Topic: Some games minimize upon running

[W7RE]

Then when I try to restore them from the taskbar, I hear audio for a second then it minimizes again.

I've had this problem with the Crysis demo, and with zDoom 2.3.1. At first I thought it was an issue with Crysis, possibly the demo specifically, but not that it's happening with zDoom too (which I haven't used in a loooooong time, so it's not that it just broke for me), I'm thinking it might not be.

[Cobra951]

My first thought is that it's trying to go into an unsupported video mode.  Has anything changed on that front--monitor? drivers?

[scottws]

I am not sure on this.  Cobra seems to have a good suggestion.

[W7RE]

Well, I don't seem to be having problems with any of my other games, it's just these 2 that I've just started trying to run. It's not like I had them installed and working before.

I tried updating my video card drivers from sapphitetech.com (I have a Sapphire Toxic Radeon 4850 512MB), but that didn't help. On zDoom I tried specifying 640x480 via command line parameters as the documentation says you can do, but I still got the issue. Though I suppose I could try specifying 1680x1050 since that's my native rez.





fyi this is on an 64 bit CPU, but running a 32 bit OS (Athlon 64 5200+ dual core, Win XP Pro). I know Crysis can take advantage of 64 bit systems, but I assume it would treat it like a 32 bit system if I'm running a 32 bit OS. I honestly don't know how all that works though.

[W7RE]

It's a resolution problem. When specifying 640x480 in zDoom, it's trying to launch in fullscreen still, which it didn't like. When I told it to do 1680x1050 it worked, then I was able to set it to windowed and select whatever resolution I wanted.

So now I think I need to just find a console command to make the Crysis demo run in 1680x1050, or just something my PC will accept.

EDIT: Got it. +r_width 1680 +r_height 1050
I guess my monitor just didn't like the resolutions these 2 programs try to run at by default. Though it happening with something like Crysis sort of surprises me.

[scottws]

fyi this is on an 64 bit CPU, but running a 32 bit OS (Athlon 64 5200+ dual core, Win XP Pro). I know Crysis can take advantage of 64 bit systems, but I assume it would treat it like a 32 bit system if I'm running a 32 bit OS. I honestly don't know how all that works though.

If you run a 32-bit OS then your CPU is essentially just a 32-bit CPU.  The 64-bit extensions aren't used at all.

So now I think I need to just find a console command to make the Crysis demo run in 1680x1050, or just something my PC will accept.

EDIT: Got it. +r_width 1680 +r_height 1050
I guess my monitor just didn't like the resolutions these 2 programs try to run at by default. Though it happening with something like Crysis sort of surprises me.

Resolutions in these types of games can also usually be set in a config file of some sort.  I know that's how it works with all of id's games and games based on id engine technology.

Glad you got it sorted out.

[Cobra951]

OK, but why should 640x480 pose a problem?  Decent fixed-pixel monitors should handle that in stride.  (Mine does.)  One thought there is that perhaps the setting in the video-card drivers is to have the card upscale (rather than letting the monitor handle it), and *that* is screwed up.  My drivers allow this, but I don't use it.  Let the monitor do its share of processing.

If you're happy with the results, and performance isn't suffering, great.  But you should solve the 640x480 issue anyway.  what about 800x600?  1024x768?  A lot of not-so-old software relies on these.

[scottws]

I know you weren't talking to me, but I use videocard scaling because it looks better.  The blurriness of running in non-native res is not as pronounced using videocard scaling as it is with monitor scaling.  Plus using videocard scaling puts vertical black bars on either side of 4:3 content; otherwise the monitor stretches the picture horizontally to fill the screen if I use monitor scaling.

Scaling isn't really much extra work at all for the video card to do.

[Cobra951]

My monitor has a 4:3 mode, and it's 1024x768 native then.  Yeah, I'm sure the card can do a better job than most monitors, although frankly the best hardware and software to know the scaling needs of a monitor should be in the monitor.  I understand that this is seldom the case, because of  cost cutting to the bone.  Mine does a fine job at the usual resolutions, and as I said, the aspect is handled either way.

But the point I was trying to make is that I don't understand why the system is refusing to set 640x480.  I doubt the monitor is responsible (although I can't know for sure without even knowing what it is).  It seems more likely that the drivers are responsible, and that's why I mentioned checking the settings to see if the card was attempting to scale.  A bug or other problem there could be bypassed by letting the monitor handle it.

[W7RE]

I just did a bit of testing with zDoom. It will not run ANY fullscreen resolution other than my native. I tried numerous 4:#, 16:9, and 16:10 settings and the only one that worked was 1680x1050. If I highlight a resolution and press T to test it for 5 seconds, the game minimizes to windows for 5 seconds.

All resolutions and aspect ratios work in windowed mode.

ok, this is weird. I just ran WoW and set it to fullscreen 800x600 and it did the same thing. I've installed games and demos since getting my LCD monitor and had to change the resolution to 1680x1050. So either it's just some games, or it has something to do with my system or drivers. I can't think of anything I've changed recently except video drivers, and that was in an effort to fix this issue.


EDIT: I just loaded up MOHAA, which I haven't played in years, and I've been copying my install from computer to computer instead of reinstalling. So it's set to 1024x768. It loaded up fine, and I just played for a few minutes at 1024x768. Though it's a quake 3 engine game, which I think was OpenGL (isn't OpenGL dead now and pretty much everything is Direct3D?) so maybe it works differently.
I tried Giants: Citizen Kabuto, which I just bought the other day, and haven't run until now. It's running 800x600 fullscreen just fine.

[scottws]

Weird.  Maybe it's a DirectX thing?  I don't know.  You could try installing the newest version of that (they usually release revisions a few times a year).

Frankly though, computers sometimes just do weird shit you can never figure out.  One time I couldn't see any Quicktime videos.  I could hear them, but the display was always black.  I tried everything: uninstall/reinstall, update, roll back to an older version, uninstall and clean the registry, the Apple support forums (what a joke).

The only thing that fixed it was a reinstall of Windows.

[Quemaqua]

Why would you run zDoom at anything other than native res, just out of curiosity?

[W7RE]

zDoom is set to run at 640x480 (I think) by default, so I couldn't even get in to change it to native. I was testing it with other fullscreen modes just because it's easy to get in and out of if I get stuck in a rez it won't display and have to close it. I guess my concern is that I'll run across a game that doesn't offer command line parameters and I'll be locked out of it completely.

I'll most likely run zDoom windowed windowed actually, so I can play while I watch a DVD or something. I do that with WoW by setting my video player to "always on top" and letting it overlap the game.

[W7RE]

I'm not sure if this fixed my propblem completely, or just for some cases, but I found something. In one of the menu sections of my monitor's onscreen menu, I realized it scrolls down with more options. One of them is "4:3 in fullscreen, black bars or stretch", or something to that effect. One of the games I couldn't get to run was World of Goo, and after changing that setting it runs just fine (thought the demo offers no resolution options at all, so I have to play it at 800x600).

Diablo II used to run fine, but now it doesn't look like shit. OK, it still does thanks to 800x600, but it's not stretched shit.