Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Location: National Reference Laboratory for IPNV
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 1:42 pm Post subject:
RA2/YR/TS Blank Buttons-Invisible Video Fix
Subject description: for Windows 7 with intel HD graphic cards
I've had a bug with command and conquer games on my windows 7 laptop, making them barely playable, as the menu screens seem to not refresh. But that's no more, as I've finally found a solution, which I'm posting here for anyone who also has this problem.
First, right click on Desktop and select Screen Resolution.
Click Detect (with no additional monitor connected).
Next to your main display, there'll be a grey square (the unplugged second display) that sayd "Another display not detected".
Select the unplugged monitor button anyway.
Under "Multiple displays" it will say "No display detected".
Set the option to "Try to connect anyway on: VGA".
Select your main display, and set "Multiple displays" to "Extend these displays", finally apply the changes.
We're done with the screen resolution menu.
Open the Intel HD Graphics Settings, check the Advanced Mode.
Go to the energy options and set it to maximun performance.
Save your changes.
Start Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge, or Tiberian Sun, menus and videos should work properly now. QUICK_EDIT
Run this program before starting the game. It will resident in the background and forces the DDraw driver to flush primary DDraw surface into VRAM.
After the game, you can press Ctrl+C or simply click the X in the upper right corner to close it.
[edit date="2015-07-11"]
I rebuilt this utility using mingw-w64-g++ statically. It should no longer ask for new versions of MSVC*.DLL, nor should it ask for libstdc++*.dll.
Since libstdc++ is LGPL'd, the built .exe file is also LGPL'd. But source.cpp is in the public domain.
[/edit]
The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b). Click OK to close the application.
And gamemd.exe patch with NPAEExt have some problems using Machine's method. It loads fine, but then the game closes after the loading screen, didn't even get to the menu. Any idea? _________________
Team Black wrote:
interesting seeing your voxel work. They're still better than Aro's!
Reinstall Direct X 9.0c for win 7 and try again. DX11 seems to be short of some files of DX9(e.g. d3dx9_35.dll). _________________ Fusion Reactor upgrade is complete.
Bumping this to request sticky because this fixes the menu problem with win7 laptops that have integrated Intel graphic card installed. _________________
Team Black wrote:
interesting seeing your voxel work. They're still better than Aro's!
I wonder whether Launch Base group is willing to include this patch in LB. (c++ src is available in the archive above.) _________________ Fusion Reactor upgrade is complete.
Joined: 22 Nov 2010 Location: Iszkaszentgyorgy, Hungary
Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:24 am Post subject:
You don't need to... LB is in Visual Basic. and tbh, I dunno if it's codebase EVER get an update... there are some other such critical issues in it as well. _________________ "If you didn't get angry and mad and frustrated, that means you don't care about the end result, and are doing something wrong." - Greg Kroah-Hartman
=======================
Past C&C projects: Attacque Supérior (2010-2019); Valiant Shades (2019-2021)
=======================
WeiDU mods: Random Graion Tweaks | Graion's Soundsets
Maintainance: Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters! | BGEESpawn
Contributions: EE Fixpack | Enhanced Edition Trilogy | DSotSC (Trilogy) | UB_IWD | SotSC & a lot more... QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:23 pm Post subject:
Comr4de, his sticky request was done before it was stickied and, thanks to it and the importance of this information for laptop owners, it was stickied. QUICK_EDIT
Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 1:27 am Post subject:
Re: RA2/YR/TS Blank Buttons-Invisible Video Fix
Machine wrote:
I've had a bug with command and conquer games on my windows 7 laptop, making them barely playable, as the menu screens seem to not refresh. But that's no more, as I've finally found a solution, which I'm posting here for anyone who also has this problem.
First, right click on Desktop and select Screen Resolution.
Click Detect (with no additional monitor connected).
Next to your main display, there'll be a grey square (the unplugged second display) that sayd "Another display not detected".
Select the unplugged monitor button anyway.
Under "Multiple displays" it will say "No display detected".
Set the option to "Try to connect anyway on: VGA".
Select your main display, and set "Multiple displays" to "Extend these displays", finally apply the changes.
We're done with the screen resolution menu.
