gamedevlists-windows — List for discussing game development on the Windows platform

RE: [GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory available ?

[Yannick L. <yle...@ub...>]

I tried your suggestion (both GlobalMemoryStatusEx and =
GlobalMemoryStatus)
and unfortunately this doesn't give the right result on my system =
either.
Instead of 1022 MB it will report 1023 MB...

Yannick

-----Original Message-----
From: Carsten Orthbandt [mailto:car...@se...]
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 3:08 PM
To: gam...@li...
Subject: RE: [GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory
available ?


IIRC, GlobalMemoryStatus returns the actual amount of RAM minus the
DOS-inherited 640 kB base memory.
After actually checking that: Yep, add 640 kB (=3D655360 byte) to the
value in xMS.dwTotalPhys and you got the real value.
When doing anything of this kind, please consider using =
GlobalMemoryStatusEx
on Win2k/XP systems. We're not that far from systems having the full =
4GB
space equipped.

Carsten Orthbandt
Founder + Development Director
SEK SpieleEntwicklungsKombinat GmbH
http://www.sek-ost.de

Wenn ich Visionen habe, gehe ich zum Arzt. - Helmut Schmidt
=20

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gam...@li...=20
> [mailto:gam...@li...] On=20
> Behalf Of Yannick Letourneau
> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 8:47 PM
> To: gam...@li...
> Subject: [GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory=20
> available ?
>=20
>=20
> I need to determine how much memory is installed on the user's system
> somehow.
>=20
> I used GlobalMemoryStatus but the values returned in the=20
> member dwTotalPhys
> is always underestimating a bit.  For example on my dev=20
> machine it returns
> 1022 MB although I have 1024 MB installed.  Same thing happens on all
> systems I've tested.
>=20
> Same thing is reported in dxdiag.exe so they seem to use that=20
> function as
> well.
>=20
> However, when I use the System Information tool in the system tools =
of
> Windows, it correctly reports 1024 MB.
>=20
> So anyone knows how I can get the exact information ?
>=20
> Yannick L=E9tourneau
> UBISOFT
>=20
>=20
>=20
> -------------------------------------------------------
> The SF.Net email is sponsored by EclipseCon 2004
> Premiere Conference on Open Tools Development and Integration
> See the breadth of Eclipse activity. February 3-5 in Anaheim, CA.
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> Gam...@li...
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> Archives:
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>=20


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Re: [GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory available ?

[Colin F. <cp...@ea...>]

>>> However, when I use the System Information tool in
>>> the system tools of Windows, it correctly reports 1024 MB.
>>>
>>> So anyone knows how I can get the exact information ?

Prompt the user to launch the System Information tool
and enter the number they see in to a text edit box !
(Or take the user out of the loop and automate the
process with window messages.)

Or...reverse-engineer the System Information tool !
(dumpbin or whatever to get the API calls).  Figure out
how it gets the proper answer !

Or...just round the result of GlobalMemoryStatus() to the
nearest plausible memory size value! (e.g., 757 MB becomes
768 MB, and 1022 MB becomes 1024 MB)

Okay, I'm bad !  Sorry for the humor !

--- Colin

cp...@ea...
http://www.colinfahey.com

RE: [GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory available ?

[Yannick L. <yle...@ub...>]

Actually it would be a little more complicated since memory can be a =
sum of
different power of 2 (for example if you have one memory chip of 128 MB =
and
another of 64 MB totaling 192MB which is not power of 2).

I'd rather not make this kind of assumption myself and let the system =
give
me the exact numbers ;-)

-----Original Message-----
From: Timur Davidenko [mailto:ti...@cr...]
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 3:16 PM
To: gam...@li...
Subject: RE: [GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory
available ?


I guess System Information tool just rounds this number to the next
"reasonable" number.
It knows that memory chips don't come in 1022Mb setups..
So it`s quite easy to round number you get to closest power of 2..

_____________________
Timur Davidenko.
Crytek (http://www.crytek.com)

-----Original Message-----
From: Yannick Letourneau [mailto:yle...@ub...]=20
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 8:47 PM
To: gam...@li...
Subject: [GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory available =
?

I need to determine how much memory is installed on the user's system
somehow.

I used GlobalMemoryStatus but the values returned in the member =
dwTotalPhys
is always underestimating a bit.  For example on my dev machine it =
returns
1022 MB although I have 1024 MB installed.  Same thing happens on all
systems I've tested.

