Windows 7 - Switching from Full Screen to Windowed distorts UI

[Xalmat]

<p>I noticed this bug whenever I switch from Full Screen to Windowed mode in EQ2.</p><p>I start Full Screen. UI looks fine.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/uibroke-win7/ui-fine.jpg" /></p><p>But when I alt-Enter to switch to windowed mode, this happens to my UI.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/uibroke-win7/ui-broke.jpg" /></p><p>The entire UI seems to shrink up and left by a couple percent, but it completely distorts the UI. Here's a couple close ups.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/uibroke-win7/ui-fine-thumb.jpg" /><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/uibroke-win7/ui-broke-thumb.jpg" /></p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/uibroke-win7/text-fine.jpg" /><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/uibroke-win7/text-broke.jpg" /></p><p>Now I should point out when I switch to windowed, the game window comes Maximized. If I un-maximize, and then re-maximize the game window, the distortion disappears and everything looks normal. Also this distortion does not happen switching from windowed <em>to</em> full screen.</p><p>Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, GeForce 8800 GTS driver version 191.07.</p>

[Zrol]

<p>I started having this same issue last week.  Vista Ultimate 32-bit, GTX 275, don't recall the driver off hand, but it is not a 19xx.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p><cite>Zrol wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I started having this same issue last week.  Vista Ultimate 32-bit, GTX 275, don't recall the driver off hand, but it is not a 19xx.</p></blockquote><p>Interesting because I did <em>not</em> have this problem with Vista before i upgraded to 7.</p><p>Do you use the Aero UI? I do in Windows 7 but I did not in Windows Vista.</p>

[Zrol]

<p><cite>Xalmat wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Zrol wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I started having this same issue last week.  Vista Ultimate 32-bit, GTX 275, don't recall the driver off hand, but it is not a 19xx.</p></blockquote><p>Interesting because I did <em>not</em> have this problem with Vista before i upgraded to 7.</p><p>Do you use the Aero UI? I do in Windows 7 but I did not in Windows Vista.</p></blockquote><p>I've tried with and without Aero UI and get the same results switching from fullscreen to windowed.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>Have you tried different driver versions(186 or beta 195) and are you still experiencing the error with those versions?</p><p>It looks like the bottom of your UI is shifting up to compensate for the task bar at the bottom, but I don't see the taskbar there.  Are you using a non-standard setting for your taskbar so that it doesn't load on top of other windows?  If you disable that option, does it still distort in the way the screenshot shows?  You may have simply cropped the taskbar out of the screenshot, but it's hard to tell from here.  That wouldn't explain the shift to the left, though.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Gonna try the new Beta 195 drivers and see if it helps.</p><p><cite>TSR-DanielH wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>It looks like the bottom of your UI is shifting up to compensate for the task bar at the bottom, but I don't see the taskbar there.  Are you using a non-standard setting for your taskbar so that it doesn't load on top of other windows?  If you disable that option, does it still distort in the way the screenshot shows?  You may have simply cropped the taskbar out of the screenshot, but it's hard to tell from here.  That wouldn't explain the shift to the left, though.</p></blockquote><p>Incorrect on all counts because the bottom of my UI is also shifting left, not just up. The entire UI also shrinks, not shift, and the viewable area of the game increases.</p><p>The taskbar is always on top.</p><p>When I took the screenshot (using the in-game Screenshot I might add) the taskbar was on top and visible. Here's what it looks like with the Taskbar.</p><p>Normal:</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/uibroke-win7/ui-normal-taskbar.jpg" /></p><p>Distorted</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/uibroke-win7/ui-distorted-taskbar.jpg" /></p><p>Zoomed in on the lower right.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/uibroke-win7/ui-normal-taskbar-zoomed.jpg" /><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/uibroke-win7/ui-distorted-taskbar-zoomed.jpg" /></p><p>Do note that you can fix the distortion by un-maximizing the window, then re-maximizing.</p>

