sidebar font

[butch1171]

Just looking for any more updates to the sidebar issue for the Bulge. Has any progress been made or any more possible solutions created? Looking forward to still play this game.

[Lieste]

Are there any 'advanced' or hidden scaling settings in your graphic driver software?

Can you confirm that you did right click the program executable and selected compatibility options? I'd try the bottom three: Disable themes, Disable desktop composition, Disable Scaling for large DPI... these shouldn't be necessary, but they might help?

Tried contacting HP support? They might have similar issues reported, and can possibly identify the driver version/options that you might need.

My system is quite similar, except that I run with an Nvidia Card, and use a lower resolution screen.

[butch1171]

Thanks for the info. No advanced scaling settings. Did all three disable with no result. Contacted HP and was told that my graphics card is updated with no other changes. My card is not nividia which could be the issue but I will not go to another card. I guess I will continue to wait for some solution.

[Arjuna]

butch1171,

I have run out of ideas here. But I'm not the UI expert in our company. I'll get Paul Scobell to look into this once he returns from Europe early in July.

[butch1171]

Follow up to sidebar issue as to any more suggestions to the non playing aspect of the game. Would like to know what to do or just retire the game until some key to solving the problem can be expressed. Thanks for any new help...

[Arjuna]

Paul Scobell got back from Europe last week but with the flu. I have asked him to look into this but it's number three on his list.

[wodin]

Flu is going around the UK..not good

[pcelt]

Just for info as it may throw some further light on the sidebar issue and be of value to someone with more expertise than me

---I am using XP with fonts set at "extra large" . My sidebar has a red directional bar at the base of the display which can be moved L. or R. to arrange the text to a position where it can all be read.
This piece of info may or may not be of any use whatsoever ---
Cheers

[hjc]

Not sure how much help this will be, but with another game someone found a solution to their font scaling problem with windows 7: it might work here too hopefully, at least it's more information in case others have problems:

Win 7 font scaling bug and solutions -

edit -
Hah! I'm not allowed to post a link. [:-]
Oh well if anyone wants the link please PM me

[Arjuna]

OK here is the link from BofH.

http://www.rlvision.com/misc/windows_7_font_bug.asp

[Arjuna]

Just took a look myself. Thanks for the link BofH. This proved the rule that you learn something every day. I was unaware of this little quirk/feature from MS.

butch1171,

Can you please try the suggested registry changes and report back here if it fixes the problem for you.

[Lieste]

Ok, good to see the link already posted. Looks like the culprit all-right.

[butch1171]

Dave,
Just began the process to solve issue. Upon going to registry the changes had already appeared in the initial solution. That would be changing value in each to new fonts. Example MS SANS SERIF 8,10,12,14,18,24 was SSERIFE.FON. I decided to go reverse for each and put the supposed original ( SSERIFF.FON) to see if that was a solution. After restarting there was no change.
I assume that I would not have to go through all of the font names if the final is already in the correct location. I would do this but none of those appear in the source on the registry.
As always I will do whatever you suggest to reach some type of success. Thanks again for all the help as your effort is deeply appreciated.

Butch rstockland@fuse.net

[Arjuna]

Panther Paul,

What do you think we should try now?

[butch1171]

Dave,
Having begun this adventure back on June 1 it looks to me that I will never get to play this game. I appreciate your ongoing efforts but it looks that I just made a bad investment in purchasing the game. I have learned my lesson and will stick to games that I can download a demo and go from there. I will be looking very closely at any new Matrix developed games knowing I have been burned on the Bulge. Thanks again for your efforts but I will look elsewhere for historical pc games. Regards, Butch rstockland@fuse.net

[MorningDew]

There has to be a solution to this issue. I'd give them more time since this is apparently the only such case.

[simovitch]

Butch's system is very similar to mine - except the integrated graphics. I would look there for the issue, and update the driver while I'm at it.

I checked my registry and just like his, the fonts were already set correctly.

[Arjuna]

Butch,

I appreciate your dissappointment. Please bear with this a bit longer. Richard 's suggestion of downloading the latest graphics drivers for your intergrated graphics chip is worth pursuing. To do so, right click on Computer in the Start menu and select Manage. Then select the device manager and from there cascade the Display Adapters. This should list your graphics card/adapter. Right click it and select Properties. This opens up a window with several tabs. Select the Driver tab. Note the model and version number. Try selecting the Update Driver button. This may tell you that you have the latest version and that may be the case. But to be sure Google the model and check on the manufacturers site if there is a later version. If so, download it and install it.

Please try this and get back to me here.

[butch1171]

Dave,
Followed your directions using the Intel Corp. identify and update driver for my system. Result was best driver software is already installed with driver software up to date. I then travelled to the Hp site to also follow up with checking for updates for my system software in all sreas like drivers or bios updates and also graphics. Using their identity system they said all was good with drivers and graphics. Did a google search and saw no problems or concerns from people using this driver. Thanks for the continued effort to solve my frustration.

Butch rstockland@fuse.net

[GoodGuy]

Hi Butch,

if I am not mistaken, the "font scaling"-problem came up in COTA, already. But changing the dpi res for the font fixed the problem, usually.
Looking at your posts and your efforts to get rid of this font thingy, I start to think it deals with what I'd call an "unlucky" mix of hardware and drivers: Win7 + Intel Onboard video + Driver/Windows Issue.

1) I guess your HD Intel video card is some "generic" onboard chipset. Is that a HP desktop PC or a laptop?
Manufacturers like HP tend to supply edited drivers, means even if they supply the most recent driver on CD (or online via support center/softwar), their driver might differ from the reference drivers from Intel. Try the most recent drivers from Intel's webby. If that doesn't work try to see if they have an archive and DL + install an older WHQL certified driver. With some games/issues the only solution for NVIDIA cards is to try an older version, so you might want to try that and get older Intel drivers, as it could be a similar problem.

2) I know that doesn't help you right now and that you already said that a new video card won't be an option, but INTEL onboard video cards often have issues, and these are not just performance issues in 3D games, it's pretty sad. With some of their (laptop) chipsets, like the Intel video HD 3000, ppl experience fonts turning into little unreadable dots in games and other issues.
Maybe you have an old spare video card somewhere or maybe you know someone who you can ask to borrow a (spare?) video card, in order to see if that changes anything. My guess is that it deals with the Intel Card or its drivers. In order to test a different card you may have to disable the onboard video chipset in BIOS.

There are many cheap video cards, you can get a gforce 205 w/ 512MB ram for $20,99:

http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=VCD

In case the Intel oboard chip would be faster in other games/programs, you could even get a splitter cable for a few bucks to choose between Intel and Nvidia (for example), where you should then be able to select the source on your monitor.