Incompatible razer chroma sdk version causes flickering in overwatch and other chroma games

[jundis]

My keyboard is flashing colors whenever I attempt to enter an Overwatch game. This does not occur with any other game I've tried.

The Corsair manager is the only one enabled, I've updated iCUE and firmware to latest, updated Aurora to nightly, and still the issue persists.

I've fully uninstalled and reinstalled both Aurora and the Razer wrapper

Expected Behaviour

1. Launch Overwatch, get black keyboard
2. Enter game
3. Keyboard changes color to hero specific color

Actual Behaviour

1. Launch Overwatch, get black keyboard
2. Enter game
3. Keyboard rapidly flashes colors, seems to cycle through the hero colors
4. Upon highlighting a character in hero selection, the flashing stops
5. Once the hero is confirmed and you are in, the flashing resumes

Reproduction steps

Run Overwatch with K70 (mk2 for what it's worth), only device enabled, on latest iCUE and firmware

Frequency

Every launch

Aurora Version:

v0.7.2+803

Previously an Issue?

Yes, v0.7.2 non-nightly has the same issue, upgraded to see if it was resolved

[sturn42]

I am experiencing the same exact issue on my G910 keyboard. My G502 mouse and Razer Firefly mousepad are unaffected. Items to note are Razer Synapse 3.0 received a new update on Tuesday as well as it being patch Tuesday for Windows 10. I am running version 1909. There were no other changes or updates to note.

[diogotr7]

Dev builds from 804 and above should fix this.

The issue is caused by the new synapse update. The newest version shouldn't try to hook into incompatible razer chroma sdk versions. To restore functionality, you can also click the Install button (on this new dev build) which should install an older, compatible version.

Note: If you have razer devices, it's probably not a good idea to do this last part, as synapse might break if you have mismatched versions. In this case it might not be possible to get the lighting to your other, non-razer, peripherals but we're still investigating.

[jundis]

This is working as of v0.7.2+804. Thanks for the quick fix!

[Nissimmizrachi]

I dont understand what i need to do to fix that issue

[diogotr7]

I'm reopening this because the dev versions of aurora should have a fix for the newer sdk versions relatively soon. Then you'll be able to install and use the latest sdk versions and not lose support for chroma lighting in aurora. Will close when that's merged

[charmarkk]

+1 - this seems to be affecting Apex Legends too. It worked once, but after that nothing. Just want to give some more evidence to this issue (I was hesitant to open a new one). I'll keep a look out for the new update. Running v0.8.0rc1.

[diogotr7]

rc1 fixed this mostly, and rc2 has a couple more fixes after that. Please test with v0.8.0-rc2

[charmarkk]

Will try rc2 tonight, thanks!

[charmarkk]

rc2 seems to also not work w Apex @diogotr7. Something to do with grabbing the correct application, it seems? If I force quit MSI_LED it'll pickup Wallpaper Engine or something else arbitray instead. And I have installed that broadcast application thingy from Discord. It really did seem to only work that one time.

I'll check again tomorrow when I can uninstall and reinstall the SDK.

[charmarkk]

It seems to work inconsistently after rebooting from sleep. It's not working now, for instance. @diogotr7

Seems like it's grabbing MSI_LED again. Desktop profile works as expected (though that ofc doesn't use the SDK).

[diogotr7]

i would suggest tweaking the priority of the apps in the razer sdk. you can do this through synapse if you have it installed, or through the registry if not.

It's contained in this key here Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Razer Chroma SDK as a semicolon separated list, in order of priority.

Aurora has to be below any app you wish to have displayed (overwatch, for example). You can also disable some apps taking control in their folders.

[charmarkk]

I see, that sounds promising! I don't have Razer gear, so I don't have synapse. That would be helpful information to make easily available. I will try this and report back.

Update: Registry hack seemed to fix it. I wonder if there's a way to write that change into a GUI or something. Thanks for the tip! I'll report any other changes/problems as they come up.

[sturn42]

The issue has returned. Chroma version 3.20.3 is showing as disabled in Aurora. I think this has actually been going on for a few months but only noticed it recently.