Posted September 22, 2017
I've seen a lot of questions (not just on GOG.com) about a) running QFG5 in a window and b) changing the resolution beyond 640x480. Running it in a window isn't that tricky, there are many methods to do this -- even more trivial if you run Windows games in WINE and not natively. But actually changing the resolution is trickier, as it is hard-coded to 640x480 in the game engine. Thankfully, you can accomplish both a. and b. with one fairly easy step. I haven't seen this covered anywhere else on the Internet, so thought I'd post it here in the hope it is helpful to somebody.
There's a freeware app for Windows called DXWnd that is designed primarily to run legacy games at any resolution you desire.
1) Download and install DXWnd (may be found on SourceForge).
1a) If you're running QFG5 in WINE, just install DXWnd in the same prefix where you've installed QFG5. It works fine in WINE (tested with WINE 2.17)
2) Add an entry for QFG5, setting the Path (i.e. the directory where the game is installed) and Launch (the path to the executable that starts the game) entries under the Main tab.
3) Under Position from the Main tab, make sure to enable "Keep aspect ratio", then set the W (width) and H (height) you want to run the game with.
3a) Set the Width and Height to a power of 2 for best results, especially if using the "nearest neighbor" 2x filter DXWnd uses by default. For example, 640x480 might become 1280x960, 1920x1440, or whatever 4:3 aspect ratio best fits your monitor.
3b) Optional: Enable "Run in Window" from the Generic section if you don't want the program to try to run fullscreen.
4) Optional: If you don't like the default "pixelated" 2x nearest-neighbor look, you can configure various other filtering tweaks and settings. There are 17 tabs in total packed full of all kinds of tuneables; this is an exercise left to the industrious reader.
5) From now on, launch QFG5 from the link you've created in DXWnd rather than directly.
This will also work for many other early Windows games which don't allow resolution changes or running windowed.
Enjoy,
-Chris
There's a freeware app for Windows called DXWnd that is designed primarily to run legacy games at any resolution you desire.
1) Download and install DXWnd (may be found on SourceForge).
1a) If you're running QFG5 in WINE, just install DXWnd in the same prefix where you've installed QFG5. It works fine in WINE (tested with WINE 2.17)
2) Add an entry for QFG5, setting the Path (i.e. the directory where the game is installed) and Launch (the path to the executable that starts the game) entries under the Main tab.
3) Under Position from the Main tab, make sure to enable "Keep aspect ratio", then set the W (width) and H (height) you want to run the game with.
3a) Set the Width and Height to a power of 2 for best results, especially if using the "nearest neighbor" 2x filter DXWnd uses by default. For example, 640x480 might become 1280x960, 1920x1440, or whatever 4:3 aspect ratio best fits your monitor.
3b) Optional: Enable "Run in Window" from the Generic section if you don't want the program to try to run fullscreen.
4) Optional: If you don't like the default "pixelated" 2x nearest-neighbor look, you can configure various other filtering tweaks and settings. There are 17 tabs in total packed full of all kinds of tuneables; this is an exercise left to the industrious reader.
5) From now on, launch QFG5 from the link you've created in DXWnd rather than directly.
This will also work for many other early Windows games which don't allow resolution changes or running windowed.
Enjoy,
-Chris
Post edited September 22, 2017 by cwadge