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Spellforce seriesHow to get Widescreen to work(20 posts)(20 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted January 01, 2011
I didn't find a thread to actually get this thing to work and since I found an awesome solution I thought I could post it here. First, you need to find out what your resolution is or the one that you want to play with. Let's take my situation as an example. I play on a ViewSonic 22" with 1680x1050 resolution.

Then you need to go to Install path for the game usually at C:\program files\GOG\SpellForce PE

Here there is a file named config.lua which you will open as a text-file which in windows is most easily done with WordPad. When you have opened it should look like this:

Filtering = 4,
ScreenResolution = 7,
ShowHitInfo = 3,

At the end of the graphics section. At this place you replace that ScreenResolution (I'm not sure if you have to but I did) with:

Filtering = 4,
ScreenHeight = 1050,
ScreenWidth = 1680,
ShowHitInfo = 3,

Now this won't work as good as one could hope for so you will have to fiddle a little yourself to get it work as you want it depending on how much of the actual game screen you want. I put Width as 1665 and height as 1050, then it fills up the screen and you don't miss anything from the game.

Since this is pretty much a borderless window mode solution you will have to make a shortcut of the "spellforce.exe". When you have done so you right click, go to properties then at the target line it should look like this:

""C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG.com\SpellForce - Platinum Edition\SpellForce.exe" -window"

A space, a "-" and then window which you add on your target location.

I use Windows 7 which mean in window mode that taskbar will pop up and it will probably annoy you during gameplay. You right click on the taskbar, go to properties and you cross the "auto-hide the taskbar" line. After that everything should work. I have attached a screenshot of how it looks on the main menu for me.
Attachments:
without_taskbar.jpg (313 Kb)
Post edited January 02, 2011 by Nirth_90
Posted April 06, 2012
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Nirth_90: I didn't find a thread to actually get this thing to work and since I found an awesome solution I thought I could post it here. First, you need to find out what your resolution is or the one that you want to play with. Let's take my situation as an example. I play on a ViewSonic 22" with 1680x1050 resolution.

Then you need to go to Install path for the game usually at C:\program files\GOG\SpellForce PE

[Snip]
While this works for the most part, it spawns three annoying problems :
* any res with a size bigger than 1280x1024 will have a smallish monospaced font, which is bearable, but annoying. It also breaks some of the items or spells descriptions by replacing them with their ID counterpart like fire_damage
* health bars on the HUD are missing, which is a downright gameplay breaker.
* if you accidentally move the window by clicking on the game's window bar (or double click it), it might also send it off-screen by an amount corresponding of the actual size difference, which in most cases sends it just outside your screen's real estate. Which is annoying, as since the game captures the cursor when you click in the window, you're pretty much screwed.

At any rate, WSGF has a guide there http://widescreengamingforum.com/forum/forums/gaming/requestdiscuss-game-solutions/20790/spellforce-order-dawn-widescreen-problem which mostly revolves around "you're screwed, use this hacked exe fo play @1680x1050"... which in turn causes problem on some setups (I.E. : black screen with the hand cursor and nothing else at start).

Pretty annoyed with that one overall.
Post edited April 06, 2012 by Tanjen
Posted April 06, 2012
Yes, I remember those issues but they weren't a deal breaker for me as a native resolution is more important. Also, if you don't play on native with a LCD the mouse gets all funny and I get too angry to focus on the game.

I haven't checked their solution at WSGF, maybe it's better. I will certainly try it next time I replay the series. :)
Posted April 08, 2012
I've been up and down the folder looking for config.lua , but can't find it. I've set to reveal hidden folders and no good. I have some dll files I ctrl-f'ed but can't find the same stuff... where is my config.lua??? my game runs just fine =s

edit: nevermind!! thank you google!! xD yey internets

dbl edit: after trying this out, it's a shame that the game is slightly awkward in the windowed mode.. I'd like to try a modified exe, but it seems no one was interested in making one for 1366 x 768 . =( I guess I'll play in 4:3 mode, it's really not that awful.
Post edited April 08, 2012 by CSLFiero
Posted April 09, 2012
I would have liked a modified exe for 1080p, does it really work in fullscreen or does it fix those minor issues like the HUD, names, fonts?
Posted April 18, 2012
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Nirth_90: I would have liked a modified exe for 1080p, does it really work in fullscreen or does it fix those minor issues like the HUD, names, fonts?
http://www.wsgf.org/forum/forums/gaming/requestdiscuss-game-solutions/20790/spellforce-order-dawn-widescreen-problem?page=1

WSGF user Jackfuste has posted a fair amount of modified exes for most common widescreen resolutions up to 2560x

I'm currently using the 1920x1080 and it works as intented : full screen, accurate UI (of course quite streched, can't be helped) corrected text display, functionning health bars... it just works as it should.

