Lord of the Rings Online Forum

Hi

I have a weird issue that has only just started occurring. When I run Lotro in full screen mode at my MacBook's max res (1920 x 1200) I get a small black bar at the bottom of the screen - the bar appears to be the same size as the Apple menu bar. No matter what I do I can't get rid of it, and its making the mouse pointers off. Any ideas? I'm running OS X 10.6.5 and CXG 9.2.

Thanks,
Mike.

Which way are you running "full screen?"

I believe that "artifact" happens when you use the in-game "full screen" mechanism rather than the setting in the CXG Wine-Config control panel.

I solved this problem by turning off "Allow the window manager to decorate the windows" and "Allow the window manager to control the windows" on the Graphics tab in winecfg. I don't know if they both need to be off or not, but I don't have any problems with both being turned off.

I have the same issue as noted in another thread. I set it to full screen mode from within game. Both "Allow window manager" options are checked. In addition, the installation on my MacBook Pro keeps resetting the graphics resolution and keyboard settings to a default so it's not saving my adjustments.

Since the latest patch, I too am losing all my saved graphic settings and must reset them each time I play the game (if it doesn't crash). Any ideas why it loses these settings?

Most probably answer is that the .ini file is not being updated before you logout.

The persistent parameters are stored in ~/Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online/UserPreferences.ini

However, I must add, I don't know when/if that file is consulted. I know that my screen size information is NOT controlled by either that file or CrossOver Games WineCfg control panel.

I play in a windowed mode, but simply "drag" the screen to be the size and shape I want it... and it sticks. I have no idea WHERE that value is stored, but it does not match either the CXG or .ini file parameters.... go figure.

(Other graphics settings, set in game under Graphics and Advanced Graphics, such as high rez, etc. ARE persistent.)

Thanks for the suggestion but that's not it. Neither UserPreferences.ini nor lotro.keymap are being updated and my graphics and keyboard shortcuts are being terminated.

Derek Ho wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion but that's not it. Neither
UserPreferences.ini nor lotro.keymap are being updated and my
graphics and keyboard shortcuts are being terminated.

1- try renaming the two files and then launching the game and quitting.

The game will start out in Full Screen at (probably) low rez (i.e.default) graphics settings, and play the opening movie.

Then compare the new file with the one you renamed.
(They can be read and edited with your favorite text editor.)
Or just change the values again in-game.

Hmm... so what does it mean when that file apparently isn't called? Pylotro didn't create new versions of either file, it just exited and left me with everything set back to default when I restarted.

Derek Ho wrote:

Hmm... so what does it mean when that file apparently isn't called?
Pylotro didn't create new versions of either file, it just exited
and left me with everything set back to default when I restarted.

PyLotRO does not create or use either of those two files -- lotro.keymap and UserPreferences.ini. They are created, used and updated by the Turbine Game client.

How far are you getting here?
Are you getting the game to load to the Character Selection Screen? (and the options screen there?)
Past that to actually game-play? (and the options screen there?)

The implication is that the game client is NOT terminating normally (via exit or quit) and therefore not updating the file with your last settings.

Choosing either Full Screen or otherwise from within the Game produces results which are not reliable (or predictable). The mechanism which Turbine uses is apparently not completely compatible with WINE/Core-Graphics.

Much of this is because the "Detect Optimal Settings" Graphics option of the LOTRO client cannot SEE the actual graphics hardware on the Mac, but must rely on whatever WINE tells it.

One thing to remember, the "UserPreferences.ini" file is simply a text file and can be edited with your favorite editor -- Emacs via the terminal window or TextEdit via the Finder.

The following are the values I have defined for my 24 inch iMac with a NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT - 1920x1200 - 32-Bit Color graphics card.

[Display]
SyncToRefresh=False
AllowWindowResizing=True
FixedOutputScaling=Default
WindowedResolution=120652905
ConfineFullScreenMouseCursor=True
AllowFakeFullScreen=True
ForceFakeFullScreen=False
FullScreen=False
RefreshRate=Auto
TripleBuffering=False
AllowDesktopCompositing=False
Antialiasing=Disabled
Resolution=1024x640

Note: the value for WindowedResolution is a result of starting with a default window "stretched" via the lower right hand corner drag box to occupy about 90% of my 24 inch screen allowing me to "mouse click" on other open apps (like MMODB Safari) for reference while playing. I have no idea why the Turbine client came up with that number or what it means to it. If I allow the LOTRO client to create a new default UserPreferences.ini file, that value is the same as the last line "Resolution."

I run in Windowed mode with the following settings from WINE Configuration:
Checked - Allow the window manager to decorate the windows
Checked - Allow the window manager to control the windows
Vertex Shader Support: None
Checked - Allow Pixel Shader

I don't have access to my 15 inch MacBook Pro, as my son has it in class at the moment, so I can't tell you what the values for that .ini file happen to be.

As for the lotro.keymap file, I know that there are certain values (like the Lock Forward Run value) which are "not-saved," apparently because the Mac Keyboard has different keycodes than it expects, and therefore is unable to find them in its tables. (I can't say I begin to understand the explanation in the file. It is undoubtedly a "standard" structure and nominclature across various systems, but I am unfamiliar with it.)

