When I start the game and/or play there are black bars down the sides of my screen. The image only takes up the center of the screen.

I am running on a macbook pro 17" running Windows 7 bootcamp. I've tried multiple drivers. AMD mobility 13.4 and 13.12. I have tried editing the .ini file but I don't like the extra huge resolution that the directdraw=0 gives me.

I've also tried displaymode=800/1024/640 and that doesn't work either. I've tried disabling the intro movie.
I've tried setting any/all combos of the compat settings.

Whats odd is I thought the plane jane 640/480 res filled my entire screen at one point on this computer.

I might reformat my computer I want this game to work!


Any other suggestions?
Thanks

The game was made to run in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Your MacBook Pro has a widescreen aspect ratio, either 16:10 or 16:9. As such, the game either has to stretch out to fill the wider screen (which deforms the image) or it maintains the correct aspect ratio and the sides of your screen are filled with black bars for the unused screen area.

Your graphics drivers control how the screen is filled. They can maintain the aspect ratio (which gives black bars) or they can allow the screen to be filled (stretching the game window horizontally and therefore deforming the game's graphics horizontally).

So the game is working fine, you don't need to reformat for this.

The directdraw=0 setting uses your desktop resolution to play the game (and it only works correctly for resolutions where the dimensions are divisible by 8, if I remember rightly). This is probably the best way to play the game as it fills the screen and uses the native widescreen resolution so doesn't deform the graphics with a horizontal stretch. That said, if you don't like the high resolution, just drop your desktop resolution before you play.

Fantastic!. you guys fixed it all right.

Now here is how you do it for AMD Mobility Driver 13.4 or 13.12.

You need to change the resolution to 640*480 in the AMD Catalyst control center. This is under Desktop Management. Now you have the option under My Built In Displays > Properties to set that res to go full screen and not keep aspect ratio.

Set the res back to 1920*1200 or normal desktop in AMD CCC . However now when you go to play the game the AMD Control Center remembers to stretch out that res [640*480] ! Works great.

Now I gotta decide if I had been playing in 640*480 or 800*600. I was playing in whatever was default.....and got used to it. Playing at desktop res is too high def for me.

Thanks again!

Glad you got it sorted. Just bear in mind that by stretching the 4:3 image to fill a 16:10 screen does mean that you won't be seeing the game graphics as they were intended, they will be stretched horizontally slightly. Won't be a big deal, mind, but it isn't as it was desgined.

Out of interest, does your screen allow a resolution of 960x600? Only if you can use this then using directdraw=0 and setting your desktop to 960x600 you can then play the game maintaining the pixel height (e.g. 800x600) but not stretching the game, instead increasing the visible area by 160 pixels wide. That way you get the best of both worlds, the lower resolution but also the correct widescreen aspect ratio to fill the screen, so no stretching deformation.

Awesome recommend.

I might give that a shot. I just know that directdraw makes my map huge! but then the control panel only takes up .5 of the bottom of the screen, which I don't like. Maybe at 960x600, it'd be better.