Medieval 2 Total War (+ Kingdoms) Ultrawide 21:9 Aspect Ratio Fix

This is a quick guide on how to make Medieval 2 Total War and its Kingdoms expansion work with 21:9 ultrawide monitor resolutions.

How to fix Medieval 2 Total War 21:9 resolution rendering

A way to make it work is to edit medieval2.exe or kingdoms.exe with a hex editor.

I will make below example based on kingdoms.exe, but it works the exact same way on medieval2.exe.

Before making any changes, make sure that the "Widescreen" toggle is ticked in the graphics settings of the game.

Make a backup of your kingdoms.exe file, just in case.

Open the kingdoms.exe file with the hex editing tool; any will work (I used the HxD editor[mh-nexus.de])

Locate 16:9 aspect ratio value: 39 8E E3 3F (make sure you search for hex value, not decimal value)

Replace with:
for 2560x1080 - use hex value: 26 B4 17 40
for 3440x1440 - use hex value: 8E E3 18 40
for 3840x1600 - use hex value: 9A 99 19 40

Save the .exe and load into the game—huzzah—no more stretch fest. The only issue I have found is on the campaign map. If you zoom out completely, there will be weird white triangles on the top left/right parts of the screen. I assume this has something to do with how the game renders the map, battle has no such issues besides stretched UI.

Other than that, it works like a charm.

[Cold Stoned Steven]

Problem seems to be that the mouse cursor seems to misalign from the cursor graphic the further you move your mouse from the center of the screen.

[cryohellinc]

You are doing something wrong, if you followed the guide, then at least you would get a weirdly stretched image. In your case, you aren't getting any effect - it means you are doing something wrong.

Follow all the steps and make sure that a) Widescreen tick box is set inside the game settings. Only after that will you apply the fix, not before. b) remove whatever scaling settings you have set. It should work without any additional tweaks.

[gammagt]

Same result. But for others, that still want to play this game with a 32:9 screen:
Using GPU scaling and 2560x1440 should work natively,
If you're ok with losing some screen area. I am totally fine with it.

[gammagt]

Hi, thanks for the pointer. Still stretched. But: I changed my NVIDIA settings to use the GPU for scaling, instead of the screen firmware (samsung screen... Doesn't to that properly, as I found out), allowing the GPU to override scaling settings done by the game.
That way i could at least play with 2560x1440 without stretching :)
Good enough, if all else fails.
I'll remove the override permission to see if that changes anything.

[cryohellinc]

@gammagt
try E0 7F 63 40

[gammagt]

Dammn... Doesn't seem to work. Still stretched.

[gammagt]

Just a shot in the dark, but might 39 8E 63 40 work?
I'll try that real quick :D

[gammagt]

Would be a blast, if that were possible for 5120x1440 / 32:9, aswell...
Can you elaborate on how you arrived at those values?