Odd Graphics

[Akmatov]

Just installed and updated to 10.01

1) Can not run in windowed mode. Get a small game screen centered in a narrow band of a window that stretches the width of my screen. Buttons on the game screen not working.

2) Full Screen runs ok. But until arriving at the playing screen all screens are too small, usable but hard to read too small.

3) Full Screen main playing map screen covers almost the entire monitor screen. Top and bottom text are tiny and the button panel on the left side is likewise tiny.

4) No where I can find am I able to adjust the screen resolution, where should it be?

5) When I exit winSPWW2 my windows icon are all gone leaving a totally blank blue screen requiring a log off and log back on. Totally strange, no program has ever done this.

Assistance would be appreciated.

[Akmatov]

I'm running Win7 x64.

Tried to Edit, but not working

[Imp]

Turn autohide taskbar off

[Akmatov]

sorry, what is the autohide task bar? and where?

[Akmatov]

Got autohide taskbar for WINDOWs. Fixed problem #5. Thx

[Mobhack]

Auto-hide is a windows setting on your task bar, it can cause problems in full screen mode as detailed in the "setting up your computer" section of the Game Guide.

Auto-hide is where the windows task bar disappears when not in use, and only pops up when you put the mouse down the bottom of the screen.

As detailed in the Game Guide this causes problems in most computers, as the game miscalculates the screen size. However, since some computers do seem to run OK with auto-hide there is now a dialogue box which allows you to ignore the game and try using auto-hide to accommodate the few video drivers that can work with it on.

In windows 7 in full-screen mode a special batch file is run to nuke the windows explorer, in order that the aero interface does not run since that thinks it owns the 256 colour palette the game relies on. On exiting the game, the batch file should restore explorer, but sometimes does not. If it does not (or you alt tab out during the game) then the windows desktop is gone. The instructions to restart explorer are in the Game Guide, but a simple restart of the PC will work as well. Windows 8 and above dont have aero, unlike 7, so do not have these problems.

Basically - full screen mode is really only there for historical reasons, and it has problems running on some modern machines. Windowed mode in desktop resolution is what is best for windows compatibility.

If you require a smaller window, then it is best to set your windows desktop to a smaller resolution (e.g say 900x) before launching the game in windowed mode with desktop resolution set. It may take experimentation to find a resolution on your graphics card that doesn't "stretch" the game icons. However - for some folk with poor eyesight, this seems to be the best way if you dont want the full 1980x desktop size, since the smaller resolutions offered by full-screen mode are old-style "square" 4:3 resolutions that modern wide-screen monitors sometimes have difficulty with resolving. (This also may be a way for those with "old eyes" to use the demo game in 800x600 especially since some modern video cards no longer support 800x600 in full-screen mode.)

[Akmatov]

Thx so much for such prompt and immediately useful info.