Problems With Cursor

[carterf50]

Just purchased this game and it looks like a winner except I am having problems with the cursor blinking and, sometime disappearing during all phases of the game. Is there a workaround for this? I tried not using my wireless mouse and just my built in touch pad but to no avail. I'd like to play this but the cursor issue is probably going to prevent me from getting to far into the game.

[mercenarius]

I am sorry to hear about your cursor problems. I haven't experienced this before. Let me ask a few questions.

1) Can you provide a summary of your hardware? The make and model number will be helpful. Any details might be helpful, really.

2) Which Operating System version are you running?

3) Are you having problems with jerky transitions when the screen does a fade to/from black while going from one menu to another or when starting a new game?

4) Could you attach the game's log file? That is located in the User Data directory in the game's home directory.

I want to thank you, too, for your purchase and I'll try to get to the bottom of this quickly. When I know more about your hardware and OS I can probably start to get an idea as to what is wrong.

[carterf50]

Thanks for getting back. Included in this post is the info you requested. The problem happens right
away on the main game menu with a cursor that shows itself than disappears until I move my mouse.
Eventually moving my mouse does not even get the cursor back and I have to exit the game the best I
can. The rest of the graphics are fine, only the cursor. I have seen this behavior in some other
games on my machine and when I run the game in a window rather than full screen that fixes it. Is
that possible? It seems to me that their is a difference in using a "hardware cursor" v.s. using a
"software cursor. Just guessing here, you'd know better than me..

[carterf50]

Attached is a text file with my hardware info and the game log...

[mercenarius]

Thanks for all of the information. That really helps. Your experience with other games is relevant. Yes, "Hannibal" uses a hardware cursor and (most of the time) doesn't draw the cursor itself. There isn't a way to run the game in a window, however. It is firmly designed to use full-screen exclusive mode.

Am I correct in thinking that you are not using a second monitor? You just have the one screen, the built-in monitor for the laptop?

As a long shot you can try turning off "Hide pointer while typing" in the Mouse control panel. This option is listed under the Pointer Options tab. It's worth a try at least.

Some people have also reported some success turning on "Pointer Tails" with the shortest interval being used. That is also available in the Mouse control panel under the Pointer Options tab. That is more of a Windows Vista hack, but it might be interesting to see if this makes a difference for you.

If you do decide to do this, make sure to adjust the pointer options before starting up the game.

I'll do more research and see if there are any known work-arounds for this kind of problem on your machine. If I cannot find a fix that you can implement on your end then I'll prepare a hot fix particularly for you. Before we try that, let me see if there is anything else I can find that you might try with your system configuration.

It does seem that DirectX isn't happy with your mouse configuration or possibly the drivers. You can check your drivers in the Device Manager and make sure that there are no warning flags. You probably don't want to reinstall any drivers just for this problem if your system is otherwise working well. At least, I would not recommend reinstalling any drivers at this time.

[mercenarius]

OK, to continue with the idea of adjusting the pointer (cursor) with the Mouse control panel: it's been suggested that you try turning off all enhancements with the mouse. If you do this and manage to get the cursor working with the game, then you can turn the options back on one-by-one and figure out which option(s) you will have to live without when you want to play a full-screen game.

Under Pointers

Change the scheme to "none"
turn off "Enable pointer shadow"
turn off "Allow themes to change mouse pointers"
If you customized any cursors you can try setting them to the default by
selecting the item in the list and clicking on "Use Default."

Under Pointer Options

Turn off Enhance pointer precision
Turn off the "Snap To" option.
Turn off Display pointer tails
Turn off Hide pointer while typing
Turn off Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key

(Don't forget to accept the changes by pressing on the "OK" button. [;)])

As I said, if this works then you can revert the settings back to their original state one-by-one and check to see if a particular setting is causing your problem. This is a bit of a hassle but it might help with other games as well. I hope that it will.

You may want to first record your settings so you can easily set them back to normal. I really don't do anything special with system customization so I don't care too much about these kinds of settings but some people do customize their system.

[carterf50]

Your suggestions worked! It had to be one of those pointer options of which I don't really care about anyway. This will probably fix my other cursor issues with games I am forced to run in a window to get the silly cursor to behave. So all is good. Thank you and if I become curious about which cursor broke my games and do more investigating I will get back to you with the results. Again appreciate the quick response and knowledge. It will be fun to finally play the game, looks challenging but not too overwhelming.