Info on the Sub-Unit Inspector bug / screen area freeze/ backround ghosting

[CapnDarwin]

UPDATE: We are finding that running in a classic or non-aero theme seems to cause the lost SUI and a number of the ghosting thru issues. Not really sure why, but if you are having a problem try and Aero theme or for XP and VISTA go to the appearance settings and toggle to let windows choose and see if that helps the problem for now.


After a long session of messing with a ton of things with Charles via Teamviewer we were finally able to reproduce the two uses and dead Sub-Unit Inspector bug. Now up to tonight I have never had my SI fail to launch. Ever. And we tried. It happened to me for the first time tonight while working back and forth with Charles while in teamviewer. With the program off I would not lose the SI. with the software running 1,2, dead. We both were able to repeat both stable and dead SI use many times with 100% success. So what does this mean? It means that the few people getting this error probably have a program of some type running, maybe in the background that is hooked into the Windows main screen in a fashion the clashed with the main game window. This is a function called "ghosting" in windows and in some cases with certain programs it causes these odd losses of modal windows (dialogs that need to be clicked before you can do anything else), click thru bugs, ghosting thru of icons and windows under the window you are working with.

What we would like for those of you getting this error to do is the following:

Close any non-essential programs that are running including items in the task bar.
This may include gadgets like weather bugs and other performance tools on the desktop.
You may want to do a few at a time to keep things under control and to narrow down which application is triggering the bug.
If you find an application that causes the SI to fail, let us know what it is. If it not essential to your gaming during Red Storm then shut it down.

We are also actively working a fix for the SI and in early testing with Charles this evening we were not able to lose the SI in teamviewer as we did without the new fix. We are going to test it more and then look to grab a few of you with the problem and let you test a hotfix exe to see if it goes away on your system if the steps above failed.

With any luck we are on a path to kill this and the scenario editor black screen on reload issues.

Thanks you for your support and patience. [&o]

[baldbrother]

Thanks for the clarification. Matrix/Slitherine have always been very pro-active in responding to game issues. I have - roughly - 35 games under their banner and probably over 100 in total. Flashpoint is a tremendous game with HUGE potential and your development team are far and away the best,quickest and most totally involved in responding to - and coming up with solutions - for any game I've ever played over the last 30 odd (sometimes very odd) years. A heartfelt thanks.

[CapnDarwin]

Thanks for the kind words. We just want everyone to be able to enjoy the game at its full capability. A couple of these bugs are persistent monsters but it looks like are getting there. It's one thing to break your own code, but very tough to "fix" tour code for something another program and the OS is doing. Hence the head versus desk competition. [:D]

[budd]

Well i have no damn idea which program or process it is.....my hats off to you guys i've only been looking and trying to narrow it down for about 45 minutes and i'm frustrated[:)]

I shutdown all my taskbar icons one at a time, tried the game and then restarted that program and moved on to the next one to shutdown, rinse and repeat. Then i tried shutting down all of them in the taskbar[including firewall and anti-virus]and started game...no joy, then i moved on to msconfig and shutdown anything non essential in the startup tab in there...no joy... no idea, must be some process in the backround, I didn't go into task manager and start shutting down processes[:D] no thx. I'm off to the pumpkin patch, ill check in later. If there's a fix you want me to "give it a go " just holla. Looks like my game plays fine as long as i don't use the subunit more than twice.....thx and goodluck.

[CapnDarwin]

I would not go too deep. Just task bar related items. Also fences like programs and on screen gadget apps too.

[cbelva]

bubb,

What windows background are you running (i.e. Aero, basic, high contrast). I am finding that any background that uses basic or a high contrast theme will kill the subunit panel as described.

[budd]

running basic win 7 theme, what should i try?

[budd]

Bingo....give that man a cigar. Changed to one of my installed waterfall themes and winner, winner[:D] haven't played but i just loaded a scenario and used F6 to browse all the forces on the map without a problem hope that solves it for good. I hope to play later and will post if anything funky happens.

[CapnDarwin]

Budd. Great news! I hope this helps the others with this issue too. [:)]

[Chet Guiles]

I've tried turning off everything in the task bar -- and it's still 1, 2 and out! Now if you leave it on and scroll all the units available on both sides, it continues to work. It's when you exit using the "x" in the corner, then open it again, etc. that it fails to open on the 3rd attempt. Never less, never more.

Frustrating but it's not a game stopper, though I do like to browse my units when trying to assemble a righteous combination of forces.

So far it's the only obvious bug I have found. Any suggestions on specific things to do would be appreciated.

Chet

[cbelva]

Chet, what OS are you using (Windows XP, 7, or 8) and what type of windows background theme are you using? If you are running Windows 7 and have a basic or high contrast background theme running, change it to the Aero theme and let us know if that fixes the problem. Thanks

[Chet Guiles]

Vista 64 bit.

I only use a simple photo as desktop background. Have tried one of the "stock" backgrounds -- no change at all.

What programs might be culprits here? I have no clue.

[CapnDarwin]

Chet,

Can you check out what setting you have in the Performance Options dialog referred to in this web article. We are definitely seeing a link between certain windows effects and running programs that deal with the main windows screen.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/h ... for-b.html

Maybe look at toggling between best performance and best appearance and see if the SI window works past 2 clicks if the "x".

Thanks. As an FYI we are testing a fix on our side which looks promising at the moment.

[Chet Guiles]

Witched from Best Appearance to Best Performance -- the issue remains exactly as before. Now to see if I can possible reset the fool thing to where it belongs.

[Chet Guiles]

Interesting phenom. I did the switch from Best Appearance to Best Performance. No change. It was still 1, 2 and Out with Subunit Inspector.

Then I went back and checked "Let Computer decide what's best for your system" (or words to that effect) and lo and behold now I have started the game three times in three different scenarios and each time the subunit inspector worked as many times as I wanted to use it.

Hopefully all this does not totally screw some other thing I am doing, but for now, it seems to have made a difference. Too busy this afternoon to see what happens after shutdown and reboot. Will advise if it goes blooey again.

[CapnDarwin]

Thanks Chet. Can you get a screen shot of what it thinks the "best" setting are from the dialog. It would help use narrow down what windows OS function is killing the SI panel.

[Chet Guiles]

Sure here you are. ALL boxes are checked.

[CapnDarwin]

Chet,

Could I have you slide the scroll bar down so we can see the other setting under "Show translucent selection rectangle"?

Thanks.

[nukkxx5058]

Just for information, I still have the but after the 2.01 patch.
It's not a big issue for me because I keep the SI opened on a separate monitor (I have an extended desktop). So it stays all the time available and don't have to close it.

Same , no idea which program may cause the problem.
I have Vista 64 bits.

[Chet Guiles]

Sure (attached), but as I said, ALL boxes were checked.

And BTW I now have been playing on and off including a system reboot, and haven't had any more incidence of the subunit inspector screen not working as it's supposed to.

Great game.

I'll be curious to see what you find is the cause (causes)...

Chet