Larger Aspect Ratio Windows 10

[DennyFrontier]

Has anyone had any luck getting the game to run in a larger aspect ratio for windows 10? I believe my monitor is 16:9 widescreen.

I've tried setting custom resolutions in the start up options but of course that does little in the way of aspect ratio and I have yet to find solid support for my issue. The game of course runs in 4:3 or whatever the next up is. But still not full screen.

[NetPCDoc]

While you have yet to say just what startup options you have tried, I use:
-CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -CPUCount:1

Where:

• "-CustomResolution" enables (or disables) custom resolutions,
• "-r<width>x<height>x<color>" sets the desired resolution;
• and "-CPUCount:1" restricts the computer to running this game on a single-cpu/core, which is all this old game expects to be available.

1920 is the pixel width of my display screen, 1080 is the pixel height of my display screen, and I happen to like 32 bits of color.

At one time EA actually supplied a set of 5 - "Background3D<[0:4]>.png" - image files to fill in backgrounds where the game was designed to leave 'gaps' around the edges of the game-images. Either the original set or a modded version thereof should be available at the more-or-less professional modding sites; follow installation directions on how to place these in a "Plugins" folder! Of course, should you be into that sort of thing, you could customize your own set of images to plugin; just do not forget to customize for your desired resolutions while you are replacing the default background images.

Caution:

Should you turn on "windowing" mode - you may not be able to get what I would call Full-Screen to work (i.e. in "windowing" mode - you get Full-Window).

[Fulano]

Originally posted by DennyFrontier:

Has anyone had any luck getting the game to run in a larger aspect ratio for windows 10? I believe my monitor is 16:9 widescreen.

I've tried setting custom resolutions in the start up options but of course that does little in the way of aspect ratio and I have yet to find solid support for my issue. The game of course runs in 4:3 or whatever the next up is. But still not full screen.

If it's not running full screen then I suspect something isn't right with the way you're setting the custom resolutions, as the method NetPCDoc mentioned has always worked for running on wide screen monitors for me.

Or are you talking about changing the interface somehow to be more specifically for wide screen?

[DennyFrontier]

Originally posted by Fulano:

Originally posted by DennyFrontier:

Has anyone had any luck getting the game to run in a larger aspect ratio for windows 10? I believe my monitor is 16:9 widescreen.

I've tried setting custom resolutions in the start up options but of course that does little in the way of aspect ratio and I have yet to find solid support for my issue. The game of course runs in 4:3 or whatever the next up is. But still not full screen.

If it's not running full screen then I suspect something isn't right with the way you're setting the custom resolutions, as the method NetPCDoc mentioned has always worked for running on wide screen monitors for me.

Or are you talking about changing the interface somehow to be more specifically for wide screen?

Well, my launch options are exactly -CustomResolution:enabled -r1024x768x32 -f -intro:off -CPUCount:1 -CPUPriority:high -Cursors:fullcolor.

But I think the resolution is irrelevant because I can set it to 10,000 resolution but if it still only plays in a little 4:3 aspect ratio, it does me no good

[DennyFrontier]

My old monitor is 1920x1080. The game works fine on that without any modifications. The picture stretches to cover the entire screen by default and in game I set the game to run at 1024x768.

The monitor on this computer is 2560x1440. And there is a 3 1/2 inch margin on both sides of the screen, regardless of what resolution I use.

[Fulano]

So in your case the option is still set to -r1024x768x32 which is a 4:3 ratio. What the -r option does is overrides the in game setting to force it to that resolution.

I don't think the game supports more than 1920x1080, but that is 16:9 so it will still fill the screen, so that means you'll actually need to use the option -r1920x1080x32

As for your old vs new monitor it probably has to do with the video card's scaling settings. If it's set to stretch the image it will fill a 16:9 screen with a 4:3 image, but it will distort it. You can check if it's stretching or keeping the aspect ratio in the video card settings.

For example in the NVIDIA settings I can go to "Adjust Desktop Size and Position" and under Scaling it will say "aspect ratio" or "full screen". You may also need to change the scaling to the GPU rather than the display.

EDIT:
I don't know if 2560x1440 will work or not, some places say the region view is distorted but it is fine in game, others say the game doesn't run.

[DennyFrontier]

Originally posted by Fulano:

So in your case the option is still set to -r1024x768x32 which is a 4:3 ratio. What the -r option does is overrides the in game setting to force it to that resolution.

I don't think the game supports more than 1920x1080, but that is 16:9 so it will still fill the screen, so that means you'll actually need to use the option -r1920x1080x32

As for your old vs new monitor it probably has to do with the video card's scaling settings. If it's set to stretch the image it will fill a 16:9 screen with a 4:3 image, but it will distort it. You can check if it's stretching or keeping the aspect ratio in the video card settings.

For example in the NVIDIA settings I can go to "Adjust Desktop Size and Position" and under Scaling it will say "aspect ratio" or "full screen". You may also need to change the scaling to the GPU rather than the display.

EDIT:
I don't know if 2560x1440 will work or not, some places say the region view is distorted but it is fine in game, others say the game doesn't run.

Thanks I think I understand now. I set it to 1920x1080 in the start up options and the game actually runs properly in that resolution. But the hud is so small its like I need a magnifying glass to see it. Thats why even back in the day, Ive always ran the game in 1024x768 I think I was confused because the widescreen guide I was looking at on steam said that 1024x768 was also a 16:9 aspect ratio and I wasnt understanding why it wasnt working.

Thanks for your help. =)

[Fulano]

There may be a lower resolution that is still 16:9... now you've got me curious...
Ya, here's a list of them if you wanted to try them to get the ideal size if the user interface:
1024×576
1152×648
1280×720
1366×768
1600×900

[DennyFrontier]

Originally posted by Fulano:

There may be a lower resolution that is still 16:9... now you've got me curious...
Ya, here's a list of them if you wanted to try them to get the ideal size if the user interface:
1024×576
1152×648
1280×720
1366×768
1600×900

The first few resolutions wont display in 16:9 for me. But I tried some further down the list and and 1280x720 and 1366x768 seem to work the best. Thankfully! I was trying to use a resolution I was familiar with, but in the end one of the other ones helped achieve the same result.

So thanks and thanks again