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Author Topic: DF window is blank when moved to secondary display  (Read 1246 times)

Metrocube

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DF window is blank when moved to secondary display
« on: May 02, 2007, 09:08:00 pm »

In a multi-monitor set up, if you move the Dwarf Fortress window to the secondary display, the window contents will not render. All you see is black.

I have an NVIDIA 8800GTX with latest drivers, I am running Windows XP SP2.

Has anyone else run into this issue? Is there a workaround to get the DF window to launch in the secondary display?

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Toady One

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Re: DF window is blank when moved to secondary display
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2007, 10:24:00 pm »

I'm also curious about this.  I don't have and cannot afford a dual monitor setup, so I can't really do much unless there's a clear fix in the Kobold Quest code that would handle the problem.

I don't know much about how this works in general.  If you move the DF window to the other display and then press F11 to fullscreen it and then again to put it back, does it appear?

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Jifodus

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Re: DF window is blank when moved to secondary display
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2007, 10:58:00 pm »

Does, your multi-monitor setup uses only one video card?

Because on my laptop, I can get it to output to the external monitor and the laptop screen at the same time without any problems.  I'm going to attempt to use my other multi-monitor setup which uses two different graphics cards, but I'm not expecting any difference.

Edit: I've just checked on that other system, and it works as I expected.

[ May 03, 2007: Message edited by: Jifodus ]

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Metrocube

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Re: DF window is blank when moved to secondary display
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2007, 11:30:00 pm »

Yes, both monitors are connected to the single graphics card.

I tested this:
1. Drag DF window to second display -- DF window appears blank.
2. Press F11 -- DF appears fullscreen on primary display.
3. Press F11 again -- DF window is now in primary display.

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hactar1

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Re: DF window is blank when moved to secondary display
« Reply #4 on: May 03, 2007, 09:06:00 am »

I suppose this might happen if:

Your video card doesn't accelerate opengl on the secondary display.  I would assume a geforce 8800 would be capable of doing so, but maybe it's not set up correctly.  Can other opengl games or programs (try a screensaver, maybe) run on your secondary display?

Or, perhaps DF runs in some video overlay mode?  This is usually used for playing DVDs and video, since it writes directly to video RAM and is faster, but I suppose DF might possibly use it.  I can't think of why it might, but frankly I can't think of why it uses accelerated OpenGL either, besides the game's 3D forebear.

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axus

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Re: DF window is blank when moved to secondary display
« Reply #5 on: May 03, 2007, 09:53:00 am »

I have this problem with .AVI files when I'm using hardware accelleration.  I have a 6800, I thought they'd fixed it by 8800.  I don't have time to test it at home (no DF lately QQ).  If Toady could add a method to restart the graphics, it might help work around this issue (Close an reopen openGl, something like that).

You can turn on some nView features that let you specify per-application settings.  That would allow you to choose which monitor DF launches in.  Then restart the game and there ya go.

[ May 03, 2007: Message edited by: axus ]

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Metrocube

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Re: DF window is blank when moved to secondary display
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2007, 04:50:00 pm »

Those are very good recommendations, and I'll try them when I get home.

I did some testing today at the office on the multi monitor set up I have at work. The onboard video on this HP computer has dual headers, so that's what I'm using. Not much in the way of 3d acceleration on them, though. Anyway, the DF window appears correctly regardless of which display I drag the window to. I can even straddle it between monitors, and it's fine.

So, this could be a driver  support/configuration issue. Nvidia just released another update to the drivers, I'll give those a go also.

It could also be a video overlay issue related to 3d acceleration, because that was what my first thought was too. I don't even know what would be involved in fixing that.

[ May 04, 2007: Message edited by: Metrocube ]

[ May 04, 2007: Message edited by: Metrocube ]

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