remote desktop control and DirectDrawError

JohanVF · Post by **JohanVF** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 1:58 pm

I have 2 win xp computers connected by a network. ZSNES is on my old one and i want to use it while doing stuff on my new one, so I activated remote desktop control.
But when i try to run ZSNES i get the following error

DirectDrawError: IDirectDraw 7:: SetDisplayMode failed. make sure your video card supports this mode

so, how do i fix this?
(btw ZSNES always worked like a charm on my old pc)

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:19 pm

Set up a Windowed mode instead of a Fullscreen mode. Fullscreen modes assume that it is a valid 16-bit desktop resolution that is normally selectable when queried from DirectDraw.

JohanVF · Post by **JohanVF** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 5:55 pm

I tried that
when i run zsnes my screen goes black and i get the error mentioned above.
so i opened the configuration file and went to
Video Mode, 0 - 32
; 0 = 256x224 R WIN 1 = 256x224 R FULL
; 2 = 512x448 R WIN 3 = 512x448 DR WIN
; 4 = 640x480 S WIN 5 = 640x480 DS WIN
; 6 = 640x480 DR FULL 7 = 640x480 DS FULL
; 8 = 640x480 S FULL 9 = 768x672 R WIN
; 10 = 768x672 DR WIN 11 = 800x600 S WIN
; 12 = 800x600 DS WIN 13 = 800x600 S FULL
; 14 = 800x600 DR FULL 15 = 800x600 DS FULL
; 16 = 1024x768 S WIN 17 = 1024x768 DS WIN
; 18 = 1024x768 S FULL 19 = 1024x768 DR FULL
; 20 = 1024x768 DS FULL 21 = 1024x896 R WIN
; 22 = 1024x896 DR WIN 23 = 1280x960 S WIN
; 24 = 1280x960 DS WIN 25 = 1280x960 S FULL
; 26 = 1280x960 DR FULL 27 = 1280x960 DS FULL
; 28 = 1280x1024 S WIN 29 = 1280x1024 DS WIN
; 30 = 1280x1024 S FULL 31 = 1280x1024 DR FULL
; 32 = 1280x1024 DS FULL

VideoModeWin = 6

and changed the 6 in a 4

it now opens in a windowed mode, but i get another error
error writing to the screen. make sure the device isn't being used by another process.
this error gets stuck in an infinite loop, as soon as i click it away it opens the same error message again, preventing me from doing anything
on my old pc full screen was never a problem. i think it has to do with the remote desktop control. the problem only occured after i activated that and try to run zsnes from the new pc

are there any known issues with RDC? and solutions?

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:27 pm

Instead of using vidmode 4, use 5.

Non-D modes don't use DirectDraw acceleration, which in some cases prevents you from running ZSNES normally in the first place.

Additionally, you are using an older version of ZSNES.

Post by **grinvader** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:05 pm

Deathlike, his issue comes from trying to use zsnes remotely.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:10 pm

I would've come to that conclusion eventually.. though I haven't used RDC personally. The errors though are not because of a remote connection.. my system would do that if I didn't have DirectDraw acceleration.. but there's always the chance that the remote connection disables DirectDraw intentionally.

MajereDB8 · Post by **MajereDB8** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:40 pm

Deathlike2 wrote:but there's always the chance that the remote connection disables DirectDraw intentionally.

RDP really doesn't play nice with DirectDraw. VNC and other remote protocols also either outright disable or just act flaky with graphcis acceleration. Just say no.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 9:16 pm

MajereDB8 wrote:
Deathlike2 wrote:but there's always the chance that the remote connection disables DirectDraw intentionally.
RDP really doesn't play nice with DirectDraw. VNC and other remote protocols also either outright disable or just act flaky with graphcis acceleration. Just say no.

I remember doing a test with VNC with OpenGL.. it was disasterous and funny. Oh well, no soup for you!

JohanVF · Post by **JohanVF** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 9:31 pm

i tried setting 4 (see above) to a 5 and the same error occurs.

yes i think it's the RDC doing this.
so, i'm screwed? there's nothing i can do?

i also get an error trying to play baldur's gate, although a different one.
and i just noticed that videos played by vlc stutter

any ideas what to do?

edit: this is the error when i try to play baldur's gate, in case that sheds any light
an assertion failed in D:\Dev\chitin\ChVideo.cpp at line number 4256 Programmer says: no valid video modes supported

Post by **odditude** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:34 pm

the virtual graphics adapter provided by RDC does not offer any form of acceleration. performance sucks and directdraw is unsupported.

@op: best option is to install zsnes on the new computer, mounting a share from the old machine containing the roms if you don't want to copy them to the new machine.