Thread: SAL error
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Old November 18th, 2016, 04:11 PM
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Default Re: SAL error

All the non-windowed resolutions are antique MSDOS and windows 4;3 aspect ratio square CRT video modes. They are antiques, and not supported, are only there for those of you who might have a video driver that supports them, or possibly still have an old CRT 4:3 monitor. Modern windows wide screen monitor drivers often cannot handle a 4:3 mode, nor do some of them even allow 800x600 or less either. Also, many of them wont handle full-screen 256 colour mode either, so Full screen mode may be iffy or impossible to use on those.

Desktop resolution uses your current screen size. That applies to both Full-screen and Windowed modes. Desktop resolution mode was written specifically to handle modern wide screen monitors.

Thus Desktop resolution is what you use with modern wide-screen monitors, in Windowed Mode. It uses Windows friendly graphics, and coexists with the rest of the Windows environment, allowing task-switching between the game and other windows programmes without the game palette being scrambled by "modern" versions of Windows that think they own the 256 colour palette. Plus, you can see the task bar with its clock, notifications of incoming mail etc.

Summary:
- Use desktop resolution
- Use Windowed mode
- Ensure your Windows task-bar is set up as detailed in the Game Guide "running SPMBT/SPWW2" sections and the "Tuning your machines" one (i.e. in the default position at the bottom of the screen, with auto-hide off. There is a nag screen for that, and that nag screen can be turned off as described in the Game Guide, for those whose video drivers dont mess the game up when auto-hide is on)
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