Wide screen BETA test - for CD owners only

[Mobhack]

Attached is a zip file containing the following 2 updated files for BETA testing.
- GameOptions.exe
- WinSPMBT.exe (version 5.02x)

1) Should you wish to ensure that you can revert to the normal Version 5.0 without having to reinstall from scratch then first copy the existing 2 files BEFORE applying the zip!

2) Now, unzip the files to your game root folder (\Program files\Shrapnel
Games\The Camo Workshop\WinSPMBT), and allow the overwriting of the 2 original files.

3) On launching the game options programme, you will now have the following extra screen option added to your CD owner's additional resolutions in GameOptions.exe : Desktop

Desktop mode works in full screen or windowed mode.
In both modes, it uses the current desktop resolution you have set up currently in windows as the desired screen resolution
Windowed mode - leaves the task bar visible at the bottom of the screen.
Full screen mode - uses the full screen in 256 colour palletised mode

This has already been alpha tested on Windows 98, XP and vista machines with both normal 4:3 aspect ratios and also wide screen (1920x1080) monitors.

The purpose of the beta test is to see if the new Microsoft Windows 7 causes any issues. In especial, it (and possibly Vista) apparently have problems with 256 colour full screen palette games, since these new operating systems use the 256 colour palette for their own purposes. It may well be that Vista/Windows 7 will mandate the use of windowed mode because of this.

Q) I want (insert one of my monitors modes) desktop. How do I do that?.
A) Clear any running applications down, then use the normal windows change desktop features to select the desired new screen resolution. Now launch the game in desktop mode and it will use the newly set windows desktop resolution.

Q) My icons are stretched!.
A) Some of the resolutions that Windows allows (especially on wide screen monitors) produce non-square icons, even for Windows' own desktop icons. If the Windows shortcut icons on your desktop are elongated then it is highly likely that the game will also be stretched. Solution - select a monitor
mode that produces reasonably square icons.

Q) I get a DirectX error message
A) That means that your video card cannot drive the screen at that resolution. (Probably in full screen mode). One of our playtesters also received this at one particular resolution - higher and lower modes worked fine. Conclusion was that the video card in question was probably broken (otherwise higher resolutions would not have worked).

Q) I cannot set higher resolutions than 800 despite installing these files
A) This beta is for the CD version only. It will not work with the free version which only supports 640 and 800 4:3 mode.

[RazGator]

Looks spectacular in full screen! My widescreen res set too high (1600x900)for windowed mode. 1280x1024 is as high as it can go without stretching and doubling. Still, the resolution in full screen alone is worth the upgrade. Super work guys!

[Wdll]

Is this going to affect on going PBEM games?

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Wdll

Is this going to affect on going PBEM games?

It shouldn't.

Andy

[Wdll]

One thing, lately I like to play in windowed mode while watching tv on the side of the screen. My desktop resolution is 1920x1200. So I set the game resolution to 1280x1024 so that I have enough room on the right side.
How can I change the resolution so that I both have desktop resolution 1920x1200 and play in windowed mode at a smaller than desktop, widescreen resolution? For example 1280x800 (16:10)


Other than that, it looks great on Vista 64 Home Premium, 8GB RAM, Q9550, Radeon 4870X2.

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Wdll

One thing, lately I like to play in windowed mode while watching tv on the side of the screen. My desktop resolution is 1920x1200. So I set the game resolution to 1280x1024 so that I have enough room on the right side.
How can I change the resolution so that I both have desktop resolution 1920x1200 and play in windowed mode at a smaller than desktop, widescreen resolution? For example 1280x800 (16:10)


Other than that, it looks great on Vista 64 Home Premium, 8GB RAM, Q9550, Radeon 4870X2.

You don't - it is called desktop mode, since it takes the entire screen real estate.

I tried a version with customisable widths and heights. Unfortunately the old WinVFX graphics library will make total hash out of some width and height combinations - e.g. by displaying the GFX skewed diagonally and wrapped around the window. Or simply producing a smeared line in the middle of the window. (In windowed mode, WinVFX allows a flag to resize the window, but due to an internal code error, though the window area happily resizes on dragging with the mouse - the actual window contents do not.)

By using the current windows desktop resolution we are sure that the windows implementation is set to a supported mode, at least for windowed mode. There remains the odd case of some video cards not being able to do full-screen mode at the current desktop resolution though.

Cheers
Andy

[Wdll]

I understand. It's a huge step for this game based on such old code.
No complaints.
I can see using it if I run in fullscreen. It's just that I will have to use a non widescreen resolution when I want to play the game in windowed mode.

My guess is it is probably going to be part of the next patch too? Good move.

[Wdll]

Problem.
I loaded a PBEM campaign game and I got a security error about change in the obat. Since the only change I did was replace the two files, I thought it couldn't be me since I know I didn't do anything else, even though the warning was that player 1 did it, which I guess I am player 1 as the one who set up the campaign.

Later I tried another save game from a different PBEM campaign, same thing.
Now, either both of my opponents decided to cheat after few years of playing with me, I started cheated but in a sub molecular level (ie the Force!) or the change with the two files is enough to cause the error message.
I notified my opponents and I will play my turns as soon as I post this, but I thought to let you know.

[Imp]

Ace works a treat now have a choice at game start of filling the whole screen or leaving a strip down the side if keeping an eye on stuff, exellent.
As suspected does not seem to fix Vistas pallette problem if use Full Screen mode however I would say this is now a redundant problem as fills the screen perfectly & is not stretched.
Therefore the 2 reasons people seemed to dislike Windowed Mode no longer apply namely seeing part of your desktop & scrolling out of the window if you are a bit ham fisted.

[Wdll]

A follow up turn, same issue. I hope this is easy to fix. The game looks super cool with it.