Vista color scheme

[voljack123]

when i log in and lick start to go into server, a pop up says Windows needs to go back to a color scheme, this program cannot run. or something like that then DDO shut down and nothing ?

so it seems to be a color issues any help woill be appreciated

[sidereus]

I am having this same problem. I think that it it is something that has been known, and I found a work-around digging through the forums. After you select the server and as the game is starting, put your mouse pointer over the top middle of the desktop on an empty area and quickly and repeatedly left click. I dont really know why it works, but it does for me.

Sidereus

[Arnya]

Change your theme to windows classic

[Strakeln]

It disables the transparent menu/toolbars - I think that's Microsoft's Aero program?

I'm not sure exactly why it does it (I'm guessing it relates to the video card somehow, maybe DDO disables Aero by default to free up resources or something), but it is normal behavior.

It will automatically re-enable when you close DDO, or at least it should.

[voljack123]

so is their a solution? or do i need a different video card.

[Strakeln]

I don't think it has anything to do with your video card per se, just how DDO decides to use it (and I'm just stabbing blindly in the dark here, mind you). I don't believe there is a "solution", because I think it is intended behavior.

(edit: I realized you have a further problem. My best guess is that maybe you could try running DDO as administrator or something, sounds like it's trying to shut down Aero but fails... man, I'm really guessing here though)

[Moncey]

Certain programs (in fact, virtually anything produced by Turbine) do not play nice with Vista's Aero. Aero is more than "window dressing" if you'll pardon the pun; it's a memory-intensive "theme" that not only creates transparent menu bars, but also activates the "flip" application and a few other Vista doo-dads.

What Vista attempts to do when it encounters a program it knows doesn't like Aero is to automatically switch to a Windows Vista Basic, which is a plain vanilla, ugly powder-blue theme. It puts Aero "on hold" until the offending (or offended) app terminates, at which time it will try to turn Aero back on.

What may happen is when you run DDO, right around the splash screen it may dump back to Windows, trying to "unhook" Aero. I found on my system running DDO a second time (which, yes, means I have to login twice) will usually get me into the game. You can also try switching to Windows Vista Basic (or anything else OTHER than Aero) and see if that works for you.

I just keep chanting "just another month and a half until W7, and all shall be well" over and over again.

[Mirthgar]

Certain programs (in fact, virtually anything produced by Turbine) do not play nice with Vista's Aero. Aero is more than "window dressing" if you'll pardon the pun; it's a memory-intensive "theme" that not only creates transparent menu bars, but also activates the "flip" application and a few other Vista doo-dads.

True any kind of 3D applications that make use of the graphics card is going to encounter this as Aero is also utilizing graphics resources on the system. Which is why many Vista aware apps (such as DDO, Lotro) turn it off before launching.

What's happening with the game is actually a Vista + DirectX 10 game + Aero = window focus issue. One thing to test is try enabling Desktop Compositing via the "UserPreferences.ini" file that's in your "Documents" > "Dungeons and Dragons Onlie" folder.

In there under the [Display] section change "AllowDesktopCompositing=False" to "True" (eg AllowDesktopCompositing=True ). Exit the prefs file and choose yes when asked to save changes.

What Vista attempts to do when it encounters a program it knows doesn't like Aero is to automatically switch to a Windows Vista Basic, which is a plain vanilla, ugly powder-blue theme. It puts Aero "on hold" until the offending (or offended) app terminates, at which time it will try to turn Aero back on.

What may happen is when you run DDO, right around the splash screen it may dump back to Windows, trying to "unhook" Aero. I found on my system running DDO a second time (which, yes, means I have to login twice) will usually get me into the game. You can also try switching to Windows Vista Basic (or anything else OTHER than Aero) and see if that works for you.

Alot of times this is definitely the best workaround for this if the desktop compositing option doesn't work and also this has the added side benefit of freeing up graphics resources on the system. With that in mind here are the steps in case:

• Right-click the desktop choose "Personalize" > Window Color and Appearance" > "Open classic appearance properties...."
• In the menu that comes up click on "Windows Vista Basic" and click Ok.

I just keep chanting "just another month and a half until W7, and all shall be well" over and over again.

Unfortunately I've had players on Win7 report they've had this happen as well.

[PowerJS]

when im playin ddo after 2mins or so my screen goes black. i can see the in game mouse cursor but not the game. any help would be helpful. just build this computer too, 6 days ago this is the only game thats givin me problems, every other game plays fine with no lag nor problems everything on high resolution as well. running windows 7 rc as my OS, OCZ ddr3 ram, asus extreme rampage motherboard, nvidia gtx 275 video card, water cool, etc.

[Rouge]

my favorite is when Vista informs me that it's using the Windows Vista Basic Color Scheme

(I'm running Windows Vista64 Basic Sp2)

"we apologize but a program you have been running has set your color scheme to the color scheme you are usually running"