So... what s up with the resolution?

[Bifte]

Hello there. I know I m not the first to have noticed that but currently there is no option of changing the resolution in game. The change of the aspect ratio is a welcome addition but doesn t change the fact that the current resolution looks... meh. I m checking the forum daily in hopes that someone has come up with a workaround for that but so far nothing.

I know that this is an ooold game but since there was a fix for the resolution in the previous version, can t there be one for the current version as well?

[VRBALAZS]

Hello. Using the 4:3 aspect ratio will run the game internally at its highest supported resolution, 1024x768. Other aspect ratios will indeed cut the top/bottom of the visible portion of the screen. Widening the field of view does cause some issues on certain levels, so the decision was made not to exceed the original, tested maximum number of pixels.

[r34p3r85]

I think you did an excellent job, game runs perfect.
Graphics serve the purpose, certainly good enough to replay the game after 17 years.

[r34p3r85]

One thing came to my mind now, set it to 4:3 even if you have a 16:9 monitor.
First, you have 768 vs. 576 pixel height. This especially comes handy in levels that are more high than wide, for example 10th - Sanchez's fortress.
Second, if you stretch 1024x576 on a 2560x1440, that's 2,5x stretch.
Now if you stretch 768 height on 1440, that's only 1,9x stretch, and graphics look better, and you don't even notice black borders.

[r34p3r85]

Is my math right here?
I will try again with how many pixels in whole, height*width.

2560x1440 vs. 1024x576 = 6,3x more
1920x1440 vs. 1024x768 = 3,5x more

This should be right, as graphics is really 2x better 4:3 vs. 16:9.

[Bifte]

First of all I would like to thank @vrbalazs for noticing the thread and responding. I wish more developers nowadays were like you, in contact with their player base!

Secondly, I set the aspect ratio at 4:3 and I have to say, this is the best one can do. Not only the graphics look alright (not too pixel-ish) but also I have noticed that it also seems to reduce the fps drops at some points. For example in the first mission, with 16:9 ar I have noticed that as the train was coming to the station, there there seemed to be a drop in fps. With 4:3 ar this wasn t the case. The game runs as smoothly as it can. And I not even bothered about the side borders!

To conlude, a million thanks to the developers for bothering enough to update the game after 17 years so that we can enjoy it in new systems as much as in the old ones! Cheers!

[VRBALAZS]

r34p3r85: yes, the graphics will always have more detail when set to 4:3, but - imho - the pixelled nature of the game lends itself nicely to some blockiness, that's one of the reasons the original pixel-perfect blitting was kept, except the very last step when the final buffer is resized. (I'm sure some people would even prefer this last step to be performed on an integer scale.)

Bifte: hmmm if you notice sustained performance drops below 25fps, please let me know, it really shouldn't happen on today's machines. Or even yesterday's :) Just read the "Technical information & support" thread on how to contact us.

[r34p3r85]

I wanted to reply to topic "1920x1080", but when I posted, it showed an error, as it seems the topic was deleted meantime.
Anyway, I managed to CTRL+C, so here you go:

That's old, don't even try it, as you can't just overwrite new exe with old one.
I wanted to say you can use HEX editor like it is described in the tutorial for Commandos 2 on WSGF.

But I now see on WSGF Desperados page, that they added exe's for 2018 version. I just downloaded it now, haven't tried it yet.
http://www.wsgf.org/dr/desperados-wanted-dead-or-alive/en

[VRBALAZS]

While of course everyone's free to mod their games, please note that using these modified executables can cause side effects and there's no support for them.

[r34p3r85]

I tried it and even 1280x1024 is not ok, HUD is too small and characters in game also.
And WS resolutions are useless in this game, level 11 and only half a screen shows on 2560x1440.
I think this game is fine just the way it is.

