full screen freeze [fixed; Sonic Radar & other 3rd pty sw interfering]

[Stevo]

when i want to run steelbeasts on full screen,the sb displayscreen will freeze,when i restart my computer and restard SB it will still run on windowd mode.....any advice here?

 

 

[Stevo]

I can't press the ok button and have to reboot my pc....

[Ssnake]

The --fullscreenwindow command line option may be an alternative for you.

 

For that you'd need to create a duplicate link of the Steel Beasts incon on your desktop, and then add the command line parameter in the icon's properties' "Target" line, similar to the Steel Beasts "debug mode" icon in the Troubleshooting folder.

[deees]

On ‎8‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 12:45 PM, Stevo said:

when i want to run steelbeasts on full screen,the sb displayscreen will freeze,when i restart my computer and restard SB it will still run on windowd mode.....any advice here?

 

 

I had that happen to my primary Windows 10 image.  I wasn't able to access the task manager to kill the process, but could log out to end the program.

 

A clean install on another drive proved it wasn't a hardware related issue.

 

I started uninstalling non-critical applications, (mostly benchmarks), and it cleared up. Unfortunately, I still have the no-mouse pointer in-game. (Oddly, it also effects a Windows 8.1 OS on my PC?)

 

Ssnake,

 

Was the no-mouse pointer in-game addressed, (mostly), in this version?

 

Was there ever a list of know addressable causes that user can check for?

 

[Ssnake]

I don't think we could ever identify why the mouse pointer disappeared for some, mostly because it doesn't happen on any of our machines (beta testers, programmers).

[Stevo]

The whole pc freezes,when i change to full screen mode,looks like a bug to me.

 

 

[deees]

7 minutes ago, Stevo said:

The whole pc freezes,when i change to full screen mode,looks like a bug to me.

 

 

Did you try CTRL+ATL+DELETE and select Logoff?

 

For me, ALT+TAB will cycle through the applications on my desktop, but I couldn't get to a point where I could close the program. 

 

I'd consider it a conflict.

 

I'm  trying to find a list of program I uninstalled in case you had any of them too?

[Stevo]

Ctrl alt delete gets me to the task manager and then my only option is to reboot my system..the trouble started when i pressed Alt+w during a game...i think iam going to reinstall SB when i have the time..

[Ssnake]

Before you do so, can you please...

• open the "Troubleshooting" folder
• there, start Steel Beasts in safe mode first; close it again
• then, start it in debug mode and try to switch to fullscreen mode

If that still doesn't work, kill the process via task manager (the "Details" tab) and then please send me (by email) the resulting debugLog.txt file which you should find in your Documents folder / eSim Games / Steel Beasts / Logs

[Stevo]

19 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

Before you do so, can you please...

• open the "Troubleshooting" folder
• there, start Steel Beasts in safe mode first; close it again
• then, start it in debug mode and try to switch to fullscreen mode

If that still doesn't work, kill the process via task manager (the "Details" tab) and then please send me (by email) the resulting debugLog.txt file which you should find in your Documents folder / eSim Games / Steel Beasts / Logs

Oké thanks,i'll let you know tomorrow.

[deees]

1 hour ago, Ssnake said:

Before you do so, can you please...

• open the "Troubleshooting" folder
• there, start Steel Beasts in safe mode first; close it again
• then, start it in debug mode and try to switch to fullscreen mode

If that still doesn't work, kill the process via task manager (the "Details" tab) and then please send me (by email) the resulting debugLog.txt file which you should find in your Documents folder / eSim Games / Steel Beasts / Logs

Ssnake,

 

Hopefully, that will work for Stevo.

 

When I experienced it, I could start Task Manager, but never switch to it, (or the Desktop to kill the SB process.)

 

I also tried Safe Mode and debug logging, (with verbosity), but there was never any data that was different than a session on a system that didn't experience that problem. 

[Ssnake]

Well, if you get to the point where you can actually access the options menu, it is guaranteed that the debugLog.txt will contain "something". An empty log means that Steel Beasts stops responding even before the logger starts (which is "pretty early") and that would usually indicate an external problem (e.g. an anti-virus software interfering, a driver issue, UAC prompt, possibly the lack of a CodeMeter license.

[deees]

38 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

Well, if you get to the point where you can actually access the options menu, it is guaranteed that the debugLog.txt will contain "something". An empty log means that Steel Beasts stops responding even before the logger starts (which is "pretty early") and that would usually indicate an external problem (e.g. an anti-virus software interfering, a driver issue, UAC prompt, possibly the lack of a CodeMeter license.

Ssnake,

 

For me it was a software conflict with SB. I've been busy on an other unrelated matter , so I haven't had a change to try to narrow down exactly what software "broke" full screen? 

 

The game worked in windowed mode. After I started removing extraneous programs, it started working in full screen, (unfortunately with the missing mouse pointer.) I do have a clean install Windows image that runs full screen with the pointer visible, so that problems also appears to be software related .

 

I had previous tried removing my antivirus software to troubleshoot and it had no impact.

 

By "no data", I meant the log file didn't have any entries that were different than logs from a system with working full screen functionality.

[deees]

On ‎8‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 6:36 AM, deees said:

Ssnake,

 

For me it was a software conflict with SB. I've been busy on an other unrelated matter , so I haven't had a change to try to narrow down exactly what software "broke" full screen? 

 

The game worked in windowed mode. After I started removing extraneous programs, it started working in full screen, (unfortunately with the missing mouse pointer.) I do have a clean install Windows image that runs full screen with the pointer visible, so that problems also appears to be software related .

