[ bzflag-Bugs-547027 ] Win2000 screen too bright after BZ crash

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Bugs item #547027, was opened at 2002-04-22 07:08
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Category: BZFlag
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Yoshi Makino (doctoryoshi)
Assigned to: Tim Riker (timriker)
Summary: Win2000 screen too bright after BZ crash

Initial Comment:

Using BZFlag 1.7e4 on Windows 2000 with a Radeon VE 32 
MB DDR.

I had to increase the in game Brightness (Gamma) 
setting to see the terrain better.

The game crashed, and I was dumped back to Windows, 
but everything appeared much brighter, as though all 
of Windows inheritted BZFlag's brightness settings.

Here's how I can fix things, _temporarily_:
1) Run BZFlag.  In the fraction of a second before it 
switches to full screen mode, I can see my old Gamma 
settings restored on the desktop.  Exiting BZFlag 
returns it to the improper gamma setting.

2) Go to Display Properties -> Advanced -> Color.  
Everything returns to normal.  However, brightness 
again increases after running and exiting BZFlag 
once.  Also, any other resolution changes also cause 
the same problem.

Any thoughts on how I might be able to fix this?  Is 
there a registry setting somewhere?  Maybe BZFlag has 
a gamma_on_start and gamma_on_exit settings?  If there 
are such settings, maybe there should be a reset to 
default?  (I tried uninstalling.. it didn't help.)

Yoshi



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Comment By: Brian Godfrey (this)
Date: 2004-01-15 12:52

Message:
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My BZFlag does the same thing.  I have Geforce 4 TI4200 128 
DDR video card so it's not specific to any individual card.  To 
fix the gamma w/o rebooting I go back into bzflag and adjust 
down the gamma to what I want it to be then force it to 
crash by clicking real fast a whole lot of times on the find 
server.  You won't have to fix your gamma later since bzflag 
won't remember the changes you made. (it did crash after all)

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Comment By: Sean Morrison (brlcad)
Date: 2003-11-14 15:12

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On the UNIX, when BZFlag crashes, the proper gamma is restored 
during via a signal handler that catches the crash.  This is 
probably/assumedly flat out not being called on windows.  If that's 
true, a different win32 mechanism needs to be written to capture 
the crash and restore the gamma before exiting.  I vague 
remember reading articles on how to do this under windows, but 
I'll leave that for one of the win32 goonies

So.. without that handler, when the bzflag crashes the system is 
left in an incorrect gamma/brightness state.  Any solution that 
requires restarting bzflag to restore the proper gamma not time 
well spent, imo.  It either needs to exit gracefully, or not crash in 
the first place.. :)

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Comment By: Yoshi Makino (doctoryoshi)
Date: 2002-04-22 14:21

Message:
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"Display Properties -> Advanced -> Color" sets the gamma 
for my card as well.  While it resolves the problem 
temorarily, it appears that the default gamma remains 
errant.

How does BZFlag set the gamma?  Is it written in the 
registry somewhere?  If so, could there be a "Reset Gamma" 
option that simply restores this value to Null or Default?

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Comment By: Jeremiah (cobraa1)
Date: 2002-04-22 13:09

Message:
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The problem is that BZFlag is supposed to restore the settings when quitting, but doesn't get the chance if 
it crashes - I propose that BZFlag should make a "crash file" when starting, so if it crashes, it can detect it, 
and restore everything on the next startup (this will require opening BZFlag a second time after the crash, 
but it's much more ideal than doing a hard reset!).

Also check your display settings in the Windows control panel - some video drivers will have a tab with extra 
settings, often including gamma.

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Comment By: Yoshi Makino (doctoryoshi)
Date: 2002-04-22 07:19

Message:
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I was able to resolve the problem by hard resetting my 
computer while BZFlag was running.  (Effectively simulating 
a crash of BZFlag).  However, this "solution" seems a bit 
unideal.

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