Increasing FPS also doesn't work, here it is explained why not:
https://www.gog.com/forum/desperados_series/how_to_fix_desperados_on_windows_7_x64_without_wrappers_or_messing_with_your_mouse_driver
I don't even know why they included that, perhaps if you want to move characters quicker.

EDIT:
Stupid me, of course 1280x1024 is not OK, pixel height is what determines HUD size.

Too small HUD and also characters in the game (harder to hit them unless you zoom in):
1280x1024
1680x945
1920x1080

Better than original 1024x768, as you see more in width:
1280x720
1366x768
1600x900

I would say it is ok up to 900 height.

[r34p3r85]

Here are the screenshots of different resolutions on 2560x1440 display, mission 12.

1024x576 (original 16:9)
https://ibb.co/jK2wE8

1024x640 (original 16:10)
https://ibb.co/iVQGE8

1024x768 (original 4:3)
https://ibb.co/hemCnT

1280x720
https://ibb.co/cqMdST

1366x768
https://ibb.co/ktqBgo

1600x900
https://ibb.co/gvFYu8

1680x945
https://ibb.co/hP9tu8

1920x1080
https://ibb.co/nuNrgo

2048x1152
https://ibb.co/gcHJST

2560x1440
https://ibb.co/cR0SMo

I think 1600x900 is the best choice.
If not that, then 1366x768. I think it was really a strange decision not to add this resolution to the new update, as it has the same height as 1024x768, but nobody today uses 4:3 monitors anymore.


What is also an interesing resolution, 2048x1152.
It is too small on regular zoom, but on 2x zoom you have the same view as on 1024x576.
With this setup, zoom should be more usable. It's just too bad that zoom is rather blocky.
But I myself don't think you benefit from seeing that much map.

1024x576
https://ibb.co/i4Ydu8

1024x576, zoom minus (0.5x)
https://ibb.co/cvxhMo

1024x576, zoom plus (2x)
https://ibb.co/eVeZZ8

2048x1152
https://ibb.co/kEBsMo

2048x1152, zoom plus (2x)
https://ibb.co/mexSnT

[r34p3r85]

And here are the map sizes to help you choose the resolution.
Height is harder to determine in most missions, as you can't screenshot the whole map.
m2 - width 1600
m4 - exactly 2560x1440
m6 - width 2368
m8 - width 2240
m9 - width 1600
m10 - width 1600
m11 - width 1280
m12 - width 2240
m13 - width 2368
m15 - width 2240
m16 - width 2240
m17 - width 1600
m18 - width 2560
m19 - width 1280
m21 - width 2560
m22 - width 2432
m23 - width 2432
m24 - 2944x1704
m25 - 1024x1024

Tutorial missions:
m1 - 2112x1088
m3 - 1920x896
m5 - 1280x768
m7 - 2112x1088
m14 - širina 1600
m20 - 1280x768

So we are again at my preferred 1600x900, only mission 2 would be nice to try on 2560x1440.

[r34p3r85]

Here it is clearly seen that developers should provide the option to change the resolution.
https://ibb.co/h4rkdo

Green are the most suitable resolutions for given screen size, orange acceptable and red unacceptable.
Monitor resolutions are in brackets, as they are not important if you have scaling enabled, they are just the most common resolutions for given size.
What matters most in this game is physical screen height, the more, the better. Width not so much, as most maps are limited by screen height.

I measured the HUD height in upper left corner, where John's watch is.
In my opinion, perfect height is between 52 and 63 mm.
I tested and measured on 27" 2560x1440 and 24" (actually 23.8") 1920x1080, others are calculated.
On 1280x720 with 65mm HUD, not that the HUD is too big, but you see less map than you could. And on 1680x945 with 50mm HUD, everything becomes too small and you strain your eyes.

I also added a comparison to CRT monitors, so to give you an idea how you played 17 years ago.

