Mouse Pointer vanishing in Fullscreen Mode

[Raist]

It's a long time issue with Vista's DWM that has affected many applications over the years. It's basically a Vista glitch that Microsoft basically only ever addressed with SP1 in the scope of addressing a problem with screen capturing for image editing software (it was injecting the software mouse into the images). It's something that really falls on Microsoft to address with their DX9, Aero, and DWM implementations in Vista.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa969540.aspx

The desktop composition feature, introduced in Windows Vista, fundamentally changed the way applications display pixels on the screen. When desktop composition is enabled, individual windows no longer draw directly to the screen or primary display device as they did in previous versions of Windows. Instead, their drawing is redirected to off-screen surfaces in video memory, which are then rendered into a desktop image and presented on the display.

Desktop composition is performed by the Desktop Window Manager (DWM). Through desktop composition, DWM enables visual effects on the desktop as well as various features such as glass window frames, 3-D window transition animations, Windows Flip and Windows Flip3D, and high resolution support.

The Desktop Window Manager runs as a Windows service. It can be enabled and disabled through the Administrative Tools Control Panel item, under Services, as Desktop Window Manager Session Manager.

Just saying, it isn't a problem exclusive to XIV--it's more a problem with Hardware vs Software mouse cursor rendering because SE is relying on HWCursor support. This layer is SUPPOSED to be supported fully in DirectX and our drivers at this point, but in Vista it's knackered up because of Micro$oft's shoddy implementations--they integrated a half-assed fix nearly 6 years ago that never properly addressed the issue and considered the matter closed.

At best, SE may be able to go back to the drawing board with the rendering engine and GUI to integrate a HWCursor option or something (this was included in a lot of games in the past). But I wouldn't expect that to happen until the newer DirectX version of XIV is released... whenever that happens.

The only thing that consistently remedied this problem when it resurfaced in the past (aside from running windowed) was to disable all things Aero related (desktop, peek, glass, and desktop/mouse themes--to go back to a more vanilla classic look/feel) and disable the DWM service from loading--basically trying to force Desktop Composition out of the picture (think this may be an option under compatibility options too.. forget the full details). It used to work back when these problems first came up, but who knows with all the band-aids Microsoft has put on Vista over the years. Seems like the more they fix, the more they break sometimes.