[0.17.79] Switching to another application freezes Factorio output

[Saturnation]

To reproduce: Alt-tabbing out of Factorio into another running app and then back to Factorio.
Expected: Factorio is running and playable.
Actual: The display is 'frozen' from the previous app (screen memory is not updated from the previous state of the display) and Factorio is not displaying (but audio is still audible from the game).

Running on Windows 7.

[Loewchen]

Post the log after a session with the issue please.

[Saturnation]

See attached files...

[posila]

Try to disable "Use flip presentation model" in the graphics options.

[Saturnation]

Try to disable "Use flip presentation model" in the graphics options.

Just checked and it was not enabled so that's not going to help, but thanks for the suggestion.

EDIT: And for sanity's sake I tried enabling it just to check and still same result...

[Saturnation]

Just noticed now that when I actually have to Alt-Tab twice before I get another application on the screen. But even though I can still see Factorio the cursor will change as if it's on the app window that I've tabbed to. That is, it's like Factorio is still rendering and the mouse events are going to the tabbed to app, but the app isn't rendering. And while this is happening I can still see the animations and hear the sounds from Factorio even though input doesn't affect (or get to) the game.

[posila]

Oh, I just noticed you run on OpenGL instead of Direct3D, the presentation model option won't do anything.

You have really old graphics driver, though. Try to update it: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downlo ... duct=97500

[Saturnation]

Looks like it's already up to date?

factorio - display driver.PNG (24.18 KiB) Viewed 2934 times

[valneq]

Is that what you see when you run the updater from Intel's website that posila linked to?
Sounds strange because your log states you are using driver version 10.18.14.4264, but on that website it provides version 15.36.37.5074 explicitly listing your CPU: Core i5-4570R

[Saturnation]

Is that what you see when you run the updater from Intel's website that posila linked to?
Sounds strange because your log states you are using driver version 10.18.14.4264, but on that website it provides version 15.36.37.5074 explicitly listing your CPU: Core i5-4570R

Oops, sorry. Misread something. However after installing and rebooting the issue remains. Attached is the log file from my last run...

Code: Select all

 Initialised OpenGL:[0] Intel(R) Iris(TM) Pro Graphics 5200; driver: 3.3.0 - Build 10.18.14.5074

[posila]

I assume you switched to OpenGL because you had "The video card has been physically removed from the system" crash. Maybe the driver update fixed that and you can use Direct3D again. Try to open Factorio properties in Steam Library and set launch options to

Code: Select all

--force-d3d

Alternativelly, there is also driver version 15.40, which was for some reason released befor the 15.36 I linked before and you have installed now. You could try to install that one instead https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downlo ... duct=97500

If DirectX still crashes, and even the other driver doesn't fix it, you'll have to switch back to OpenGL (remove --force-d3d from launch options) and play the game in windowed mode (as in - not in fullscreen)

[Saturnation]

I assume you switched to OpenGL because you had "The video card has been physically removed from the system" crash.\

Yep. Forcing Direct3D fixes the issue, but hopefully I don't get the crash again???

[Saturnation]

And now it's crashed with the video removed message!!!

I'm really not happy about this. I can't switch in OpenGL and it crashes in Direct3D. It's just sucking the joy out of a great game.

At this point I can't see how this is a technical issue and not a bug. If this is a technical issue, what do I need to do to resolve it, because all actions thus far are unsatisfactory...

[Saturnation]

If DirectX still crashes, and even the other driver doesn't fix it, you'll have to switch back to OpenGL (remove --force-d3d from launch options) and play the game in windowed mode (as in - not in fullscreen)

Sadly windowed doesn't solve the switching issue. Factorio freezes and doesn't update the screen whether it's fullscreen or windowed... BTW, the greyed screen is because of the Snipping tool greys out the screen a bit before taking the screen shot otherwise the colors wouldn't be so washed out.

factorio-openGL-windowed.PNG (1.55 MiB) Viewed 2833 times

[Saturnation]

I've switched back to Direct3D and lowered the texture compression to low to see how much that might help...

[posila]

Have you tried also the other driver I linked? (15.40)

Another thing you could try is to set atlas texture size to lower value (for example 4096) and set Texture compression to "Low quality" in graphics options.

Just to make sure it gets frozen inside the graphics driver - can you please download Process Explorer https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysint ... s-explorer
When Factorio freezes (running OpenGL), find it in Process Explorer, right click it, select Create Dump -> Create Minidump. It will generate DMP file, please compress it by ZIP and upload it here too.

The reason I consider this technical problem not a bug in the game is that as far as I know, this exact issue happens only on your computer (so I am seeing it for the first time, so I don't know what you should do to fix it - except for playing on different computer; and for example it's really surprising to me the problem persists even in the windowed mode). It doesn't happen on any of the computers I have available for testing. Nobody on our team had this issues (and we all do alt-tab out of the game many times every day), and there are no other reports describing these exact sympthoms. The DirecX Debug Layer doesn't throw errors at me saying we use Direct3D incorrectly, nor does OpenGL debug extension. Had this exact issue been reported by more people, and it turned out you all have a laptop with Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, I'd get myself a laptop with that GPU to try to figure out a workaround for the problem.