Open the Intel HD Graphics Settings, check the Advanced Mode.
Go to the energy options and set it to maximun performance.
Save your changes.
Start Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge, or Tiberian Sun, menus and videos should work properly now.
this isn't working I can't apply the extended display as it makes it so that I can't see anything on my desktop QUICK_EDIT
He said "Anything on my desktop", not "anything at all". Luigis...
Make sure you set the main desktop (the left one) first before you hit apply, or it sets the main desktop off-screen, meaning it has none of your icons.
This works like a charm, but even after this, it still seems to run better on any other OS. _________________ "Don't beg for things; Do it yourself or you'll never get anything." QUICK_EDIT
I found a simple fix for this. If you have a secondary graphic processor and it's NVIDIA, open it's control panel and select 'Manage 3D settings' on the left panel.
Open the 'Program Settings' tab and select either game.exe or gamemd.exe or both in the dropdown list. If it's not listed, you will need to add it into the list.
Change the preferred graphics processor to the secondary processor (not the integrated graphis).
Scroll down through the given settings until you come across 'Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration' and change the given setting to 'Single display performance mode'. Then you're done.
Note: I don't know about other graphic processors, but I'm guessing they're quite similar. You just have to find that out yourself. _________________
Team Black wrote:
interesting seeing your voxel work. They're still better than Aro's!
I found a simple fix for this. If you have a secondary graphic processor and it's NVIDIA, open it's control panel and select 'Manage 3D settings' on the left panel.
Open the 'Program Settings' tab and select either game.exe or gamemd.exe or both in the dropdown list. If it's not listed, you will need to add it into the list.
Change the preferred graphics processor to the secondary processor (not the integrated graphis).
Scroll down through the given settings until you come across 'Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration' and change the given setting to 'Single display performance mode'. Then you're done.
Note: I don't know about other graphic processors, but I'm guessing they're quite similar. You just have to find that out yourself.
Probably not gonna help much, considering that this issue mostly plagues machines that only have (Intel) CPU with integrated GPU and no separate graphics card. I suppose it might work better than the other solution for those that do have a separate one, though, since the solution in first post has some minor, non-critical side effects. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Machine's method breaks my Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 mouse control, so I prefer to use Mouse's method and now I can use mine. Though I do agree it's useless to other people with no secondary graphic card, not much I can do about that. _________________
Team Black wrote:
interesting seeing your voxel work. They're still better than Aro's!
I propose a different (universal) way to solve this problem. I made a small package based on WineD3D and utilities MoveToTray. Just unzip the files in a folder with the game.
To start the game, use the run.bat. I configured it to run ra2md.exe, if you want to use this tool with RA2 or TS, then you have to replace 'ra2md.exe' run.bat in the corresponding *.exe file
WineD3D does not allow minimizing the game the classical way (Win or Alt+Tab). Therefore, in order to minimize the game, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+M. The game will be minimized to the system tray.
Edit: Also, it can take an adventure video mode at 16 bit color. In Windows8 it can be done in a setting compatibility ra2md.exe.
I am having a similar problem when trying to play the Mod/Standalone called "The Dawn of The Tiberium Age" (Graphics doesnt update when "ticking" boxes and it doesnt show when i move sliders either) and after lurking around their forum for a bit i got to this thread. Iv'e tried the different solutions in this thread:
The Menu fix by LH_Mouse fixed the "tick" and slider problems, but unfortunaely made everything else not update properly instead..
I tried the DDraw.dll_for_menu_bug fix by glukv48, but it didn't work (or i don't know if it did, because i wasn't able to launch the game at all when using it)
I also tried the fix by Machine and it fixed the problem, but seeing as it could screw up other things and the fact that the right side of my screen is now "borderless" (aka. Hey! Where did the cursor go?! D, i don't really like to use it.
Now, i was wondering 4 things:
1. Does anyone know of any other "fix"?
2. Would it be possible to make a program/script that does the changes suggested by Machine, but that "resets" to the previous settings when the game and/or the program/script is exited?
3. Is anyone here having similar problems specifically with TDoTTA? Any fixes? Anything? (C&C1 and RA works fine, TS needed a little DDraw thingie called "TS Win8 Fix", but when trying it with TDoTTA, the makers of the mod have made it automatically delete the DDraw dll, saying something about it causing problems, so it didnt work either.)
