Flickering in fullscreen

reverend · #1 March 31st, 2012, 10:59 AM

Fullscreen works perfectly so far, however I get flickering (about every second) of broad horizontal stripes.

Is there something I can do or is winSP simply not able to handle the fullscreen resolution on my system?

Vista 32
3GB RAM
Desktop Resolution 1280x1024 & 1680x1050
Game Resolution 1680x1050 Fullscreen

Mobhack · #2 March 31st, 2012, 01:03 PM

I have never seen this, even running at 1080i on a wide screen monitor (in XP of course)

Have you tried
- running in GDI mode instead of direct X?
- running in windowed mode at desktop resolution?
- Turning sound off (if currently on)?.

Also - ensure that your video card drivers are up to date, and that you have no other programmes competing with the game for memory, or the screen.

Cheers
Andy

Imp · #3 March 31st, 2012, 11:26 PM

I would suspect your video card drivers, you dont mention the card but it may well not support 1680X1050 resolution genericaly so its working harder to emulate it & if the drivers are not up to date triping up.
Select screen resolution for your descktop & see if its in the list to see if your graphic card supports it as a native resolution.

On a side note surely full screen at that res gives you a distorted view as its stretched to fit your monitor why not play in windowed mode so the game displays correctly?

reverend · #4 April 1st, 2012, 03:40 AM

I can't play windowed at desktop resolution, because winSP doesn'T know how to handle to desktops with different resolutions in this case.

But, yes, 1680x1050 is native, for monitor and video card. Speaking of:

GeForce GTS 450
Drivers 275.33
Dedicated V-RAM 1 GB

And I can't even select something other than GDI for fullscreen?

I didn't notice any distortions on my quick look, but the only windowed resolution that works (due to the 2 monitor setup) is some odd 1124 something.

Mobhack · #5 April 1st, 2012, 04:41 AM

Perhaps the problem is your 2 monitor set-up.

Try reducing to one monitor. See what happens. (The graphics library the game uses was written long before multiple monitors). Perhaps try changing which of the 2 is the only one (if resolution differs).

Desktop resolution will use the real estate of your monitor - but dual set-ups may well confuse it. Especially if the 2 monitors have differing resolutions!. So experiment - and also look at your video card set-up widget since it may have options, like "use only monitor A in dual screen mode when running programme X".

I don't have a dual screen set-up so cannot test it out - but I do know that folk do play the game on such installations.

Also - start your tests in windowed mode (in desktop resolution) since that causes less conflicts, especially with Vista/Seven and the execrable Aero interface that thinks it owns the 256 colour palette exclusively.

Cheers
Andy

reverend · #6 April 4th, 2012, 02:51 AM

Disabling one monitor solved the flickering. Bit of a hassle to reorganise two desktops every time, but at least in theory it works.

However, windowed with desktop resolution is still not possible - game stretches to fill horizontally but has a vertical resolution of about 1/4 of the screen height and refuses to receive any clicks.

Guess I'll still stick to the weird resolutions.

Mobhack · #7 April 4th, 2012, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reverend

Disabling one monitor solved the flickering. Bit of a hassle to reorganise two desktops every time, but at least in theory it works.

However, windowed with desktop resolution is still not possible - game stretches to fill horizontally but has a vertical resolution of about 1/4 of the screen height and refuses to receive any clicks.

Guess I'll still stick to the weird resolutions.

The next step then is to try another resolution on your monitor settings until you find one it does like, and/or one of the 4:3 standard monitor resolutions the game is designed for (e.g. 1600x1280 should fit, with a small margin of desktop visible on the sides).

Also - you do have the task bar in the normal position at the bottom of the screen with auto-hide off, as outlined in the Game Guide, I presume?. Auto-hide nukes the screen as it returns an erroneous desktop size to the WinVFX graphics library.

Cheers
Andy

reverend · #8 April 4th, 2012, 03:37 PM

Ok, I played around a bit more and found a way to set up the desktops quickly without wreaking chaos.

It now actually works windowed/desktop resolution with both desktops active and in native resolution. Turns out, the taskbar even affects winSP when it is on the other desktop (had to drag it over to the primary), as well as "always on top" had to be on (in addition to autohie off). Still a bit of preparation each time I want to play, but it's worth it.

Thanks for the detailed help, I'm a bit too rusty in dealing with all those quirks of older games.