Just launch the game, setup your options, exit, replace orig exe with the mod'ed one for the resolution you choose, and tada! It works.
Posted April 18, 2012
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Nirth_90: I would have liked a modified exe for 1080p, does it really work in fullscreen or does it fix those minor issues like the HUD, names, fonts?
avatar
Tanjen: http://www.wsgf.org/forum/forums/gaming/requestdiscuss-game-solutions/20790/spellforce-order-dawn-widescreen-problem?page=1

WSGF user Jackfuste has posted a fair amount of modified exes for most common widescreen resolutions up to 2560x

I'm currently using the 1920x1080 and it works as intented : full screen, accurate UI (of course quite streched, can't be helped) corrected text display, functionning health bars... it just works as it should.

Just launch the game, setup your options, exit, replace orig exe with the mod'ed one for the resolution you choose, and tada! It works.
Thank you for the post, I will get it. :)
Posted June 17, 2013
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Nirth_90: * if you accidentally move the window by clicking on the game's window bar (or double click it), it might also send it off-screen by an amount corresponding of the actual size difference, which in most cases sends it just outside your screen's real estate. Which is annoying, as since the game captures the cursor when you click in the window, you're pretty much screwed.
Ran into this problem tonight and found a solution:

With Windows7 dual monitor (might work with other setups, but that's the one I have), right click on the desktop, choose Screen Resolution, and make an adjustment of some sort (I moved my monitor 2 up a hair), then click Apply.

It redrew the screen and moved the Spellforce window back into view.
Posted August 23, 2013
Thanks all for the tips, but I want to make a correction:

the parameters to be put in the "config.lua" file are NOT "ScreenHeight" and "ScreenWidth" but

WindowWidth = 1680,
WindowHeight = 1050,

Then I have also found a simple solution regarding the centering of the window (when its content has the same dimension of the screen) to hide the frames and the title bar:

Gamers Window Relocator
http://gwr.orekaria.com/

with this program you just select an open application and it will center it's content to the screen automatically.

So, my simple, not hacky way to have Spellforce running in widescreen is as follow:

- Remove in "config.lua" this parameter (with whatever number it have)

ScreenResolution = 7

- Add in "config.lua" these parameters (with your preferred resolution), where "ScreenResolution" was

WindowWidth = 1680,
WindowHeight = 1050,

- Add in the Spellforce shortcut "-window"

- Launch Gamers Window Relocator (I will call it GWR) *(there's even an alternative program explained after this solution)

- Launch Spellforce

- ALT+TAB to select GWR, from the "Game to relocate" menu select Spellforce, and select "AutoRelocate if game is running"

- Now you can also set the Windows taskbar to auto-hide (right clicking on it and selecting the option in the "properties" window)

- Select Spellforce

- Enjoy ;)

EDIT:

Another VERY USEFUL program is

Shift Window
http://grismar.net/shiftwindow/

This is even MORE powerful !!
It can also STRETCH a window to fullscreen even if the game does not have that resolution !!

Anyway because I like to play in the highest resolution possible maintaining aspect ratio, I used for Spellforce a 4:3 resolution, and it's window doesn't fill the monitor horizontally, so I used ShiftWindow to CENTER horizontally the window, while hiding the title bar vertically !!!

Example to have a 4:3 Spellforce window centered horizontally:

My monitor = 1600x900 (16:9)
Spellforce resolution I set = 1280x900 ( It's not exactly 4:3, I should have put 1200, but Spellforce expects only STANDARD sizes, else there will be missing things like health bars, or different fonts used... )
(If you want the REALLY 4:3 maximum resolution for your widescreen monitor, you should look here [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vector_Video_Standards4.svg]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vector_Video_Standards4.svg[/url] what sizes you can use. In my case should have been 1152x864 but it was a little too short vertically...)

ShiftWindow parameters in "Shift to"
- Left (X) = 162
- Top (Y) = -25
- Width = 1287
- Height = 921 (These values comprehend even the title bar and the frame sizes)

(The program can even shrink windows, so I should have set here the size to 4:3 to correct the wrong game ratio, BUT I DIDN'T, because when the windows is stretched or shrinked in this way, the game doesn't recognize correctly the mouse position...)

