Weird black screen issue with xwahacker

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Weird black screen issue with xwahacker

schplat
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Post by schplat » Mon Jan 02, 2017 3:00 am

Setup:
DSUCP2.3
XWC4.0
xwa_ddraw_d3d11 1.4.6
xwahacker (not sure version, but there's 50 patches, 23 groups)
Steam version of the game.

Goal:
Play original X-Wing in a reasonably more modern looking way than default.

Issue:
When targeting specific craft, the whole screen goes black except for 2 green dots.

The game continues to run, and if I continue to cycle through targets, the screen comes back fine. It seems to only happen on large craft. As I can target enemy Ties just fine, and Friendly X/Y/A-wings.

The other caveat to having the black screen is with xwahacker's 32bpp patch group applied. If I set it back to the 16bpp patch group, I haven't had any issues.

I can continue playing at 16bpp, but MSAA seems to almost not work? Maybe it's not working at all, whereas with the 32bpp the game does have a noticeable better look.

So is there anything I can try to get this working under 32bpp?

Reimar
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Post by Reimar » Tue Jan 03, 2017 9:50 am

If you have a ddraw.dll that is being used in the xwa directory then the 16bbp vs. 32bpp is not supposed to make any difference AT ALL...
If you don't have a ddraw.dll then it's surprising it works at all...
Easiest way to check if ddraw.dll is installed properly is to use the latest version https://github.com/rdoeffinger/xwa_ddra ... tag/v1.4.7 and check if you can play without joystick with keyboard/mouse.

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Post by Reimar » Tue Jan 03, 2017 9:54 am

Oh, and if you are using the ddraw.dll AND forcing AA via the control panel, please don't do that.
I can't see that causing anything but trouble.

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Post by schplat » Thu Jan 05, 2017 5:13 am

I definitely have the ddraw.dll in the same directory as the xwingalliance.exe. It's the one signed by you on June 4, 2016.

When you say forcing AA via the control panel.. Which control panel are you referring to? The nVidia CP? In-game CP? If you mean nVidia, then no, I don't do any overrides there.

Like I said, it's a weird issue. Only happens on 32bpp when targeting a large craft, and goes away until I cycle targets back to smaller craft.

Here's my ddraw.cfg (newlines and commented lines stripped out):

PreserveAspectRatio = 0
EnableMultisamplingAntialiasing = 1
EnableAnisotropicFiltering = 1
GenerateMipMaps = -1
FillWireframe = 0
ScalingType = 0
XWAMode = 0
Concourse3DScale = 0.6
Fullscreen = 0
Width = 0
Height = 0
JoystickEmul = -1
MouseSensitivity = 0.5
KbdSensitivity = 1.0
ProcessAffinity = -1
AutoPatch = 2

Let me know if anything seems off with regards to the problem. Or if you're interested in seeing my Config.cfg for the game.

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Post by Reimar » Thu Jan 05, 2017 8:58 am

> XWAMode = 0

This really shouldn't be 0 if you use it for XWA!
I'd suggest updating to the latest version, both ddraw.dll AND ddraw.cfg (which should have a -1 there and auto-detect how to behave), but for a quick check change it to 1 or -1.

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Post by Ramshu » Thu Jan 05, 2017 1:36 pm

DarkSaber modified DSCUPv2.3 recently, he included the new Z95 and other changes that I do not know.
In this new DSUCPv2.3 version there is something that makes incompatible with 32-bit rendering option of XWA Hacker, only DarkSaber know what's going on, but i can tell you on 1080p resolution i don't look any difference between 16bit or 32bit rendering.

"Nasios pa vola"

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Post by Darksaber » Thu Jan 05, 2017 4:44 pm

Recently? the small update was like you say to include DTM's new Z-95 and the installer is dated 1st Feb 2016 the only thing changed was the inclusion of the different POV settings for the new Z-95 nothing else was added.

I've been through and patched the Xwingalliance.exe with each individual *.202 patch files that are included with the installer, (patched as they would be by the installer) then after each patch I have checked with JeremyaFr XWA Exe Patcher and Reimar's xwahacker-gui-0.27-win to check what has been changed

Here are the final results, these are the only changes made to the exe which involve JeremyFr's DDraw.dll and the Hooks, the other changes are made to the Craft Stats
XwaExePatcher.jpg
xwahacker-gui-0.27-win.jpg
As you can see the the 32 bit mode (32 bit rendering, breaks load screens) is disabled on each utility, as it has been from January 22nd 2015 since the GOG version first came out, you can check my release notes from the readme.

The Gog version of the Game originally had the 32 bit mode enabled same with the Force 800x600 mode which stopped you from changing the screen res, so once I created the new installers I disabled these features and they have been the same since.

