Matrix Games Forums

This is interesting. I had WiF open and started a new game. When I clicked "Names OK", the load screen came up and then it displayed the Screen Layout window, the Map View window and the Scrap Units window, but not the Map window or the Main Form window. The only way I could close the program is to use Task Manager or the Close Window option on the Taskbar.

I tried loading my custom screen layout, as well as reloading the "New Game" screen layout, but it just rearranged the windows already showing, it didn't show the ones that were missing. When I finally tried loading the screen layout "First", it did finally display all the windows again.

Edit: After looking at the "First", "New Game" and my custom screen layout .SLY files, I'm sure this has something to do with the fact that I have three monitors.

After looking over the .SLY files, it looks like I accidentally saved over the "New Game" file when I adjusted the windows, so the problem is just the program saving incorrect locations for the windows on my computer.

With some more investigating I think I have found the bug. The program is reporting the proper screen sizes and locations for all my monitors as shown in the attachment as well as all the window locations on the monitors, but the problem with the Main Form window is that it is always being placed aligned with the upper edge of the main display regardless of where the location is listed in the .SLY file (it's the second entry in the file, with the two numbers being the location of the upper left corner of the Main Form window). This means that, since both my secondary monitors have their upper edges lower than the upper edge of my main monitor, the window is off the screen high on my right monitor (which is where I had it when I saved the custom screen layout file, hence the reason it was not displaying) and the bottom is just barely visible on my left monitor.

Interestingly, if I move the screen locations in the Windows Control Panel and select Apply, the Main Form window jumps to the proper location as listed in the .SLY file. However, if I then reload the Screen Layout again, the window jumps back to being aligned with the upper edge of the primary monitor.

I haven't been able to duplicate the issue with the main map not displaying yet. I will update this thread if I can figure it out.

You need to get rid of any config that uses negative numbers or the SLYs crash.

Make your left monitor the primary one, so all indices are positive. IIRC you may have problems unless the Main Form is always on the primary monitor. Place it at least two inches from the left edge so you have room for all the drop downs that will show up there - like available bombers, fighters, interceptors, reactions to sea zones, CAP, etc.

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

You need to get rid of any config that uses negative numbers or the SLYs crash.

Make your left monitor the primary one, so all indices are positive. IIRC you may have problems unless the Main Form is always on the primary monitor. Place it at least two inches from the left edge so you have room for all the drop downs that will show up there - like available bombers, fighters, interceptors, reactions to sea zones, CAP, etc.

I use the main monitor exclusively for the map, the right monitor for all the information windows, and the left monitor for reading (manuals, browser, etc.). Even if I make the left monitor my primary display, if I put the Main Form on my right monitor, it will still align it with the top of the main display, causing it to be mostly off screen when I load the screen layout.

Note that the problem is only encountered if your monitors are different sizes and/or you don't have the top edges of the monitors aligned in the Windows Control Panel\Display\Screen Resolution panel.

I think the issue with the map not showing was being caused by me having to close out of the game with the close windows option from the taskbar/end task from task manager because the Main Form was not visible on the screen. So probably not something high on the priority list of fixing.

ORIGINAL: RocketMan

I think the issue with the map not showing was being caused by me having to close out of the game with the close windows option from the taskbar/end task from task manager because the Main Form was not visible on the screen. So probably not something high on the priority list of fixing.

Under the drop down menu Windows on MWIF's main form you can add a new Detailed Map 'form'. So if it disappears again, simply add a new one. You can have several detailed maps present at the same time. In one of the tutorials, I show having 9 or so visible at once, each displaying the sections boxes for a different sea area.

---

Yeah, different size monitors causes problems. The program tries to make educated guesses about what goes where but sometimes the top or bottom of a form isn't visible on a smaller monitor. Losing the top is especially bad, since then you can't reposition the form. Losing the bottom isn't too bad, you just have to make the form vertically smaller.

The problem with adding a new map window is that you need the Main Form to add it, but I have figured out how to get the Main Form visible again, so that will work.

The biggest problem with the window locations seems to be with the Main Form, not the other windows, those always display correctly. The Main Form will always be displayed in its proper horizontal location as listed in the .SLY file, but its vertical location is always aligned with zero, regardless of what the .SLY lists. Next time you're in that section of the code, you might want to look at that logic. It might be what's causing some of the other windows to not display correctly as it seems a lot of them are referenced from the upper left corner of where the Main Form window currently resides.

