Cannot see window for the game

[CatboyDemyx]

So this has happened ten or fifteen times in the past few years that I've been playing, and usually after I uninstall it it still doesn't work and I have to wait months and try and reinstall it again and for some reason it randomly works but after not playing it for awhile it stops again... So anyways here's the issue:

When I open the game, it locks my cursor into the designated window range (full screen doesn't work either, fyi) but there is no window. At all. There's no video and there's no indication that the game is actually open except that there IS sound.

When I use ALT+TAB to switch back to my browser, I can see the game with the video running in the background:



I'm running Windows 7

In the past hour I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game six times, updated my drivers, and googled solutions but can't find any that apply to this situation.

Also, I can't close the game without force closing with the task manager because when I right click and click on "close" it just tries to open the window up and then does nothing else.

[not_payl_obviously]

I have somewhat related issue when i sometimes run game and immediately i do Alt+Tab to switch out when it's loading. Then my mouse get stuck, i have sound but not window (i'm running fullscreen). Only thing i can do then to fix it is to use Alt+Tab to switch back into game and again Alt+Tab to switch out again when it's loaded, then no issue happens.

I would suggest you try to use Alt+Tab to switch to the game. Because most likely game is working, maybe window is out of screen bounds? Try fullscreen and using Alt+Tab etc. I generally would advise using fullscreen ingame+resolution of your monitor, as this is how it was designed to work.

[Toxiic]

Hm, have him try renaming the paintball2/pball/configs/config.cfg to something else and see if it loads.  Looks like the window is off screen or something.  Another thing to maybe try is shift+right click on paintball2 in the task bar and select "move" or "maximize" to try to get the window back on screen.

[jitspoe]

It's possible the window got moved off-screen somehow.  Do you have multiple monitors, or do you ever change displays?  Try shift+right clicking on Paintball2 in the task bar and selecting "Move", then clicking and dragging the window back on-screen.

[not_payl_obviously]

It's possible the window got moved off-screen somehow.  Do you have multiple monitors, or do you ever change displays?  Try shift+right clicking on Paintball2 in the task bar and selecting "Move", then clicking and dragging the window back on-screen.

I don't think move will give any help as it moves mouse to application bar, but never outside of screen, so unless window is on screen, you won't be able to move it that way (since cursor will never go outside of screen).
Probably smarter way is to first Alt+Tab into desired window and then click Windows+Right/Left so your window will be positioned on right or left side of screen (for Windows 7). Yeah i found it on google, wasn't that hard, and worked for me. If it doesn't work for you, do what i did, and google... (omg, i just proposed to use google, ban inc. for proposing usage of brain - payl, trolling you since 2009)

[Toxiic]

It's possible the window got moved off-screen somehow.  Do you have multiple monitors, or do you ever change displays?  Try shift+right clicking on Paintball2 in the task bar and selecting "Move", then clicking and dragging the window back on-screen.

no that's not likely, this only happens in windows 7, and in windows 7 I am like 80-90% sure that you can't move/hide the programs one the side of the screen. This happens (sometimes) when a user does: alt-tab and then once a user tries to click on paintball it does not show up

[not_payl_obviously]

no that's not likely, this only happens in windows 7, and in windows 7 I am like 80-90% sure that you can't move/hide the programs one the side of the screen. This happens (sometimes) when a user does: alt-tab and then once a user tries to click on paintball it does not show up

I saw this happening too, but it doesn't mean we are all talking about same issue. This issue doesn't persist after you restart game, so it doesn't match description given by CatboyDemyx. You might want to report it separately. And now let asker answer if steps we gave helped.

[Rockyar_96]

i guess its not a problem with your paintball installation or paintball itself.
More like a windows issue. Maybe you could try to add a commend in your config to run it in fullscreen mode.

[not_payl_obviously]

i guess its not a problem with your paintball installation or paintball itself.
More like a windows issue. Maybe you could try to add a commend in your config to run it in fullscreen mode.

It's not windows issue, it's just abuser not knowing how to use it 99.99999% of time.
Also no need to revive thread that asker left, can be closed/marked as resolver due to no response.

[CatboyDemyx]

After trying to get the game to let me select it in the task bar without opening and stealing my mouse (which happened even when I right clicked to open the menu for it) I finally got control of my mouse to get down to the menu and maximize. This brought up the game, which let me change it back to windowed mode. I don't know how it got moved off the screen (since I don't ever move it and I'm the only one who plays it) but this problem is now resolved and if it does this again I know how to fix it~ Thank you everyone. (And sorry for the late reply, been busy with school lately.)

[not_payl_obviously]

After trying to get the game to let me select it in the task bar without opening and stealing my mouse (which happened even when I right clicked to open the menu for it) I finally got control of my mouse to get down to the menu and maximize. This brought up the game, which let me change it back to windowed mode. I don't know how it got moved off the screen (since I don't ever move it and I'm the only one who plays it) but this problem is now resolved and if it does this again I know how to fix it~ Thank you everyone. (And sorry for the late reply, been busy with school lately.)

Repetitive nature of this problem led me to idea that game should check if it's shown correctly and fix itself if not. Jitspoe, consider it a feature request.

[jitspoe]

If I knew exactly how it got into that state, perhaps I could fix that.  It usually seems to be a bit of a mystery how people get the game in that state to begin with.  If anybody knows a way to consistently reproduce the issue, I'll see what I can do to fix it.

[not_payl_obviously]

If I knew exactly how it got into that state, perhaps I could fix that.  It usually seems to be a bit of a mystery how people get the game in that state to begin with.  If anybody knows a way to consistently reproduce the issue, I'll see what I can do to fix it.

I don't think you need to know how it does get into that state, could be probably resolution change or other weird things. Just i.e. on startup check if window is within screen borders, if not then reposition it...

[jitspoe]

I don't think you need to know how it does get into that state, could be probably resolution change or other weird things. Just i.e. on startup check if window is within screen borders, if not then reposition it...

Is there a windows API call for this?  With multiple monitors, etc., it's not as simple as just checking if the window position is within the screen resolution.

[not_payl_obviously]

Is there a windows API call for this?  With multiple monitors, etc., it's not as simple as just checking if the window position is within the screen resolution.

As for API in Lazarus i just use "Screen.Widht/Height" but internally it's implemented just by call to GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXSCREEN) and GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYSCREEN). But MSDN says it obtain values for primary monitor. Then there is GetDeviceCaps which is more advanced, but i cannot test if calling it with GetDC(Null) gives whole range because i have only one display. And to get your window range you can use i.e. GetWindowRect.
Anyway i found something for multiple monitors that might help you: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4681738/how-do-i-determine-if-a-window-is-off-screen especially http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd162826.aspx seems to be useful with it's stuff that determines nearest monitor and then use it's coordinates.

EDIT: Wrote simple code for you that should check if window is at least partially in any monitor:

Code: (pascal) [Select]

if MonitorFromWindow(form1.Handle,MONITOR_DEFAULTTONULL)=0 then //Out of bounds


[jitspoe]

I've implemented something like this for the next build.  Hopefully it doesn't cause any issues.