Is my resolution too big?
 

So, I'm a complete newbie here, and I was wondering if my computer can run SH3 with GWX and Commander. I'm not worried about the framerate, I'm wondering if my screen is too big. My screen has a resolution of 1680x1050. I have an ATI Radeon HD 3800.

My monitor's native resolution is the same, 1680x1050.

The game's native res is (IIRC) 1024x768 - a 4:3 aspect ratio, as it was not built to run in a widescreen format.

There are various "fixes" out there to specify a different resolution, including running the game in a widescreen format. Check the SH3 Mods Workshop Forum, there may be a stickied thread there for widescreen mods or you can search the forum for "widescreen" and see what comes up.

Personally I have not experimented with any of the widescreen mods, as the last time I checked none of them were designed to "fit" my monitor's native res and aspect ratio. It's been a while though, so things may have changed so have a look as noted above.

What I use is the Res_Fix mod, which (once installed) allows you to specify the resolution of your choice for the game when it runs.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1092

You can specify 1680x1050, but without modifying the graphics to fit a widescreen format you will probably see some stretching of images in the 2D bits of the game (what would normally be a round dial will become an oval shape, for instance). Some users aren't bothered by this, for some the effects might not be as great - your mileage may vary.

I didn't like the stretching effect so I set the res at 1400x1050 and turned off auto-scaling on my gfx card, so the game runs fullscreen but without being stretched out to fill the available 1680 horizontal space - instead I get narrow black bands down each side, kind of like horizontal letterboxing. (I have an ATI Radeon HD4650, if you have the Catalyst Control Center for your gfx card, that's where I went to turn off auto-scaling.)

So in short (I know, too late for that) it is possible to run the game at 1680x1050 with the proper modifications. You'll just have to try some things out and see what works and what looks good to you.

Alright, thank you very much. :salute:

You're welcome. Sink 'em all (at the highest resolution possible)! :D

Actually, where is the option for auto-scaling? I can't seem to find it.

Edit: Where is it in the control center, I mean.

Oddly enough I can't seem to find an option for it in the latest version of CCC - which I just installed after an OS upgrade.

I'm pretty sure that's where I did it in the version I had, though.

Ah, now I think I found it.

Under Desktops & Displays, select your display (if you're only hooked up to one monitor, it will only show one) and right click on its icon below where it says "Please select a display." Click on Configure, and you'll get a box with options for Image Scaling. I think what you want is "maintain aspect ratio," this will prevent the display from automatically rescaling the game to fill the whole desktop when it runs fullscreen.

EDIT: Actually now that I look at the "help" info for those options, it may be "centered timing" that is needed... argh, I haven't reinstalled the game yet so now I'm not sure exactly which one works for that. And this is a new version of CCC for me, it may have said "turn off auto-scaling" in the old one I had. Anyway - look for Scaling options in the Desktop/Display part of CCC and see what's there. You may have to play with it a bit to figure it out, I know I did... looks like I'll have to do it again this time around, lol.

Thanks again. I'll see if this works. :DL

I played around with it a bit using my TV as a second display, because its native res is different than my monitor... both "maintain aspect ratio" and "centered timing" seem to have the same effect. Try one and then the other and see what happens. :DL

I would recommend that you check out the MaGUI widescreen edition mod. They took the existing GUI and changed it so that GUI itself was changed and more items were added with the extra space. While there are a number of different widescreen mods out there, I believe all of them state that they are incompatible with any GUI mods, in my past experience trying those mods they merely streched the screen so everything was eliptical. Other's have reported the opposite, only way to know is to try it out.

The MaGUI widescreen was specifically altered in order to fit on 16:9 screens and use all their space. All the dials/scopes are perfect circles and there is a little more space in areas that were previously overloaded with too many controls on a single panel. However they did the MaGUI widescreen they really did it right, all ships and other objects are in their proper proportions and don't have any indications of streching.

For some reason, when I click configure on my display in CCC, the box that comes up doesn't have any options for aspect ratio or centering. I guess I can just try to play the game stretched. Also, Tessa, is the MaGui mod compatible with GWX/SH4Commander?

What version of CCC do you have? Are you in Basic or Advanced mode when you open it?

In mine, in Advanced mode, there's a "Graphics" dropdown menu in the top left corner. If I choose Desktops & Display, it shows me a window with the available desktops as numbered blue rectangles, one for each available display. (If only one monitor is hooked up, there's only a #1.) Below that is another area showing the hardware providing the display, an icon for each monitor/TV hooked up to the gfx card, also numbered. If I hold the cursor over one, the name of the device pops up. If I right click on one, I get a context menu with an option to Configure.

If I choose configure, I get a new dialog box for that device with several tabs up top, under the Attributes tab is where I can select options for Image Scaling.

Well, great, now the game won't run at all. It says that the 3d engine failed to intialize. I already tried deleting the intro movies, but no dice.

Also, I could not find any scaling options, with the latest version and advanced mode.

Sorry you're having problems. Maybe that card doesn't support it and so the option isn't there.

Not sure if you installed Res_Fix or one of the other resolution mods, if so I would advise undoing the last change(s) you made to see if that resolves the problem.

I just reinstalled it, so it has no mods, and yet it still has that error. Sorry about this, by the way. :oops:

If you are reinstalling the game itself, it's best to completely uninstall it first - not just run the Uninstall, but delete the folder it created in My Documents and do a registry clean to delete any entries there related to the game. Just in case you didn't do those things already. :DL

And don't be sorry, you're the one who can't play! But we'll get you sorted eventually. :yeah: