XP + 0.2.8.2 + Moviepack = Unrecoverable Screen?

QBasic · Post by **QBasic** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:07 pm

Hello there. This is the first time I'm getting involved in the forum, but I've been a fan of Armagetron for a long time, maybe about 2 years running now. It's a great game that has the uncanny ability to eat all of my free time away!

Anyway, these days I have an Averatec 3700 laptop running Windows XP. When I heard of Version 0.2.8.2 I gave it a go, and was impressed, getting really smooth graphics on my laptop, even introducing a couple of friends to it. Seeing the "Linear" moviepack I decided to install it by placing the "moviepack" folder within my application directory. When I started the game (I start the game fullscreen) and entered the local grid, I found that the moviepack had not been applied. When I tried to exit the game, it wouldn't give me back my Windows desktop, just the (frozen) skewed game grid.

I gave the system a hard reboot, and tried starting the game again. It did the same thing: the moviepack did not take effect. When I tried to exit the game, a garbled white band was on the screen, above the skewed game grid. I realized that this was my Windows desktop.

I looked into the forums, and got the idea of deleting my "user.cfg" file in the "var" directory, along with the moviepack directory. After that, and after trying to play the game again, Armagetron Advanced ended gracefully, giving me back my desktop.

This behavior seems to happen to me when there is a moviepack installed, and when the game is in fullscreen mode. The workaround I developed goes as follows: 1) When I get the garbled desktop/frozen game grid, I press the Windows Key for the Start Menu, 2) press "A", then [Enter] for "Armagetron Advanced" (did I mention I like to play this game that it is in my list of Frequently Used Programs in the Start Menu? ^_^), and 3) once Armagetron Advanced starts, press "f" to exit fullscreen mode, and 4) press [Shift]-[Esc] to exit the game. After this is done I always get my screen back.

This happens for both the "Linear" and the "Original" moviepack for the original Armagetron. I have examined the contents of the "Linear" moviepack, but seriously, I don't know much about the specifications for moviepacks so I wouldn't know what to look for.

Could the behavior be caused by the interaction between my computer system and the game itself? The game runs fine when there is no moviepack installed.

Armagetron Advanced looks really cool, crisp, and fast for my computer setup, and I have no complaints about it. But I also really like what the "Linear" moviepack looks like. Any insight will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for making such a great program!

P.S. Before you ask, yes, the in-game option "Moviepack:" is set to On. ^_^

Phytotron · Post by **Phytotron** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:33 pm

I downloaded the Linear moviepack from iceman's site (actually, redownloaded, as it turns out I already had it, but for some reason had it titled "grid"). I noticed that the only peculiarity of it is it's missing some of the standard moviepack files, so I thought I'd see what happened if I just used it as-is for my moviepack, in case that's what you did. I didn't get any crashes or other weirdness, but none of the moviepack's textures got loaded, either (it just used the ones from the Textures folder). So, the question is, when you tried using the Linear moviepack, did you just stick it in as-is? If so, you need to make sure you fill it up with the rest of the appropriate files. They are as follows:

bike.png
cycle.ase
dir_wall.png
floor_a.png
floor_b.png
floor.png
rim_wall_a.png
rim_wall_b.png
rim_wall_c.png
rim_wall_d.png
settings.cfg
(You can also add sky.png and title.png, if you want)

Of course, even if that works, it still doesn't explain the glitches, but that's not my department.

Incidentally, that thing has the sweetest cycle tail I've seen. It's only visible with alpha blending enabled, though, so I can't use it.

QBasic · Post by **QBasic** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 4:17 am

Thanks for the great advice. I think I have it all working now. Perhaps the user is supposed to install the Original moviepack first, and then overwrite the files from the Linear moviepack.

Could there be any other cause (or set of settings) for Armagetron Advanced to refuse to give me back my desktop when I try to exit the game in fullscreen mode? This problem has seemed to disappear when I fixed the moviepack, but I'll be on the lookout myself for such a situation.

Thanks again for the help. ^_^

Phytotron · Post by **Phytotron** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 2:14 pm

QBasic wrote:Thanks for the great advice. I think I have it all working now. Perhaps the user is supposed to install the Original moviepack first, and then overwrite the files from the Linear moviepack.

Yeah, well, you can do it however you want. There's nothing preventing you from replacing individual files by hand, allowing you to mix and match however you want. Drag this out, drag that in. Want to make a moviepack from pieces of 8 different moviepacks you found on the web, you can do it, just so long as you have all the file types accounted for.

(If you look at my JSRF moviepack on iceman's site, for instance, you'll notice I didn't even create a completely put-together moviepack, but rather a lot of categorized files so the user can customize it however he likes, or even take some and use them in other themes.)

QBasic · Post by **QBasic** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 4:15 pm

Thanks for the tips. ^_^ Now I'm trying to mix and match what things form both moviepacks I really liked.

I've been a local player for a long time, and maybe soon I would like to try the online games and see what they're like. From what I've read they seem to be a place where you need to know your place... but I think I'll try and play some multiplayer rounds soon.

Thanks again!

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 6:53 pm

About the crash: sorry, I have to maintain that odd problems of this kind are the fault of the operating system and your drivers; no application should be able to do that. We're still probably doing something wrong, but it's very hard to find out what. I once had such an error on my machine and absolutely was unable to find the cause, ultimately a system update fixed it. Incomplete moviepacks shouldn't do anything bad, the missing files are just replaced by the defaults. So I'm clueless.

QBasic · Post by **QBasic** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 10:47 pm

I agree; it could be the way my system is configured. Besides, I wasn't even expecting 30fps from my laptop at all! ^_^ But what I saw (at this framerate) still boggled my mind. I see that rendering has increased in quality overall.

So now I never see my screen crash when I try to exit. Then again, that's because I make sure to exit AA windowed... ^_^

Thanks for a great program.

Phytotron · Post by **Phytotron** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 11:17 am

(In case you don't already know....) You can greatly increase your framerate by turning off a few of the more intensive graphics, especially sparks and alpha blending. The floor also drags it down a lot. Oh, and playing in a lower screen resolution of course helps.

QBasic · Post by **QBasic** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:47 pm

But I like how my screen looks with it! ^_^ Let me see if I can tweak the display settings some more. Thanks for the suggestion.