4. @glukv48: Does this, "Just unzip the files in a folder with the game." mean that i should extraxt it to a folder inside the main folder of the actual game? or does it mean that i should just extract the files directly to the main folder of the game?
I did the first one and as i said before, it made it not launch at all. (I did ofc make sure that i made the neccesary changes to the bat file first)
Thanks for any answers!
Side-note: The reason why i'm asking if there is another fix is because of th reasons i mentioned earlier (The "anxiety" i feel when using that "fix" is greater than the "calmness" i feel from having fun with playing the mod, so i'm probably gonna "ditch" this mod if there is no other fix (at least until there is a fix from them, if there ever will be.)
I'm not new to C&C or computers in general, i am totally new to C&C Mods/modding though. I'm not much for programming either (Not that i can't, i've just never learned to program anything really). Oh..and as you probably have figured out already, i do indeed have an integrated Intel GPU.
EDIT/ADD: If anyone needs any additional information or clarification from me, just ask. :3
EDIT/ADD2: *Cough*
EDIT/ADD3: I apperantly do have a second Graphics card, a Radeon HD 6770 M (How the hell did i forget about that?!), anyway, i tried doing the fix suggested by Krow involving preferred GProcessor (as much as i could), but that did unfortunaely not work. >: QUICK_EDIT
EDIT: I made a set specifically for this mod. Try.
EDIT 2: If you do not understand in what folder to unpack, look at a screenshot.
Thanks!
Movies doesn't work now and it's a bit slow in the menues, + i can't use the DTA Launcher (According to the makers of DTA, the disable ddraw thingie is not compatible with DTA and deletes it, but if i for some reason need to use the launcher, i just extract that dll to there again afterwards, lol), but those are (at most) minor annoyances.
Thanks a bunch!
(I guess i did it wrong the first time then, i should have just extracted it all to the DTA folder instead of extracting it to a folder inside the DTA folder)
EDIT: Huh, now movies work and its not slow + the launcher doesnt say anything about ddraw. lolwut. It still works though
EDIT2: And now the launcher complains about ddraw again. But i looked at the bat and saw that it copies the ddraw.dll to the folder everytime, so know i understand that i dont need to worry about ddraw being deleted, as long as i use your bat to start the game! Thanks again!
(I wonder why the makers of the mod says its not compatible though O.o) QUICK_EDIT
Though unrelated to graphic issues, searching for RA2 menu problem or invisible buttons leads to this thread,
so posting here.
In Windows 7, Control Panel -> Display -> Text size has 3 options
Smaller - 100% (Default), Medium - 125% and Large 150%
Setting it to say Medium causes out of place scroller in options menu and button goes invisible in skirmish
map selection etc. in RA2/YR. Setting it to Smaller - 100% (Default) shows it properly. QUICK_EDIT
You could just apply compatibility options for the executables.
Right click (game.exe, ra2.exe) > Properties > Compatiblity > Disable display scaling on high DPI settings.
Compatibility setting doesn't work for me, tried for all the 4 exe files - ra2(md).exe/game(md).exe.
Exe doesn't run at all. But there is no problem when it is set back to 100% dpi.
On 125% dpi, buttons, slider etc. are misplaced. On skirmish map selection, random button works as map
selection button. Random map fuctionionality is gone as the 2nd button dissappears, that is the only thing
I miss which anyhow I don't use it much. QUICK_EDIT
Without having the source I don't know. I only got the idea from Visual Studio as it seems that every button and window element seems to be set to auto resize depending on font settings.
Not too sure if it's possible to edit this with a resource hacker, eg : ResHacker, ResEdit. QUICK_EDIT
With ResHacker, you can change the style for dialogs. Options dialog is at number 213 for gamemd.exe.
Tried several of them, I don't think any of them could handle high dpi. QUICK_EDIT
Like I said it's the default behaviour, if the elements in the window and including the window are set to NOT auto resize according to DPI then I assume that the problem would be solved as the interaction between the two would be removed. QUICK_EDIT
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RA2/YR/TS Blank Buttons-Invisible Video Fix
, i don't really like to use it.
