[Solved] A discovery in SC4fix.dll (Prevents borderless windows)

[TheMurderousCricket 5,107]

I would like to share a very interesting finding that I made when trying to combat a display-related problem I had.

Trying to run a 32-bit color depth on my machine, I have realized that I was only able to do so when running the game in a windowed or borderless mode.

However, another problem was that the "borderless" mode was not really borderless... I was stuck with a partially visible window border. Good enough for some but not when you attempt to make a screenshot...

Today, defeated, I have retreated to my other computer which did not have that problem. I took a pendrive with my "Plugins" folder, like I usually do, and copied them onto this second machine to keep my game consistent...

I ran the game in a borderless mode... And yet again, it wasn't fully borderless!!

This has lead me to an obvious conclusion that there has to be something in my "Plugins" folder that causes this behavior. 

Taking away mod and plugin at a time, reruning the game each step, I have finally found the culprit...

It was the SC4fix.dll.

Every time I take this file out of my "Plugins" folder, I can run a true borderless window of my game. As soon as SC4fix lands back in, the problem returns.

I don't know the practical explanation of it... Could it be that it's because SC4fix comes with a custom window name and it somehow forces the game to display it at any cost? 

This is a very interesting and peculiar problem. I'm not sure if it is of any help to other people but I'd like to ask Simtropolites if they are able to either reproduce the problem or offer a fix to SC4fix.

Please forgive me for putting you on the spot @simmaster07 but since SC4fix is your child, I would like to kindly and respectfully ask if you are possibly able to narrow down what might cause such a display glitch. Thank you! 

 

[simmaster07 1,221]

Good catch, I think you're right that changing the title of the game window is messing with that functionality. Let me try to fix that. I'm guessing you're setting borderless mode with a launcher like SC4Launcher?

[TheMurderousCricket 5,107]

Yes @simmaster07, you are correct. And let me thank you for a quick reply! 

If removing the custom window name is enough, then the course of action is obvious.

Perhaps a different way to confirm whether SC4fix works might be better in this situation. SC4fix.dll could, for instance, generate a simple .txt log to report the status, because we still need a way to make sure that it is indeed running.

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

13 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

Perhaps a different way to confirm whether SC4fix works might be better in this situation. SC4fix.dll could, for instance, generate a simple .txt log to report the status, because we still need a way to make sure that it is indeed running.

I believe it could also be done wherein a variable is set which could be displayed within in a specific query. Or, for instance, set a variable that a query could access such as SC4DLL_Loaded = True. Perhaps it could be accessed in a similar way as the current NAM version is done in a menu item?

[simmaster07 1,221]

I went with generating a log file since that's simple to do. @TheMurderousCricket try this? https://github.com/nsgomez/sc4fix/releases/tag/rev8

[TheMurderousCricket 5,107]

It works, woohoo! 

32-bit palette, here I come!