Frustrating that this condition lives on...

[BleacherBum]

When you switch away from OOTP for a certain period of time (perhaps 5 mins, perhaps 10), you cannot get the screen back. It also severely impairs the UI for the rest of Windows too when it is in this state. If you're lucky, you might be able to get the application active and hit the Escape key to close it. Otherwise you have to kill it with Task Manager and lose data back to the previous Save.

By the way, I witness this without any screen saver kicking in. I just happen to do other things on the PC while sims are runnnig, and it may take a bit to return to OOTP and inevitably I can't get back.

This has been the case in previous versions. It has been reported in the past http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ht=bleacherbum and for some reason its just been ignored.

[Steve Kuffrey]

This is a SYSTEM SPECFIC issue, it all depends on your system, memory, etc. I can minimize the game for days, come back to it and boom works fine. I have no idea if anything can be done to change this across the board but it is not an across the board issue.

[BleacherBum]

However, this clearly is an OOTP issue. I can run 100+ other pieces of software on this system and not one exhibits this problem. I run OOTP on this laptop with Windows 2000 and I have the problem. I run OOTP on my home desktop with Windows XP and I have this problem. Other users have posted similarly about this issue with OOTP. I picked up 6.5 today, after over a year hiatus from OOTP, and after about 4 hours of gameplay I've seen this several times already.

Unfortnately, your response clarifies why this has not been addressed: your company is unwilling to acknowledge that it is a problem with your game.

I've found a simple way to reproduce it - perhaps this would help with the problem solving should you decide to pursue it. I'm doing this now in Win2000 and its consistently reproduceable. Open OOTP to the main screen, then hit ctrl-alt-del to bring up the Windows Lock/Logoff/Shutdown/etc. dialgoue, hit Cancel to go back to Windows and OOTP will vanish. You can see the taskbar icon for it, and you can see it in Alt-Tab, but you cannot bring the OOTP GUI back to life.

[gmo]

I have had (I think) this thing happen before with the game but not in quite a while now. I cannot remember the exact circumstances by which it happened the handful of times it occurred. But I found that I could click on the taskbar icon to bring it to full screen, though it is not visible. Then I could click in the upper right hand corner where the "X" button to close the game is situated and follow that with clicking around just left of and below the center of the screen until I hit the "Yes" button in the "Do you want to quit?" pop-up that occurs after deciding to quit.

This allows for the game to save and not have to be shut down and suffer data loss and possible corruption of the league files. It does not solve whatever the underlying problem is, but since that was a rare event for me I found the method above to be a satisfactory enough workaround.

[waylander]

I get this quite a bit as well on both my laptop and desktop, usually a click on the border will usually get it back in focus. This is definitely not a system specific issue!

[f.montoya]

Yep. happened to me too. never with 6.12 but with 6.5 it freezes up while inactive for a while and I can't get it to work. I found this solution to work though it's no fix:

Hit CTR+ALT+DEL.
Choose OOTP6.5 and click End Task
Then when the confirmation of killing the task comes up, hit "Cancel". The game should respond again.

Why? I don't know.

[Jadetorc]

This has always happened to me also, on at least 5 separate laptop and desktop systems, including my current ones. A 550mhz Toshiba laptop I used to use for ootp5, an 850 mhz Dell laptop used for 5&6, an 1.2 ghz IBM thinkpad with 6.11 i believe, a 2.5 gHz Gateway desktop at work, and my current 3.2 gHz P4 desktop that has 2 GB ram, great sound and video - the works. Ootp just needs to swallow its pride, admit there is a problem, a list it as an active, ongoing BUG. It probably does the same on my 2.4 gHz Dell laptop, but I haven't put it on there yet.

That would make 6/6, or 100% of the time.

So long as you aren't playing a game, there is a way for it to exit without losing info or using the Task Manager. I'm not sure which are the important pieces but when my Ootp blacks out i hit Esc Enter Esc Esc Enter Enter . The windows closes and I just re-launch it.

[jarmenia]

I've seen this too and it ticks me off to no end. No excuse for this not working. My guess is that OOTP is not responding to the wm_setfocus or wm_paint messages being sent when ootp WAS NOT MINIMIzed before switching to a different application.

John

[jarmenia]

Originally Posted by Steve Kuffrey

This is a SYSTEM SPECFIC issue

Sorry, not the case. As you can tell by the other posts.

Originally Posted by Steve Kuffrey

it all depends on your system, memory, etc.

300 GB HD, 2GB ram. 70% ram free when I start OOTP. Should be plenty.

Originally Posted by Steve Kuffrey

I can minimize the game for days, come back to it and boom works fine.

