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Re: Shmups

Posted: July 4th, 2019, 7:22 pm
by Stanshall
Cheers, Alex. Decent article! Best console for shmups is by far the 360 but of the current crop, I'd say Switch for sure.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 5th, 2019, 7:04 am
by KSubzero1000
Okay, I finally found a way to fix my Blue Wish Resurrection Plus frame rate issue. It turns out that Windows 8 likes to mess around with some sort of hardware acceleration when using certain apps in full screen mode without giving the user any direct option to turn it off. In the case of BWR, it effectively makes the game run at half speed and a locked 30fps which renders it virtually unplayable as a result.

I carefully followed the steps laid out in this very useful post on the Steam forum which made me download an outdated MS compatibility toolkit and create a new database to brute force the desired outcome. Now the game runs in fullscreen at 60fps without any issue!

Please note that none of the official troubleshooting tests and none of the built-in "solutions" like running the game in different compatibility modes had any effect. Nor did Windows care to kindly inform me of the issue and direct me to its own download website. If it weren't for one very kind and resourceful user taking the time to post this almost six years ago, I still wouldn't know what the problem was or how to fix it. I'm mainly posting this for posterity to help anybody who might run into the same issue at some point. Joke tech.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 5th, 2019, 9:19 am
by hazeredmist
I had an issue with Crimzon Clover at first too, with lots of fucking around with resolution settings in the GPU control panel, I kept getting stupid resolutions whatever I tried with the window all over the place and trying to guess what I was pressing in the menu, eventually fixing it by going full screen and setting it to something shockingly low which somehow worked and looked brilliant. Something probably to do with the high resolution of my little laptop. Either way, it's a ballache you don't have to worry about when firing something up on the Switch or whatever. I was trying launch switches in Steam I'd found in Reddit threads from people moaning about the same thing and allsorts.

But it's worth it!

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 5th, 2019, 9:49 am
by KSubzero1000
hazeredmist wrote: July 5th, 2019, 9:19 am I had an issue with Crimzon Clover at first too, with lots of fucking around with resolution settings in the GPU control panel, I kept getting stupid resolutions whatever I tried with the window all over the place and trying to guess what I was pressing in the menu, eventually fixing it by going full screen and setting it to something shockingly low which somehow worked and looked brilliant.
Interestingly enough, I never had any issue whatsoever with CC's display or performance settings, which surprised me at first. But Steam somehow managed to fuck up the DualShock 4 support which meant that I had to force it off for that game only. There's still hope for the "open platform" after all! :P

clippa wrote: July 5th, 2019, 9:24 am Anyway, glad you sorted it out, that'll have been what was slowing down steel vampire, do you reckon?
No, I don't think so. SV only ever slowed down during gameplay but ran perfectly well in the menus. Whereas the issue I just found a workaround for simply hard locks the framerate at 30 no matter what. Another day, another game, another problem!

clippa wrote: July 5th, 2019, 9:24 am Blue Wish is fab!

There's your score to beat, ksub
Wonderful, will do. I was even checking out Jaimers' run this morning!

It might take a while, however. I kinda burned myself out on shmups recently, especially with the Futari roadblock. I think I'm gonna play a few other things as palate cleanser (puzzle games, mostly), and I'll be back on track before long.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 5th, 2019, 10:16 am
by KSubzero1000
clippa wrote: July 5th, 2019, 10:08 am What are you using, DS4Windows? I think steam has it's own controller settings in big picture mode if you look into that
Yeah, I did the whole Steam configuration and it works perfectly well for DDP, for example. It's just that the Steam version of CC doesn't seem to support the official Steam DS4 driver so I disabled it. Now the game thinks it's a random third-party controller and everything works fine. :roll:

clippa wrote: July 5th, 2019, 10:08 am Another glorious day, another wondrous solution.
Top tier framing.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 5th, 2019, 12:07 pm
by KSubzero1000
clippa wrote: July 5th, 2019, 11:55 am Do you spelunky?
I do not. I have it on PS4 but procedural generation and I don't see eye to eye. I know it's a good game, same as Isaac, but I can't play it for long before getting frustrated by the RNG. The exact feature that is supposed to create excitement and replay value has the exact opposite effect on me.

clippa wrote: July 5th, 2019, 11:55 am your mardy arse of a morning
??
mardy
/ˈmɑːdi/
Learn to pronounce
NORTHERN ENGLISH•MIDLANDS ENGLISH
adjective
1.
in a petulant bad mood; sulky or grumpy.
Ah yes, that makes sense. :lol:

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 5th, 2019, 12:40 pm
by hazeredmist
KSubzero1000 wrote: July 5th, 2019, 9:49 am I kinda burned myself out on shmups recently, especially with the Futari roadblock. I think I'm gonna play a few other things as palate cleanser (puzzle games, mostly), and I'll be back on track before long.
Uh oh

Image

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 5th, 2019, 7:37 pm
by KSubzero1000
Okay, I just 1CC'd BWR+. But it was on Heaven (Easy) and the score wasn't anything to boast about (26,064,080), so I won't bother uploading it since recording on PC isn't the easiest thing to do with my setup. But it certainly made me want for more. What a great game! Hard to believe a 10-year old freeware game can hold its own against full-on commercial products, but this is a ridiculous value proposition overall.

Only 1 Miss, though!

