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Melekor wrote: If you can't get it to work, I can send you a prefs file that will start myth in windowed mode. Then hopefully we can fix whatever causes this in the first place, for the next version.

My computer doesn't have an ATI or Nvidia card; it uses an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator for Mobile display driver running on the Mobile Intel 4 Series Express chipset adapter (GMA 4500, 128Mb). When I dive into the adapter advanced properties, I can list the valid modes it supports, which includes 640x480, 256-color or 16 bit, but frustratingly, the Vista display settings interface only allows me to scale the resolution down to 800x600, 16 bit; it has no provision for a 640x480 mode. I did reinstall the display drivers with a fresh download from Toshiba and restarted Vista; deleted my preferences files; re-ran the 1.7 installer with the Modern build: no success. On launch, the screen flickers black then drops to the desktop.

I would welcome a prefs file that would allow me to get around this! If I understand you correctly, I should just need it once for an initial launch of the Modern build, then I can set my preference to a compatible resolution. That would rule.

Sorry about turning this thread into a tech support exercise. I really just wanted to share why I was using Classic and to see if anyone else had a similar experience. I can take this to another thread if necessary. Thanks.

OK, I've added the pref file as an attachment to this post. Hope that will let you solve the problem (I'm pretty sure it should). Don't worry about turning this into a tech support exercise, I think it turned out to be more informative that way anyways.

Just out of curiosity, is the driver you downloaded from Toshiba the same as the one you find on intel.com if you search for "Mobile Intel 4 Series Express"? Link:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... ldID=17397

My hopes were high, but even after uninstalling Myth II, rebooting, and reinstalling 1.7 Modern and placing your custom screen preferences file(thanks!) in the preferences folder, the problem persists: Myrd's Hypothetical... Black screen then drop to desktop. Alas. Fortunately I can soothe my grief with the Classic build.

My Toshiba Satellite display drivers call for the Mobile Intel 4 Series that I found here:
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais ... 620&ref=EV. This file is the same one that the OS identifies as the most current version for this chipset and pulls from the Intel website. Having nothing to lose, I attempted to install the display drivers you linked to in your last post, but it was incompatible with my hardware and Vista aborted the installation--no big surprise there.

Fortunately I can still soothe my grief with the Classic build.

Weird I also run Vista Home Premium and I don't encounter that error, but I have a Nvidia card.

Have you tried fooling around with the Compatibility settings in "Right click Myth II Modern App > Properties > Compatibility" ?

The Leviathan wrote:My hopes were high, but even after uninstalling Myth II, rebooting, and reinstalling 1.7 Modern and placing your custom screen preferences file(thanks!) in the preferences folder, the problem persists: Myrd's Hypothetical... Black screen then drop to desktop. Alas. Fortunately I can soothe my grief with the Classic build.

In the line from the log where it says "ChangeDisplaySettings() failed, can you make sure it now says "fullscreen = 0"? That would indicate that the pref file is working.

Whenever Myth goes into windowed mode, it requests the OS to reset to the desktop resolution. This includes when it's not strictly necessary such as when Myth is just starting up (not necessary in that case because you must already be at the desktop resolution when myth is starting up).

When the OS receives an unnecessary mode switch request, it is supposed to ignore it and do nothing. If what you say is correct, then your OS is not ignoring the the switch request, but instead telling Myth that it failed! So far it seems that every invocation of mode switching fails on your machine. I don't really have any ideas why that would be, but given that it was working before you downloaded some updates, I can only conclude that something got messed up.

As for what should be done in the next version, I suppose that Myth should not close just because the OS reported that the mode switch failed. It would be better to log the failure and continue on just in case Myth is playable anyways. If it isn't, let the user decide that.

Melekor wrote:
In the line from the log where it says "ChangeDisplaySettings() failed, can you make sure it now says "fullscreen = 0"? That would indicate that the pref file is working.

Launching 1.7 Modern with the custom screen preference file immediately drops back to the desktop and generates the following Myth Log:

• 2009-06-20 09:45:07
  Myth II Build 329 running under Modern Windows 6.000000 ----------------------------------------------
  Loading poweruser.txt... not found.
  Scanning for software devices...
  Found 1 to use
  Scanning for Direct3D devices...
  Found 1 to use
  Scanning for 3Dfx devices...
  Found 0 to use
  Scanning for OpenGL devices...
  Found 1 to use
  ChangeDisplaySettings() failed! Result code = -1. Details = (mode=640x480, fullscreen=1)
  Error#1337: Myrd's hypothetical resolution switching failure.

I'm at a loss, but hopefully this will generate ideas for work-arounds in future versions. I'll see if I can make any headway experimenting with compatibility modes or trying to narrow down which OS updates might have contributed to the issue.

Melekor was that pref file suppose to start Myth in windowed mode? I tried it just to see if it would work, but it did not.

Here I uploaded my own screen preference file, let me know when you get it so I can delete it. Click here.

Pyro, thanks for posting a back-up screen preferences file. Unfortunately, I had the same results using yours as I did using Melekor's even after a complete uninstall and re-install.

