode, it never even refreshes.

But it's weird that it worked well and then suddenly stopped working... have you tried to reinstall it?

Leon · Sun 28/06/2009 00:35:39

Quote from: Mr Matti on Sat 27/06/2009 22:52:53
But it's weird that it worked well and then suddenly stopped working...

Well...

Quote from: Cerial on Sat 27/06/2009 02:59:39
I installed a few apps today but nothing major.

Matti · Sun 28/06/2009 20:21:02

It's still weird cause I can't think of any reason why "a few apps" should stop an AGS game from working correctly.

Gilbert · Mon 29/06/2009 01:37:00

Installing those apps might involve upgrading/downgrading/modifying drivers/libraries, etc. as I mentioned. Dependency hell is horrible.

Cerial · Tue 30/06/2009 03:02:05

Ok, I have figured out when this happens, but I have no idea of why exactly.

I play the game in my notebook, and this happens every time I unplug it and run the notebook on battery.

I know this makes little to no sense but this is definitely it. I just tried running the game with the notebook plugged and just as I unplug it, the image freezes. As soon as I plug it back in, the image works again.

This never happened before and does not happen with any other app, just AGS games. Nothing happens in my machine once I unplug it, no pop-ups or anything that might screw the game.

I know this sounds hard to believe but it's 100% true and I have no idea of why this is happening.

This is the notebook I'm running it on:

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-compaq-6910p/4507-3121_7-32514552.html

And again, I'm on Vista 32 bits.

Gilbert · Tue 30/06/2009 03:52:36

Probably some problems created by the power manager provided, or some weird effect because of some power saving settings when it's running with the battery (you may try to tweak these seetings and see if it makes any difference), or..., just use a universal reason: blame Vista.

Cerial · Tue 30/06/2009 04:06:12

Power saver only affects backlight though, nothing related to the way objects are rendered on the screen, I think.

Blaming vista sounds very attractive but nothing else screws up under these conditions, only AGS games (that I'm aware of).

Gilbert · Tue 30/06/2009 04:14:38

Not always, notebook power savers usually include dynamically slowing down your CPU and shutting/slowing down components if required, etc., unless you tell it not to do so. I've heard that some buggy drivers indeed slow down one's CPU even though it's running with a power supply and you have disabled power saving. (Also, it's possible that the fault is in Vista's power saving drivers, so blaming it isn't unreasonable.)

Cerial · Tue 30/06/2009 12:25:18

Uhmm you may be right about that. Even though I run 3D games with the notebook unplugged, this might be an incompatibility of some sort with AGS.

Very weird problem though.

Trent R · Tue 30/06/2009 20:05:39

I have a similar problem when I debug a 800x600 AGS game I'm making. It'll freeze the game's screen, but it will flash between it and the current screen. It happens when my laptop is unplugged as well.

~Trent