I launch and exit the program normally. I can in fact play all night. I looked at the UserPreferences.ini file and it actually has the right resolutions so my hypothesis of the moment is that Turbine isn't picking up the .ini file. I'm guessing here that there's some file name pointer that isn't set correctly -- probably because I copied the updated game files/directory right off my mini to make the install on my Macbook that much quicker.

[quote=363786my hypothesis of the moment is that Turbine isn't picking up the .ini file. I'm guessing here that there's some file name pointer that isn't set correctly -- probably because I copied the updated game files/directory right off my mini to make the install on my Macbook that much quicker.[/quote]

The directory should be the same on both -- the defaulted, user's Documents directory.
The two config files should be located in:
<user>/Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online/

Check that <user> has ownership and read and write permissions on all 3 directories. (It does not matter if anyone else does, but they should default to not available.) The directories also need to be executable by the owner, <user>.

The easiest way to check, especially ownership, is, from a terminal window... "ls -alsd <directory>" should return something like...

ls -alsd Documents
0 drwx------+ 72 magill magill 2448 Dec 6 16:18 Documents

The terminal window should open in your home directory, so just use "." to examine the permissions/ownership of the <user> directory
ls -alsd .
0 drwxr-xr-x@ 117 magill magill 3978 Dec 15 13:50 .

Note the quotes around the file name -- it contains spaces --
ls -alsd "Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online"
0 drwxr-xr-x@ 29 magill magill 986 Dec 15 18:17 Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online

The keymap and .ini files just need to be read and write by the owner.

ls -alsd "Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online/UserPreferences.ini"
4 -rw-r--r-- 1 magill magill 2903 Dec 16 00:52 Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online/UserPreferences.ini
ls -alsd "Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online/lotro.keymap"
16 -rw-r--r-- 1 magill magill 15942 Dec 16 00:52 Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online/lotro.keymap

One other thing.... the capitalization is potentially an issue, depending upon how you have the drive configured. If it is configured as "Case sensitive" then capitalization DOES matter. It will show up as
Format: Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
at the bottom of the Disk Utility display, when you select that drive.
OSX defaults to non-case sensitive, which does not display as a value in Disk Utility.

William H. Magill wrote:

Which way are you running "full screen?"

I believe that "artifact" happens when you use the in-game "full
screen" mechanism rather than the setting in the CXG Wine-Config
control panel.

Hi

I am using the in-game "full screen" mechanism. Using the CXG method, do you mean I need to create a virtual desktop for the full resolution or is there another setting somewhere?

Thanks,
Mike.

Well, it looks to me like both directories and files are set appropriately:

0 drwx------+ 25 derekho staff 850 Dec 17 08:18 Documents
0 drwxr-xr-x 45 derekho staff 1530 Dec 16 07:01 Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online

8 -rw-r--r--@ 1 derekho staff 2922 Dec 7 06:54 UserPreferences.ini
40 -rw-r--r--@ 1 derekho staff 16412 Dec 9 07:43 lotro.keymap

staff is my user ID's group setting so that shouldn't be an issue but it's the only difference I can see at the moment.

---

I am using the in-game "full screen" mechanism. Using the CXG
method, do you mean I need to create a virtual desktop for the full
resolution or is there another setting somewhere?

Try using WINE Cfg to set the graphics values:
Checked - Allow the window manager to decorate the windows
Checked - Allow the window manager to control the windows
Vertex Shader Support: None
Checked - Allow Pixel Shader

Then erase (or rename)
Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online/UserPreferences.ini
Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online/lotro.keymap

Exit CXG and re-launch CXG and then PyLotRO and login.

The client should then launch in defaults -- Full Screen at something like 1024x640. It will create new UserPreferences and Keymap files with default values.

The contents of the Display section should be something like I posted earlier in this thread. (The UserPreferences.ini file is a text file.)

If the issue is resolved, you are good to go. Otherwise, go back, uncheck the two window manager options, quit CXG and re-launch.

Derek Ho wrote:

Well, it looks to me like both directories and files are set
appropriately:

The only other thing I can think of... are you SUCCESSFULLY exiting the game correctly... i.e. using the "EXIT" option of the help menu and then having the game terminate normally.

Apparently the only time those two files are saved is when the game exits completely.
However, from some comments I've seen on the Codemaster forums, the implication is that if there is and error in the read of the file (some mis-defined parameter maybe?) then the game does not re-save the file.

Did you try erasing/renaming the UserPreferences and Keyboard files and letting the game re-create them?

(You might also try using "find" to see if they are winding up in some other unexpected place -- searchlight might find them, but my experience with searchlight has never been positive, except for trivial requests.)

Finally figured it out. The My Documents alias was bad so LOTRO never found the files in my Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online directory.

Keith Solomon wrote:

I solved this problem by turning off "Allow the window manager to
decorate the windows" and "Allow the window manager to control the
windows" on the Graphics tab in winecfg. I don't know if they both
need to be off or not, but I don't have any problems with both being
turned off.

I posted a similar bug in a different thread and I tried to fix it with userpreferences.ini and stuff like that with no results...but Mr. Solomon's solution given above worked for me. Thank you Mr. Solomon!