I apologize if this has been asked many times before; I skimmed some of the other threads, but with GOG's subpar search engine, the info I seek is kind of hard to find. Would be really helpful if there was a sticky about it.

1. I've seen advice to open UW.CFG in UNDEROM1/DATA and change "6 -1 -1 -1 sound" to "4 -1 -1 -1 sound", and indeed, it seems to sound better, but it also switches from voiceovers to subtitles. So what does this actually mean? Do these numbers stand for different versions, like CD version vs. disk version or something?

(1a. N00b question: Saving the UW.CFG with the text editor after modifying it removes line breaks. Is there any way to prevent that?)

2. Is it possible to have voices and subtitles or just either or?

3. The subtitles are flickering in animated scenes. Is this normal, unavoidable DOSBOX behaviour?

4. What was the original look of UU on the old 4:3 monitors? I've seen two different looks in DOSBOX, but weirdly enough, the one that apparently uses a 4:3 resolution with black bars on the side looks more distorted than the one that fills my whole 16:10 screen and should therefor be stretched compared to the original (see attached images). Which is the more authenthic look? Should the inventory slots be circles or ellipses? And if circles, how come it fits the modern 16:10 so suspiciously well?

1, 1a) I can't speak for the sound issues; I haven't messed with my installation.

2) I seem to recall having seen both once, so I think it is possible. I've never bothered going for both.

3) No. I just checked my installation, and I didn't have subtitle flickering. I've seen it happen before, but my current installation doesn't. Maybe try changing your DoxBox cycles? I'm not sure whether that would make a difference.

4) Circles was the original look. Keep in mind that certain perspectives may still show some distortion (especially if you look up or down) because of the graphical limitations of the game. The ellipses didn't look too different from the circles, so I'd think you'll be fine with either choice.

4) I think the original aspect ratio was 320x200 (1.6 pixel aspect ratio).
More detail: http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2013/10/320x200-resolution-of-choice-for-ibm-pc.html

Ok, thanks! Ah, I see. I don't really understand a lot of the article, but I guess that makes sense then, seeing that my 1680*1050 resolution also comes down to a 1.6 ratio. Thanks for enlightening me! Thanks! You're right, that gave me sound blaster music AND speech.

When it comes to aspect ratio, afaik the answer is "it depends".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvckyWxHAIw might be worth a watch about this topic.

These days i just assume that most DOS games should be stretched to 4:3, so that's my default setting.

The video above also mentions the "should it be a circle or an ellipse ?" issue i believe.
Afaik, artists sometimes compensated for aspect-stretch - but not always.

My main metric now is pretty much just checking if people's faces or bodies look strangely squashed or comically bulky.