So have anyone tried this release yet on a widescreen monitor? The "old" version never seemed to get a proper widescreen fix...

This is what I've seen so far, since you asked:

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12563

I've seen another thread where you just change an ini file, but I'm not sure if it works (downloading the game now)...

http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-482351.html

Thanks for the replay BurntSoul.
Widescreengamingforum's solution is the best so far. But still lacking...I hoped maybe GOG perfected it. But i guess if the WSG guys can't fix it, no one can :)
If you could give me a feedback after installing the game that would be much appreciated!

I am happy to say that it works!
I used an editor called HxD, which can be found on cnet.com.

In my case, I wanted to change my resolution to 1680x1050.
I had to figure out what each number was in Hex. Turns out:

1680 is: 0690
and
1050 is: 041A

As the Widescreen gaming forum thread notes, you must 'flip' the numbers around and then edit the executable file.

I 'flipped' 0690 to 9006 (that's for the 1680)
and I 'flipped' 041A to 1A04

Then I opened the executable with the program ('File', 'open': find your dragonshard folder, then click on dragonshard.exe). Make a copy of this exe file before editing it, in case you mess it up!!

I then clicked 'search', 'find'.

For the datatype box, I selected 'Hex-Values'.

Then, in the Search for area, I searched for "00 04 00 00 C7 06 00 03" (no quotes).

This is the string for 1024x768.

00 04 is the 1024 value. I changed it to the hex value of 1680 (90 06).
for 00 03 (the 768 value), I changed it to 1A 04 (the 1050 part of the resolution).

leave those middle numbers alone (what I mean is the '00 00 C7 06' part of the string)!

I then saved the executable ('file', 'save') and exited out of the program.

Once I got in game, I was confused. It 'looked' better, but when I looked at the vid settings, it was on some weird resolution (1152x864). It just wasn't right, though.
But then I realized: Stupid me! I was supposed to select the 1024x768x32 option! The reason why is because I had changed the 1024x768 strings in the executable file.

Once I did that, there was a hhhhuuuugggeee difference! All good.
PS: You should also go into your video card settings (outside the game) if possible and set the anti-aliasing and anistropic filtering for the dragonshard exe to something better than the defaults. You'll get a much nicer result.
PSS: going back into the video settings may 'push' the resolution to some other option. You'll need to bring it back to 1024x768x32 to get your higher resolution.

Hope this helps!!!

I agree, the widescreen fix is not the best solution because it's not 'packaged' for mass consumption. I wish it were.

that is quite a hoop to jump through but if it works . The kind of geek stuff I like the sound of. Just got it and think I might give that a try soon. Widescreened Prince of Persia and was like this is way sweet. Sounds like some kind of utility could be made but it would be different for each version most likely given the location could be different in each one.


edit
it sure must be getting late because my post was bordering on incoherence.

Upon more inspection I think I may pass on this solution. The 2D elements get stretched (which is odd there must be another aspect var for that somewhere) Its part of my job to make sure images aren't stretching or squishing, and I think it would be very noticeable at 1920x1080. Though widescreen on a game like this sure is sexy. I'm tempted.


***edit
Tried it and the 1024 x 768 res just disappeared. Do you only change the one instance of 1024x768 ? there are like a hundred. If that is all there is to it, it seems very possible to write a simple find and replace app for various resolutions. If I still had all my coding stuff setup I would even be tempted to do it, if I could have gotten it to work that is.

I may just have to suffer, though I find it odd that games made only a few years ago still don't have many (if any) wide screen options. Maybe 5-6 years just doesn't feel like as long a time as it used to be.

Ahh, I did not know this, I thought it was unique throughout the whole exe file.

I was trying to simplify my reply by focusing on the 1024x768 bit.

In reality I searched for this string, which was listed in the widescreen gaming forum link.:

80 02 00 00 C7 06 E0 01 00 00 C3 C7 07 20 03 00 00 C7 06 58 02 00 00 C3 C7 07 00 04 00 00 C7 06 00 03 00 00 C3 C7 07 80 04 00 00 C7 06 60 03 00 00 C3 C7 07 00 05 00 00 C7 06 C0 03 00 00 C3 C7 07 00 05 00 00 C7 06 00 04 00 00 C3 C7 07 40 06 00 00 C7 06 84 03 00 00 C3 C7 07 40 06 00 00 C7 06 B0 04


Once I found that I looked for the '00 04 00 00 C7 06 00 03' (using my eye only, not a search command) part and then edited the '00 04' and '00 03' parts of it.

