Help with setting up a game in windowed mode

[Christian MacCartny]

I've been having some trouble setting up a game in windowed mode. I finally managed to get it set up in A WINDOW, but it still isn't quite what I need. I'm a speedrunner, so I need to be able to have the game running in a window on part of the screen, not taking up the whole screen.

https://youtu.be/DqoUVaIIj7M

There's the problem I'm having, as well as the settings I have set up. I use an older version of DXWnd because I couldn't get ANYTHING set up with the newer versions. Anyone have any solutions?

[gho]

From your movie I see that the game is "Reader Rabbit's Math Ages 6 to 9" and that you're using a quite old DxWnd release.
I would suggest to download and install the last DxWnd version (v2.04.87) that will be the same that I'll be using for some testing. If that doesn't work at all, it's possible you need to set admnistrative privileges to the DxWnd.exe application.
I'll be back as soon as I find the problem.

[Christian MacCartny]

Thanks, I think I figured out SOME of the problems but now I have a new problem.

I did eventually figure out how to get the game into windowed mode without having the comptuer's main aspect ratio change. This actually had nothing to do with DXWnd, but instead had to do with the settings in the game's INI file (Math6-9.INI). However, there is now another problem with how the window is displayed:

https://imgur.com/thxdqhK

If the window is set to 640x480 (the game's resolution), the black bars at the top/left will prevent the full window from being displayed. The window doesn't seem to display without the black bars, which could be a result of the setting in the INI file being set to 0 (DisplayFullScreen=0). Setting this to 1 won't allow the game to open in a window at all.

That's all what I managed to get using an older DXWnd again. The newest version simply refuses to open the game in a window, opting instead to display the game in the top-left corner of the screen:

https://imgur.com/a/Ogs68vF

Again, this version still has the black bars at the top/left. For both versions, I have the resolution for the window currently set to 820x648, as this makes the bars on left/right the same width and top/bottom the same height, although I'd still like to figure out how to remove the black bars entirely.

[gho]

I started some testing, and the game is apparently technically simple, but it is giving me some surprise.
First of all, I can't find a Win32 installer, all install-related programs (SETUP.EXE, SETUPAPP.EXE) are Win16 programs that can't run on modern OS. That's not too bad since the game also works by copying all files from CD INSTALL folder to hard disk, but that leaves the suspect that my settings could be different from yours (p.s. how did you manage to install it?).
Anyway, the game runs ina window by hooking the Win32 version of the program, that is the RRM69_32.EXE file, and the Math6-9.INI file should surely have DisplayFullScreen=1 and UseDirecDraw=1 settings.
Now in my case I still have some problems, but they don't look like yours:
1) the game can't start - it can't find the game data (probably because it wasn't properly installed)
2) the ddraw clipping method fails, so the desktop AERO mode gets broken.

Please, check for the UseDirecDraw=1 setting: a 0 value is a possible cause of the black stripes.
And stay tuned for further tests and findings on this game ....

[gho]

First finding: with my simplified install procedure, after the file copy and the setting of the proper CD drive letter in Math6-9.INI you also MUST create the folder USERS in the game folder.

Two more problems:
1) even fixing the Clipper error, the game keeps breaking the AERO setting, I don't know why.
2) the intro movies are fluid in native fullscreen mode, but are really choppy in window mode.

[Christian MacCartny]

I actually installed the game from an old disk I have. I created an ISO of the disk afterward and changed the setting in the INI file to read from the appropriate drive, so I no longer need the disk to run the game.

As for UseDirectDraw, I have it set to 0 because that's what allowed the game to open in a window without the resolution of my computer's screen changing to focus on only the window (like in the first video). I had to set both DisplayFullScreen and UseDirectDraw to 0 in order to get this to work.

Also, when UseDirectDraw=0, I end up with two warning boxes about the resolution. From what I found, checking the "Keep this message from reappearing" box screws over the game's settings entirely, although I'm not exactly sure why. It at least adds some other settings to the INI file.

From what I can tell, it seems you figured out the issue with the game refusing to start unless the USERS folder exists.

I'll keep testing things and let you know if I find anything else. I might also test out some of the other early Reader Rabbit/Learning Company games to see if they run similarly in DXWnd, so I'll be sure to update with my findings.

[gho]

@Christian: in effect the game should be able to be scaled also with your settings, but when I tried to define a proper configuration for this scenario, I realized that there are too many things that are not working properly. In addition, my work on "Neverwinter Nights" pushed me to heavily reorganize the window handling code. In short, I think I'm in the middle of some major update, so don't panic if things are not working properly and be patient: in a while there will be a new release working hopefully much better and ready to be tested with all Rabbit's games!
:)