Ok I got an idea. Load 1.7 Modern, no need to reinstall Myth, the only differences between Modern and Classic are the "Myth II.exe" files. You can even have both in the same Myth II folder as long as they don't have the same name. Load 1.7 Modern. Once you close Myth or it closes itself, look in your "preferences" folder. Zip up your screen preferences file and upload it somewhere. I think I can hex edit it to be windowed mode as Melekor was trying to test. Since we 3 have different setups, it is possible using each other's pref file will not work. But by comparing my own pref with a windowed mode version of it, I can find out what part to hex edit your file, in theory.

Myrd, can you comment on why the prefs file might not transfer between different windows machines?

Success! After randomly flailing at various settings, here is what worked for me:

Using Pyro's screen pref file for launch in windowed mode, I discovered that I had to select the option "Run as administrator" rather than simply opening the Myth II 1.7 Modern executable file. Since then I've adjusted the compatibility setting to run as admin automatically by checking the appropriate block and applying to all users. I suspect that this must have been a hidden change in one of Vista's security updates, but I'm only guessing here.

Now 1.7 launches in windowed mode to the initial menu. Previous game saves are missing, even when I recopy my original "game" prefs file back into the base preferences folder, but that I can live with. If I attempt to maximize the window, Myth crashes to desktop. If I launch a game, mission overview screens and cut scenes run windowed, but once gameplay or film replay starts the screen maximizes as normal. Heavenly choirs sing in praise of Melekor and Pyro. Mayhem ensues as I decimate the Ghasts marauding Willow Creek.

• 2009-06-20 15:35:22
  Myth II Build 329 running under Modern Windows 6.000000 ----------------------------------------------
  Loading poweruser.txt... not found.
  Scanning for software devices...
  Found 1 to use
  Scanning for Direct3D devices...
  Found 1 to use
  Scanning for 3Dfx devices...
  Found 0 to use
  Scanning for OpenGL devices...
  Found 1 to use
  Using GDI for Input
  Mouse appears to have 8 buttons and 3 axes.
  Initialized for DirectSound3D using COM
  Loading Patch Files...
  Mazz 6 Detail Textures Patch v1
  Patch 1.2
  Patch 1.3
  Patch 1.4
  Patch 1.4 Interface
  Patch 1.5
  Magma - Bungie Map Textures v1
  Loading Patch Files Succeeded
  Running OpenGL at 1280 x 800, 16 bit
  Starting mesh "Willow Creek"...
  Quitting single player game...
  Closing Myth.

Now I must dive into the Modern build to see how it differs from the Classic version. You guys rock. Let's hope that's the last problem running 1.7 Modern under Vista on my system. Thanks!

Melekor wrote:Myrd, can you comment on why the prefs file might not transfer between different windows machines?

It should work, though perhaps it might validate the resolution, and his config might not support the one you have selected in your prefs?

What if you make it go to Windowed mode by default if it fails to switch to full-screen (for the next update)? Do you think that would be possible?

Myrd wrote:

Melekor wrote:Myrd, can you comment on why the prefs file might not transfer between different windows machines?

It should work, though perhaps it might validate the resolution, and his config might not support the one you have selected in your prefs?

I thought of that, so I made the prefs file I uploaded be set to 1024x768 which should be supported on his machine.

What if you make it go to Windowed mode by default if it fails to switch to full-screen (for the next update)? Do you think that would be possible?

Yes it's possible and I think it's a good idea.

The Leviathan wrote:Using Pyro's screen pref file for launch in windowed mode, I discovered that I had to select the option "Run as administrator" rather than simply opening the Myth II 1.7 Modern executable file. Since then I've adjusted the compatibility setting to run as admin automatically by checking the appropriate block and applying to all users. I suspect that this must have been a hidden change in one of Vista's security updates, but I'm only guessing here

....

Now 1.7 launches in windowed mode to the initial menu. Previous game saves are missing, even when I recopy my original "game" prefs file back into the base preferences folder, but that I can live with. If I attempt to maximize the window, Myth crashes to desktop. If I launch a game, mission overview screens and cut scenes run windowed, but once gameplay or film replay starts the screen maximizes as normal.

I'm glad you got it working now :-)

However, I'm curious what running as administrator has got to do with it. Ideally, we do not want to require administrative privileges to play the game. If you figure out how running as admin factors into it, please let us know. I will also pass a link to this thread along to one of our team members who runs vista. Hopefully we can set up the next version so people don't have to jump through hoops to get it working, like you did.

The only reason I can think of that you would need to select "Run as Administrator" is that the user you are logged in as doesn't have permission to read/write the preferences file. Myth does violate the windows standards for this in that it stores preferences and saved games in the same subdirectory as Myth itself, instead of in the users directory. You are logged in as a user that is not the administrator, correct?

Cagafuego wrote:The only reason I can think of that you would need to select "Run as Administrator" is that the user you are logged in as doesn't have permission to read/write the preferences file. Myth does violate the windows standards for this in that it stores preferences and saved games in the same subdirectory as Myth itself, instead of in the users directory. You are logged in as a user that is not the administrator, correct?

I am logged on as the administrator. When I launch Myth II, a window pops up asking me if I want to allow the action, and every time I want to copy a plug-in or film into the appropriate Myth folder I have to approve the action from a separate pop-up window. This happens even though I have checked the "run as administrator" box in the compatibility tab for the 1.7 Modern executable. While I had to approve these pop-ups with the beta builds as well, I had no problem using the modern versions then without adjusting compatibility settings or having to launch in windowed mode.