You're not up-to-date: we fixed the problem in the new release that is about to be published and you can have a leaked beta applying the patch here above. The mouse control problem is puzzling, but it could be a local problem of my computer, so it's worth trying in any case.
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Good news: after the patch made for "COBI: Small Soldiers" to the DirectInput wrappers, now "Theocracy" control is much better, I dare say perfect!
You can find in this attached archive the new DxWnd files to override on a v2.05.67 release and the new Theocracy export file with updated configuration.
Thanks again to MrPepka, this DirectInput bug was a nightmare finally over.
Hello, GHO!
With the new release (2.05.68), Theocracy is now working well, there are no crashes yet. Also no more mouse problems! Thanks! However, there is one more small problem (see screen).
There are many traces of the mouse if you drag it over the top panel
I have some difficulty to replicate your problem, perhaps because on my computer the game is using hardware cursors. Anyway, I can try giving you some blind suggestions:
find a way to configure hardware cursors for the game (I tried, but I didn't find how...)
set the "DirectX / Compensate flip emulation" flag
set the "DirectX / Auto primary surface blit" flag
Try them just one at a time.
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Hello, gho!
I recently launched Theocracy again and ran into this error again (mouse traces). However, at some point it disappeared, and I can no longer reproduce it o_O. However, there are two other questions:
1) If you exit the game window by alt-tab or win-key (sometimes you need to do it 2 times), then when you return, in the center of the game window, a win-cursor (arrow) will be displayed, which will perform micro-movements (but never leave from the center) and will be on top of the window and game cursor and will not disappear until the game is over. It gets in the way. Unfortunately this win-cursor in the center of the window is not captured by the printscreen and I cannot show how it looks.
I tried to fix this through "Do not notify on task switch" and "Release mouse outside window", but it does not help and makes it even worse - after returning to the game window, the game does not perceive keystrokes. Is there any way to fix this?
2) If you run Theocracy without dxwnd, (compat. 98), then the game will run in full screen, there will be black bars on the sides, but the text will be clear and all elements are scaled to fit the screen (Fullscreen image).
If you run Theocracy with Dxwnd with the "Keep aspect ratio" + "Desktop work area" options, then the fonts will be blurred and the pixel graphics will start to hurt your eyes (Window image).
The "Hide Taskbar" and "Set DPI Awareness" options do not help. Increasing the window size does not help either. Is there a way to get a clear image in a large window that fills the entire center of the screen, just like in Fullscreen?
1) the centered cursor probably is the hardware cursor that is supposed to be invisible in the handling of a relative mouse move. This is a quite common programming in all FPS for instance, because you should be able to move in all directions with no limits, even spinning round many times if you need to. In this mode, the physical cursor is kept invisible at the center of the screen and the game keeps track of the tiny movements to calculate a "logical" cursor or scroll the screen / aim the shoot. Anyway, all this doesn't matter, you just have to enforce the cursor invisibility, and this should be possible with "Mouse / Cursor visibility / Hide" option.
2) interesting, to be tested yet ....
👍
1
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1) Thanks, it helped. Maybe you should add the "Mouse / Cursor visibility / Hide" option to the export file?
2) Hope this doesn't pose a lot of problems ...
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I think the problem depends on a non-integer scaling ratio. Small geometric forms (like a text character) when scaled to some strange value look blurred, while if they are scaled by an integer factor like 2x they appear much better.
You can override the problem by setting the window size manually after having made a few calculations about your desktop. Let's make an example:
in my case I have a 1920x1080 desktop and the game is configured for 800x600 resolution. In this case, a 2X would be too much because 600x2=1200 that is greater than the screen height 2014. So, I could pick a 1.5x ratio (it's not integer, but close enough) and set a window size of 1200x900 pixels.
Then, to mimick a fake-fullscreen mode, I set "Desktop Center" position, forced "modal" style. I should also set the "Hide desktop background", but this game doesn't like this option, so instead I will run the blacker (Tools -> Run "blacker"). The final result is almost as good as the fake-fullscreen mode, but whit non-blurred text.
My configuration in attach.
I have the same resolution, so I did everything as you said:
1) downloaded the attached .dxw
2) Set window size to 1200x900
3) tools->Run "blacker"
4) Run game
However, the text is still blurry.
Here's what it looks like (see screen)
I also tried to set "Scale and layout" (dpi) to 100% in the windows settings - it has no effect.
If you run the game via DxWnd with the "Fullscreen only" option, then the fonts are not blurry, but the game window seems to be cut off from the windows in the background (see screen 2 and 3)
You're not up-to-date: we fixed the problem in the new release that is about to be published and you can have a leaked beta applying the patch here above. The mouse control problem is puzzling, but it could be a local problem of my computer, so it's worth trying in any case.