[naMessiah]

<p>I got that error after I dragged the EQ2-window to the top of the screen in Win7 (you know, that maximize-feature) by accident. It looked like EQ2 still thought the window was it's normal height even though Win7 had resized it to... something else.</p><p><em>Think </em>I fixed it by changing cl_screenheight_windowed in a settings-file I found in the EQ2-folder.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>Xalmat wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Gonna try the new Beta 195 drivers and see if it helps.</p></blockquote><p>Let us know whether or not that corrects the issue.  And yes, the taskbar was a longshot.  It's a strange issue, though, and nothing obvious comes to mind.</p><p>One thing that might be worth checking would be the following lines from the eq2_recent.ini:</p><p>cl_screenwidth_windowed ####cl_screenheight_windowed ###</p><p>cl_screenposx_windowed_restore_down ##cl_screenposy_windowed_restore_down ##</p><p>I believe the UI is positioned using a set number of pixels from the upper left hand corner.  Stange numbers in those areas could be throwing off the UI.  That doesn't seem to account for the UI shrinkage either, though. </p><p>If you decide to manually edit your ini files then please back them up first.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p><cite>TSR-DanielH wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite></cite>One thing that might be worth checking would be the following lines from the eq2_recent.ini:</p><p>cl_screenwidth_windowed ####cl_screenheight_windowed ###</p><p>cl_screenposx_windowed_restore_down ##cl_screenposy_windowed_restore_down ##</p><p>I believe the UI is positioned using a set number of pixels from the upper left hand corner.  Stange numbers in those areas could be throwing off the UI.  That doesn't seem to account for the UI shrinkage either, though. </p><p>If you decide to manually edit your ini files then please back them up first.</p></blockquote><p>Here's what they are.</p><p>cl_screenwidth_windowed 1650cl_screenheight_windowed 982cl_screenposx_windowed_restore_down -32000cl_screenposy_windowed_restore_down -32000</p><p>Interesting to note, I just observed this while trying out the Streaming client (i believe this bug affects the streaming client too). Here's the notes for the streaming client.</p><p>The non-maximized window is 1024x768. Originally full screen resolution 1024x768.</p><p>Go from full screen to windowed, with the window maximized, the UI shrinks to fit 1024x768. And the eq2_recent.ini file looks like <em>this</em> for the streaming client.</p><p>cl_screenwidth_windowed 1024 cl_screenheight_windowed 768 cl_screenposx_windowed_restore_down 328 cl_screenposy_windowed_restore_down 141</p><p>Modify the eq2_recent.ini to 1680x1050 and then the bottom of the UI cuts off completely but otherwise is the same width that it's supposed to be. But then when I un-maximize it makes it difficult to resize because the title bar to the window is off screen completely.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Installed 195.39 (Beta). Same thing.</p>

[BDoodle]

<p>I also get this in Windows XP Pro 32bit.</p><p>What this looks like to me, is the result of the UI objects x,y coordinates still being displayed in relation to the <em>screen</em> instead of the <em>client</em> <em>window</em>.</p><p>When you reduce or minimze the window, the application is forced to refresh these coordinates.</p><p>It occurs to me that we would see clipping at the top of the window if this were the case.</p>

[Maergoth]

<p>I'm having a similar issue whenever I go from fullscreen to windowed. My UI becomes severely disfigured until I put the game in windowed mode and resize the window. It's as if the switch to windowed mode drops the resolution and then stretches/distorts it, instead of adopting the native desktop resolution.</p><p><img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/Maergoth/Normal.jpg" width="1680" height="1050" /></p><p><img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/Maergoth/Screwed2.jpg" /></p>

[BDoodle]

<p>Maergoth, could you please edit your post just to clarify which pic is the full screen and which is the windowed mode?</p>

[franwill]

<p>I'm having the exact same issue that Maergoth showed.  My fullscreed picture would be what Maergoth showed in the first picture, everthing looks fine.  The second picture would represent what I get when I switch to windowed mode, everything becomes distorted.</p>