Shannon,

Some information that might be helpful in diagnosing the windows location problem. I created a custom .SLY file, with the windows located where I want them. However, when I save that same Screen Layout in the game without modifying any window locations, it changes the horizontal location of a number of windows to 32767. The original file I created is below, followed by the file that was created by the game:

New Game,1.4.5
2560,236
-1,-1,2952,508,1528,889,-1
-1,0,0,0,490,232
-1,0,0,1385,2560,215
-1,0,0,427,555,768,-1,0,0,0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
-1,0,0,427
-1,-1,2035,1261
-1,0,0,427
-1,-1,3680,236
1,New Game
-1,-1,3460,236
25,Army Group Center,Army Group North,Army Group South,Baltic Sea,Berlin,Black Sea,Brest-Litovsk,Budapest,Central Front,Danzig,East Prussia,Kiev,Leningrad,Lvov,Moscow,Murmansk,Northern Front,Odessa,Overview,Poland,Rostov,Rumania,Smolensk,Southern Front,Vitebsk
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
-1,-1,3455,236
25,Baltic Sea,Black Sea,Central Front,Germany,Kiev,Kursk,Leningrad,Minsk,Moscow,Murmansk,Northern Front,Odessa,Overview,Perm,Poland,Pripet Marshes,Riga,Rostov,Rumania,Sevastapol,Smolensk,Southern Front,Stalingrad,Ukraine,Vilna
0
1
-1,0,0,2560,1920
61,43,4,2,0,-1,-1,0,-1,0,0

Game File:

New Game,1.4.5
2560,236
-1,-1,2952,508,1528,889,-1
-1,0,32767,0,490,232
-1,-1,0,1385,2560,215
-1,0,32767,427,555,768,-1,0,0,0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
-1,0,32767,427
-1,-1,2035,1261
-1,0,32767,427
-1,-1,3680,236
1,New Game
-1,-1,3460,236
25,Army Group Center,Army Group North,Army Group South,Baltic Sea,Berlin,Black Sea,Brest-Litovsk,Budapest,Central Front,Danzig,East Prussia,Kiev,Leningrad,Lvov,Moscow,Murmansk,Northern Front,Odessa,Overview,Poland,Rostov,Rumania,Smolensk,Southern Front,Vitebsk
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
-1,-1,3455,236
25,Baltic Sea,Black Sea,Central Front,Germany,Kiev,Kursk,Leningrad,Minsk,Moscow,Murmansk,Northern Front,Odessa,Overview,Perm,Poland,Pripet Marshes,Riga,Rostov,Rumania,Sevastapol,Smolensk,Southern Front,Stalingrad,Ukraine,Vilna
0
1
-1,32767,0,2560,1600
61,43,4,2,0,-1,-1,0,-1,0,0

Here is another .SLY file. When I loaded the game, the map came on the screen for a brief instant and then disappeared (went from 0,0 to 32767,0) and the Main Form wasn't visible (it was moved from 2560,236 to 2560,0). I tried to load the .SLY file again but nothing happened. I saved the current Screen Layout and the window positions were moved as shown below:

Test,1.4.5
32767,0
-1,0,32767,800,808,499,0
-1,0,32767,0,490,232
-1,-1,32767,1385,2560,215
-1,0,32767,427,555,768,-1,0,0,0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
-1,0,32767,427
-1,-1,2035,1261
-1,0,32767,427
-1,-1,3680,236
2,Test,New Game
-1,-1,3455,236
25,Army Group Center,Army Group North,Army Group South,Baltic Sea,Berlin,Black Sea,Brest-Litovsk,Budapest,Central Front,Danzig,East Prussia,Kiev,Leningrad,Lvov,Moscow,Murmansk,Northern Front,Odessa,Overview,Poland,Rostov,Rumania,Smolensk,Southern Front,Vitebsk
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
-1,-1,3455,236
25,Baltic Sea,Black Sea,Central Front,Germany,Kiev,Kursk,Leningrad,Minsk,Moscow,Murmansk,Northern Front,Odessa,Overview,Perm,Poland,Pripet Marshes,Riga,Rostov,Rumania,Sevastapol,Smolensk,Southern Front,Stalingrad,Ukraine,Vilna
0
1
-1,32767,200,2560,1600
61,43,4,2,0,-1,-1,0,-1,0,0