Registered FSUIPC users with black screen problems read pls

[Pete Dowson]

There are some rather unfriendly folks about who delight in blaming FSUIPC for problems, and flame here even though they've not even paid for a full registered copy of FSUIPC. It is upsetting me greatly, and making me very averse to trying to help even if I could.

Of course, if I thought FSUIPC had anything to do with it, I'd be slaving away at all hours trying to work it out until it was fixed. I always have been very attentive to problems and never like to see anything wrong in any of my programs. Anyone who knows me and my work over the last six or more years will fully realise that.

Let's look at my situation with respect to the accusations that it is FSUIPC which causes black screen hangs in FS2004 when the user switches modes from minimised to full screen, or windowed or maximised, or is it vice versa? (Sorry I am not sure of all the possibilities here).

I have, at present, FS2004 installed on three PCs:

1. A P4 2.0GHz with an nVidia Ti 4400 video card and some oldish nVidia drivers, with Windows XP Pro.

2. An Athlon 1800+ with a WinFast-made nVidia Ti 4600 video card with Winfast drivers 4351 which I assume are based on nVidia 43.51 version. This PC is running Win98SE.

3. A P4 3.2GHz with a Matrox Parhelia video card and their latest 1.04 drivers. This is on Windows XP Home.

Now, of these, and apart from the external "heavy rain" problem found and fixed recently, the only time I've had black screen hangs in FS2004 was when switching modes with earlier Parhelia drivers on PC #3. Since version 1.04 drivers I've not seen this happen.

During the FS2004 Beta periods, and before there was even an FSUIPC to install, the same sorts of black screens were occurring on both the PCs I had FS2004 installed on then. Others in the Beta were getting them. But gradually all of us settled on drivers which seemed to fix the problem.

There are circumstances which obviously make it more likely that folks will be switching video modes in FS2004. Notably, these are when running applications which interface to FS through FSUIPC. It is obviously very difficult to carry out the exact same sequences without FSUIPC installed, since its very presence changes what those applications do and therefore the timing and sequence of events thereafter.

So, it is a very difficult situstion to resolve. It is easy for folks to blame FSUIPC, and it is almost bound to look like the "common factor".

I am willing to investigate this and see if there are any steps I can actually take, inside FSUIPC, to minimise or even eliminate the possibility of these crashes. If I can, perhaps, detect the change in video state and try to prevent some things from happening whilst the video processes are on-going, then maybe this will hlep. I don't know what states I'm looking for, nor what things should be prevented, but I can perhaps experiment. The video parts of FS and DX are really totally foreign to me, I have never been involved with them at all.

For this I could really do with being able to reproduce the problem, consistently, here, on one or other of my PCs. So, can anyone give me EXACT step-by-step instructions on how exactly to make these hangs happen, if not with 100% certainty, at least with a very good chance? Do I need specific drivers? Which of my three PCs look the best candidates?

Otherwise, I want some registered, friendly and reasonably technically-minded user, who CAN reproduce the problem regularly without trouble, to volunteer for some tests. Maybe together we can find some compromise solution. Who knows.

Just in case this is confusing anyone, please note that I still remain 100% convinced that it is NOT FSUIPC wihch is causing the problem, it is something related to activities inside FS during its video re-construction phase, which is causing some corruption. It could be a DirectX bug or an FS bug or a Video Driver bug, but whatever it is, it is being exacerbated by something in the interaction between the FSUIPC application and FSUIPC. If I can somehow avoid whatever it is that is upsetting things, for the duration of the video re-draw (if I can detect it), then maybe we can overcome the problem.

Thanks for reading this far.

Regards,

Pete