Same thing is reported in dxdiag.exe so they seem to use that function =
as
well.

However, when I use the System Information tool in the system tools of
Windows, it correctly reports 1024 MB.

So anyone knows how I can get the exact information ?

Yannick L=E9tourneau
UBISOFT



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RE: [GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory available ?

[Timur D. <ti...@cr...>]

I guess System Information tool just rounds this number to the next =
"reasonable" number.
It knows that memory chips don't come in 1022Mb setups..
So it`s quite easy to round number you get to closest power of 2..

_____________________
Timur Davidenko.
Crytek (http://www.crytek.com)

-----Original Message-----
From: Yannick Letourneau [mailto:yle...@ub...]=20
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 8:47 PM
To: gam...@li...
Subject: [GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory available ?

I need to determine how much memory is installed on the user's system
somehow.

I used GlobalMemoryStatus but the values returned in the member =
dwTotalPhys
is always underestimating a bit.  For example on my dev machine it =
returns
1022 MB although I have 1024 MB installed.  Same thing happens on all
systems I've tested.

Same thing is reported in dxdiag.exe so they seem to use that function =
as
well.

However, when I use the System Information tool in the system tools of
Windows, it correctly reports 1024 MB.

So anyone knows how I can get the exact information ?

Yannick L=E9tourneau
UBISOFT



-------------------------------------------------------
The SF.Net email is sponsored by EclipseCon 2004
Premiere Conference on Open Tools Development and Integration
See the breadth of Eclipse activity. February 3-5 in Anaheim, CA.
http://www.eclipsecon.org/osdn
_______________________________________________
Gamedevlists-windows mailing list
Gam...@li...
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Archives:
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RE: [GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory available ?

[Carsten O. <car...@se...>]

IIRC, GlobalMemoryStatus returns the actual amount of RAM minus the
DOS-inherited 640 kB base memory.
After actually checking that: Yep, add 640 kB (=3D655360 byte) to the
value in xMS.dwTotalPhys and you got the real value.
When doing anything of this kind, please consider using =
GlobalMemoryStatusEx
on Win2k/XP systems. We're not that far from systems having the full 4GB
space equipped.

Carsten Orthbandt
Founder + Development Director
SEK SpieleEntwicklungsKombinat GmbH
http://www.sek-ost.de

Wenn ich Visionen habe, gehe ich zum Arzt. - Helmut Schmidt
=20

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gam...@li...=20
> [mailto:gam...@li...] On=20
> Behalf Of Yannick Letourneau
> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 8:47 PM
> To: gam...@li...
> Subject: [GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory=20
> available ?
>=20
>=20
> I need to determine how much memory is installed on the user's system
> somehow.
>=20
> I used GlobalMemoryStatus but the values returned in the=20
> member dwTotalPhys
> is always underestimating a bit.  For example on my dev=20
> machine it returns
> 1022 MB although I have 1024 MB installed.  Same thing happens on all
> systems I've tested.
>=20
> Same thing is reported in dxdiag.exe so they seem to use that=20
> function as
> well.
>=20
> However, when I use the System Information tool in the system tools of
> Windows, it correctly reports 1024 MB.
>=20
> So anyone knows how I can get the exact information ?
>=20
> Yannick L=E9tourneau
> UBISOFT
>=20
>=20
>=20
> -------------------------------------------------------
> The SF.Net email is sponsored by EclipseCon 2004
> Premiere Conference on Open Tools Development and Integration
> See the breadth of Eclipse activity. February 3-5 in Anaheim, CA.
> http://www.eclipsecon.org/osdn
> _______________________________________________
> Gamedevlists-windows mailing list
> Gam...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gamedevlists-windows
> Archives:
> http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_idU5
>=20

[GD-Windows] How to determine total physical memory available ?

[Yannick L. <yle...@ub...>]

I need to determine how much memory is installed on the user's system
somehow.

I used GlobalMemoryStatus but the values returned in the member =
dwTotalPhys
is always underestimating a bit.  For example on my dev machine it =
returns
1022 MB although I have 1024 MB installed.  Same thing happens on all
systems I've tested.

Same thing is reported in dxdiag.exe so they seem to use that function =
as
well.

However, when I use the System Information tool in the system tools of
Windows, it correctly reports 1024 MB.

So anyone knows how I can get the exact information ?

