Color Bug!!

[YATTAH]

Hello everyone,
I have a weird problem (EDIT: in WWP and W:A):
My color resolution down to 16 colors at any moment.
As you can see, the colours become ugly:

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/6605/dsc00191lh1.jpghttp://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5390/dsc00192he5.jpg
http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/658/dsc00194rp9.jpghttp://img469.imageshack.us/img469/3325/dsc00196ql0.jpg

I have XP SP2, geforce 6200, 1goRAM, 2Ghz.
Bug appears even all programs are closed (like msn). I already reinstalled the game but I encounter the same problem.
Please can someone help me?

[Joeyjoejoe]

I don't have an answer, but I think a mod might want to put this thread in WWP by the looks of the screenshots.

[YATTAH]

I have exactly the same problem in W:A than WWP

[CyberShadow]

Is your game updated (http://www.nanacide.com/wahelp/)?
Are your drivers updated?

[YATTAH]

Yep my game is updated, and my drivers too.
Some video codecs make that kind of glitch isn't it?

[franpa]

could you per chance post a link to the maps you posted an image of? :) they look interesting)

[YATTAH]

hehe, I made the first map of the screenshots
you can download them by in my signature
For the others maps, I don't know.

[bonz]

Some video codecs make that kind of glitch isn't it?
Yes.
From www.nanacide.com/wahelp:
C4. WA crashes after the title menu
This is caused by "DirectVobSub" in the Nimo DivX Codec pack. Uninstall the Nimo DivX Codec pack and it should work. You can reinstall it and manually unselect "DirectVobSub" to get WA to work with Nimo installed.

Also, it could be that some program is stealing the games focus, thus messing up the paletted colors.
Check for programs with an "always on top" feature.

[YATTAH]

When I minimise the game (with the Esc menu, not ALT+TAB) the bug disappear. Thanks to HewBodyScar for the tip.

[Distrance]

If u minimize and the bug disappears that would mean the colors are messy for the reason bonz mentioned just awhile ago. Some proggy is stealing the games focus.

[bonz]

HewBodyScar
Hehehe. :D
If u minimize and the bug disappears that would mean the colors are messy for the reason bonz mentioned just awhile ago. Some proggy is stealing the games focus.
Or you have used Alt+Tab to minimize all along.

[franpa]

ah, so in vista alt+tab works? and it makes the game exhibit this colour bug?

[bonz]

ah, so in vista alt+tab works? and it makes the game exhibit this colour bug?
Are you on drugs?
Noone was talking about Vista and Alt+Tab always messes up the palette.

[franpa]

sorry, and uh how do you alt-tab in the game? its disabled in both w:a and wwp isnt it?

[Dando]

Aren't them colours also caused by incorrect graves/flags as well, or having windows with "stay on top" activated, like winamp?

When yous ay all programs are closed, also make sure none are in the taskbar.

I am not sure if this is related in any way to the "hippy colour" bug, but maybe. When that particular bug used to happen to me because of 1 incorrect grave, minimizing and restoring sorted it out, because the game is obviously redrawn/refreshed

and franpa, alt tab in fullscreen app, minimizes it first. atleast it does with my game. Not sure about wa though;) i never thought of it

[bonz]

sorry, and uh how do you alt-tab in the game? its disabled in both w:a and wwp isnt it?
The Windows key works, IIRC, and also with Wormkit in W:A.

[Muzer]

Alt+Tab works fine with me, non-WormKit :)

[franpa]

The Windows key works, IIRC, and also with Wormkit in W:A.

ah yes, i remember that keyhooks module for wormkit... sad it's never worked for me tho.

[DragonQ]

Hmmm that looks fairly similar to my colour bug that I get at random intervals while playing a game (none of the programs I have open should "steal focus" from what I can tell - also, this only occurs in Vista and not XP and I run similar programs in both).