I saved the file and went back into the game. Looking at the video settings, I could see 1024x768 in the list (both 16 and 32 bit). I selected 32 bit and the video display changed.

If you look back at the widscreen gaming forum thread, the author notes,

"To make things easier just use the 0004/0003 value for your desired resolution. If you cannot select 1024x768 in the game options menu you can also change all the bolded values to your desired resolution to get widescreen."

I did not choose to do this.

Hope this helps!

Well I think it really was the 0004 part. Adding in the 00 00 c7 06 00 03 and there is only one. So I did have to search for the whole thing. I was hoping I wouldn't have to type it all in but it makes sense there might be an army of 1024s in such a long file.

I was mostly hoping to see how often 1024x768 came up in the thing but I would think the items between 0004 and 0003 could potentially be different each time and it would be hard to search for 0004 with a near by 0003. I was thinking maybe there was another instance that it was using to calculate the aspect ratio of the screen which would effect the 2d items, but after looking at the available resolutions they are all 4:3 in aspect ratio. Which means there is no reason to think they built in any mechanism to handle multiple aspects ( I did that once and juggling multiple aspects is royal pain.) Which also means there is effectively zero hope that a fix could be made to correct the 2D stretching baring an official patch. Of which there is also effectively zero hope for.

I will try again if no other reason to have a record for people to see if it works or not. I may have to try your values since I may have done something wrong getting mine.

Yep, this has happened to me as well.

Yes, it does - Thank you!

I just thought I would include a list of common resolutions, to go along with this post. These hex codes can be used to replace any of the in-game resolutions. Hopefully this will cover just about everyone, or at least provide a compatible resolution for everyone. I have also included the hex code for the 1600x1200 resolution, which can also be replaced with a hex editor. I would suggest changing at least two of the in-game resolutions, because the game only seemed to switch resolutions if the next lower mode down is not modified. I first changed 1280x960 to 1280x720 and it would switch to 1152x864 when I went into the options menu. However, I changed 1600x1200 to 1920x1080 and there was no more switching, even though I left 1024x768 alone, as a fallback mode. It only seems to downshift if the mode under what your are using is 4:3. This is just what I have observed on my own system, however it may be different on another system. Anyway, here are the resolution hex codes-

Resolutions already in game:

1024x768= 00 04 00 00 C7 06 00 03
1152x864= 80 04 00 00 C7 06 60 03
1280x960= 00 05 00 00 C7 06 C0 03
1600x1200= 40 06 00 00 C7 06 B0 04


5:4 Resolutions:

1280x1024= 00 05 00 00 C7 06 00 04


16:9 Resolutions:

1280x720= 00 05 00 00 C7 06 D0 02
1360x768= 50 05 00 00 C7 06 00 03
1366x768= 56 05 00 00 C7 06 00 03
1600x900= 40 06 00 00 C7 06 84 03
1920x1080= 80 07 00 00 C7 06 38 04


16:10 Resolutions:

1280x800= 00 05 00 00 C7 06 20 03
1440x900= A0 05 00 00 C7 06 84 03
1680x1050= 90 06 00 00 C7 06 1A 04
1920x1200= 80 07 00 00 C7 06 B0 04


Please don't blame me if any of the video modes do not work. I have a 16:9 LCD and the only modes I was able to personally test were, 1280x1024, 1280x720 and 1920x1080, but I have no reason to think that there should be a problem with any other resolution, provided that the code is entered correctly. ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP of your original Dragonshard.exe before tinkering around with it and as always, all modifications are done at your own risk.

If anyone wants a video mode not listed, let me know and I can try to post it (or if anyone happens to find an error, please let me know, I am human after all, though I was pretty careful and I double checked most of the codes).

I also thought that I would mention that the game scales to widescreen high resolutions pretty well. I was a bit concerned that using 1920x1080 would make everything really small and stretched, however, this was not the case. The only noticeable stretching is the 4 buttons at the top of the screen, which seems quite minor. Everything else seems to scale well, and looks like it should.

I hope this information is useful. Good luck and happy bugbear hunting lol.

Thanks drakkar123, those 16:9 Resolutions really helped, the game looks really good now.