Yannick L=E9tourneau
UBISOFT

[GD-Windows] EnumWindows () - a simple question for a big problem

[Scoubidou944 <Sco...@ho...>]

Hi,=20
I'm writing an application which use EnumWindows () to retrieve all =
HWND.=20
It seems that all windows listed are created as a child of Explorer.exe=20
WindowStation used is \Windows\WindowStations\Winsta0

but I need to transform this application as a service and EnumWindows() =
doesn't return the same results.
This function found only one window=20
WindowStation is \Windows\WindowStations\Service-0x0-3e7$=20
(result coming ProcessExplorer =
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml)


PLEASSSSEEEE HELP I've spent 2 days of time on it & I'm going crazy.

Thanks
Vincent

RE: [GD-Windows] Setting windows icons

[Jacob T. \(C. D. Ltd\) <Ja...@Co...>]

Many thanks discovered SetIcon( blah, TRUE ); is the ticket

Jake

-----Original Message-----
From: gam...@li...
[mailto:gam...@li...]On Behalf Of
brian sharon
Sent: 12 January 2004 16:09
To: gam...@li...
Subject: Re: [GD-Windows] Setting windows icons


I don't think there's a message involved.  Isn't it the icon that you=20
register in your window class?  (see the docs for WNDCLASS)

--brian

On Monday, January 12, 2004, at 07:46  AM, Jacob Turner (Core Design=20
Ltd) wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I am looking for how to set the icon that gets displayed for a windows =

> app when you press "alt+tab" at the moment our app just has the=20
> default windows wavy lined flag icon.
>
> Any help as to which windows message it is would be greatly=20
> appreciated ?
>
> Thanks
>
> Jake



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RE: [GD-Windows] Setting windows icons

[Rob H. <ro...@ga...>]

You can set it on a per window basis, check the docs for WM_SETICON.
SendMessage(hWnd, WM_SETICON, ICON_BIG, hIcon);

Rob 

-----Original Message-----
From: gam...@li...
[mailto:gam...@li...] On Behalf Of Jacob
Turner (Core Design Ltd)
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 8:47 AM
To: gam...@li...
Subject: [GD-Windows] Setting windows icons

Hi there,

I am looking for how to set the icon that gets displayed for a windows app
when you press "alt+tab" at the moment our app just has the default windows
wavy lined flag icon.

Any help as to which windows message it is would be greatly appreciated ?

Thanks

Jake


-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: Perforce Software.
Perforce is the Fast Software Configuration Management System offering
advanced branching capabilities and atomic changes on 50+ platforms.
Free Eval! http://www.perforce.com/perforce/loadprog.html
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Re: [GD-Windows] Setting windows icons

[brian s. <pud...@po...>]

I don't think there's a message involved.  Isn't it the icon that you 
register in your window class?  (see the docs for WNDCLASS)

--brian

On Monday, January 12, 2004, at 07:46  AM, Jacob Turner (Core Design 
Ltd) wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I am looking for how to set the icon that gets displayed for a windows 
> app when you press "alt+tab" at the moment our app just has the 
> default windows wavy lined flag icon.
>
> Any help as to which windows message it is would be greatly 
> appreciated ?
>
> Thanks
>
> Jake

Re: [GD-Windows] Setting windows icons

[Brian H. <ho...@py...>]

IIRC, isn't this set when registering the window class in the hIcon 
section?

[GD-Windows] Setting windows icons

[Jacob T. \(C. D. Ltd\) <Ja...@Co...>]

Hi there,

I am looking for how to set the icon that gets displayed for a windows =
app when you press "alt+tab" at the moment our app just has the default =
windows wavy lined flag icon.

Any help as to which windows message it is would be greatly appreciated =
?

Thanks

Jake

RE: [GD-Windows] .ilk file location

[Daniel V. <vo...@ep...>]

Good idea though doesn't this mean $(targetpath) won't point to the binary
any longer?

In any case, I sent a feature request to the compiler team.

-- Daniel, Epic Games Inc.  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gam...@li... 
> [mailto:gam...@li...] On 
> Behalf Of Tham
> Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 7:12 PM
> To: gam...@li...
> Subject: Re: [GD-Windows] .ilk file location
> 
> this is wot i do...
> 
> compile the thing into the default folder,
> postbuild-move it (dll, exe) to my bin folder...
> 
> good bye with the ilk. :)
> 
> tham
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials.
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> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gamedevlists-windows
> Archives:
> http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=555
> 

Re: [GD-Windows] .ilk file location

[Tham <th...@ga...>]

this is wot i do...

compile the thing into the default folder,
postbuild-move it (dll, exe) to my bin folder...

good bye with the ilk. :)

tham

Re: [GD-Windows] .ilk file location

[Ryan J. <rju...@di...>]

This has been bugging me too.  I was thinking of trying to run two bat files
(pre-build, and postbuild) to move it in to be used and then back out again
just to keep it seperate from all the binary stuff and make it easy to zip
up my "run" folder without needing to delete the ilk all the time to save
space.  I havent actually tried it out yet, but maybe that idea can help ya
some.

