Wall Street Trader 2000 in Windowed
Window hooker to run fullscreen programs in window and much more...
Status: Beta
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I can run the game normally in full screen, but I need to make it windowed. The problem is the game stuck in black screen on the left top corner of the screen, when I minimized it, there's a sound that indicate the game is running, however when I brought it back, game just stop responding and black screen again.
And also if run normally, this game doesn't seem to allow switch tab, as everytime I alt tab to another, the game just stop working and this is the message:
http://i.imgur.com/o6Gx4uH.png
It's a very old game and unpopular.
Last edit: ColonelRVH 2017-03-13
Very unpopular. Do you have any suggestion about how I could ger a demo or a game copy? You can pm me.
In any case, the error is clerar enough: one ddraw surface (probably one of those added by DxWnd) was lost and needs recovery (that is, calling the DirectDrawSurface::Recover() method).
If you can duplicate the error while logging is active (set the log flags as in the attached picture and try to get the error as soon as possible, otherwise the log will grow quite big!) and post here the logfile (the file "dxwnd.log" that you should find in the game directory, maybe compressed to save some space and upload time) I could try to fix the problem also without having the game on my computer.
Other hints: to eliminate the black screen you can try to set the DirectX(2) clipper selector to "ON".
Last edit: gho 2017-03-13
"eliminate the black screen you can try to set the DirectX(2) clipper selector to "ON""
Failed. Not responding just like before, although its music still on.
Here's the log.
Surprising! The log shows a quite different situation from what expected. Definitely, I must see the game.
Did u receive my email/pm yet? I'm not familiar with sourceforge contact system yet.
Yes, sorry, I don't check that mailbox too often .... I'll use the information later this evening, I'll tell you if everything is ok....
Oh, my, some bad news ....
The effect described in your post (black screen, game blocked, minimize unblocks the sound but no output on screen and ddraw error message) is not caused only by DxWnd but happens also on Win10, where it is not possible to run the game in fullscreen mode, even applying Windows compatibility modes.
On the contrary, on Win7 the game works perfectly in fullscreen and has the problem with DxWnd.
Well, this widens a little the scope of the hunt. Too bad, it will be perhaps a little harder.
Well I already expected this to happen when I first posted here. The game is badly coded, thanks for the notification. Hope you can make it, thanks in advanced.
Btw I might as well run the game in VMWare (I already did, I have Win XP and Win 7), so if you can make it work with DxWnd just for Win 7 then it's great already.
Last edit: ColonelRVH 2017-03-14
It seems that I found a little trick to start playing the game in windowed mode, or at least to start analyzing the problems: these are the instructions, though the probabilities of success on another environment are not too high:
1) install the game
2) hook the game with DxWnd and the attached configuration. The configuration moves the main game window to the right, so that a uncontrollable window used for movies won't interfere with the game
3) run the game - it will show the black window
4) minimize - you will hear the sound
5) restore by clicking (more than once if necessary) on the game icon on the taskbar
6) play the game, and every time some movie is played on the left window, click over the right window to get back to gameplay - don't minimize again!
Of course this is not an acceptable way to run the game, but it will help me to focus on the problems (that is, mastering this savage movie window!).
Last edit: gho 2017-03-16
worked on win xp but win 10, thanks. Looking forward to your proper config.
Oh and there another small problem i dunno if u got it though. Whenever i change the active screen, the game goes black and i have to move the cursor around to reveal the screen. Or change the game screen to something else, like Menu, for it to redraw properly.
Last edit: ColonelRVH 2017-03-18
I've been silent on this game, but that doesn't mean I didn't make attempts. Unfortunately, the game is a tough one, I'd say one of the worse cathegory, the one where the game depends on the peculiar behaviour of overlapped windows and surfaces when in fullscreen mode. Montecristo developers found a very strange way to make the different panels work together, the more I investigate, the more odd things I find.
In any case, referring to the last tricky configuration, you have to set the "Input / Message Handling / Peek all messages in queue" flag to avoid that movies will stop the game after a few seconds of uninterrupted play.
i know this is a tough one.
Here is another little improvement.
With this new configuration (added: "Fullscreen Only", "Auto primary surface blt", "Forced mode") you can drag the movie window away from the main window, where it is not an annoyance. In addition, the auto blit keeps the surface updated, eliminating the blackness and color trails.
There are still other problems, like stretching the movies correctly and so on, but IMO the biggest problem is still the possibility of an unpredictable game crash.
Last edit: gho 2017-03-29
Thanks for your reply, i think that's good enough already, unless u're still interested in this challenge. :)
If there's any problem i will post it.
Last edit: ColonelRVH 2017-04-02
Aw, it laggy as hell, i wonder what causes it. The previous config was much more smoothly. Gonna wait for your next one. :D
Played on Win 10, same with Win XP
Also im not sure how should i reconfig it it, with default option position X,Y cord I can't even drag the game window out of the movie one. and with Desktop center i got this weird behavior.
Last edit: ColonelRVH 2017-04-02
Uh, strange, here it seemed slightly better, but I won't argue on this until I get some understanding about how this crazy game is supposed to work.
If you want, you can apply the improvements one by one and see what is worth keeping and what is not. In particular, the pair of "Auto primary surface blt" and "Forced mode" flags should eliminate the blackened screen problem, though they could also be the cause of the laggy behaviour.