Blurry Graphics in Windowed Mode

[major^3]

my desktp resolution is set to 1024 x 768
and thats the LCD resolution as well
Windows XP Pro
and dom2 used to run fine on it before, and even after the reformat. It is just recently it hasn't for some odd reason.

When i go into windowed mode, the game looks better the bigger the window is, so when i resize it to be bigger, it looks bigger.

It is just the GUI that is blurry, but sometimes the text on the right hand side (Options, Province Info, etc) looks fine but the text and unit grahics of mages and commanders on the left are really blurry.

i would think if i got the resolution wrong the whole thing would be blurry, but it is only the GUI of the game.

[Cainehill]

Ah. That's because Dominions graphics engine / library scales everything itself, while leaving the contents of the window the same. You can make the window as small as possible, and it still shows the same provinces and whatnot as at full size.

So, pixels are going to get blurred by the scaling - it's probably more readily apparent on the LCD with its lower resolution. Looking at it, I'm thinking that the text on the right is possibly done with a different font mechanism (vector vice bitmapped), or possibly as text while the text on the left is in graphics.

You have to be careful when resizing the window to keep the proportions as close to accurate as possible, or the graphics and text definately gets strange - try making the window full height but narrow to see what I mean.

And, in general, "upscaling" or enlarging graphics winds up looking better than shrinking them. So, you're best off being careful with the window dimensions, and making it as large as possible while leaving whatever other window real estate you need.

[Johan K]

You might try different filter settings in the graphics settings menu. Usually the highest setting will yield the best result.

[major^3]

not sure.. im not sure if its normal, but it seems to glitch when i alt+enter to go into windowed mode. the icons that stand for a characters properties (holy, blessed, berserker, experience stars, etc) are blurred as well

it doesnt look like a pixel blur but rather like someone used a blur filter in photoshop.

iono maybe its just the new drivers im using? but i was under the impression that dom2 worked with them as well.

and the filter thing doesnt work either.