Playing SHCE on TV sets

[Pilot_76]

I have successfully installed SHCE in my Win 7 64 bits. Thing is that the gameplay is normal but the only thing bothering me is that I use a 32" TV as a primary display. DOSBOX and D-Fend Reloaded work just fine with the game but I have the problem of when playing full screen the TV does not display 100 percent of the screen. The time and the lower right shortcuts are not displayed entirely when on patrol. Switching the display to the regular pc monitor solves this but there goes my 32" and back to 23" :-(

Another laptop runs SHCE and has the same problem when using the TV from the living room. I tried different display resolutions, changing the DPI, most of the resolutions and outputs using D-Fend Reloaded but to no avail. Even the "Just scan" feature from each tv set does not work. The game is only playable with full screen on a pc monitor. Has anyone bumped into this issue? Other DOS games does not present this problem...

Tks all.

[Sailor Steve]

I don't know what to say. I use a 28" monitor for gaming and TV, so I've never seen this. On the other hand I do read the 'Classics' forum and appreciate that people still play these games.

[Pilot_76]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I don't know what to say. I use a 28" monitor for gaming and TV, so I've never seen this. On the other hand I do read the 'Classics' forum and appreciate that people still play these games.

Yes I do have a retro attack sometimes. SHCE's TDC full screen is a must play. I know that there is a full 3D TDC mod for SH4.

Silent Service 1 and 2 has the same issue. Just checked :-(

[NefariousKoel]

Looks as if the basic DOSbox up-scaling isn't working on my SH1.

I often set them to run at 2x or 3x their original resolution but this isn't actually doing it as most do.

May try forcing it to a specific windowed resolution (1024x768 maybe?) and see if it does so. If that actually works, it would be the ideal way for you to see the whole display.

Your HDTV is cutting off the bottom due to it's own Scaling settings. This old DOS game is a 4:3 ratio, which the HDTV will detect as Standard Definition. There are a few different ways for 16:9 ratio TVs & monitors to show the taller, but far less wide, SD ratio. They either stretch it so much it looks bad, show it in the original format with black bands all around, or expand it a bit and then cut off some of the top & bottom because it doesn't fit. Sounds like you're getting the latter.

You may be able to find a better Scaling setting for it in your TV's settings. For HDTVs, generally none are optimal for displaying such low-res Standard Def outputs but at least you may be able to keep it from cutting off parts.

[NefariousKoel]

Up-scaling the Window works just fine for Silent Hunter in DOSbox.

You can make the game window larger, but still keep it's original aspect ratio so that it doesn't "stretch" and look weird on widescreen.


I changed these settings in the DOSbox Options file, which can be opened via Start Menu>Programs>DOSbox>Options.

Change the following to:

fullscreen=false
windowresolution=960x720

(you can use whatever resolution you want the window to be but I kept this one at an even two times the size of the original. Plus it's on my laptop so the smaller screen means I don't need a massive res.)

output=overlay


(under [Render] is..)

aspect=true
scaler=advmame3x


(There are different scaler types, along with both 2x and 3x options. The advanced mame filter cleans up a little bit of the extra jaggies from the original screen being upscaled so much, but not so much that it looks excessively blurred. Even if you try some of the others listed, I still suggest using a 3x when using the above resolution or higher.)

[Pilot_76]

Originally Posted by NefariousKoel

Up-scaling the Window works just fine for Silent Hunter in DOSbox.

You can make the game window larger, but still keep it's original aspect ratio so that it doesn't "stretch" and look weird on widescreen.


I changed these settings in the DOSbox Options file, which can be opened via Start Menu>Programs>DOSbox>Options.

Change the following to:

fullscreen=false
windowresolution=960x720

(you can use whatever resolution you want the window to be but I kept this one at an even two times the size of the original. Plus it's on my laptop so the smaller screen means I don't need a massive res.)

output=overlay


(under [Render] is..)

aspect=true
scaler=advmame3x


(There are different scaler types, along with both 2x and 3x options. The advanced mame filter cleans up a little bit of the extra jaggies from the original screen being upscaled so much, but not so much that it looks excessively blurred. Even if you try some of the others listed, I still suggest using a 3x when using the above resolution or higher.)

Thanks I'll try that once I'm back home in a few days. (Can't bring my tv to work )

I'll test it and come back here...

[NefariousKoel]

Also remember that CTRL+F10 will release your mouse cursor from the DOSbox window.

So if you need to switch back to your Windows cursor, to move the game window or anything else, hit CTRL+F10.

To switch back to the DOS game cursor, just click inside the window.


As I mentioned, you can raise the forced window resolution in the DOSbox setting file (windowresolution= ) but the higher it is set, the worse the DOS game will look due to the graphics being expanded. It's a trade-off.

But forcing it to play in this Windowed mode will at least let you both fit it on your screen and keep it from stretching it into an oval-shape, as it normally does when running full screen as default.

[Pilot_76]

Originally Posted by NefariousKoel

Also remember that CTRL+F10 will release your mouse cursor from the DOSbox window.

So if you need to switch back to your Windows cursor, to move the game window or anything else, hit CTRL+F10.

To switch back to the DOS game cursor, just click inside the window.


As I mentioned, you can raise the forced window resolution in the DOSbox setting file (windowresolution= ) but the higher it is set, the worse the DOS game will look due to the graphics being expanded. It's a trade-off.

But forcing it to play in this Windowed mode will at least let you both fit it on your screen and keep it from stretching it into an oval-shape, as it normally does when running full screen as default.

Nefarious, I have tried some resolutions and some did work but the screen got stretched up a bit. Anyway I'll stick this process further with more attempts. The monitor is still the best ratio/resolution so far so I am planning to move to a laptop or stay with the monitor. The tv I will use for the Solution Solver and other utilities

If I find a proper fix for this I'll post it here again

tks!