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BC Forums => BC General => Topic started by: Anger on June 16, 2008, 05:35:32 AM

Title: Did some deep looking.
Post by: Anger on June 16, 2008, 05:35:32 AM
It turns out Picard got himself a new HD Viewscreen sporting a nice Widescreen aspect ratio...

Posted for PTD on BCFiles, but I thought I'd post it here as well:

Riker: Captain, our new Samsung HD Viewscreen is installed and ready to use.
Picard: Onscreen!
*Picard sits back in his chair with a slight grin.*

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/SuperFriendBFG/ScreenShot003.jpg)

Note: This may not be a true widescreen aspect ratio, the ratio I used in-game is 1280 * 800, and it worked without crashing.

Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: lint on June 16, 2008, 05:50:48 AM
Not to rain on your parade or anything,
But i have to say i have seen better quality using 1024x768
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: Anger on June 16, 2008, 06:23:35 AM
Yeah the purpose of the pic is to show that you in fact can use an irregular aspect ratio in BC without crashing it. Also note that the uploaded image is also scaled down, it's not that terrible looking in-game.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v358/SuperFriendBFG/?action=view&current=ScreenShot003.jpg

There's a direct link to the full-scale image. As you can see it's not bad, and it also lets us Widescreen users play in Fullscreen, which would otherwise, look distorted.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 16, 2008, 07:04:24 AM
It would be quite usefull to tell how you did it.


My guess, you changed things in options.cfg and went to windowed mode.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: Billz on June 16, 2008, 07:47:30 AM
Still looks bad in the full ratio... :(
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: JimmyB76 on June 16, 2008, 08:06:18 AM
BC for some reason wont do 1440x900, 1680x1050, and up...
i have been successful to get it at 1280x768 (tho i think it did crash for me when i tried 800, i dont recall)...
and i havent been successful at getting it at 1600x1200 for me, tho i have seen others who could...
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 16, 2008, 08:16:09 AM
I think the 1440 and 1680 won't, directly anyway, work, since BC has various sizes hardcoded in it. And 1440 and 1680 aren't part of the possible width list (at best, the GUI would look like it was on 640x480, since it defaults to that).

Not sure why 1600x1200 won't work, since it's a standard BC size.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: JimmyB76 on June 16, 2008, 09:11:25 AM
Not sure why 1600x1200 won't work, since it's a standard BC size.
i have tried everything i can think of with that, and different programs to try altering the options.cfg...  i wish i could get 1600x1200 to work for me but i just cannot :(
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 16, 2008, 09:17:16 AM
I take it you are using a widescreen monitor, can you set your desktop to 1600x1200?
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: JimmyB76 on June 16, 2008, 09:19:19 AM
hmmm good question - i shall have to check as soon as i get home (im at work right now)...
there are many resolutions i can try, whether or not that is one of them (or if it is, if it will work - i have tried using 1680x1050, and it works tho everything is blurry) im not too sure...
ill check later today :)

but trying 1600x1200 in BC causes an immediate crash for me...  i wish i could "break" my way around it tho lol
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 16, 2008, 09:19:55 AM
The blurry-ness is because of the thing I mentioned before.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: JimmyB76 on June 16, 2008, 09:21:32 AM
which thing?  (lol sorry im slow at the moment, still early morning here for me :P)

and, in windowed mode, i can only go up to 1024x768 and nothing higher...
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 16, 2008, 09:26:27 AM
That thing:
I think the 1440 and 1680 won't, directly anyway, work, since BC has various sizes hardcoded in it. And 1440 and 1680 aren't part of the possible width list (at best, the GUI would look like it was on 640x480, since it defaults to that).

BC has sets of icons defined for various sizes, (640, 800, 1024, 1280 and 1600), if the width doesn't match that size, then it defaults to the 640 set of icons. Which, when applied to something more than twice as big, means that it will stretch it.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: JimmyB76 on June 16, 2008, 09:29:18 AM
aaah ok i see how you mean now...
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: JimmyB76 on June 16, 2008, 02:52:29 PM
ok i just got home, and i am successful in running BC in 1280x768 and as well 1280x800...

I take it you are using a widescreen monitor, can you set your desktop to 1600x1200?
yes i can set my desktop to 1600x1200 (tho my desktop icons and text look all blurry, which i expected...)
but i still cannot set BC to the same resolution lol
i have tried using PSPad (i heard it was a good program to try with the options.cfg) to alter the resolution, but 1600x1200 in BC just wont work for me...
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 16, 2008, 05:17:49 PM
Odd, it might "just" be a windowed mode thing.
As in, BC doesn't think anyone will use Windowed mode so large.

What is your normal desktop resolution?
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: ChronowerX_GT on June 16, 2008, 05:37:49 PM
I got 1280x720 so it could be outputted through a hdtv. Though i couldn't get 1920x1080 to work even though it's the same aspect. Just comes up with D3D Render failure or summin like that. Well at least it's widescreen.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: JimmyB76 on June 16, 2008, 05:51:10 PM
Odd, it might "just" be a windowed mode thing.
As in, BC doesn't think anyone will use Windowed mode so large.

What is your normal desktop resolution?
1440x900
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 16, 2008, 06:00:42 PM
Interesting (in both your cases), though I'm still waiting for Angers reply to my question (about what he has done to do this).



