1920 x 1080p / High Resolution Guide & other modding tips

This guide will help you get Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines running in higher resolution than the original. Also included are tips how to fix possible issues with Commandos: BEL running under Windows.

Necessary mods

*2021 edit: The guide still works. Tested with Windows 10 and 2560 x 1440 resolution

To get higher resolution in Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines than the original and running the game smoothly you need two mods:

• Commandos Ultimate Fix by Doc Garga
  
• Commandos Resolution Hack by stevenh

I won't give direct links because most likely when you are reading those links would be dead. So just use your preferred search engine for those two mods and you should be fine. The Ultimate fix has a executable named comandos.exe with a size of 3,715,072 bytes and a WARGAME.DIR archive. The Resolution hack should just have CommandosResolutionHack.exe. To run the resolution hack program you need Microsoft .NET framework 4. Most likely you already have it installed but if not just use your search engine skills again.

Once you have downloaded those two things you might want to also change your ingame menu and ingame UI to support your high resolution. The game will run without but can look ugly so go and find MENU1920.BMP and 1920X1080.WAD from the Internet. I used ones made by Ferdinand Zeppelin.

ps. I lied. Here's a direct link for all of those. I just wanted you to read what you are getting and understand why. Point your browser to kruulos.org/gaming/Commandos_BEL_BCD_Ultimate_Fixes.rar . If the link goes dead, sorry about that. At least you know what to search for.

Installing & Configuration

So let's set the game up then.

1. Go to your game folder "...\steamapps\common\Commandos Behind Enemy Lines" and back up your current game executable and your current WARGAME.DIR in case something goes wrong
   
2. Copy the fixed exe over the original and copy the new WARGAME.DIR over the original
   
3. Rename the fixed exe from comandos.exe to something else like commandos.exe or shooteyhideygame.exe.
   
4. Run "CommandosResolutionHack.exe" and select your renamed & fixed exe. This will unpack the WARGAME.DIR. BEFORE you press Apply and Run do the below tasks!
   
5. Copy MENU1920.BMP to "DATOS\recursos\bmps\SYSTEM\MISC"
   
6. Copy 1920x1080.WAD to "DATOS\recursos\bmps\SYSTEM\GLOBAL"
   
7. Edit "OUTPUT\Comando.cfg" and insert these lines at the end of it:
   
   .SIZE [ .INITSIZE 3 ]
   .PROFILE [ .USER 0 ]
   .DEVELOP 1
   
   
8. Now in the CommandosResolutionHack select your preferred resolution on the dropdown. You can try multiple different ones until you find one that's suitable for you. In 2021 I tried it with 2560x1440 and it works.. but isn't very nice experience as there will be weird graphic artifacts as the game just doesn't know what to draw in the empty places on the first scenarios.
   
9. Before selecting the resolution and pressing "Apply and Run" read the last notes first

If your game is not running in the right resolution, go to game video options and try to change the resolution to the highest there. You should only need to apply the resolution hack once. After that you should be able to run the game without the launcher (ie. directly from Steam).. If Steam is trying to repair your installation when you launch it via the Library, it will remove all of the work you did above. In that case redo everything and keep launching the game via your renamed exe manually.

Now your game should look like this

Troubleshooting

• Weird graphic glitch on the right side of screen
  
• Some maps are below 1920p width. There are at least two and most notably the first mission. Just use + and - keys to zoom in and out.

• I don't have DIRECTX 5??
  
• You didn't either launch from the resolution hack exe or Steam 'repaired' your work and renamed it back. Do it all again and read the guide step by step.

• I want to skip the intro
  
• just rename the "VIDEO\h_intro.avi" to something else

• Game runs on hyperspeed
  
• You are not running the Ultimate Fix executable then. Make sure you apply the resolution hack to right exe. The resolution hack should say it is 'GOG.com Ammo Pack version'/'Commandos Ultimate Fix'

• I can't save or load
  
• Make sure you have the .DEVELOP 1 in your Comando.cfg

• Game randomly freezes
  
• I had this when I was running on compatibility mode for XP & 98. It has something to do with music and sound. I didn't get any freezes when I dropped the compatibility mode.

• Game randomly loses music & voices
  
• Related to the previous one. Just save and restart the game. Next time you reload it should be fine. Happened a lot with the mission objectives. Just restart the mission and you will hear them.

• I want to use different resolution than 1920x1080
  
• I advice against bigger resolution as you will run into problems with game map widths and zooming. If you want smaller one just pick different resolution from the resolution hack launcher and go find proper BMP/WAD resources so your ingame UI and menu will look good.

• This game is hard
  
• Yeah. Learn the hotkeys and get better at it.

[Nayla♥Bambi]

eeh, it works but then all the icons are so small (except for the right part of the screen... some graphical error... not sure how to explain...fixes if i zoom in tho)
game runs much slower than i remember lol
i wish they remade this game instead of making a new one.
Also, didnt all units used to have rocks they could throw? i remember harassing all the nazis with it lol

[Sir Mr. Goodfellow]

zoom in and out keys dont work, no sound when playing mission after it starts. What im do wrong?

[RollanC]

the fps is too low. I need my commandos back :(

[margalus]

@gfgrisales, you don't need to get an old monitor. Your 4k monitor can run all of the lower resolutions.

[gfgrisales]

Meh!.... All went wrong ...
Tryed to play in a 4k monitor and the resolution does appear on the game options but i can't control the characters, theme must be a missplacing on the mapping...

Anyway... looging forwar for and old monitor to be able to play... frustrated..

[Bote]

everything works for me but the sound. Menu music works but game audio (voices, sfx) is completely muted. Any idea how to fix this? Thanks.

I have tried running it with and without compatibility mode but didn't work.

[shweppsy]

it somehow only works on the legacy version

[bare]

Thank you kind soul

[cratag]

It didnt work for me. I guess it is old now

[Xayc]

Well, even in standard definition, the game plays great. I had constant errors while installing according to this tutorial, even if I move the content partially and iterate over the exe files