EDIT:

Another addition to the previous 4:3 method, to cover the icons and the desktop stuff you can see at the right and left of the window:

- Create a BLACK image (.jpg) with the same resolution of your monitor (maybe using MSPaint)
- Start Spellforce (that will be centered)
- ALT+TAB to open MSPaint with the black image, and view it FULLSCREEN
- ALT+TAB again to return to Spellforce

Now you have the Spellforce window, with hidden title, centered horizontally with black borders ;)

(If the Image Viewer has the needed command-line, and MSPaint doesn't have it, should be possible to make a batch file to automatically open the black image fullscreen, and then launch Spellforce)
Post edited August 24, 2013 by powergod
Posted October 13, 2013
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powergod: snip
Sorry, I missed that part about "window" instead of "screen".

Interesting solution with GWR, I will definitely try that application myself for this and other games. Now that I'm getting used to play at 1440x1080 (4:3 with 1080p) I would likely try that with SpellForce as then it's possible you could avoid those font issues and that avatar icon stuff.

Just out of interest I immediately tried this with Children of the Nile that I have to play in window mode because it puts my monitor into stand by in fullscreen. It worked, quite a bit faster than GameCompanion too (which affects my gamma too). I would like to find a better solution than auto-hide the taskbar though as if I touch it it will arrive and I would prefer if it stay down there.
Post edited October 13, 2013 by Nirth
Posted October 13, 2013
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Nirth: ... I would like to find a better solution than auto-hide the taskbar though as if I touch it it will arrive and I would prefer if it stay down there.
When I play Spellforce the mouse doesn't exit the window borders, so the pointer is not able to reach the taskbar on the bottom, at least on my PC it works like this...

Does the mouse exit the game window in your case ?
Posted October 13, 2013
Without GWR yes, with it no. The taskbar still arrives if I use auto-hide. Game Companion with its Fake Fullscreen mode avoids this by forcing the mouse into the game as long as it's active (you can still alt-tab very quickly like it's in window mode) but I kind of liked GWRs handling on this, that FF mode with GC seems buggy at times plus it screws up my gamma for unknown reasons.
Posted May 16, 2021
Well, I run a HD MOD found on NEXUS MODS. There are also reskins, and easily applied fies for smarter mages, faster walk & run speed, and AI being (Fire at Will MOD/Tweak). ;-)

MODDB dot com also has mods for SF - Order of Dawn

Check MODS; ADDONS, and FILES listed.


The Fire at Will, Regen Speed, and Smarter Mages MODS/TWEAKS may work on nearly all game versions. From GOG to Steam and stuff. ;-)
Posted August 28, 2022
I found another program to make easier playing in 4:3, it's called "IntegerScaler", and not only it centers the screen automatically, but also adds the black background and is even able to maintain a proper pixel perfect aspect witchout stretching.

So here are the instructions to use it:

1. As always modify the file "config.lua" (in the install folder),
add the following parameters insde the "Graphic" section:

WindowHeight = 960,
WindowWidth = 1280,

(that's the maximum working resolution I was able to use for a 1920x1080 display, with higher values appears the
issue of the missing health bars...)

2. Add the "-window" parameter to launch the game (it could be also added In GALAXY as an Alternative executable,
and then set to Default)

3. Download "IntegerScaler" and decompress the archive in a folder (that's it, doesn't require an installation)
https://tanalin.com/en/projects/integer-scaler/

4. In the "IntegerScaler" folder create a file named "auto.txt" and put inside it the full path of the Spellforce executable.
(Example: c:\Games\SpellForce - Platinum Edition\SpellForce.exe) so to make IntegerScaler do its job automatically
when the game is started.

5. Launch IntegerScaler (it will stay silent in the tray bar waiting for the game)

6. Launch Spellforce (from where you want, even from GALAXY)

That's it !!

You have only to rememeber that IntegerScaler must be running before the game
(for example it could also be put in the Windows Startup folder to be run at the start of Windows).
Post edited August 28, 2022 by powergod
Posted February 07, 2023
Here's a mod I found that works pretty good

https://www.moddb.com/games/spellforce-the-order-of-dawn/downloads/sf-high-resolution-mod
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This is my favourite topic
Community
Spellforce seriesHow to get Widescreen to work(20 posts)(20 posts)
(20 posts)