[BDoodle]

<p>Actually, <em>both</em> his images are in windowed mode, (see the title and task bars.)</p><p>Also, note the differences in the title and task bars between the two images, the game should have no effect on these.</p>

[Serian]

<p>This has happened for as long as I can remember with my XP, never caused an issue, it just shrinks up the client a bit, and displaces windows for that duration that I am in windowed mode (yes it even did this with default UI) but as soon as I went back to full screen it righted itself.  Just letting you know its not only with the newer versions of windows.</p><p>(Although I really can't see what the fuss is about...)</p><p>Seri~</p>

[MyleeSilverwings]

<p>This just happened to me last night for the first time!  I use Profit . 1900x1200 resolution.  I run in windowed mode while raiding because I use ACT and need to view the mini-parser.</p><p>When I logged in, ACT was running in the background so I switched to windowed mode.  When that completed, the entire UI shifted completely to the left, with about 1/4 of the right side without any of the UI features, although I could still see the background.</p><p>I didn't have time to screenshot it because the raid was forming.  The only way I was able to fix it was to /load_uisettings and pick another character's UI.</p><p>I will try it again tonight and post results.</p><p>This has never happened before <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>Serianna wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>This has happened for as long as I can remember with my XP, never caused an issue, it just shrinks up the client a bit, and displaces windows for that duration that I am in windowed mode (yes it even did this with default UI) but as soon as I went back to full screen it righted itself. </p></blockquote><p>Next time this happens, please try minimizing the window to the task bar and then restore it.  If you do that then it should right itself without needing to switch back to full screen mode.  Let us know if that does not work.</p>

[Araxes]

<p>I just came here to post about this very same issue, and lo and behold, someone has already descibed it!</p><p>IN ADDITION TO ALL OF THE ABOVE -</p><p>I also experience the following, which seems minor but is in fact quite distracting:</p><ul><li>When re-maximizing the window after alt-tabbing (to get things back to normal looking), then my aero scheme border goes from transparent black (which I prefer as it does not distract the eye) to opaque bright baby blue.  ICK!  (You can see this is many of the screenshots above, FYI, which is why I am not posting another one.)</li></ul><p>(Vista ran in windowed mode flawlessly, I have to say.  I could alt-tab like a fiend!)</p><ul><li>Also, performance for me, overall, when playing in <em>windowed </em>mode, is <em>worse </em>in Windows 7 than it was in Vista.  (Both the 64-bit OS.)  However, full screen performance is quite a bit better in Windows 7 -- which is fine and good except that I much prefer playing in maximized window with my taskbar visible at the bottom so that I can: access iTunes, email, browser, editing, etc. etc. while keeping an eye on the game. </li></ul><p>With this problem as described above ... playing EQ2 in Windows 7 just becomes kind of cumbersome all-around since if you play in a maximized window you lose performance and deal with opaque title bars ... or in full screen have the alt-tab issue which makes it pretty annoying to do much of anything on the desktop.</p><p>So I'd really love it if the team could tweak overall performance of EQ2 in Window mode for Win 7.  (I realize this wouldn't be a priority ... but just saying.  It's very distracting to me so I bet others are having the same annoyances.)</p><p>Thanks!</p><p>Semi-related issue: any way to dis-allow the Windows 7 aero feature where you mouse over the taskbar program running and it shows desktop or program like a fade behind current window, this is also very annoying when alt-tabbing bc it happens too fast!  (Disabling Aero Peek does not actually change this, only the stupid little square on right of quick launch that Microsoft made which is the <em>dumbest </em>change in Windows 7 if you ask me ... but anyway I digress.)  <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Or even if anyone knows how to change the default time in Windows 7 itself so that it gives me more than 1 second before flopping over something I don't need to look at!  (You know, like increase the tooltip delay ... except in Windows ... haha)</p><p>Ara</p>