[Zaxx]

Originally posted by r34p3r85:

But I now see on WSGF Desperados page, that they added exe's for 2018 version. I just downloaded it now, haven't tried it yet.
http://www.wsgf.org/dr/desperados-wanted-dead-or-alive/en

Sadly these exes just aren't very good, the main reason of that being that in the official version the mouse cursor's movement isn't dependent by the game's framerate while in the modded exes that's not the case.

Desperados runs at a really low fps by today's standards (somewhere between 20-25) so having the mouse tied to that is just horrible (Commandos 1 does the same and yep, it's nearly unplayable because of this too). So no thank you, I'd much prefer the smooth 144 hz mouse movement on my monitor than the higher screen res though I will say that how the game handles resolution by default is quite bad too. The 16:9 aspect ration cuts so much off the screen that it hurts the gameplay a lot so 16:10 and 4:3 are the only reasonable options.

The devs really dropped the ball when it comes to resolution scaling with the new patch but hey, at least there is a new patch. Would be cool to see a proper remaster now that Desperados 3 is regarded as a proper great and successful sequel. Come on THQ, capitalize on those new fans a bit!

Also: here's hoping that eventually a fan makes a new high res patch that's based on the new exe instead of whatever the previous one does.

[Drakk]

Originally posted by r34p3r85:

And here are the map sizes to help you choose the resolution.
Height is harder to determine in most missions, as you can't screenshot the whole map.
m2 - width 1600
m4 - exactly 2560x1440
m6 - width 2368
m8 - width 2240
m9 - width 1600
m10 - width 1600
m11 - width 1280
m12 - width 2240
m13 - width 2368
m15 - width 2240
m16 - width 2240
m17 - width 1600
m18 - width 2560
m19 - width 1280
m21 - width 2560
m22 - width 2432
m23 - width 2432
m24 - 2944x1704
m25 - 1024x1024

Tutorial missions:
m1 - 2112x1088
m3 - 1920x896
m5 - 1280x768
m7 - 2112x1088
m14 - širina 1600
m20 - 1280x768

So we are again at my preferred 1600x900, only mission 2 would be nice to try on 2560x1440.

Let me give you exact sizes for each level as I exported every map .bmp
M00 (Demo) : 2560x1600
M01 : 2112x1088
M02 : 1600x2368
M03 : 1920x896
M04 : 2560x1408
M05 : 1280x768
M06 : 2368x1920
M07 : 2112x1088
M08 : 2240x1600
M09 : 1600x1472
M10 : 1600x2240
M11 : 1280x2368
M12 : 2240x1728
M13 : 2368x1728
M14 : 1600x1408
M15 : 2240x1600
M16 : 2240x1600
M17 : 1600x1024
M18 : 2560x1728
M19 : 1280x2240
M20 : 1280x768
M21 : 2560x1728
M22 : 2432x1792
M23 : 2432x1856
M24 : 2944x1664
M25 : 1024x960

[Zaxx]

Originally posted by Drakk:

Let me give you exact sizes for each level as I exported every map .bmp
M00 (Demo) : 2560x1600
M01 : 2112x1088
M02 : 1600x2368
M03 : 1920x896
M04 : 2560x1408
M05 : 1280x768
M06 : 2368x1920
M07 : 2112x1088
M08 : 2240x1600
M09 : 1600x1472
M10 : 1600x2240
M11 : 1280x2368
M12 : 2240x1728
M13 : 2368x1728
M14 : 1600x1408
M15 : 2240x1600
M16 : 2240x1600
M17 : 1600x1024
M18 : 2560x1728
M19 : 1280x2240
M20 : 1280x768
M21 : 2560x1728
M22 : 2432x1792
M23 : 2432x1856
M24 : 2944x1664
M25 : 1024x960

Looking at these numbers it seems like 720p would be a good choice in a resolution that wouldn't cause any issues with the original art while that would also keep the scaling of objects mostly accurate to how the game looked on those old 4:3 monitors. It really does seem that sticking to 1024x768 as a basis for the new patch was a terrible idea.