N:R is not changing screen resolutions

[travesty]

For some reason, the new Nethergate refuses to change the screen resolution on my laptop. Avernums 1-4 all do it properly. I can change manually to 800x600 before I start playing, but it's kind of annoying to have to do that. Whether I have it preset to change resolutions, or have it ask on startup, it always just centers the game in my standard resolution (1280x800). Any suggestions?

 

It's a Dell XPS M1210 laptop running Windows XP Professional Version 2002 with Service Pack 2.

[Spidweb]

This is by design. In widescreen monitors, if it switches to 800x600, it scretches out the game area and makes it look weird.

 

This way, the game looks for the resolution on your monitor that makes the game area have the intended aspect ratio. The resolution you're getting is the closest option.

 

- Jeff Vogel

[travesty]

But I actually prefer it at 800x600! If I want it to stay at 1280x800, I can just tell it not to switch. As it is, both options (switch or don't switch) are the same. Well, I can just do it manually.

[travesty]

Oh, and although I don't know how typical this behavior is, when my monitor is in 800x600 mode, it doesn't distort things; rather, it has two black bars on the left and right of the screen to have a standard 4:3 ratio.

[gis]

hmm my problem is related to this subject also:

 

windows xp,

widescreen 15,4"

 

so my computer is a laptop, and the picture streches so much that only about one eigth of the picture is visible in the screen and no options have been enabled wether or not to change resolution. i cannot possibly choose any further options since cannot see even menu items.

 

if anyone knows a way outta this i would appreciate it.

 

++ gis

[Tyranicus]

I know this doesn't really help anyone, but I'm really starting to wonder when Jeff is going to stop using the 4:3 ratio for all his games. I mean, 40% of his sales are to Mac users. There isn't a single Mac that has a 4:3 screen on the market today, and there hasn't been for quite some time. A healthy number of PCs are 16:10 now too.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by Tyranicus:
A healthy number of PCs are 16:10 now too.

Why's it called 16:10 and not 8:5, anyway?

[Micawber]

Quote:

Why's it called 16:10 and not 8:5, anyway?

I guess because a lot more people have 19" monitors than 9" ones.

Though that line of thought raises the question of why the tv ratio is called 4:3 rather than say, 12:9.

Edit: Double D'oh.

[Lattan]

Quote:

Originally written by Thuryl:

Quote:

Originally written by Tyranicus:
A healthy number of PCs are 16:10 now too.

Why's it called 16:10 and not 8:5, anyway?

My assumption is that it's easier to compare to 16:9 and people like tens.

gis, can you give us a better description of what's going on? Which way is the picture stretched? Have you ever run the game successfully before?

[Mr Pras]

I have the same problem in XP SP2

 

Not in Vista - works fine

 

also 4:3 because it's the smallest possible numbers to describe the ratio

 

The reason we use 16:10 and not 8:5 is to conform to 16:9, at least I think so..

[Tyranicus]

Quote:

Originally written by Mr Pras:
also 4:3 because it's the smallest possible numbers to describe the ratio

The reason we use 16:10 and not 8:5 is to conform to 16:9, at least I think so..

Why not 16:12 for 4:3 then?

[Schrodinger]

A quick work-around for those of us with widescreen laptop windows XP is to manually change the resolution of your screen to 800x600, then click on "don't change" when the box comes up on starting Nethergate. It'll result in a nice, large playing area.