Widescreen ?

[Olive]

Hi,

I've changed my old fullscreen lcd for a widescreen one. But I don't see any option to turn the game to widescreen. I can turn res to 1650*1080, it's OK, but the picture is horizontally stretched. Any option to fix this ? Maybe a command-line parameter ?

[Dedas]

Yeah, this problem is annoying...

[McGlu]

I would like to see this too. I run 1920x1200 on my laptop.

[olaf73]

Same here!

[Ygorl]

Use "-r 1920 1200" for example to set the [r]esolution to 1920x1200. This is a command-line switch; the exact way to use it varies by operating system. Windows you make a link to the .exe and append the switch in the properties window of the link; on my Mac I start the game with an applescript that looks like:
do shell script "cd ~/Desktop/Dominions' '3/Dominions3.app/Contents/Resources/; ../MacOS/Dominions3 -r 1920 1200"
and if you're using Linux, you probably know how to use a command-line switch.

[Dedas]

Aha, will try that. Thanks.

[WSzaboPeter]

1680*1050 is great with the game, I don't see any stretchings.

[calmon]

Olive said:
Hi,

I've changed my old fullscreen lcd for a widescreen one. But I don't see any option to turn the game to widescreen. I can turn res to 1650*1080, it's OK, but the picture is horizontally stretched. Any option to fix this ? Maybe a command-line parameter ?



To find the option in the game:

Preferences -> Video preferences -> click on Fullscreen Resolution -> Choose your new Resolution (in your case 1680x1050)

[Olive]

I can run the game in 1680*1050, but the display isn't correct. My monitor is looking like the upper part of this picture and I'd like to make it look like the lower part which seems more correct (I've cut the upper corners of the screenshots) :

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9093/dom3wideyz6.jpg


WSzaboPeter said:
1680*1050 is great with the game, I don't see any stretchings.



Are you using custom settings ?

[BigJMoney]

I have the same problem. I'll set it to widescreen, but it's not true widescreen. Maybe it's our vid cards. I just run the game windowed and make it a square.

=$= Big J Money =$=

[McGlu]

Yeah, I tried the -r switch and it is still stretched. Basically it looks the same as running 1600x1200.

[GrobRIM]

I have the same problem on my laptop.
The issue is that in Dom3 (was the same in Dom2), the layout is based on a screen ratio of 4:3, which is fine for display on screen with a 4:3 resolution, eg 1024*768 or 1600*1200.
If you use a screen with another ratio (for example 16:9), then the base screen layout with ratio 4:3 is going to be mapped to 16:9, effectively stretching it horizontally.
I guess this issue is non-trivial to address, and is not a mere video-driver issue, because it requires from the developpers to change the layout of the frames (top-province frame, left-commanders frame, right-menu frame, etc) from their virtual 4:3 screen to adapt to all other possible screen ratios that exist on the market (16:9, 14:9, etc)

[Olive]

UP. A little late http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif , but my wide monitor was sent back because it had a dead pixel, and the seller had nothing more in his stock, so he refunded me. Just got a brand new one yesterday. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif


GrobRIM said:
I guess this issue is non-trivial to address, and is not a mere video-driver issue, because it requires from the developpers to change the layout of the frames (top-province frame, left-commanders frame, right-menu frame, etc) from their virtual 4:3 screen to adapt to all other possible screen ratios that exist on the market (16:9, 14:9, etc)



Depends on how the game is coded. If the ratio is by luck stored in a global variable, you have a way to easily change it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif .

Otherwise, too bad. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[GrobRIM]

Even having the ratio stored in a "global" won't help -- the point is, how to adapt the layout when the ratio changes.