This is what I get during normal play:

http://dragonq.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Worms%20Crapness%20-%20%20Rainbow.JPG


This is what I get every few minutes until I minimise/restore:

http://dragonq.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Worms Ultimate Crapness.JPG

(Despite what I told my friend there, it turns out it's random and not caused by the phone icon)

[Run]

You can take screenshots with the Pause/Break key, just so you know (apologies if you do already know and something is preventing you from using it)

[DragonQ]

I'm sure I mentioned it, but if not:

Using Pause/Break takes a screenshot...but it takes it perfectly - i.e. the colour crapness does not get "screenshotted". The only way to capture the colour crapness is with a photo.

[SilPho]

Color problems for me occur routinely when my Anti Virus updates itself, but on a random note I do get colour bugs when my desktop background automatically cycles.

Be on the look out for any program with some kind of random display feature, potentially a media player's visualisations or a background cycle program. Possible even an IM client reloading new adverts or something like that.

[DragonQ]

Well I use Windows Live Messenger, but then I use it on XP fine. The occurance happens way too often for it to be an Anti-Virus program, and I have WMP11 Visualisations turned off and no cycling wallpaper. :(

[SilPho]

They were all fairly long shots. But as far as I can tell there is something running that must be causing conflicts because I get the same problems, just from different issues. Granted I'm not running on Vista.

If the colours are all correct during normal gameplay before getting worse, I'm going to say it's software related and not graphics drivers. If the rainbow effect is constant before it going really bad, then possibly a graphical driver error.

If you do get periods of normal colour, then my suggestion would be to kill off programs via the task manager until you find the one that causes the problems. Start with tasks you know before shooting wildly.

Obviously this isn't the best solution, but if you're desperate enough to try that before a better idea comes along, be my guest.

[DragonQ]

The rainbow thing does happen all the time. But the drivers I have are the first AND most recent drivers, so I can't do anything about it if that's the problem.

The ONLY time I get fully normal colours is for <1s after I minimise + restore, before the rainbow thing comes back.

[CyberShadow]

Wow - by those photos, it seems like only a part of the colour palette is corrupted. It seems like some application is trying to allocate some of it for its needs.

Do you have a palette.log file in W:A's folder?

[DragonQ]

Yep, it contains:

[2007-02-16 01.37.14] Palette set by 0x1E00C4 "GDI+ Window"
[2007-02-16 01.37.14] Palette set by 0x10010 ""

[CyberShadow]

There's your cue - something IS stealing your focus.
Open your task manager and start killing everything that doesn't look system-critical, one by one, until it goes away!

[DragonQ]

I don't think so - that thing is dated 5 days ago, and I've played many times since then. Also, I just renamed it to palette.old and a new palette.log wasn't created when the same thing happened twice more.

I also tried looking for that window signature in Microsoft Spy++ and found nothing. I reckon that palette steal was a one-off thing unrelated to my current problems.

[Chip]

I have a question un-related to this problem:

I don't have a palette.log in any of my Worms Armageddon folders / sub folders.
Its not a problem since WA works fine.

[DragonQ]

That's not a question... O_o

[Muzer]

I have a question un-related to this problem:

I don't have a palette.log in any of my Worms Armageddon folders / sub folders.
Its not a problem since WA works fine.



That's because this problem has never happened to you probably. It only gets created if you get a colour bug.

[CyberShadow]

I've never heard of any permanent damage (which can't be remedied by a reboot) done just from killing processes. If you want to resolve your problem, what do you have to lose?

[DragonQ]

Well if I disable all the un-Windows-related processes, it appears the problem of the whole screen going red or blue every few minutes goes away, although the constant rainbow sky thing remains - but it would take ages to pinpoint which one it is...

