Resolution Issues with 1.06c r3

[Oedi 1]

Hi there, I got the following problem, and I'm about half sure that this occures only after the latest patch: I want to play the game in 640x400 (original game resolution i think) in fullscreen on my 1920x1080 monitor, because I just don't like that the sidebar doesnt extend to the bottom of the screen. its just ugly imo. anyway, when ' start the game it automatically extends the resolution to 640x480 so i got an empty line under my sidebar. here are some screenshots for better understanding:

 

this (windowed) is what i want to see in fullscreen:

 

 

but, when i start the game in fullscreen, the starting menu is like this, extended with a black bottom line:

 

 

(be aware that i made the screens in window mode, because screenshots in fullscreen only result in black pictures in paint)

 

ingame i get an "extended" sidebar:

 

 

(dont mind the colors, i messed up with paint)

 

my CCConfig looks like this:

 

 

i tried almost everything in that config, i never get 640x400 in fullscreen

 

in the older patch version i think i had black lines at the top and the bottom of the screen, like in a dvd movie, but at least there was no ****ing extended sidebar

 

thanks for your help!

[pichorra 4]

Take a look at your conquer.ini, you must see

 

 

Width=640

Height=400

 

If it is not like that, just edit it.

 

 

now take a look at the ddraw.ini

 

windowed=False

 

save and run the game. that works for me.

 

I dislike those configuration tools... Even made by awesome guys.

[Oedi 1]

sry you didnt get my point

i can play the game in fullscreen, no problems there. but when i start in fullscreen, the game starts in 640x480 no matter what. conquer ini says 640x400 and ddraw.ini say windowed=false.

as you can see the the screenshots. i made all in windowed mode, but it looks the same in fullscreen (exept the first one, thats what i want in fullscreen)

[AlexB 8]

How do you start the game? By running the exe or by using a shortcut or batch file? If it's one of the latter, check whether the "-480" parameter is used. (I'm not sure whether this still makes sense with the patch.)

If you installed to the Program Files directory: How do you run the game and CCConfig? None as admin, or both? Or only one of them?

[Oedi 1]

starting the game through the .exe or TFD shortcut doesnt make any difference. i didnt install it in the program files directory, i like to have all my games sorted in a c:\games directory.

 

i tried it on my brothers computer using the same patch, hes using a monitor with 1680x1050 resolution, it works perfectly there.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Oedi

[Nyerguds 100]

Heh. I know what causes that.

A lot of video cards don't know the 640x400 screen resolution. When you try to launch the game, but the video mode fails, C&C95 falls back to resetting the height to 480. This is a system that's always been in C&C95, because 640x400 has always been a weird resolution. I simply didn't remove that code.

(And yes, this means that if you set some weird resolution that can't possibly work, it'll only reset the height before trying again, meaning that if you set something like 1835x600, and it fails, it'll try again with 1835x480, and probably fail again. Heh.)

 

Anyway.

You can get around it by putting the resolution to 640x400, setting cnc-ddraw to stretch the screen to 1280x800, with Center as stretching filter. Unlike 640x400, its exact double is a valid and common widescreen resolution, which your video card will probably have no problems with. The result will look exactly the same, or even a little sharper than before.

Another thing you could do is setting the game to 640x480, the filter to Linear, and enabling the Use original aspect ratio option. This will give you full screen 640x400 gameplay, but stretched to 640x480, and basically give you the game as it was always supposed to be seen, since DOS 320x200 was, in fact, a full screen resolution.

For the same aspect ratio correction effect with better (less blurry) visual quality, you can set the resolution to 640x400, the filter to Nearest, and set it to stretch to 1280x960 (640x480 *2). CnC-DDraw settings are tons of fun to juggle with

...in fact, I advise using this last one. It'll get you the game exactly as the Westwood devs intended it to be seen

 

By the way, Oedi... save screenshots in png. ALWAYS png. The gif format is 256-colour, meaning it ruins the image by dithering it, and jpeg blurs colours, which is not a good thing in a game where the infantry are about 12 pixels high. Incidentally, you can let cnc-ddraw save png game screenshots simply by pressing [Ctrl]+S ingame 

 

On 7/16/2012 at 1:21 AM, AlexB said:

If it's one of the latter, check whether the "-480" parameter is used. (I'm not sure whether this still makes sense with the patch.)

