How To Improve UI On High Resolution Screens

Very easy fix to improve UI and text readability when using a high screen resolution.

The fix

Find the game .exe file (DistantWorlds.exe) at C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Distant Worlds Universe
or similar path.

Right click -> properties -> compatibility tab.
In this tab, tick "Run this program as administrator". Then click the "Change high DPI settings" button below. Tick "Override high DPI scaling behaviour" and select "System (Enhanced)", click Ok and Apply.

Start game as usual, UI and text should be clearer and easier to read!

Credit goes to SgtScum, who originally posted about this in the DW forum.

[UFO]

There's mods to improve the UI. Just google "dastactic dw1 ui mod" (forget what its called, but the best improvement you can get for the game). Not much to do about the FUBAR'd GUI scaling, though. That was a retarded oversight even in 2010.

[Camphibian]

Nice work thanks for sharing!
However the absolutely byzantine gui structure will have you projectile vomiting in no time now that you can clearly see how retarded it is. I think I prefer squinting.

[Dark Helmet]

But the intro video only shows the top left quarter

[Vetinari]

I found that it further helps to go into your windows 10 display settings (NOT control panel) and increasing "Scale and Layout" of the Monitor you're using. This is the quickest and easiest way to scale everything up.

You might notice that some of the text is still blurry, though. To fix that search your settings for "cleartype" and turn the cleartype font option off.

[Vetinari]

For years I put off playing this game because of resolution issues. Let's give it another go!

[Davebro]

IMPORTANT: After following this guide, you must also set the game's launcher executable (called "autorun.exe") to "run as administrator" so you can continue to use the launcher's "play" button.


Anyways thank you for the guide!

[Adam413]

For anyone else wondering: Yes this is only on Windows 10. Windows 7 is not supported anymore so please don't even try to keep that installed on any of your computers.

[tystudio]

Is this fix for windows 10 because I'm playing on windows 7 and the same option are not coming up.

[Sir Right]

This really helps. Much better than having to lower the resolution from 1920x1080, just to read the text in the game. Thank you.

[Erik Cartman]

Thank U <3