And my palette.log was updated too:

[2007-02-16 01.37.14] Palette set by 0x1E00C4 "GDI+ Window"
[2007-02-16 01.37.14] Palette set by 0x10010 ""
[2007-02-21 14.05.08] Palette set by 0x3009E ""
[2007-02-21 14.05.08] Palette set by 0x10010 ""
[2007-02-21 14.06.10] Palette set by 0x9009E ""
[2007-02-21 14.06.10] Palette set by 0x10010 ""
[2007-02-21 14.12.10] Palette set by 0x600AE ""
[2007-02-21 14.12.10] Palette set by 0x10010 ""


The 0x10010s are the Desktop....all of the others don't exist when I go into Spy++ so I must assume it's some program that quickly opens and then closes some hidden window periodically? By the way, I know it ISN'T:

- Windows Live Messenger
- PowerDVD background thing
- USNSVC.EXE
- GMail Notifier
- IE7
- Explorer
- Task Manager
- WMP 11

And a word of advice for others: don't stop the Windows Startup or Login processes unless you like blue screens, lol :)

[CyberShadow]

The next W:A beta will also log the guilty process's EXE file name in that log file. Unless you can find a way to resolve this before the next beta is out, all you can do now is wait (or dual-boot to XP oslt)...

[DragonQ]

Well at the moment, unless I want a random quick game, I'll always boot back into XP. It's just annoying because Vista takes about 1:30 to shutdown and XP takes about 4:00 to get to a usable state.

I have no idea why as this laptop is only 6 months old and easily mid-end, and both installs are only 2 months old. Oh well :(

[Dando]

You should always disable write caching on your harddrive. I haven't had any problems with any files or any instability since I did that (well apart from clogged up registry)

And i have killed processes before, there is almost 0 chance of anything happening. Worst scenario I have ever had is stopping a system process that triggers an auto shutdown.

[DragonQ]

Wha? Write Behind Caching on an HDD speeds up most things like file transfers. There's not any benefit to turning it off (except shutdown time, but unless I'm going into Windows XP that's not a problem at all).

[Dando]

oh yes there is a benefit (whereas there is little gain in performance by leaving it on). Any blue screens can instantly mean ur system is buggered. I have had 0 file corruptions with it off. With it on, you are running risk of file corruptions (esp in cases where system is not shutdown properly)

hence with it off, your system will remain more stable for longer. I have had 2 installations lasting 1 year with no problems and I have a **** load of programs installed too.

Then 5 month ago I turned write caching on and guess what...yes, i had major corruption (as well as loss of an important document). I highly doubt this was a coincidence

Write caching means placing files into cache that is destroyed upon shutdown/fault/power off. If you have files/documents in cache when this happens, kiss goodbye to them

In any case, terminating processes should not harm ur comp in any way!

http://www.accucadd.com/TechNotes/Cache/WriteBehindCache.htm <<first link i came to

[DragonQ]

I know about the process thing - I did it, read my long post above...

In my experience, the first Blue Screen of Death I've had since getting this laptop was because I stopped that Windows Startup process. And I can't remember getting any on my home PC either. So for me, I prefer to leave it on. I wonder if it will write the cache to the HDD after a blue screen if "Automatically Restart" is off? I have it off, and as I said, I got that blue screen yesterday and I saw no recent data gone or corrupted.

[Dando]

it isnt a certainty, but the risk outweighs the benefit. In any case I am sure I read somewhere that incorrect graves and flags (wrong spec) can also cause this bug.

and no it doesn't I don't think...at any rate, there is no way you can know when it is written to disk

[DragonQ]

it isnt a certainty, but the risk outweighs the benefit

...in your opinion.


I have no custom graves or flags, so that can't be it unfortunately :(

[Muzer]

it isnt a certainty, but the risk outweighs the benefit. In any case I am sure I read somewhere that incorrect graves and flags (wrong spec) can also cause this bug.

and no it doesn't I don't think...at any rate, there is no way you can know when it is written to disk

No, that's a mixup.


What you're thinking of is if it crashes when you go to edit a team, it could be caused by incorrect graves or focus-stealers. Incorrect graves have nothing to do with this problem.

[Dando]

why does this colour problem happen anyway? lots of games operate correctly when "always on top" programs are active. Why should this affect the palette?

Also, obviously, as this is only happening on vista, we can only assume that this is an issue with the new OS that will require a fix/patch *like xp*

Could be so many things and I aint even got vista to test it:(

I havent read this full thread so I don't know, but why not try running worms in a compatibilty mode?> Could work?

[Muzer]

Most newer games don't use a fixed colour pallette. That's why.