Ryan Juckett
Senior at DigiPen Institute of Technology
www.theJuckett.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alen Ladavac" <ale...@cr...>
To: <gam...@li...>
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 2:54 AM
Subject: Re: [GD-Windows] .ilk file location


> According to documentation, it's not possible. If you find a way, let us
all
> know.
>
> Alen
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Daniel Vogel" <vo...@ep...>
> To: <gam...@li...>
> Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 21:11
> Subject: [GD-Windows] .ilk file location
>
>
> > Does anyone know how to control where VS.NET 2003 puts the *.ilk files
used
> > for incremental linking? Ideally I'd like them to be in my Intermediate
> > directory not cluttering up the binary folder.
> >
> > -- Daniel, Epic Games Inc.
> >
> >
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------
> > This SF.net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials.
> > Become an expert in LINUX or just sharpen your skills.  Sign up for
IBM's
> > Free Linux Tutorials.  Learn everything from the bash shell to sys
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> > _______________________________________________
> > Gamedevlists-windows mailing list
> > Gam...@li...
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gamedevlists-windows
> > Archives:
> > http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=555
> >
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
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Re: [GD-Windows] .ilk file location

[Alen L. <ale...@cr...>]

According to documentation, it's not possible. If you find a way, let us all
know.

Alen

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Vogel" <vo...@ep...>
To: <gam...@li...>
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 21:11
Subject: [GD-Windows] .ilk file location


> Does anyone know how to control where VS.NET 2003 puts the *.ilk files used
> for incremental linking? Ideally I'd like them to be in my Intermediate
> directory not cluttering up the binary folder.
>
> -- Daniel, Epic Games Inc.
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials.
> Become an expert in LINUX or just sharpen your skills.  Sign up for IBM's
> Free Linux Tutorials.  Learn everything from the bash shell to sys admin.
> Click now! http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1278&alloc_id=3371&op=click
> _______________________________________________
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> Archives:
> http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=555
>

[GD-Windows] .ilk file location

[Daniel V. <vo...@ep...>]

Does anyone know how to control where VS.NET 2003 puts the *.ilk files used
for incremental linking? Ideally I'd like them to be in my Intermediate
directory not cluttering up the binary folder.

-- Daniel, Epic Games Inc.

RE: [GD-Windows] Complex GUIs

[<ce...@ce...>]

> 1. Use Windows native functions but overriding the drawing, etc. with
hooks to render a game interface instead of windows default application
interface.

I think this option was chosen by the Worms 2 developers. Not 100% sure
though.

Cheers,
Adrian

RE: [GD-Windows] Complex GUIs

[Simon O'C. <si...@sc...>]

> 3. Just do it how we do on consoles and use a thin, 
> lightweight GUI built over the immediate mode toolkit.

I'm with Brian on this one, you don't want to be modifying Windows UI stuff
to do game UI stuff - there's a lot of pain if you do.

As an aside, even the work and toolset for a lightweight GUI on top of the
engine can be simplified by things such as Thatcher Ulrich's GameSWF:

http://www.tulrich.com/geekstuff/gameswf.html


 
> The second related part (or maybe this should come first?) 
> would be the event system that the above is all hooked up 
> into. Would you:
> 1. Use Windows native event/messaging to drive the gui.
> 2. Use Direct Input and develop you own event messaging to 
> drive the gui.

Windows messages do take much more account of user preference (mouse button
swapping, click rates, acceleration etc) and accessibility stuff for free. 

All of this can be queried and copied in your own DirectInput based system
of course - though it does mean a bit more work. The upshot is (slightly)
lower latency, exotic device support and more exclusivity/control.

When it comes to mice, things like force feedback are still extremely rare
(though trends like that take off surprisingly quickly, and OEM deals for
games that support rare features can be very good).


