Exult Forum

Hi,

I don't know if it is a problem of drivers or something else, but when running Exult (full screen, and in any configuration) and I Alt-TAB to Windows 7 (x64) the mouse pointer doesn't work (in windows).

Am I the only one that has this problem? Searched the forum but I have not seen anything.

I can return to Exult and the mouse pointer works on it. I am using ATI videocard.

With the new version of SDL it seems that some bugs surfaced that we don't have a handle on. On OS X I have problems with switching to fullscreen and someone else reported this for Windows as well. Does switching windowed and fullscreen mode work for you?

Anyway your problem might not be related, you can try the workaround for Windows 9x http://exult.info/faq.php#w9x_issues
Maybe that helps.

In XP:

Yeah, there's something screwy going on with fullscreen. It doesn't toggles to fullscreen until Exult is restarted. The menu does not display enabled either when you do this.

1.2.14 is screwing up the mouse and rendering when any in-game menu shows up and the game title screen will not show the journey onward, etc. options properly. It doesn't center the screen properly either. I can confirm the alt-tabbing not having the mouse display in Windows.

Switching the dll with the 1.2.13 version fixes the previous paragraph. Switching it with 1.2.12 version doesn't seem to eliminate any problems.

I'll compile current SVN with 1.2.12 and see what happens.

SET SDL_VIDEODRIVER=directx with 1.2.14 seems to fix:

1.2.14 is screwing up the mouse and rendering when any in-game menu shows up and the game title screen will not show the journey onward, etc. options properly. It doesn't center the screen properly either. I can confirm the alt-tabbing not having the mouse display in Windows.

With my limited knowledge of code I tried to see what Exult does so different compared to other SDL programs like Dosbox or Pentagram, where switching to fullscreen works fine with SDL 1.2.14.
Also apparently not every users experiences these problems (I think I tried a bit on my XP and W7 virtual machines and got different results)

My Win 98 comp has the same issues. I compiled with a 1.2.12 sdl I found on my computer and had the same issues as 1.2.14 (also needing SET SDL_VIDEODRIVER=directx). This problem exist with several year old source.

Exult that old and with that sdl version likely wasn't having that issue with my Nvidia card before I changed drivers. (I don't feel like switching out drivers again since the fan has been running loud) I removed my GeForce FX 5500 and replacing it with the onboard Intel graphics card and none of these problems showed up. This appears to be driver fixable if not caused by it.

That doesn't really explain the problems with the Win 98 computer which I think has always used the same driver. I've never really used Exult on it but to test Win 98 specific issues so I can't confirm it even worked for fullscreen toggle. My older version I installed didn't toggle.

"1.2.14 is screwing up the mouse and rendering when any in-game menu shows up and the game title screen will not show the journey onward, etc. options properly. It doesn't center the screen properly either. I can confirm the alt-tabbing not having the mouse display in Windows."

AHA I thought it was just me!
Same deal here when I did my recent run through Serpent Isle.
Trying to play it full screen, when you get to the Journey Onward screen none of the menu text is there and your mouse cursor is invisible.

You can make the menu options show up if you move your mouse on screen. Once the invisible cursor moves over a spot with graphics theyll get 'wiped on' the screen. Was a pain in the butt getting it to go to Return To Menu cause you cant tell where it is hehehe.

I thought Exult was compiled against a specific version of SDL??
You can just drop the older dll in there and it will work fine??
I may have to go redo the end of the game to watch it in fullscreen now!

Windows 9x does have problems for a long time with SDL, ever since they decided to make SDL on Windows use Windib instead of DirectX for rendering. I *think* I posted in another thread how to patch SDL to revert this so you don't need to do the environment setting.

That this is causing weird behaviour on W7 is new, since for example Dosbox uses a special SDL build that has this reversed and needs to tell some people to set SDL to use Windib instead. Not all people, so yes, it could very well be a driver thing as well.

The problem with switching to fullscreen is new and, for me at least, limited to Exult. As I wrote Pentagram and Dosbox do not have this problem when compiled against SDL 1.2.14.

I thought Exult was compiled against a specific version of SDL??
You can just drop the older dll in there and it will work fine??
I may have to go redo the end of the game to watch it in fullscreen now!

You can try. Some people experience problems with that but when you have problems you should know right away, since you won't be able to start Exult then

Hi,

I can go from fullscreen to windowed directly on Exult. Also, the mouse again works on both Exult and Windows 7.

But I can not go "directly" (without quitting game) from windowed to fullscreen.

I've observed (in windowed mode) that Exult main menu window is not at the same screen size that when playing SI. I am using 512x384 Hqx2 (Full Screen Disabled). I assume that this is correct. Also, Scale2x (in fullscreen) is a bit slow when "initializing". Exult runs well after.

I think that I will use Exult in windowed (at least mouse works when Alt-Tabbing).

Regards.

As Malignant said, this (one last test):

SET SDL_VIDEODRIVER=directx

makes available mouse in fullscreen and Alt-Tab to Windows7.

The bad is that with menus opened (exult main menu, gamplay menu), the refreshing does not occurs and the sreen goes black until the mouse is moved.

Discussion about what is screwing up is on the Exult IRC log. It seems to be hardware color palette issues.

I don't know much about SDL programming... but maybe in Windows can not be possible go from windowed to Full.

http://sdl.beuc.net/sdl.wiki/SDL_SetVideoMode

In OPENGL (as I've understood) the fullscreen could not be done without restarting or "initializing" (in Windows at least, because it says X11 works well)...

Maybe with directx is happening the same?