Window creation & cpu% problems

[KeyS 122]

The setup: I'm trying to create a non-resizable window in Direct3D8 that doesn't take up 100% CPU when not active. I've succesfully done this in a previous project by specifying (WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW & (~(WS_THICKFRAME|WS_MAXIMIZEBOX))) for the window style in CreateWindow(). I used a WNDCLASSEX structure. Also, to prevent 100% cpu usage when my window wasn't the active window, I toned down my gameloop to almost nothing when I got a WM_ACTIVATEAPP message that indicated I wasn't the active window. I also handled WM_PAINT in windowed mode to prevent problems with rendering when the user could see my window but it wasn't active. This seemed to work perfectly how I wanted. However, I recently started a new project and literally copied & pasted my old code into the new. During the interim, I switched from win2k to winXP, and I started using windowblinds 4 ( http://www.windowblinds.net/ ), which is a program that changes the windows theme (e.g. the start button, taskbar, and window border colors and look). Also, in the previous project, I created the window in the main process thread, and it was single-threaded. In this project, I create the window in a child thread, and it has many threads (I dont see how this could have any effect - the window exists entirely in 1 thread, though I say it just incase). Hopefully I have supplied enough information so that you may help me. Problem 1: I can't see the window menu at all, but I can touch and use all of it's features (the ones that are activated, that is, I cannot (re)size it, nor maximize it). The rendering window itself still exists and renders fine. Problem 2: It still takes up 100% cpu when I'm not the active app; and even worse, when I switch from windowed to fullscreen and back again, it takes a TREMENDOUSLY long time to adjust (e.g., get to where I can see my app, and not just black jibberish), and the desktop itself takes awhile to get back to normal too. To switch from windowed to fullscreen I change the present parameters and device->Reset(). I also change the window style using SetWindowLongPtr() to WS_POPUP when in fullscreen, and the above window style when in windowed mode. To make sure it takes effect, I SetWindowPos(). So, I'm not sure what I changed (practically nothing, except it's multithreaded), but I can't seem to get it to work properly. Any insight would be greatly appreciated; this minor bug has annoyed me for days now. Just incase you need it, I'm using WinXP Pro on Athlon 1800 with GeForce4Ti4200. ----- EDIT: Okay I've fixed the cpu% problem, I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier. I was toning down my gameloop when the window was inactive, but -not- in one of my other threads. It was taking up 100% doing absolutely nothing. I'm still new to multithreaded programming, sorry. However, I can't seem to find why problem #1 still exists, and also the part of #2 where it takes forever to toggle fullscreen back to windowed mode. Does a Reset usually take such a long time (and does it usually slow down the refreshing of the rest of the desktop - in the case of switching modes)? [edited by - KeyS on May 5, 2003 5:27:38 AM]

[Guest Anonymous Poster]

re: #1, past versions of WindowBlinds have been known to not properly skin a popup menu that is being tracked without msg notification, i.e. one tracked using the TPM_NONOTIFY flag. try turning off menu skinning and see if the menus re-appear.

[KeyS 122]

quote:

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Original post by Anonymous Poster
re: #1, past versions of WindowBlinds have been known to not properly skin a popup menu that is being tracked without msg notification, i.e. one tracked using the TPM_NONOTIFY flag. try turning off menu skinning and see if the menus re-appear.

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That worked! Thanks. If you don''t mind me asking, is there any way I can get this to work properly with windowblinds?

I suppose I wasn''t specific enough; I don''t actually have a real menu, but the title bar and the system menu remain from the WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW. I only removed the WS_THICKFRAME and WS_MAXIMIZEBOX options. Either way, it still wasn''t displaying correctly until I disabled windowblinds. Is there any way I can use the TPM_NONOTIFY flag to correct the problem?