Surface Pro (Win 8) Issues

[HercMighty (OP)]

Ok, so I got a Surface PRO and decided to try an get this to run on it.  After a couple of small issues (Font Size, and F9 Screen) were corrected everything seemed to be good.  Except one issue I can't seem to figure out:

A lot of screens have the lists on the right with the + sign for multiple items.  I can't get the Surface Pro to be able to access them.  Clicking seems to highlight what is at the top, but I can't expand + items or collapse - items.  In the Battle Control window the top form name will change to the overall name being clicked on, but in most cases it doesn't populate the main form with information.  The OOB display doesn't work at all.

Surface came with . NET 3, 4, and one other. . . I tried installing 3. 5 that includes 2. 0 but that didn't help.  Also made sure I had the latest VC9 redist installed.  No luck.

Any ideas?

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I've heard 3.5 dotnet installs often don't install everything needed for 2.0 and earlier versions.

But that's all I've got. Shooting into the dark.

[Erik L]

Just remember, Aurora is a VB6 app. Before any .NET assemblies.

[Bgreman]

Does Win 8 allow you to set the app compatability of an executable?  Try setting it to WinXP, if so.

[HercMighty (OP)]

Yes, it has the compatibility options and I tried a number of them with no luck.  WIN 8 has a tool for determining if a  a mode is needed and it suggested WIN XP but it hasn't helped. . . very odd, not like it should be that hard of a control for it to handle. . .

[Steve Walmsley]

Ok, so I got a Surface PRO and decided to try an get this to run on it.  After a couple of small issues (Font Size, and F9 Screen) were corrected everything seemed to be good.  Except one issue I can't seem to figure out:

A lot of screens have the lists on the right with the + sign for multiple items.  I can't get the Surface Pro to be able to access them.  Clicking seems to highlight what is at the top, but I can't expand + items or collapse - items.  In the Battle Control window the top form name will change to the overall name being clicked on, but in most cases it doesn't populate the main form with information.  The OOB display doesn't work at all.

Surface came with . NET 3, 4, and one other. . . I tried installing 3. 5 that includes 2. 0 but that didn't help.  Also made sure I had the latest VC9 redist installed.  No luck.

Any ideas?

There is a problem opening the nodes on the treeview control in VB6 if the coordinates of the control are negative. So if you have a three monitor setup for example with left-right and centre monitors, the treeview will only work on the centre and right monitors, because top left of the centre monitor is 0,0. No idea how surface pro works but is threre any chance this is the problem? Might be worth moving the window as far right as possble to check it.

[HercMighty (OP)]

I'll give it a try and see.  It does have a display out but I haven't used it yet, but with the "interactive" nature of the Surface (being able to "pull" screens from the left, and the "Start Button" from the right) there might be something to it.

You still have any goals of moving to C# and WPF? I have been studying C# and WPF at home on my own, work uses Delphi, but wouldn't mind helping out if your ever interested.  Be a good learning experience. . .

[Steve Walmsley]

I'll give it a try and see.  It does have a display out but I haven't used it yet, but with the "interactive" nature of the Surface (being able to "pull" screens from the left, and the "Start Button" from the right) there might be something to it.

You still have any goals of moving to C# and WPF? I have been studying C# and WPF at home on my own, work uses Delphi, but wouldn't mind helping out if your ever interested.  Be a good learning experience. . .

I have written some code in C#/WPF, although nothing like as much as VB6. I used to programme commercially in C++ but that mainly involved writing VBX controls for Windows 3.1

Steve

[HercMighty (OP)]

Moving the windows around on the screen hasn't helped so far.  Have to try when the cable the cable in stock what happens on a secondary monitor.

[shadeon]

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to confirm - this isn't just a Surface Pro issue.   This also occurs in my Win 8 x64 Lenovo laptop.   I did some digging online and it appears that certain versions of the VB controls (VB 5 common controls are called out here) don't display properly on Win 8 touch enabled devices, even if the touch features are not in use.

All instances of the treeview appear to be broken, except the Production and Population window, which works fine as long as you don't try and contract any nodes OR group by function.   As described by HercMighty, selecting any item usually just picks the first node in the list, and then the control freezes.   Switching to a different tab (say going to a different tab when viewing naval org on the F12 screen) and back will show the whole control in the disabled state, with 0 nodes (or glitched nodes).

Not being able to use the Battle Overview is certainly the biggest drawback at the moment.   Picking targets and setting up fire controls manually for each ship is a massive drag. . .

I can also confirm that moving screen location (or even hooking up a 2nd monitor and displaying on that screen instead) don't solve the issue.   I know the supported platform for this is XP, but is there any chance of a future fix?  I'd really like not to have to setup a virtual machine just to play Aurora!

[Steve Walmsley]

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to confirm - this isn't just a Surface Pro issue.   This also occurs in my Win 8 x64 Lenovo laptop.   I did some digging online and it appears that certain versions of the VB controls (VB 5 common controls are called out here) don't display properly on Win 8 touch enabled devices, even if the touch features are not in use.

All instances of the treeview appear to be broken, except the Production and Population window, which works fine as long as you don't try and contract any nodes OR group by function.   As described by HercMighty, selecting any item usually just picks the first node in the list, and then the control freezes.   Switching to a different tab (say going to a different tab when viewing naval org on the F12 screen) and back will show the whole control in the disabled state, with 0 nodes (or glitched nodes).

Not being able to use the Battle Overview is certainly the biggest drawback at the moment.   Picking targets and setting up fire controls manually for each ship is a massive drag. . .

I can also confirm that moving screen location (or even hooking up a 2nd monitor and displaying on that screen instead) don't solve the issue.   I know the supported platform for this is XP, but is there any chance of a future fix?  I'd really like not to have to setup a virtual machine just to play Aurora!

This isn't a bug that can be fixed within Aurora. It's an issue with the operating system not supporting VB6. I currently develop and play Aurora on Windows 7 but I have no plans to move to Windows 8. It's difficult to see how I would fix this without rewriting the game in a more modern language.

Steve

[shadeon]

Hi Steve,

Understood - I guess I was hoping that Aurora was using the v5 controls and that updating them to v6 libraries would solve the issue (as anecdotal searches online seemed to suggest).   Since I doubt MS is even aware of this issue, and VB6 support on touch-screen enabled devices is probably not anywhere on their roadmap, I guess this means I'm off to create a Win7 VM!

Thanks for the reply and for creating such an awesome game.

[Mor]

Considering the proliferation of touch devices, it might be useful to add this to the FAQ.

[83athom]

I think we need to give Mor the title of Necromancer.

[Mor]

The issue of touch screens and multi screens is keep coming back time and again, both seem to be caused by the same thing, both covered in this thread and confirmed by steve.

As for Necromancy,  I don't discriminate who I get friendly with based on age also depending on your standards, I might be a pedophile