4K Windows 10 support

[66563706a603amiracle.flame]

Aloha! It's been a while... ages actually.. man! time flies!... anyway...

Does anybody have any experiences running SS2 on 4K output in Windows 10? Any issues? Any luck? I am pulling my hair out by the way. Need sleep now.

[66563706a6213voodoo47]

pretty sure I've seen people run NewDark under win10 in super high resolutions at the steam forum.

win10 does seem to not like NewDark a bit, requiring disabling of enhanced precision (d3d_disp_no_rgb10_buf) and even running in win8 compatibility mode for a few people.

'nyway, if you have issues, just drop the logs and crashdumps somewhere and we'll see.

[66563706a6356Kolya]

I'm on win10 and haven't had any issues. I don't have enough pixels to check the 4k thing though.

[66563706a6467voodoo47]

yeah, I haven't been able to replicate either no matter what machine, but it does work that way for a few (steam) people.

also, there are applications that will allow you to emulate a larger monitor and test resolutions normally not available, if you really want.

[66563706a682emiracle.flame]

The behavior is so weird that making any troubleshooting and trying to describe it is just going to be a pain and sound like crazy nonsense.

1) I have attempted to run my very old installment having all the mods prepared within including some NewDark and SCP.. this was known to work as is back then... Now on Windows 10 64-bit build 14393, nVidia GTX 1060, 4K TV.... Main executable launches and a havoc is unleashed... Like switching focus (alt-tab) from game to desktop back and forth constantly in 4 Hz frequency and you are practically screwed. The ambient sound of menu is heard uninterrupted during this. All I can do is press Ctrl+Alt+Del and launch task manager. Then SS2 sometimes crashes at that point or sometimes it doesn't and I am still screwed. Then after some struggle to alt-tab or repeat the process above it stays focused on task manager when I can kill SS2.

2) Okay, so my very first thought was Hahaaaah, well this was unexpected and funny, now it's turn for SS2Tool to do its job and everything will be juuuust fiiine... just as it's supposed to be nowadays. Well no... Okay SS2Tool did some hell job taking several minutes to compete and sweeping all my mods in the process. Found them in backup so no big loss but haven't retrieved them just yet, first step is to get the game up and running as it is. And guess what... it just didn't help at all! And all my dozens of icons on the desktop thoroughly ordered by hand get messed up in the process each time when this havoc is unleashed!

3) Pissed off at that moment I am taking gog package and installing SS2 to fresh new location. Immediate launch crashes at that point which means I could try to refund the game but wait SS2Tool is going to make it all fine. And it did. Now this particular installment is not blinking like crazy it just jumps out to desktop and stays there. Switching back to running game kicks me out again. Much better now. At least I can smoothly kill it. Still can't figure out what's the technical difference between previous files and new files, I thought SS2Tool practically replaces them all from some cloud repository. But there is some difference apparently.

3) Apparently insisting on switching back to game eventually results in longer periods being in game. Like more and more seconds before it kicks me out. And eventually it stays in permanently. Yay! Now I can try to switch resolution in-game. Each such attempt kicks me out to desktop and then I can try to switch back and have the 15% luck to stay in. Now the one particular resolution which makes the HUD size optimal for me is 2560x1440. Can't explain why but on any other resolution the menu is nicely filtered. But this one? No! Pixelated crap. And all is brightened like if gamma setting was changed though it was not.

4) And while finally in game the HUD flickers a bit but I was able to solve this one by having specific nVidia profile for SS2 with default AA settings and such. Other that that I have experienced a crash during random level transition. All this exhausts me heavily and causes headache.

All steps above cannot be quite exactly reproduced. The behavior is pretty random and has no logical pattern.

EDIT:
Oh and I have tried to disable d3d_disp_no_rgb10_buf and change compatibility setting with no difference.

EDIT:
Fascinating pattern just discovered!!! If any window stays opened (not minimized) chances to switch toga successfully are very low. If I minimize evey possible window and switch to game from desktop the success is 100% and it won't kick out even when resolution is changed!

[66563706a6979voodoo47]

allright, off the bat, try enabling the windowed mode, and setting the resolution manually in cam.cfg (you might have to enable your specific resolution in cam_ext.cfg as well, see user defined display modes). and if you have crashes, that means you also have crash dumps, share those together with your logs.

also yeah, pretty sure any SS2 data patched with the tool should produce an identical game install.

[66563706a6b34miracle.flame]

See my fascinating discovery above. I did dumb thing yesterday and I took cam.cfg and cam_ext.cfg from the fresh installment and put them in the old installment (which was freshly patched by SS2Tool) and files sizes differed. And since then both installments behave identically. Thus I cannot reproduce the 4 Hz uninterruptible switching anymore.

If I set game_full_screen 1 to 0 and run the game it will run fullscreen anyway and the value in cfg is rewritten back to 1.

[66563706a6c2fvoodoo47]

because you are supposed to be using force_windowed in cam_ext.cfg.

[66563706a6d4cKolya]

If you select Perfect Mode in SS2Tool then it does replace all differing files with versions from the server.
Your mods were moved to the SS2ToolSyncBackup because you didn't have them in the mod folder DMM. See the Newbie Guide.

[66563706a6f9cmiracle.flame]

Perfect mode was the only one I've had available when used the latest SS2Tool on that 2 years old installment. And I definitely had those mods in DMM folder but no big deal, I found the backup. Just wanted to let know how it went.

Windowed mode works well obviously as there is nothing to be switched. Now that I've figured out that minimizing everything works like a charm everything is alright. I found out I can keep native 4K and adjust HUD size in cam_ext along with other tweaks I recalled. Tweaking all kinds of display settings didn't have any impact on the original issue so still have to use the minimize all workaround.

Also I have figured out that having d3d_disp_no_rgb10_buf DISABLED caused the heavy 4 Hz switching a.k.a. you are totally screwed.

And I know how this is going to sound but...... today... I a have no explanation to this... I don't have to minimize anything and I have no troubles at all. 

EDIT:

I have three various SS2 installations the very first one ancient, the same but charmed with latest SS2Tool and the very new GOG+SS2Tool. All three of them are working without any switching issue today even though I haven't touched at least two of them since yesterday. Must be something in my system that changed. Trying hard to remember what occured:
1) f.lux has updated but that one I have tried to terminate completely and it didn't affect anything.. and according to the changelog there should be no connection
2) I have changed the main color of Windows 10 theme to one of the basic ones (not mixed by myself as before)
3) Creator's update installed today obviously but I have yet to reboot to fully apply the system update
Number two sounds like the most promising candidate. Pox on you W10!
 

[66563706a74d2voodoo47]

well yes, you disable the enhanced precision by enabling (uncommenting) d3d_disp_no_rgb10_buf - probably should have been clearer on that in my original post.

Pox on you W10!

hard to disagree with that one.

[66563706a7615miracle.flame]

At the moment of trying that I was already past the very first issue 4 Hz heavy switching. But that didn't resolve the other issue which was actual at that moment - kicking me out whenever I switched focus on the game. It has impact only on the heavy switching described at the very beginning. I were describing several issues, you know.