> Thanks,
> Brett

Simon O'Connor
Programmer @ Acclaim
& Microsoft DirectX MVP  

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RE: [GD-Windows] Complex GUIs

[Jon W. <hp...@mi...>]

We use a different approach: we write our GUIs in Macromedia Flash. There's
awesome tools available to generate Flash, and we embed the actual,
honest-to-goodness Flash ActiveX control, making it render to a texture with
translucency (we actually have to render twice to get the translucency
right). ActionScript and some custom Monikers complete the circle, and it's
fully integrated.

CPU usage if your UI animates is really high, though.

Cheers,

			/ h+


-----Original Message-----
From: gam...@li...
[mailto:gam...@li...]On Behalf Of
Brian Hook
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 4:14 PM
To: gam...@li...
Subject: Re: [GD-Windows] Complex GUIs


> If we wanted to do a complex GUI for a Windows game, on the order
> of an MMORPGs (toolbars, menus, windows, buttons, lists, etc.),
> would it be best to:
> 1. Use Windows native functions but overriding the drawing, etc.

Oh, hell no.

> 2. Use a third party gui widget toolkit and put in our own
> rendering functions to render the widgets.

Doubtful that this would be general purpose enough to make you happy.

> 3. Just do it how we do on consoles and use a thin, lightweight GUI
> built over the immediate mode toolkit.

Bingo.

> 1. Use Windows native event/messaging to drive the gui. 2. Use
> Direct Input and develop you own event messaging to drive the gui.

I think either approach works, they both have their pros and cons.
There have been games that have used the GDI messages directly (e.g.
Quake) with success, but DirectInput has a couple moderate advantages,
especially when it comes to support of more exotic input devices, e.g.
with force feedback.

Brian




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Re: [GD-Windows] Complex GUIs

[Brian H. <ho...@py...>]

> If we wanted to do a complex GUI for a Windows game, on the order
> of an MMORPGs (toolbars, menus, windows, buttons, lists, etc.),
> would it be best to:
> 1. Use Windows native functions but overriding the drawing, etc.

Oh, hell no.

> 2. Use a third party gui widget toolkit and put in our own
> rendering functions to render the widgets.

Doubtful that this would be general purpose enough to make you happy.

> 3. Just do it how we do on consoles and use a thin, lightweight GUI
> built over the immediate mode toolkit.

Bingo.

> 1. Use Windows native event/messaging to drive the gui. 2. Use
> Direct Input and develop you own event messaging to drive the gui.

I think either approach works, they both have their pros and cons.  
There have been games that have used the GDI messages directly (e.g. 
Quake) with success, but DirectInput has a couple moderate advantages, 
especially when it comes to support of more exotic input devices, e.g. 
with force feedback.

Brian

[GD-Windows] Complex GUIs

[Brett B. <res...@ga...>]

Hello,
Hope this is the correct forum to post this. We currently develop PS2 =
and GameCube titles and our Windows programming is limited to tools so =
far. Also, we have only made "twitch" games for consoles before, so the =
idea of doing something more complex leads us to wonder how much of the =
low-level to-the-metal approach we should give up.

If we wanted to do a complex GUI for a Windows game, on the order of an =
MMORPGs (toolbars, menus, windows, buttons, lists, etc.), would it be =
best to:
1. Use Windows native functions but overriding the drawing, etc. with =
hooks to render a game interface instead of windows default application =
interface.
2. Use a third party gui widget toolkit and put in our own rendering =
functions to render the widgets.
3. Just do it how we do on consoles and use a thin, lightweight GUI =
built over the immediate mode toolkit.

The second related part (or maybe this should come first?) would be the =
event system that the above is all hooked up into. Would you:
1. Use Windows native event/messaging to drive the gui.
2. Use Direct Input and develop you own event messaging to drive the =
gui.
3. ???

As an example, I was particularly impressed with Star Wars Galaxies GUI =
and that would be a good example of the different kinds of things we =
want a gui to do.

Thanks,
Brett

RE: [GD-Windows] Win98 lockup problem

[Daniel V. <vo...@ep...>]

> I remember we use to have this sort of behavior if you exited the
> application without cleaning up D3D / DDRAW correctly - ie: 

Sorry, forgot to follow up and post that I tracked it down to DirectSound
not being correctly torn down in all cases.

> the main window is destroyed etc... Yes Win9x was very sensitive to
> these things. We even had our exception handler clean up DX 
> so that when the application crashed with an error, the system 
> remained stable(ish!). 

That's what we do as well.

