Hi there!

So I was looking for a project and thought this game would be a good fit: I've been wanting to learn about applying patches to software to set their resolution above the original intended dimensions etc. I know there have been a bunch such patches for popular games like Fallout, Infinity Engine games, and so on, so I wanted to do something a little less well known. I've never played this game and didn't know what to expect, but within no time at all I had the game rendering a much bigger playfield than the 640x480 in the shipped version (see the screenshot attached).

There seems to be some issue with it not filling the 1920x1080 window it's rendering to - maybe it's forcing an aspect ratio or something, 640x480 being a different aspect ratio to 1080p - but it looks like it'd be pretty easy to get it running happily at arbitrary resolutions. I was just wondering if there would be much demand for such a patch. If so I can try to get this done for the world's enpleasurement! Let me know your thoughts, GOG!

EDIT: For reference, I've attached a screenshot of the original, so you can see the difference this patch makes!

Are the levels rendered or are they pre drawn?

cus its easy to get into windowed mode and streatch the image but it distorts.

It's all pre-drawn, but the 640x480 camera in the regular game makes for a really low res view - take a look at the attached pictures for the difference. Windowed mode will only give you a scaled version of the 640x480 screen.

Due to its niché and technical issues I'm not sure a high number of people would be looking forward to it.

I on other hand would love a widescreen patch. You could pitch the idea at WSGF, maybe get some help from people there who do this daily? :)

To the OP, I would definitely be interested in a high resolution patch. I just started Sanitarium, and would love to be able to play this game at 1680x1050, with a proper 4:3 aspect ratio. The default stretched FOV leaves something to be desired- please consider this a formal request for you to continue your work!

I'll add my vote as well! (1920x1080 for me though)

Hello! I am not dead, and nor is this project! I have revived it and hope to have something distributable in the next week. I even made a little blog post about it here!

I need to add some checking/validation to my code, as there are presumably different versions of the game for different territories, patch versions, etc, but it works so far for me. I don't have the GoG version, so I can't check that my patcher will work with this. Would anyone be able to be post an MD5 hash of the Sntrm.exe from GoG, so I can see if it's the same one I have? If it is, my patch should just work...if not I might need to like...buy it again from GoG or something.

Thanks for your work! :-)
The gog version is launched via GOGLauncher.exe (MD5 04e0629b37e846073d2ac468b1087f58), not sntrm.exe (MD5 3cb90d988460fc0ad095956d8415fd36), so I couldn't get your patch to work.

Hi there! Are you able to launch it via sntrm.exe ? I'm guessing the GOGLauncher just does some of its own patching magic to avoid the colour depth problems with modern Windows, so it should be fine to not use it, if that's possible.

Hi,

I'm afraid your instructions may not be consistent.

[i]1. Extract `Sanitarium HD Patcher.exe` and `patches.json` to your Sanitarium
game folder
2. Create a shortcut to `Sanitarium HD Patcher.exe`
3. Right click the shortcut -> Properties
4. Add to the end of `Target`
* `-x [resolution width]`
* `-y [resolution height]`
* `-- [command line arguments to pass to Sanitarium]`
* e.g.: `Sanitarium.exe -x 1920 -y 1080 -- -w -e /skip`, for a 1080p game,
windowed, with DirectDraw emulation enabled (recommended)[/i]

If I create a shortcut to "Sanitarium HD Patcher.exe", what is "Sanitarium.exe" supposed to do/mean?
Do I have to launch "Sanitarium HD Patcher.exe", or sntrm.exe?
If I launch "Sanitarium HD Patcher.exe" via a self-created shorcut, a small window will pop up, and then disappear. Nothing else.

Yes the instructions are a bit confusing. It should say this...

1. Extract `Sanitarium HD Patcher.exe` and `patches.json` to your Sanitarium
game folder
2. Create a shortcut to `Sanitarium HD Patcher.exe`
3. Right click the shortcut -> Properties
4. Add to the end of `Target`
* `-x [resolution width]`
* `-y [resolution height]`
* `-- [command line arguments to pass to Sanitarium]`

So that the contents of the "target" box read...

"C:\GOG Games\Sanitarium\SanitariumHDPatcher.exe" -x 1920 -y 1080 -- -w -e /skip

....assuming the path is correct.

This will give you a 1080p game,windowed, with DirectDraw emulation enabled (recommended)[/i]

However - the shortcut MUST be run in administrator mode, so click advanced and select that check box. The shortcut you made then launches the game with the new parameters.

Does anyone else have major slow downs when you move the mouse? I was curious to try this ever since I managed to get a couple of games working with dgVoodoo. It works and looks great but as soon as I mose the mouse the game slows down, both frames and physically; if I move fast enough it looks like the game is frozen. This is a common issue for me with DirectDraw games unfortunately and I've yet to find a solution. :(

You should definitely try the patch. It's not optimal but far better than the original resolution.

As for slow cursor, I don't know what it is but I've a feeling it's connected with Windows 7 and DirectDraw because as I said it's a common issue for me with DD games ever since I got Windows 7. One of these days I'll just have to build an older computer and throw in XP and try my luck.

Original patch website down?

Found a github version anyhow, but cant post link for some reason