Demo Bug: Black screen when application quits

CdrJameson · #1 December 21st, 2005, 02:50 PM

As the title says.

When playing the DEMO and running it in fullscreen the game works, but on quitting all I get is a blank screen with the cursor and no way to get back to the desktop. Windowed mode seems fine.

Alt-Tab doesn't work. Ctrl-Alt-Delete doesn't work, and eventually I had to pull the plug out to get my machine back.

DXDIAG available on request, if you're interested.

Oh, I was trying to use fullscreen mode because the main game text is blurry in 1024x768 and 800x600 modes (haven't tried the other modes). I suspect its being anti-aliased, then shrunk down, but the result is just about legible, but a strain to read.

Davin · #2 December 22nd, 2005, 08:12 AM

Are you sure you're even in a hardware graphics mode? I had a friend using an absolutely trash video system and the text was almost completely unreadable.

CdrJameson · #3 December 22nd, 2005, 10:11 AM

I'm afraid I'm mildly baffled by the question.

I was running in 1024x768, which is my normal desktop resolution as well, and is a native screen mode for the graphics card, if I recall.

Certainly lots of other things run in 1024x768 without blurriness or complaint.

Davin · #4 December 22nd, 2005, 01:07 PM

I'm asking if your card is designed specifically for 3d graphics, like a nvidia or ati card, or if it's just a stock video card that came with your dell or hp or something. That kind of thing makes more than a bit of difference, as software anti-aliasing is rubbish.

I could also be way off-base here, I'm only making a suggestion based on experience.

CdrJameson · #5 December 22nd, 2005, 01:50 PM

Oh no, I suspect that software anti-aliasing is to blame too.

It really is quite horribly blurry for the normal text AND YET things like the labels 'small', 'medium' and 'large' on the ship selection screen, and the word 'cargo' on the cargo item are perfectly clear and legible.

So, unless they are added on top once the main interface is scaled, there's something very odd going on.

I've also tried it in 800x600, 1280x960 and 1280x1024 and there is no noticeable difference (improvement or worsening) in the blurriness, which is odd as SOMETHING must be the native resolution, surely? I hope its not rendered, shrunk to 800x600, then magnified back up to the chosen resolution, then has the clear buttons blitted on top. That would be madness.

I'll try a fullscreen mode when I have to shut the computer down anyway.

Zogu · #6 December 22nd, 2005, 06:54 PM

Maybe your vidcard doesn't like OpenGL mode?
If all your other applications run with DirectX or in standard video mode, then it would explain why only WW isn't diplayed right.

You could try another OpenGL application/game, just to confirm. For instance, try the game Gish (which runs only in OpenGL)
http://www.chroniclogic.com/index.htm?gish.htm

Puke · #7 December 22nd, 2005, 07:51 PM

or it could be a direct-x problem. try upgrading your version?

I cant play on my laptop because the IBM video drivers are wonky and direct-x does not run. naturally not the games fault, but neither IBM or MS seem to have working drivers. grrr.

Shadowcat · #8 December 22nd, 2005, 09:10 PM

It sounds like a problem with your OpenGL drivers to me. A screenshot might help explain what you're seeing.

Press F12 to take one. The .tga file is written to the game folder. Convert it to a .png file (preferable to avoid lossy jpeg compression given the issue) and then upload it to http://imageshack.us/ or somewhere similar and just post the link (don't use the IMG tag to embed the image here).

If imageshack automatically resizes or reformats the image (I'm not sure if it will, but given that the file will probably be on the large size, it might) then you could try running the game at a lower resolution to take a smaller screenshot, or you might have to go with JPEG instead of PNG for the format.

Use http://www.irfanview.com/ if you need something to convert between image formats.

Foosnark · #9 December 23rd, 2005, 01:56 AM

Actually I had really blurry text in WW on my machine at work... upon which I develop for Direct3D.

Radeon 9800 XT, up to date with latest drivers.

Usually I play at home though, on my laptop with its meager Radeon 320M and it's just fine.

Fingers · #10 December 23rd, 2005, 04:21 AM

This sounds like it could be a driver problem (say, something to do with big textures), or possibly just video settings. If you go to the "advanced" section in your video settings you should be able to find OpenGL settings. Try turning off any anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.