Err.. my game is squeezed. Version is 1.4.700.38 (German).

I found this topic via Google: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1671047.html

Sounds like there is a patch that should address this issue - but what should be round looks like eggs in my game :(


Any clue? Don't we have that patch too? Or am I the only one with the issue?

I just found a workaround. It's a dual monitor issue again. When will those developers EVER learn, that they cannot know every display setup and need to rely on individual aspects of the actual window instead of some automatically detected display that has absolutely nothing to do with running the game? :(

Anyways.. I start ranting again. So here's my workaround. Suitable for dual display setups where the game is running in an OTHER aspect ration than the primary display: "Just" set a display with the same aspect ratio as the game to primary - et voila.

Pretty stupid tho - I had to drag my taskbar to the now secondary display and my background image is messed up... but at least Divinity 2 isn't eggy anymore.

My original setup:
1st display: 1600x1200, aspect ratio 4:3
2nd display: 1920x1080, aspect ratio 16:9

I reversed that. Altho I feel like ranting about "why on earth would anyone pick the resolution of just /some/ display if he could just use the games resolution" -.- ok, I'll spare you that.

This won't work when playing windowed and you don't have any display with that aspect ratio. You might consider buying some crappy 800x600 display, attach it, set some weird resolution that matches your ratio, make it primary and shove it away. The game would probably run just fine then O_o

You couldn't set the resolution though the game (it should list the resolutions for the primary display) or manually?

In Windows Explorer, browse to the folder below and open the 'graphicoptions.xml' file in Notepad (or other text editor) to check that the proper resolution is listed (and change if necessary).

XP : C:\Documents and Settings\ %username% \Local Settings\Application Data\Divinity 2\Profile

Vista/7 : C:\Users\ %username% \AppData\Local\Divinity 2\Profile

You may need to set Windows Explorer to show hidden files and folders (XP, Vista, Win 7).

Another stretched screen problem no fix found yet

Well, I could set anything in game up to a width of 1600px - so I tried 1600x900 - but that was stretched too.

I did however set the 1080p resolution via the config file you mentioned. Oh and prior to that I tried 1776x999, because such a window fits nicely on the (former) second display.

Now that I changed the 16:9 display to primary, I'm running in full screen at 1920x1080 and perfect circles.

The game just looks for the primary display and uses the aspect ratio it finds there - disregarding the resolution set in the game (or via config file).

Was that when your widescreen monitor was the secondary display, or after you switched them? If you were using a wide screen aspect ratio with a standard aspect ratio primary monitor, that would account for the image squeezing.

By default the game uses the desktop resolution for the UI (you can check an option off in the settings not to do so), but the game itself should use whatever resolution you set it to.

You'd think the game would simply ignore a secondary display, but if you can not use a 4:3 resolution when the secondary display is 16:9, maybe that caused a problem? Rather than swapping displays, did you try just disabling the secondary display and see if the aspect ratio was ok then?

That's basically what I was trying to say. The rest of your posting mixes me up quite a bit - I think I should sort it out to remove and avoid the misunderstanding. Please know that English isn't my native language :-)

1. my goal that never changed: I want to play in 16:9.

2. I always play on the 16:9 display. Never on the 4:3 display.

3. It didn't work in any constellation (neither the UI nor the rendered world) when my setup was 4:3 on the primary display and 16:9 on the secondary display. I got squeezed UI and squeezed characters and world.

4. It works like a charm since I switched displays, so my 16:9 display is primary and the 4:3 is secondary. Neither the UI nor the world is squeezed anymore.

--
I hope these 4 statements clear it up for you :-)

I can not disable any of the displays, because I always need to keep an eye on some other programs while playing, so I can switch immediately if an error occurs or someone needs me. Switching the priority of the displays created another minor problem, because info-bubbles always go to the primary display - but that's a different story.

Your English is fine, I just didn't realize at first you were trying to get the game to play on the secondary monitor. As far as I know it isn't possible to get DirectX games to play full screen on a secondary monitor.

You could try setting D2:DC to run in a window, though, and then move that window over to the secondary display. In the graphicoptions.xml file (location listed above), in the line Fullscreen="1" change the 1 to a 0 and save, then restart the game. That isn't a perfect solution, either, but would let you keep the 4:3 display as primary.

Haha! And now you are where I started! *laugh*

That's been my very first step after installing the game - I tried to run it in a window at 1600x900 via in game configuration and in 1776x999 via config file. That's where everything got squeezed like hell and I created this topic. That's why I was ranting about developers looking for the aspect ratio of the primary screen, even if the game is running in a window somewhere else ;-)

Oh, ps: It is possible if the game has that feature built in. In the configuration file of ArmA 2 for example you can set the display ID. Other games just run in a "borderless window" where you can specify the starting x and y positions - so you might just use 1600x0 if your displays are aligned on the upper edge and your primary displays resolution has a width of 1600px.

But games with these features are very rare gems, sadly. Most mess it up completely, like Assassin's Creed, where the only solution is to run in a window and the mouse isn't fixed to that area, so you always leave the window and click somewhere on your desktop - commonly resulting in a fatal death in game.

When you originally set D2:DC to run in a window, did you try a widescreen resolution that was smaller than the resolution of the primary monitor? A resolution of 1920x1080 might get squeezed, but maybe 1600x900 or 1366×768 would be ok?

If so, that could let you play the way you originally wanted, even if you would need to lower the resolution on your secondary monitor.

Yeah, as said I tried different resolutions - amongst them 1600x900. Same result ;-)

Did you try a lower widescreen resolution, in case the game needs a border, or something?

Yeanay.. you want me to play like on a Nintendo GameBoy or something? :D

Smaller resolutions don't change anything. But the issue is solved so far: Divinity 2 takes the resolution of the main display as the games aspect ratio and every resolution you set in game will be rendered for the determined aspect ratio and then squeezed to fit the resolution that you've set the game to.

It's just a misconception by the developers. I wanna see much (that excludes any low resolutions that'd go into a small window), I wanna play in 16:9, I wanna play on the second display. So there's no other solution than to wait for a patch (presumably not gonna happen), or switch the priority of the displays, like I did ;-)

Btw: It's not even meant to run in a window - otherwise they'd have added the option in game; and since you can't select the display either, the game wouldn't be squeezed as long as you don't touch that config file manually. So broken down to the smallest statement: Divinity 2 (like many other games) just doesn't support the feature that I miss, so I need to work around. Most people don't care about multiple displays, so they just give no priority to support them properly.

I was just curious if a widescreen resolution under the dimensions of the 4:3 primary monitor still had the same problem as a resolution at or over the width does.

You are correct that the window mode isn't officially supported (or recommended), and I don't know if multi-monitor support was ever even considered (too few people using multiple monitors, unfortunately), so they were very unlikely to have ever tested the two together for possible problems.

Ah, so you're intrigued :D

Wanna see something really funny? I just reversed the effect by selecting a 5:4 resolution (1280x1024) while having a 16:9 primary display. YUK! ;D