 

 

Ssnake,

 

I had a chance to track down what was causing my application freeze when I tried to switch to full screen.

 

It is software that ASUS includes with their motherboard. It's in the Realtek driver/software suite: Sonic Radar. I initially dismissed it as a likely cause because I assumed it was an audio utility. It not, it's a visual overlay for in-game use. (I didn't deliberately install it and have never used it.)

 

The version that came with my board is:

SonicRadarSetup  version: 1.0.0.0
SonicStudioSetup version: 2.2.2201

I expect that only a small subset of SB users might have it installed, but it's possible other similar in-game overlays could cause the same behavior?

 

Now, if I could only find what is causing the disappearing mouse pointer?

[thewood]

MSI has an overlay like that also that sometimes plays havoc with some games.

[Ssnake]

Thanks for the update!

[stormrider_sp]

8 hours ago, thewood said:

MSI has an overlay like that also that sometimes plays havoc with some games.

Which is?

[thewood]

I can't remember the name of it.  On my last laptop, I had to disable it to play Combat Mission.  It cause flickering and freezing.  I know for Command: Modern Air and Naval Operations, the explicitly list it as interfering with start up and graphics.

[deees]

On ‎8‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 7:36 PM, Ssnake said:

I don't think we could ever identify why the mouse pointer disappeared for some, mostly because it doesn't happen on any of our machines (beta testers, programmers).

Try setting the text size to 150%

 

I was trying to identify a common application or driver that impacted my Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 images when I stumbled on the fact that setting the text size to 150% causes the point to disappear. (Oddly, I can set it to 149% and not have it happen.)

 

I think it's pretty obvious: Esim hates old far-sighted people

 

Hopefully, the work around should help the people suffering with it until some future update can address it.

[Ssnake]

I'm not sure if anyone ever mentioned text scaling when we discussed this, but it's good to know that this could be identified, and that the 149%-workaround exists.

[CapnBlood]

Just bought SB Pro PE persistent license. I also have this problem of the game freezing when fullscreen mode is selected.
I tried adding "--fullscreenwindow" to the end of SB's icon target field and it works except that then the mission Start button is offset..
"because you forcefully changed the resolution your screen doesn't show the actual location of the buttons"
 

[Ssnake]

Sometimes it's sufficient to resize the window (which however can't be done in borderless window mode; but maybe ... if you click twice on the Steel Beasts icon on the task bar Windows minimizes the application, and then if you restore the window by clicking the task bar icon one more time this might fix the issue too.

[CapnBlood]

<<Update -  Solution>>

Uninstalling Realtek Audio Driver was suggested. I thought it would mute my PC but I guess not*. So I uninstalled Realtec which I get for my PC from Dell (Alienware) and Viola! the freezing when entering fullscreen mode went away.
*Maybe it's as was suggested that uninstalling "Realtek audio driver" in add/remove Progams doesn't really uninstall the driver itself despite it's name. The driver is still there in device manager after uninstalling. Also maybe the known to be troublesome, Nahimic, was included somehow with Realtek but it wasn't listed in my installed programs.
----
Re: the previous suggestion from Ssnake: I tried minimizing the game and then maximizing it as suggested. Didn't work to fix the Start & Quit button offset.
---
My previous work-around (now abandoned)..
If Quit does nothing then click left of the start button -This worked.
when fullscreen is forced thru the icon it probably messed the resolution
The offset is fixed by launching with taskbar hidden.
Option: Right click the shortcut, click the compatibility tab, click change high dpi settings, and check the bottom checkbox and set it to perform scaling by system (by application didn't work for me). That does work and no need to hide taskbar before launch except if you then hide it after launch the offset comes back. So when *forcing fullscreen hide the taskbar before launching so it doesn't create the button offset for Start and Quit mission.

* adding " --fullscreenwindow" without quotation marks to the end of SB's icon target field

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by CapnBlood

[Ssnake]

Starting Steel Beasts in regular windowed mode (without the --fullscreenwindow command line option) will let you solve the offset between button text and location by resizing the window (by any amount other than zero pixels). If, of course, Steel Beasts crashes in fullscreen mode before reaching the main menu, and fullscreen mode has been set in your options file some versions ago (the options will survive reinstallation, as they are user-defined data, and typically you probably want them to be kept), then you'd never get to the point where you could "simply resize the window". In this case you can still use the "safe mode" in the Windows Start Menu | eSim Games - Steel Beasts Pro | Troubleshooting folder.

[deees]

12 hours ago, CapnBlood said:

<<Update -  Solution>>

Uninstalling Realtek Audio Driver was suggested. I thought it would mute my PC but I guess not*. So I uninstalled Realtec which I get for my PC from Dell (Alienware) and Viola! the freezing when entering fullscreen mode went away.
*Maybe it's as was suggested that uninstalling "Realtek audio driver" in add/remove Progams doesn't really uninstall the driver itself despite it's name. The driver is still there in device manager after uninstalling. Also maybe the known to be troublesome, Nahimic, was included somehow with Realtek but it wasn't listed in my installed programs.

CapnBlood,

 

I'm glad that you were able to resolve the freezing issue when running full screen.

 

For the record, what was causing my issue was not the Realtek Audio driver, it was an Asus "utility" that was installed with the driver. It was an in-game overlay: "Sonic Radar". 

 

Users experiencing the same problem should examine their installed programs and utility for similar applications.

 

BTW, when you uninstalled the Dell Realtek drivers, Windows just installed its default version, (minus the crapware the Dell install included.) If Dell doesn't support a custom install for the audio drivers only, you could go to the Realtek driver site and download the current versions.