I just tested this. The parameter does still exist, and does still set the height to 480, but the value gets overridden later by my new resolution system. In other words, the parameter does nothing.

[Oedi 1]

You can get around it by putting the resolution to 640x400, setting cnc-ddraw to stretch the screen to 1280x800, with Center as stretching filter. Unlike 640x400, its exact double is a valid and common widescreen resolution, which your video card will probably have no problems with. The result will look exactly the same, or even a little sharper than before.

 

Works like a charm, thank you!

[Nyerguds 100]

Glad I could help. I added a few more possible workarounds, if you're interested

[Oedi 1]

On 7/16/2012 at 3:03 PM, Nyerguds said:

You can get around it by putting the resolution to 640x400, setting cnc-ddraw to stretch the screen to 1280x800, with Center as stretching filter. Unlike 640x400, its exact double is a valid and common widescreen resolution, which your video card will probably have no problems with. The result will look exactly the same, or even a little sharper than before.

For the same aspect ratio correction effect with better (less blurry) visual quality, you can set the resolution to 640x400, the filter to Nearest, and set it to stretch to 1280x960 (640x480 *2). CnC-DDraw settings are tons of fun to juggle with

...in fact, I advise using this last one. It'll get you the game exactly as the Westwood devs intended it to be seen

 

By the way, Oedi... save screenshots in png. ALWAYS png. The gif format is 256-colour, meaning it ruins the image by dithering it, and jpeg blurs colours, which is not a good thing in a game where the infantry are about 12 pixels high. Incidentally, you can let cnc-ddraw save png game screenshots simply by pressing [Ctrl]+S ingame 

tried both, didnt really see a difference, maybe im blind 

i used .gif because its not as big as jpeg, bmp etc files, i know it messes with the colors, but my upload isnt the fastest here 

[Nyerguds 100]

On 17/07/2012 at 12:50 PM, Oedi said:

tried both, didnt really see a difference, maybe im blind

Well, basically, DOS C&C was in 320x200 resolution. However, that 320x200 used deliberately elongated pixels. The area used by that 320x200 was what modern monitors would fill with 320x240.

This means that the game's graphics are all made to be slightly stretched. Looking at the original title screen, you see this:

This image is 640x400 in size. As you see, the circle in the middle isn't a circle. I's slightly flattened. That's because it's supposed to be stretched to the 'fullscreen' 640x480, like this:

And now the circle looks correct. The same is noticeable on all GDI logos in the mission briefing videos (except one or two where they forgot the correction, which would've looked stretched out vertically back in DOS C&C).

 

On 17/07/2012 at 12:50 PM, Oedi said:

i used .gif because its not as big as jpeg, bmp etc files, i know it messes with the colors, but my upload isnt the fastest here

Actually, your 2 ingame battlefield view screenshots each take about 150 KB. I just compared with a png screenshot saved with cnc-ddraw's [Ctrl]+S function on the same resolution, and it was only 64 KB. PNG is a great format (Not that it matters here, though; you made your point.)

[Oedi 1]

I know its not right to rape such an old thread, but it is still very relevant imo. i just reinstalled the game (about time :D) and had some problems with ccconfig and that darn resolution problem.

i actually found this thread again by googling "oedi nyerguds ddraw" x) didnt know when and where we had this discussion, but i still knew we had it  

On 16.7.2012 at 3:03 PM, Nyerguds said:

For the same aspect ratio correction effect with better (less blurry) visual quality, you can set the resolution to 640x400, the filter to Nearest, and set it to stretch to 1280x960 (640x480 *2). CnC-DDraw settings are tons of fun to juggle with

this is still working perfectly and exactly the way i want the game to look. I seriously can't thank you enough, even 5 years later

[Nyerguds 100]

Hehe. Glad to (still) be of service.

[Advantium 0]

I've come from the future to resurrect a dead thread in the hopes you can help me!

I've been able to follow the directions for the resolution fix as above up until the set 'Center as stretching filter' part. I could not find that line in the conquer or draw files. If anyone could assist I would most appreciate it.

Made this profile exclusively for this so I hope you cool people can help!

 

Thanks 

[Nyerguds 100]

Hmm... that was the letterboxing option in the original...

You can just replace it with "Nearest neighbor". The result is identical.