> Try the debug runtime and see if you have leaks, try 

The DX9 SDK installer consistently rebooted the Win98 machine :)


Thanks everyone for the pointers of DirectX being the culprit which means
killhelp.exe doesn't work in combination with DX9.0b.

Thanks,

-- Daniel, Epic Games Inc.

RE: [GD-Windows] Win98 lockup problem

[Andy G. <an...@mi...>]

I remember we use to have this sort of behavior if you exited the
application without cleaning up D3D / DDRAW correctly - ie: making sure
all the ref counts went correctly down to 0, cleaning up DirectX before
the main window is destroyed etc... Yes Win9x was very sensitive to
these things. We even had our exception handler clean up DX so that when
the application crashed with an error, the system remained stable
(ish!). Try the debug runtime and see if you have leaks, try looking at
the ref counts before the final releases etc...

Andy Glaister.

-----Original Message-----
From: gam...@li...
[mailto:gam...@li...] On Behalf Of
Antonio Tejada Lacaci
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 11:58 AM
To: gam...@li...
Subject: RE: [GD-Windows] Win98 lockup problem

Some OpenGL drivers are known to use DirectX for certain things, so
don't
rule out that the something in the DirectX runtime/driver is the only to
blame for your problem.

I believe Nvidia's OpenGL driver uses directdraw to lock the frontbuffer
surface or something along those lines. On my TNT2 in Win98 there used
to be
a problem where the OpenGL driver was leaking some direct3d object, so
the
second time you'd run the OpenGL app it would fail to start ("ddhelp
caused
an invalid page fault..."), and the only solution was to launch a
DirectX
application (windows media player) *before* any OpenGL application (so
the
OpenGL driver wouldn't try to deinitialize DirectX at app's end, because
it
was already running when the app started).

Did you try the OpenGL renderer on an ATI card as well? (I don't know if
they use DirectX in their OpenGL driver :? ).

Regarding debugging it, you could be lucky and it could be the DirectX
runtime waiting for some unsignalled object, but if as you say the whole
system locks up, I'm afraid you are stuck somewhere in the driver or
kernel
layers (I would bet some spinning loop in the DirectX kernel layer or
the
Win16 semaphore). I think that SoftIce is your only way to go (and tons
of
patience).

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gam...@li...
> [mailto:gam...@li...] On Behalf Of
> Daniel Vogel
> Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 11:28 AM
> To: gam...@li...
> Subject: [GD-Windows] Win98 lockup problem
>=20
> I'm seeing a problem here where most though not all Win98/ME machines
will
> cause the system to lock up after trying to run another D3D app after
> Unreal
> Tournament 2004 exits. The bug is on both ATI and NVIDIA and happens
with
> both DirectX 8.1 and 9.0b but doesn't happen with e.g. Unreal
Tournament
> 2003. I tried running killhelp.exe (which no longer seems to be part
of
> the
> DirectX 9 SDK) without success - is it supposed to work on a machine
with
> DirectX 9.0b installed? What is interesting is that D3D apps will also
> crash
> if I start the game with the OpenGL renderer but not if I pick the
> software
> renderer. This means both the OpenGL and D3D renderer must do
something
> that
> leaves the machine in an unstable state though I can't figure out
what.
>=20
> Remotely stepping through the code the app terminates (without a trace
and
> without locking up) in Direct3DCreate8 on second run with the D3D
renderer
> and locks in ChangeDisplaySettings with the OpenGL one.
>=20
> Anyone got any experience tracking down a problem like this? Luckily
Win2k
> was already around when I made the switch from Linux game development
to
> Windows so I'm not too familiar with all the idiosyncrasies of Win98
:)
>=20
> -- Daniel, Epic Games Inc.
>=20
>=20
>=20
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RE: [GD-Windows] Monitor aspect detection

[Jason B. <ja...@in...>]

>>You have four choices then:
>>- Live with that, and let those squares be rectangles.
>>- Assume user is always on a 4:3 monitor. (bye bye good old 16:9
>>projector).
>>- Remove the pesky resolutions (those not clearly 4:3, 16:9 or 3:4,...)
>>from user choices.
>>- Try to find an algorithm, working 100% in 90% of cases, and using one
>>of the above choices for the rest.


If it was an option I'd go with number 4 but add an explicit "calibration"
menu to your graphics setup.
This would allow for FOV adjustment (i.e. "press left/right cursors until
this looks square")
along with other usual suspects - gamma/colour/contrast balance etc.

Its seems you're going to have to except that there's just no way of telling
what the user is seeing unless they tell you somehow.

Jason.