Display Issues FAQ - followup

[WCG (OP)]

Heh, heh. Apparently, 1440x900 isn't "at least 1280x1024." I didn't even think about it, until I couldn't see the bottom of the windows.

Holy cow, this display setting looks ugly on my wide-screen monitor! It works, but it's sure warped-looking.

I've really been struggling to play this game - not even to play, but just to get started. It's been one thing after another. It really looks interesting, though.

[ShadoCat]

Heh, heh. Apparently, 1440x900 isn't "at least 1280x1024." I didn't even think about it, until I couldn't see the bottom of the windows.

Holy cow, this display setting looks ugly on my wide-screen monitor! It works, but it's sure warped-looking.

Do you have another display setting for XXXXx1024?  That will give you the minimum height without distorting your ratio.

[sloanjh]

Split out of FAQ thread.

[niabaAurora]

I also have a 1440x900 monitor and I can play (quite) well using resize enable and SDesk. On WinXP.

• Open both programs, set SDesk to 1 desktop wide by 2 desktops tall.
• Any maximized windows should be locked or they'll misbehave (win+down arrow).
• Any windows that are too large to fit on the screen can be viewed by moving the desktop up and down with SDesk (middle mouse on the "toolwin").
• Any windows that automatically resized and have their bottoms cut off can be fixed by grabbing the bottom edge and pulling UP by a few pixels and and back down again. The more pixels you move it the less the window contents will be resized (real funky I know) - you'll have to practice this yourself and judge how much movement each window needs.
• This trick only works once for each window so if you mucked it up close and try again.
• Windows that you resize will look odd. Text boxes resize but labels don't, they'll be mismatched and some wont show.

I hope this helps.

[sloanjh]

I also have a 1440x900 monitor and I can play (quite) well using resize enable and SDesk. On WinXP.

• Open both programs, set SDesk to 1 desktop wide by 2 desktops tall.
• Any maximized windows should be locked or they'll misbehave (win+down arrow).
• Any windows that are too large to fit on the screen can be viewed by moving the desktop up and down with SDesk (middle mouse on the "toolwin").
• Any windows that automatically resized and have their bottoms cut off can be fixed by grabbing the bottom edge and pulling UP by a few pixels and and back down again. The more pixels you move it the less the window contents will be resized (real funky I know) - you'll have to practice this yourself and judge how much movement each window needs.
• This trick only works once for each window so if you mucked it up close and try again.
• Windows that you resize will look odd. Text boxes resize but labels don't, they'll be mismatched and some wont show.

I hope this helps.

This looks great!  Could you post it into the Display FAQ?

Thanks,
John

[Tnx]

Why don't you guys try checking the "show resolution my video card doesn't support" or whatever, I did that and with that setting on my video card runs a bit hotter, but its on par as when I'm playing Team Fortress 2 and such so I figure its not hurting the video card much.

[Erik L]

Why don't you guys try checking the "show resolution my video card doesn't support" or whatever, I did that and with that setting on my video card runs a bit hotter, but its on par as when I'm playing Team Fortress 2 and such so I figure its not hurting the video card much.

Win7 hides that. Or at least I've not managed to find it on my Win7 laptop.

[Father Tim]

Right-click on the desktop background, choose 'Screen Resolution', then click on 'Advanced Settings' - (It looks like simple blue text rather than a button) - then choose the 'Monitor' tab, where the 'Hide modes that this monitor cannot display' checkbox is right below the 'Screen refresh rate' dropdown box.

Unfortunately, if you have an advanced graphics card (most GeFroce, ATI or nVIDIA cards), this setting is disabled and you have to go into the graphics card control software to adjust it.  Fortunately, you most likely access that software from a tab on this screen.

[Tnx]

So for Nvidia, this checkbox is actually in the Nforce drivers, its called the "Nvidia control panel", it lets you change to anything you want, with precautions.. My apartment mate's desktop with an ATI video card has a similar feature.  Here's a screenshot to show you the screen..
I suggest you getting a temperature monitor for your graphics card, most newer graphics cards have a built in one (mine is a Geforce7600Go), you can download third party software like Everest from www.lavalys.com.  When I tried to do the max resolution on the control panel, my temps spiked up by 20 celsius in about 3 minutes.. so yeah, just be careful of that and I think you'll be fine, no need to destroy your computer to play this game.

[WCG (OP)]

so yeah, just be careful of that and I think you'll be fine, no need to destroy your computer to play this game.

Heh, heh. Thanks for the info, but I think I'll just continue to switch display resolutions whenever I want to play this game, and then switch back again when I quit. It's a pain, but not much of one.

And call me a coward, but I've had enough computer problems this winter!