@Jimmy, are you trying this in Windowed mode?
In that case, BC mostlikely sees it as being too large and not allow it.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: Anger on June 16, 2008, 06:25:11 PM
It's simple, I only modified the config.

Code: [Select]
[Graphics Options]
Texture Detail|2
Number of Lights|8
MipMaps|1
Display Depth|32
Display Height|800
LOD Skip|0
Visible Damage|3
Display Device=Direct3D T&L HAL on Radeon X1950 Pro
Display Width|1280
Fullscreen Mode|1
Effect Detail|3

There are some issues with the HUD, that appear to be fixed on the 1280 * 768 resolution lukerobin used. I'll try that res.

This is a rather low resolution to run at, but cranking up the AA and AF can help reduce the jaggies. For me I prefer using these resolutions in full screen over looking at a small 1024*768 window.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 16, 2008, 06:27:17 PM
Just like I thought then.

Though, interesting, you managed to use it in Fullscreen Mode.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: JimmyB76 on June 16, 2008, 07:00:11 PM
@Jimmy, are you trying this in Windowed mode?
In that case, BC mostlikely sees it as being too large and not allow it.
no, it wont allow me to try anything in windowed mode except 1024x768 and lower 4:3 resolutions...

I got 1280x720 so it could be outputted through a hdtv. Though i couldn't get 1920x1080 to work even though it's the same aspect. Just comes up with D3D Render failure or summin like that. Well at least it's widescreen.
same - 1280x768 does work for me...  the other ratios dont :( (1600x1200, etc)...  windowed or not... 


i wish there was a way to force around this lol
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: ChronowerX_GT on June 16, 2008, 07:33:20 PM
What I find strange is that the aspect ratio doesn't seem to come into this. Like 1920*1080 is 1.5x bigger thatn 1280*720. It's the same ratio (16:9). I think i got a 16:10 ratio using 1280*800 but I can't remember. 1440*900 I can get into the main menu but not in game. 1600*1200 won't show at all. 
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: Billz on June 16, 2008, 07:35:58 PM
BC for some reason wont do 1440x900, 1680x1050, and up...
i have been successful to get it at 1280x768 (tho i think it did crash for me when i tried 800, i dont recall)...
and i havent been successful at getting it at 1600x1200 for me, tho i have seen others who could...

Yo.  8)
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 16, 2008, 08:05:10 PM
Like I've stated, BC is very narrow minded because when it was made no widescreen monitors were present (not a lot anyway below 2000 dollars). So it forcefully tries to go to a 4:3 aspect ratio at a couple of predefined settings.

Therefor, it simply doesn't know, at all, what to do.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: ChronowerX_GT on June 16, 2008, 08:31:15 PM
I know nothing about scripting and all that, so this may sound stupid, but... exackly what part of BC prevents it from having other resolutions and how would one go about changing that?

Like I've stated, BC is very narrow minded because when it was made no widescreen monitors were present (not a lot anyway below 2000 dollars). So it forcefully tries to go to a 4:3 aspect ratio at a couple of predefined settings.

Therefor, it simply doesn't know, at all, what to do.

I'm getting widescreen.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 16, 2008, 08:35:03 PM
The exe itself does this.

The scripts only do the GUI part, and, in case of widescreen, will revert to 640 icons.



Yes, you are, because you are tricking BC into doing that.
Go to Graphics Options, and the config will mostlikely revert.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: ChronowerX_GT on June 16, 2008, 08:40:06 PM
Yes, you are, because you are tricking BC into doing that.
Go to Graphics Options, and the config will mostlikely revert.

Yeah, it shows the resolution (1280*720) in the gfx options but when you click the dropdown I only get the usual 1024*768,1280*1024 etc.

Is there anyway to alter the .exe? I know other games have done it (like Crysis) where the .exe was altered so it would run without a CD.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 16, 2008, 08:41:41 PM
Yes, you are, because you are tricking BC into doing that.
Go to Graphics Options, and the config will mostlikely revert.

Yeah, it shows the resolution (1280*720) in the gfx options but when you click the dropdown I only get the usual 1024*768,1280*1024 etc.

Is there anyway to alter the .exe? I know other games have done it (like Crysis) where the .exe was altered so it would run without a CD.
That is way, way, way, into the realm of "illegal". And is not discussed on these boards.

Suffice to say, unless you have a really good sense of assembly, don't bother.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: Anger on June 16, 2008, 09:59:44 PM
The widescreen works fine in-game. There are no anomalies caused, the only problem that could happen is the HUD being partially hidden, but if you know your keybinds this isn't really an issue.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on June 17, 2008, 02:19:47 PM
Only if you use a width that BC regards as "normal" (trust me, I've read all the scripts related to this, and it's scattered through). ;)

Otherwise, blurry UI.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: Anger on August 08, 2008, 09:05:01 PM
I wanted to necropost this in light of the recent guide posted on the BCfiles web site.

This will not work using the standard version of Notepad, try Notepad2 or Jarte.
Title: Re: Did some deep looking.
Post by: MLeo on August 09, 2008, 09:41:09 AM
There was been another, more recent, thread about this here.
http://bc-central.net/forums/index.php/topic,4084.0.html