Don't minimize the game, just switch to other programs and do work. Come back at a later date and see if the screen repaints.

Originally Posted by Steve Kuffrey

I have no idea if anything can be done to change this across the board but it is not an across the board issue.

This is windows programming 101. Handling paint and onfocus messages and there is no excuse for this not being fixed.

John

[rem]

I have this problem and don't consider it a game problem.

[Steve Kuffrey]

To give further details, I DO open other programs,(but why would I want to open other programs OVER this one? I run a 1024x768 desktop so to do anythingelse requires me to...) minimize OOTP, have sometimes 5 or 6 different windows open for various reasons and have NEVER had this happen. This is usually on a daily basis and not an isolated time or two.

It IS NOT an across the board issue that happens to all or even most. I am not denying that it happens but several in this thread seem to believe that it happens to a larger perceived group than is reporting to us.

[disposableheros]

has NEVER happened to me either, Steve

[jazzrack]

I snooze my anti-virus and this problem goes away.

ootp & anti-virus programs don't seem to like eachother very much

[BleacherBum]

Steve, it appears that there is some difficulty reproducing this on the OOTP team's systems. And perhaps the specific steps I listed above don't reveal the problem in all environments.

I'm not sure where this ranks in terms of importance. It sounds like its fairly low. However I also suspect the development effort to fix it would be pretty trivial. So, in case you'd like to pursue it, I'll ask if you use any products like VMWare for testing? And if so, would you be interested in a machine image that demonstrates this exact condition?

[phenom]

I have the problem with the screensaver.

Has that been fixed yet?

[pallison14]

Screensaver or user switching produces this for me -- so I don't do it.

-paul

[A.J. Holz]

Originally Posted by BleacherBum

I've found a simple way to reproduce it - perhaps this would help with the problem solving should you decide to pursue it. I'm doing this now in Win2000 and its consistently reproduceable. Open OOTP to the main screen, then hit ctrl-alt-del to bring up the Windows Lock/Logoff/Shutdown/etc. dialgoue, hit Cancel to go back to Windows and OOTP will vanish. You can see the taskbar icon for it, and you can see it in Alt-Tab, but you cannot bring the OOTP GUI back to life.

Excellent reproduction steps. I was able to duplicate the problem instantly using them. I can duplicate in OOTP 6.12 and OOTP 6.5.

I've also experienced this problem when running specific programs, such as a poker program that changes the screen resolution when I run it.

My guess is that some application or another that you run when OOTP6.x is minimized is causing the problem. This won't fix the problem, but you may try keeping track of the other apps you run and seeing which application seems to be the 'trigger' for the problem. Then, just refrain from running them both at the same time (this is a workaround and not a true 'fix' of course; the real fix is to change the OOTP code).

Perhaps if the testing staff or Markus can duplicate the problem you described above, and get Markus to fix that particular situation, it will also fix it when other apps (i.e. the poker program I mentioned above in my case) come along and trigger the problem.

[Anachronism]

One of the members of my league has this issue as well. He calls it "being hostage to OOTP" as he cannot take calls, cannot check email, cannot get up to take a leak for fear that ootp will never come back.

It is easy to say "Oh.. it is a system problem" instead of admitting that OOTP has issues. The fact is that he knows of NO other program that does the same thing. I could understand it being a system issue if OTHER programs also hung up.

But don't worry BleacherBum... many people have sound when they play OOTP, and many don't - OOTPDev has admitted that this is an OOTP issue (as opposed to a "system issue"), so there is some hope for this issue yet :P

[randyc427]

Ive had this problem if my computer goes to hibernation or sleep mode. Screensavers don't bother it on either of my pc's (one desktop one laptop) or does it bother either if I miniminze. However like I said, if it is on powersaver, then I can't open the game. So, I just turn off sleep mode.

[disposableheros]

Originally Posted by Anachronism

One of the members of my league has this issue as well. He calls it "being hostage to OOTP" as he cannot take calls, cannot check email, cannot get up to take a leak for fear that ootp will never come back.

It is easy to say "Oh.. it is a system problem" instead of admitting that OOTP has issues. The fact is that he knows of NO other program that does the same thing. I could understand it being a system issue if OTHER programs also hung up.

But don't worry BleacherBum... many people have sound when they play OOTP, and many don't - OOTPDev has admitted that this is an OOTP issue (as opposed to a "system issue"), so there is some hope for this issue yet :P

it happens to some and not to others. that seems to suggest that it is a system related issue. probably a system/ootp issue, but not an ootp issue alone.