What do the batch files do?

[Peef]

I just purchased the CD (paid) version of winSPMBT. In the folder there are a few files:
Win7SPMBT
Win7SPMBTxmap

What do these files do?

Thanks

[RightDeve]

They're for killing (and restarting, after you exit the game) the Windows Explorer process, for when you're playing the game in Fullscreen mode, due to that process distorting the color palette of the game when running.

[Mobhack]

If you dont have windows 7 - they are not needed. Windows 7 aero is why they are there. Windows 8+ dont use aero to scramble the palette. It is explained in the game guide "tuning your machine" section, in a big dialogue box entitled ""Windows vista and seven".

And since you have the full game, it is better to use windowed mode set to desktop resolution. You will then have the full screen and no problems if you minimise or swap out the game to another programme and back etc.

Full-screen mode is obsolete, just a hang over from early DOS days. Some people still do use it, and work around windows habit of going into palette-scrambled mess mode. Windowed mode, set to desktop resolution for CD owners uses the full wide-screen resolution of your modern LCD monitor, not the obsolete "square" modes of full-screen mode.

[Peef]

Thanks for the reply.

I've noticed that the windowed mode doesn't size properly (using Win10). The bottom of the window goes below the top of my taskbar and the top of the window doesn't go all the way to the top of the screen. The only thing that seems to fix it is to change the task bar setting to "use small taskbar buttons." That shrinks the size of the taskbar and the windowed mode fits perfectly when I do that. Are there any workarounds for this, so that I can keep my taskbar the normal size?

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Peef

Thanks for the reply.

I've noticed that the windowed mode doesn't size properly (using Win10). The bottom of the window goes below the top of my taskbar and the top of the window doesn't go all the way to the top of the screen. The only thing that seems to fix it is to change the task bar setting to "use small taskbar buttons." That shrinks the size of the taskbar and the windowed mode fits perfectly when I do that. Are there any workarounds for this, so that I can keep my taskbar the normal size?

On my windows 10 laptop, it works fine. But it has start8 or a similar replacement for the nasty windows 10 start menu, and I have that configured to replicate XP mode. (There is no way I would run windows 10 in its "out of the box" start menu configuration, unless maybe I had a windows 10 mobile phone, which I don't).

The graphics library we use dates from DirectX days, when the task bar was a set size, only at the bottom of the screen, and not able to be hidden. I presume you do not have taskbar auto-hide set on?. Auto-hide usually confuses the external graphics library we use. But there is an option button to remove that check on the misc screen of the game launcher since some folk seem to find their set-up works fine with the taskbar set to auto hide.

But - it usually prefers the task bar not to be auto-hidden and in the standard "single" or small icon size, and placed at the normal bottom of the screen position. But as I say - some folk have got the game to run acceptably with in other sizes, places, and even with auto-hide on. It seems to vary with the machine used (graphics card, video drivers, etc). So some experimentation may be worth your while.

Once you have it set up, then you may want to try experimenting with the mouse sensitivity zone - I use 25 pixels. It mainly helps at the bottom of the screen, as the task bar takes some of that real estate. Making it more than ~25 pixels, means pointing on the right-hand button row on game screen can trigger a scroll right.

[Peef]

Okay. Thanks for the info Mobhack.

I don't autohide, and I use Classic Powershell (similar to Start8 I think). It's not a real problem to make the taskbar small. I'll just need to change it back before my wife uses the computer.

[geoff]

I have the same thing happening to me regarding how the window doesn't quite centre on the screen, the very bottom of the winSPMBT window is covered by the task bar, but since it's a window I just drag it up a tiny bit and everything is fine.

Geoff