Heya fellow GoG members / Blizzard fans!

I´m a new user and just picked up WC1&2 to relive golden times :-)

I´m playing a Win10 (1809 build) with a 24inch 16:9 monitor (FHD res) and I have been playing around for hours with the settings in order to get the ¨best¨ option. I still haven't be able to solve my issues;

1. I understand the game was designed for 4:3 and that my monitor/native res (1920x1080) is 16:9 but still, if I wanted to stretch; which setting do you recommend?

2. If I want to maintain the 4:3 ratio and get the best image quality possible (my monitor native res is 1920x1080) which settings do you recommend? / Should I change my monitor res to 1400x1050 (4:3 SXGA+ res) before launching the game?

My goal is to achieve the best image quality possible. I played the game in the past when it first released and I think I had better image quality than I do now (at least in my memory..).

I have been trying to find answers on the internet but still no full solutions.

Thanks in advance, much appreciated!

Cheers!

Hey jnisbet!

Tx for your feedback, much appreciated!

I have been playing around again with the settings keeping in mind your comments, but I´m not gaining on image quality.. :-(

I´m not noticing increased image quality by using the different scaling engine options either..

With what setting do you prefer to play? Which scaling engine? And Double Buffering on/off?

I attached 2 screenshots of my current settings.

Thanks again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_uFMyKjdDI

What kind of image quality are you expecting? It's a 25-year-old, 320x200 game, keep in mind. Is there a specific graphical issue that you're trying to eliminate?

I play with Overlay set to OpenGLnb. Double Buffering doesn't really affect image quality, but it's good to have it on. As for scaling, I just use Normal2x or Normal3x.

Do you play DOS version in old times? Or PowerPC MAC?

in windows build GOG include a wrong version of dosboxconfig.exe. In Mac "hotfix" build they fixed this.
Anyway, its always be better if you after configurator check and change dosbox_conf file manually. Also default setting for sound in conf file is wrong. Way differ than in other dosbox powered releases. And ofc you must set cycles that fixed parametr, that work better for you PC. Remember hotkeys for changing this during gameplay.

Stretching always corrupt graphics,,, yes, right word. Not only proportions. Set keep aspect ratio in driver and forged about "widescreen fullscreen". I think better settings is "original" and 3x\4x scaler + keep aspect ratio. Cant say about opengl\ddraw (opengl is better?) but do not set overlay or surface - both fo not support something from other conf sections.

I use the pixel-perfect patch also available in the ECE build. In my case with an exact PAR at that resolution.

Hi Alerig77, tx for your sugestion!

I have viewed the clip you posted and the only thing they are doing different is setting the scaling engine to ¨Supereagle¨. I did that and the image now looks blurry and definitely not better than, with for example, the ¨none¨ or ¨normal 2x¨ modes.. Am I right or am I doing something wrong here?

See example in attached file ¨004.jpg¨. Hi Jnisbet! I am aware of the fact that the game is 25years old and designed in 320x200. I played it myself upon release :-) and that´s the reason why I´m doubting that I´m getting now the same image conditions.. I just want to make sure that I´m using the graphic mode options in dosbox correctly in order not to lose out on the original experience, that´s all.

Hey QWEEDDYZ! Tx for your feedback, much appreciated!

I played the DOS version. How can I hotfix my Windows dosbox (0.74) version? I noticed that altering options in the menu always get written correctly to the config file so I´m not sure that this is an issue in my case.

What do you mean regarding the sound being wrong in config? I´m under the impression that I´m not experiencing any issues with the sound atm. I have not modified the cycles option, neither am I experiencing issues with them. I will try the keep aspect ratio option in combination with the 3x scaler (my DosBox configurator menu does not have a 4x scaler option; they all are 3x max) as your suggesting. Outcome: playing with the ¨normal 3x¨ mode gives my worse images through larger pixels.. definitely not better than the normal 2x mode. Hi Gydion! Can you please explain me what benefits this patch can bring me and how to install it? I have looked into the link you provided but it´s not clear to me what the benefits are / how to implement it.. Will this patch provide me increased image quality over my DosBox (074-2, latest version according to dosbox.com) as it is now?

No sound issue? Well, good for you. Still you must change fullscreen resolution manually (not available from configurator). GOG did update MAC version and replace that wrong configurator - now include resolution settings for fullscreen:
http://www.gog.com/forum/warcraft_orcs_and_humans/changelog

I've used that and like it. I'm just not that keen on replacing every DOSBox build with the ECE one. OpenGLNB output mode in the official build is largely good enough for me, so I tend to just stick to that. Ok. I didn't mean to treat you as dumb. I just didn't know if you'd played it before. You did say "new player" in the title.

That screenshot of yours looks horrible, IMO. You're clearly using one of the advanced scalers. You should put it back on Normal2x if you want to replicate how the game used to look. Also, set Overlay to OpenGLNB, as I advised earlier. With those two things and Aspect set to true, the game should look as you remember. The only real improvement over OpenGLNB mode in the official DOSBox that it'll provide is eliminating any graphical oddities that scaling sometimes introduces, like horizontal lines that have an extra row of pixels starting halfway down their lengths.

I do see a ¨fullscreen¨ option in the DosBox Configurator. Please see both screenshots included in my second post in this topic. And it does stretch, only leaving very small black bars.. So I can´t confirm that I need to set it manually as your suggesting. I´m running DosBox 074-2, latest version according to dosbox.com.

Hi jnisbet! Indeed I mentioned in my opening post that I´m a new user (I meant DosBox user) and somehow the text ¨new player¨ got into my topic title (I think its done by the GoG Forum and not myself but anyways.

To which screenshot are you referring? I posted one with tile ¨004¨ but that was based on the ¨Supereagle¨ scaling as feedback to Alerig77.. that´s not how my game looks like in-game.

For now I ´m getting the best/smooth result with the settings you can see in the screenshots I posted in my second post (opengl/fullscreen/keep aspect ratio/double buffering/scale engine: none). With openglnb I get a more pixled result (as you also mentioned yourself) and its way less smoother (at least on my monitor) than standard OpenGL.

I´m including a new screenshot how my game looks like now so you can judge..

Thanks again for the feedback!

I'm confused as to what you're trying to achieve. You said that you want to make it look like how you remember, which is why I recommended OpenGLNB mode, since it doesn't apply any bilinear filtering, but it sounds like you prefer the filtered (smoothed) look. If so, that's fine, but that's not how the game naturally looks or looked. I, personally, think that the "best" look is the one that doesn't blur the image any, so I prefer OpenGLNB mode, but, if you think that "best" means smoothest, then use regular OpenGL.

Awesome! And what do you think about my last ingame screenshots? You recon they are “as good as it gets”?