For example, at the top of the screen, there are two "windows": the the "province" window in the top-left corner, and the "nation" window in the top-right corner.
With the current 4:3 ratio, their top edges are aligned on the top edge of the screen, and the province window's right edge touches the nation window's left edge.
Now imagine that we widen the screen by going to ratio 16:9; we now must decide how to adapt these two windows:
- either we don't change anything, and as the screen gets wider, a gap appears between the province window and the nation windows, which will look "funny" at best;
- or we make the top windows bigger to fill up the gap, but then, if the windows get wider, they'll also get taller (unless we want their content to be stretched), and so they'll cover more of the map underneath, leaving less useful space on the strategic map.

But whatever design choice is made, widescreen can/should be implemented for battle replay, where it will be of great added value (can see more of the battle without scrolling left/right)

[Caduceus]

I would say most folks don't have widescreen *yet*, but that is likely to change in the next 3-4 years (the tentative, conservative lifespan of this game on my PC). So this should probably be asked of the developers as a "future fix" to keep the longevity of Dominions 3 going.

[Olive]

GrobRIM said:
Even having the ratio stored in a "global" won't help -- the point is, how to adapt the layout when the ratio changes.

For example, at the top of the screen, there are two "windows": the the "province" window in the top-left corner, and the "nation" window in the top-right corner.
With the current 4:3 ratio, their top edges are aligned on the top edge of the screen, and the province window's right edge touches the nation window's left edge.
Now imagine that we widen the screen by going to ratio 16:9; we now must decide how to adapt these two windows:
- either we don't change anything, and as the screen gets wider, a gap appears between the province window and the nation windows, which will look "funny" at best;
- or we make the top windows bigger to fill up the gap, but then, if the windows get wider, they'll also get taller (unless we want their content to be stretched), and so they'll cover more of the map underneath, leaving less useful space on the strategic map.

But whatever design choice is made, widescreen can/should be implemented for battle replay, where it will be of great added value (can see more of the battle without scrolling left/right)



I think it's possible for the map view too. If the left informations panels position is calculated from the upper left corner and the right informations panels position is calculated from the upper right corner of the screen, we should have correct display for several ratios. The widest the screen, the largest the part of the map displayed, and icons remains the same. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

4/3 :
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4682/dom343ux8.th.jpg (http://img153.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dom343ux8.jpg)

16/10 :
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2811/dom31610ti0.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dom31610ti0.jpg)

Don't know the amount of work to add such an option. It depends of the already existing code I guess. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Gandalf Parker]

I dont think the librarys for linux and mac support the same settings as windows does. So it would be awhile before we see it in this game.

[alexti]

I don't think it has anything to do with the libraries. It's just a matter of how Dominions calculate size/position of panels: from 2 dimensions (width and height) or from one dimension (width or height) and aspect ratio.

[Ygorl]

That's funny, I always just thought the game's font had wide characters and commanders were supposed to show up in squares... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Gandalf Parker]

alexti said:
I don't think it has anything to do with the libraries. It's just a matter of how Dominions calculate size/position of panels: from 2 dimensions (width and height) or from one dimension (width or height) and aspect ratio.


Does it do it that way? I thought that it used a library and accepted settings from a set of standard screen sizes.

[alexti]

OpenGL+SDL should accept any sensible screen sizes (including widescreen) and I don't think there's any auto-layout support in SDL. There're very few libraries that has auto-layout on any OS. So it's most likely that Dom3 calculates layout itself.

[Esben Mose Hansen]

Since the game is rendered in openGL, it is most likely a bug when setting up window-coordinates. Once the tranformation matrices are set up correctly, the game would not have to worry any further about them.

This is the same for any openGL compatible system, which is basically all OSs in this day&age.

[GrobRIM]

Olive,

Nice job setting up the screen in 16:10, it just makes my long bla bla clearer:

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2811/dom31610ti0.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dom31610ti0.jpg)

By the way, I thought that the gap between the province window and the nation window would look terrible, but it actually doesn't. We could even imagine sliding the nation window to the left, and move up the right-side buttons into the space left by the nation window.

Devs, please have a look at Olive's 16:10 screen! Homework to do! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Olive]

Lol, thanks to the Gimp. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif