Game flashing with DirectX 6 - which way to dig?

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Evengard2012-12-29 21:24:37

reverse engineering

Evengard, 2012-12-29 21:24:37

Hello!
There is one ancient game, on the Lith engine (3D engine) of the first version (DirectX 6 era, 1998).
And this toy has one problem - the blinking of its "window".
About once every few seconds or a second, a black window of this program with its frames appears for a moment. Moreover, on earlier versions of Windows (XP), this behavior was absent.
I would like to fix it, but I do not know where to dig. Tried different compatibility settings of course (didn't affect anything). I tried to rewrite the creation of a window by adding a variety of styles (both Window Styles and WIndow Extended Styles and Window Class Styles) - the frame disappeared, but the black content of the window still blinks.
Oddly enough, it starts blinking less if the game is hard-coded in the config to set the FPS limit to 30 that way - but it still remains.
With what such glitch can be connected? Where to look next?

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5 answer(s)

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Oleg Matrozov, 2012-12-29
@Mear

Maybe with V-Sync problems? Have you tried experimenting with your graphics card settings? At least with nVidia, you can specify hard parameters for a specific program in the settings.

A

agmt, 2012-12-29
@agmt

Try killing explorer.exe before launching the game (and run it on 1 core). I can't say that it will help exactly with these symptoms, but it is a standard method for launching some older games.

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MrD, 2012-12-29
@MrD

As an option, try VirtualBox, put the necessary Windows there and run it there.

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NickLion, 2013-01-04
@NickLion

Maybe WineOnWindows ( habr )? I've noticed that there are fewer problems with many older games on Wine.

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Deerenaros, 2014-07-02
@Deerenaros

In fact, it is extremely difficult.
Alternatively, you can try to disassemble and look in the sandboxes for the place that causes the blinking. This is an option for true hackers.
Another option is to look for ready-made patches, it is quite possible that someone has already dealt with this problem.
Much easier to virtualize. There are a lot of options, from the soft Windows XP Mode (runs on Virtual PC), to the built-in QEMU with startup scripts.