RE: Publishing 3d for vista, my first results.

> From: dirgames-l-bouncesnuttybar.drama.uga.edu
[mailto:dirgames-l-bouncesnuttybar.drama.uga.edu]
> On Behalf Of Chris Evans
>
> Many of the major casual game portals are no longer
accepting Shockwave 3D

> games due to this Vista issue.

That's too bad, seems like an overreaction from the portals.
 Maybe if you
can prove your application runs without a hitch, they'll
make an exception.

My experience with Vista is pretty much in line with that of
Lucas and
Noisecrime.  Basically you need to set two keys in the
registry, either by
selecting "Always Use Hardware - DirectX 7" in the
Shockwave context menu.
Or by setting the registry values directly.  These are the
keys you need to
touch:

-- begin file: SW3D_AlwaysUseHardware_DirectX7.reg --
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMacromediaShockwave
10renderer3dsetting]
="4"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMacromediaShockwave
10renderer3dsettingPerm]
="4"
-- end file: SW3D_AlwaysUseHardware_DirectX7.reg --

Cut and paste this into an file named as specified, then
double-click to
execute the update.  Or do this on the command line for a
silent update:
regedit /s SW3D_AlwaysUseHardware_DirectX7.reg

Here's a zip with reg files for all 5 modes (useful way to
quickly switch
renderers when debugging):
http://rasterwerks.com/game/tool/SW3D_3DRen
dererSettings_RegFiles.zip

For SW games that use the right mousebutton, the context
menu must be
disabled, so here is my temporary solution:
http://ra
sterwerks.com/game/tool/swdiag.htm
source file:
http://ra
sterwerks.com/game/tool/swdiag.zip
The detection between "Obey Content Settings" and
the "Always Use Hardware"
modes is done by brute force (setting
getRendererServices().renderer and
seeing if it sticks).  So if there's a nicer method, let me
know, because it
causes the secondary monitors to flicker on my dev box.

For an executable, you can have the installer app update
these keys, or just
have the game do it.  Noisecrime mentions using two
executables because the
update to the registry must be done before Shockwave 3D
Asset.x32 is loaded.
For example, in the game app, you can test for Vista:

if offset("Windows,6",
_system.environmentPropList.osVersion) > 0 then
  -- OS is Vista
  -- use an Xtra (Enhancer, BuddyAPI, etc) to update
registry keys
  -- changes will take effect on next run, so...
  -- prompt user to quit and restart (might be able to
automate this)
end if

Another thing to keep in mind, you can create these registry
keys even if
Shockwave is NOT installed on the target machine, because
the Projector EXE
will look for these values ANYWAYS (yeah, pretty silly,
eh?).  If these
values don't exist, the EXE behaves as if the preferred
renderer is set to
#auto, which under Vista always results in #software.

Finally, in authoring, you have to set the "Preferred
3D Renderer" to
"DirectX7" also.  Director will display a warning
dialog (luckily only once
per session), but other than that, it works fine for
development.  Overall,
I like Vista.  Ignore the nice eye candy and there are a lot
of useability
improvements.  Just make sure you turn off the UAC (there's
a script in
msconfig for toggling this), this is the OS nanny that slaps
your hand every
time you do something that might affect the system (even if
you have admin
privileges).

-nick

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RE: Publishing 3d for vista, my first results.

Thread: RE: Publishing 3d for vista, my first results.