Good news: after the patch made for "COBI: Small Soldiers" to the DirectInput wrappers, now "Theocracy" control is much better, I dare say perfect!
You can find in this attached archive the new DxWnd files to override on a v2.05.67 release and the new Theocracy export file with updated configuration.
Thanks again to MrPepka, this DirectInput bug was a nightmare finally over.
Hello, GHO!
With the new release (2.05.68), Theocracy is now working well, there are no crashes yet. Also no more mouse problems! Thanks! However, there is one more small problem (see screen).
There are many traces of the mouse if you drag it over the top panel
Last edit: GenVox 2021-03-30
I have some difficulty to replicate your problem, perhaps because on my computer the game is using hardware cursors. Anyway, I can try giving you some blind suggestions:
Try them just one at a time.
Unfortunately none of this helped.
Hello, gho!
I recently launched Theocracy again and ran into this error again (mouse traces). However, at some point it disappeared, and I can no longer reproduce it o_O. However, there are two other questions:
1) If you exit the game window by alt-tab or win-key (sometimes you need to do it 2 times), then when you return, in the center of the game window, a win-cursor (arrow) will be displayed, which will perform micro-movements (but never leave from the center) and will be on top of the window and game cursor and will not disappear until the game is over. It gets in the way. Unfortunately this win-cursor in the center of the window is not captured by the printscreen and I cannot show how it looks.
I tried to fix this through "Do not notify on task switch" and "Release mouse outside window", but it does not help and makes it even worse - after returning to the game window, the game does not perceive keystrokes. Is there any way to fix this?
2) If you run Theocracy without dxwnd, (compat. 98), then the game will run in full screen, there will be black bars on the sides, but the text will be clear and all elements are scaled to fit the screen (Fullscreen image).
If you run Theocracy with Dxwnd with the "Keep aspect ratio" + "Desktop work area" options, then the fonts will be blurred and the pixel graphics will start to hurt your eyes (Window image).
The "Hide Taskbar" and "Set DPI Awareness" options do not help. Increasing the window size does not help either. Is there a way to get a clear image in a large window that fills the entire center of the screen, just like in Fullscreen?
Last edit: GenVox 2021-09-06
1) the centered cursor probably is the hardware cursor that is supposed to be invisible in the handling of a relative mouse move. This is a quite common programming in all FPS for instance, because you should be able to move in all directions with no limits, even spinning round many times if you need to. In this mode, the physical cursor is kept invisible at the center of the screen and the game keeps track of the tiny movements to calculate a "logical" cursor or scroll the screen / aim the shoot. Anyway, all this doesn't matter, you just have to enforce the cursor invisibility, and this should be possible with "Mouse / Cursor visibility / Hide" option.
2) interesting, to be tested yet ....
1) Thanks, it helped. Maybe you should add the "Mouse / Cursor visibility / Hide" option to the export file?
2) Hope this doesn't pose a lot of problems ...
Hi, GHO,
I'm sorry to bother with this game again) Should we expect progress on the issue of scaling the image in the window?
I think the problem depends on a non-integer scaling ratio. Small geometric forms (like a text character) when scaled to some strange value look blurred, while if they are scaled by an integer factor like 2x they appear much better.
You can override the problem by setting the window size manually after having made a few calculations about your desktop. Let's make an example:
in my case I have a 1920x1080 desktop and the game is configured for 800x600 resolution. In this case, a 2X would be too much because 600x2=1200 that is greater than the screen height 2014. So, I could pick a 1.5x ratio (it's not integer, but close enough) and set a window size of 1200x900 pixels.
Then, to mimick a fake-fullscreen mode, I set "Desktop Center" position, forced "modal" style. I should also set the "Hide desktop background", but this game doesn't like this option, so instead I will run the blacker (Tools -> Run "blacker"). The final result is almost as good as the fake-fullscreen mode, but whit non-blurred text.
My configuration in attach.
I have the same resolution, so I did everything as you said:
1) downloaded the attached .dxw
2) Set window size to 1200x900
3) tools->Run "blacker"
4) Run game
However, the text is still blurry.
Here's what it looks like (see screen)
I also tried to set "Scale and layout" (dpi) to 100% in the windows settings - it has no effect.
If you run the game via DxWnd with the "Fullscreen only" option, then the fonts are not blurry, but the game window seems to be cut off from the windows in the background (see screen 2 and 3)
Last edit: GenVox 2022-01-19
Okay thanks
I'm wondering about the meaning of such posts. Oh, well, nevermind.
I looked at their profile, and I believe it's some kind of bot. Well I don't know how to report bots on SF (if they are).