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 5th, 2019, 9:32 pm
by Stanshall
Bravo, mon brave! I'm not on the shmups too much at the moment because I've been working too much and too tired to do anything but die and lose my rag. That's the downside of shmups. Frustrating when you're very tired. I've booked a week off though so I'll put some more time into Futari and DOJ. That's my target again. DOJ is still one of the true greats. Graphics are a bit ugly but the patterns and music and aesthetic are amazing.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 5th, 2019, 10:00 pm
by KSubzero1000
Stanshall wrote: July 5th, 2019, 9:32 pm DOJ is still one of the true greats. Graphics are a bit ugly but the patterns and music and aesthetic are amazing.
...You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?

Of all the shmups to hype up, of course that's the one you choose! :lol:

Not falling for it again.


I wish you good night, Sir.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 5th, 2019, 10:54 pm
by Stanshall
It's the one that really got me into shmups when I first played at Arcade Club. It's the one that blew my socks off. It's the one that made me feel truly powerful and overwhelmed at the same time. It's the one that made me get a modded 360. Futari is my favourite but DOJ is probably still the greatest I've ever played.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 5th, 2019, 11:19 pm
by KSubzero1000
STOP IT

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 6th, 2019, 12:01 am
by Stanshall
WARNING WARNING

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 6th, 2019, 5:21 pm
by hazeredmist
Ksub you absolutely beautiful person you

Wow!

Also thanks for checking in properly Stanshall. We were about to send out a search party to drag you back. This thread is like Scientology.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 6th, 2019, 10:22 pm
by KSubzero1000
clippa wrote: July 5th, 2019, 10:08 am Another glorious day, another wondrous solution.
Hey, guess what? Another day, another game, another idiotic problem. :evil:

I downloaded Kaikan. Game is cool. I went into the "KeyConfig" app that came in the folder to readjust the controls and select full screen. The game booted up just fine the first time after that. Upon exiting however, Windows popped up some unsolicited message saying it had modified something or other to "help with the compatibility". What this means in practice is that it has now become impossible to display the game in true full screen. It just goes to a maximized window form of some previous version of Windows instead. So now my two options are either tiny windowed mode or pseudo "full screen" with some big fat dumb grey borders surrounding the actual game screen. I can even drag it with the mouse even though it's in "full screen".

I've been wasting an entire hour trying to get it to work. Toggled all the individual options on and off. Deleted and re-installed everything. Tried every single compatibility setting. Google can't help either, even with every kind of keyword combination imaginable.

MADDENING

It's incredible to me that the entire world can just sit around and accept such dysfunctional tech as a cornerstone of modern day living. Imagine if, I don't know, houses were built half as shoddily as this fucking junk.


I would very much like to be able to play this in proper full screen like every other game. Please help.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 6th, 2019, 10:56 pm
by KSubzero1000
clippa wrote: July 6th, 2019, 10:45 pm Ooft, that sounds horrible. Is it this?
Maybe, but it didn't "provide me an opportunity to apply a recommended fix that will help run the app better on Windows 8". It just modified something and I don't know what or why.

Might want to turn that off
I'd rather not, considering how this workaround disables the entire feature altogether instead of for this specific program.

Have you tried holding alt and pressing return?
Yes. It simply switches back to windowed mode and then back to FakeFullScreen again. Exact same thing happens when only pressing return.

Right click on the kaikan.exe and choose "properties" and have a sniff around in the compatibility tab to see what options that stupid automatic assistant thing has chosen for you and see if you can turn them off there.
...Seriously? :roll:
KSubzero1000 wrote: July 6th, 2019, 10:22 pm Tried every single compatibility setting.
Clippa, please. What exactly do you think I meant by that? Obviously that's the first place I've looked. :)

The stupid automatic assistant's options aren't there to be found.


EDIT:
clippa wrote: July 6th, 2019, 10:45 pm You could try opening the config.ini in the kaikan folder and making sure under [screen] "full" is set to 1 instead of 0.
I just did and it was already on 1. I had already set the game to full screen in the KeyConfig, so as far as the game is concerned, everything is running as it should. It's just Windows fucking up again.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 6th, 2019, 11:19 pm
by KSubzero1000
clippa wrote: July 6th, 2019, 11:14 pm Sorry man, I'm really tired, I did read it all but some of it didn't sink in. I'm going to sleep soon, you're not going to do anything silly, are you?
No, it's fine. I'm just really frustrated on account of these repeated moronic problems.

Maybe somebody else will come up with a solution. Anyway, thanks for trying and good night!


EDIT: Okay, solved!

I used the same external compatibility toolkit that I used for BWR. I had to select another option after a load of guesswork. Something like "ForceNormalWindow" and then save and install the new database.

Quite astonishing that one has to resort to compatibility workaround tools to counteract the automated idiocy of the mandatory compatibility "assistant", but it is what it is I suppose. What an age we live in.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 7th, 2019, 9:17 am
by hazeredmist
Glad you got it sorted, man that sounds like a right ballache.

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 7th, 2019, 9:43 am
by KSubzero1000
clippa wrote: July 7th, 2019, 9:34 am How do you like Kaikan then? Load of old shit, is it?
It's pretty good, actually.

I wish it had a proper menu and stage replay and everything (if BWR can have all its functionality, other indie shmups have no excuse not to), but the game itself is very solid. Good feel and what appear to be interesting scoring options. I was watching STGWeekly's BWR episode last night and Emuser's plug of this game made me curious. It's near the bottom of the priority list for now, but it's good. Will be sure to go back to it once I've 1CC'd every other shmup in my library with every ship on every difficulty. :roll:

Re: Shmups

Posted: July 7th, 2019, 11:30 am
by hazeredmist
“Arse pecked” :lol: :lol: :lol:

In other news, Rolling Gunner has mysteriously disappeared from the EU eshop it seems... dev acknowledged and investigating apparently. Wonder what that’s all about