[CyberShadow]

This is obviously not happening only with Vista. Users of other operating systems have experienced this, including myself (back when I was playing Worms World Party, offline, in Windows Millennium) - but in these cases it was triggered by applications such as WinAMP or MSN Messenger.

[Dando]

maybe because vista is different soemthing else is triggering? and yes I too had the problem a long tiem ago;)

[DragonQ]

By the way, I have tried all of the compatibility options in various combinations, and none help. Thanks for the continued intereset and suggestions though :)

*reboots into XP* ;)

[franpa]

You should always disable write caching on your harddrive. I haven't had any problems with any files or any instability since I did that (well apart from clogged up registry)

And i have killed processes before, there is almost 0 chance of anything happening. Worst scenario I have ever had is stopping a system process that triggers an auto shutdown.

write caching imho was only a problem under win9x... NT based O/S such as win 2000 and win XP (maybe even vista) are good enough... i've never had winXP start going retarded till maybe 6 - 12 months after fresh install of it.

any blue screens ive encountered are from problems which got patched shortly after we discovered the bug ourselves.... eg: nokia phone tools - generated a blue screen randomly about some irq or something and a month later MS fixed the bug.

[Dando]

no, write caching is always a problem, especially if the power goes or other error. There is no fix for it, that is the nature of the technology. If your document is not saved to disk and has been placed in cache and then there is an error or power off situation, your document may become corrupt, the save certainly will not happen.

it has nothing to do with the OS, and certainly I have been a victim of this when I had a BSOD 5 months ago. (had a few BSOD since, but no more corruptions since caching was turned off)

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/cacheWrite-c.html <<read

And now I have gone offtopic;) time for me to leave

[CyberShadow]

By disabling caching, be it read or write, you are not only significantly slowing down your system, but also causing the hardware (in this case, the hard drive) to wear up significantly faster, thus damaging it in the long run.

When you get an error check screen (commonly called a BSoD), Windows doesn't actually deactivate its filesystem drivers. It still needs those parts of the kernel to write the kernel memory dump, and add a corresponding entry to the Windows event log. After writing this information, Windows flushes disk buffers, and either reboots or parks the hard drive's heads (if the hard drive supports such a feature), depending on the system's configuration.

The data loss you experienced was most likely at the application level (the application didn't finish saving the file before the error check screen - Microsoft Office, for example, perform file saves in the background).

Either way, the chance of such corruptions is greatly reduced when using a journaling file system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journaling_file_system) (NTFS in Windows' case).

[DragonQ]

Exactly.

NTFS + Auto-Save in programs like Word + Turning off Automatic Restart (in the event of a system crash) + Windows XP/Vista = extreme minimal chance of data corruption due to having Caching enabled on HDDs.

[franpa]

ah, the error i was encountering wa that "IRQL_IS_NOT_EVEN" thing...... if you wanna look aat it use MS compatability toolkit 4.1 and let it try to auto update :P

[chemieglen]

I've been having similar issues with the weird colours most (but not all) of the time. It turns out it was my desktop calendar program. When I close this down before starting the game it works perfectly in XP.:D

[ssj4androi]

I'm getting the same problem on my Windows 98 VM.

[franpa]

@_@ how does the chances of data corruption increase with caching switched on? the file is stored in faster memory (a copy is still on the hard drive) and the copy in the cache is used till it is no longer needed at which point it writes it to the HDD (this is what i understand of it)

so, you face risk of losing more work with caching on since if you do alot of stuff then it crashes you will be left with the copy that was on the HDD and NOT in the cache thus undoing what you may have done to the file, but never more file corruption since a valid copy is always stored.

[CyberShadow]

1) You are replying to a half-year-old post which you have already previously read.
2) Your question is off-topic.
3) Your understanding of read caching and write buffering is quite flawed.

[Paul333424]

By the way, this image corruption can make Google Desktop. ;) I turned it off and problem was solved... but I have same problem now. And I really don't know what is the application which want focus... :mad:

[Muzer]

Look in the palette.log (not sure how to spell) in your WA folder