Oh and I still have JeremyFR's original DDraw.dll version xwing_ddraw_d3d11_1.4.0, in all the installers, so if your using Reimar's updated version of the DDraw.dll your problem may lie there, I'm not trying to pass the blame, please don't get me wrong, I haven't tested the changes Reimer has made to the DDraw.dll as from what I see the changes where for TIE95 and X-wing95
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Post by Reimar » Thu Jan 05, 2017 6:43 pm

Darksaber wrote:Oh and I still have JeremyFR's original DDraw.dll version xwing_ddraw_d3d11_1.4.0, in all the installers, so if your using Reimar's updated version of the DDraw.dll your problem may lie there, I'm not trying to pass the blame, please don't get me wrong, I haven't tested the changes Reimer has made to the DDraw.dll as from what I see the changes where for TIE95 and X-wing95
Don't worry, not taken as passing the blame. As I wrote, you are likely spot-on, the newer ddraw.dll combined with a medium-old ddraw.cfg that disabled the compatibility hacks for XWA (XWAMode=0) is likely to blame.
Those hacks include - among other things - the support for the 32-bit hacked XWA, so it's not surprising that it won't work, but it will also cause other issues.
I'd suggest not spending more time on this until we actually know if fixing the ddraw.cfg to be correct for XWA avoids this issue.
In case you are interested, I did some improvements that are also relevant to XWA:
- cpu affinity automatically set to a single core, so no other tricks necessary for that
- fix for an incorrect backbuffer resolve call (I THINK some people got errors about this)
- support for emulating a joystick via keyboard and mouse (so the game can be played without joystick)
- various scaling alternatives for the 2D parts of the game (fonts etc)
- fullscreen option which is sometimes necessary for stereoscopic output support, and limited support for playing in a window
- option to sleep a bit after each frame was drawn, to reduce CPU usage (alternative to the plugin to reduce CPU usage by Jeremya)
- large-ish CPU usage optimizations - not relevant on my computers really as they are fast enough, but might matter for some cases

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Post by Darksaber » Thu Jan 05, 2017 7:04 pm

Oooo intrested in this

- cpu affinity automatically set to a single core, so no other tricks necessary for that

So will this means no need to run xwa through RunFirst.exe?

Is this already implemented in your newer DDraw.dll?
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.”
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Post by schplat » Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:05 am

I'll try with XWAMode=1 tomorrow and report back. I dropped it to 0 thinking that 1 would cause problems with XWC, since it mentions disabling XWA specific code that could cause problems with other programs. But then, XWC isn't really an "other program", rather more akin to a mod.

Thanks for the feedback.

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Post by schplat » Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:20 am

Actually, I had a quick moment to test after all. Set it to XWAMode=1, re-installed 32bpp patches, started it up, went into the Flight Simulator, loaded up Tour 1 of XWing, cycle targets through friendly x-wings/y-wings no problem, hit the first large target (either a FRG or FRE), and black screen with 2 green dots.

Keep cycling through the next few targets, then the cockpit comes back with a friendly X-wing targeted.

Now I need to call it a night, but tomorrow, I'll see if the same thing happens on the XWA campaign.

Also, I'm using the ddraw.cfg that came with the 1.4.6 ddraw.dll that I downloaded from here:

https://github.com/rdoeffinger/xwa_ddra ... tag/v1.4.6

Edit:

And since I'm already late, lol, I just love going down the rabbit hole on trying to solve problems..

imgur gallery of the problem:

http://imgur.com/a/qTcXT

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Post by Reimar » Sun Jan 08, 2017 2:58 pm

If I read the manual right, HOME or CTRL+END might disable the HUD display of your target.
If so, does this fix the issue?
It might be something about drawing the target's model in the center display that causes it (I think it is drawn after the rest of the scene, so if the model somehow "escapes" the HUD box then it might overdraw the whole scene).
Even if so, still leaves the question what causes it, but if it only happens with XWC maybe some of those models are slightly buggy?

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Post by Reimar » Sun Jan 08, 2017 3:04 pm

Darksaber wrote:Oooo intrested in this

- cpu affinity automatically set to a single core, so no other tricks necessary for that

So will this means no need to run xwa through RunFirst.exe?

Is this already implemented in your newer DDraw.dll?
Yes, that SHOULD avoid the need for RunFirst (though if I remember right it will choose the 2nd core if possible, because I had some issues with some Windows processes being stuck on the first core and draining CPU time from XWA - also it possibly has never been tested by anyone but me).
It is implemented since version 1.4.1, more specifically https://github.com/rdoeffinger/xwa_ddra ... d8b6457bb4

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Post by Ramshu » Sun Jan 08, 2017 8:43 pm

Darksaber wrote:Recently? the small update was like you say to include DTM's new Z-95 and the installer is dated 1st Feb 2016 the only thing changed was the inclusion of the different POV settings for the new Z-95 nothing else was added.
I did not mean to accuse you, my apologies.
I discovered recently that it had been updated and I appreciate it :)
I only know that I had a previous DSUCP installation with the Z95 added by me and if it worked the 32bit of the xwa hacker. In this new installation when activating it fails.

Various players have told me the same "problem" but it is not something to worry about since there really is no difference in quality or performance.

"Nasios pa vola"

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Post by mrdc » Sun Jan 07, 2018 5:47 pm

I ran into the same problem. Every time I targeted something bigger than a fighter : black screen, two green pixels.

Solved it by taking a look at the config of my normal XWA XWINGALLIANCE exe file with XwaHacker and then editing the X-Wing Conversion XWINGALLIANCE.exe and using the same settings and resetting the custom resolutions and POV.

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