How do I change the screen resolution for PTW?

[Crazy Eddie]

It's possible that the game is running at the correct res, but you might need to use the monitor's OSD to correctly size the display. I've never changed the civ3 screen size myself, but I sometimes have to do this for a new game. (LG Flatron 795FT+)

 

[aliestar]

Originally posted by Grille
Are you sure that 800x600 works (maybe for PTW only)?
I've once added "VideoMode=800" in the civ3 .ini file, but it didn't work. Of course, the film at the start played, but that one is on lower resolution anyway. However, I couldn't start a new game (program got aborted, return to win).

I tried this too and it didn't work. However, I've never tried an .ini hack before so I could've done something wrong. Do you have to add it to a certain part of the file? I just tacked it on the end.

I'm using my backup monitor (my main blew up last night) and it's max res is 600x800. If anyone knows how to get Civ 3 to run at this res, please let me know!

Thx.


A

 

[viking1958]

I had never run into this problem until I had to re-load Civ III onto another computer running win 98. I have a 19in monitor and like to run it at 1280x1024. I was getting frustrated with having to change the res each time I wanted to run the game.

I tried the "KeepRes=1" trick and it seems to have worked.

When I launch the game, I will get the black border around the main menu, but when I load a game it fills the whole screen and does not give the impression of being stretched.

Anyway, wanted to pass my experience along.

 

[Gainy]

I have a 21" monitor, and i have no problems...

 

[Ozymandias]

For what little it's worth --

Dell Dimension desktop / 128 MB RAM
Dell 17" flatscreen monitor
NVIDIA GeForce 256 graphics adapter
Win 98

-- no matter what screen resolution I select via the "Active Desktop", I get the exact same resolution (1024 x 768) albeit without any funky black borders.

-Oz

EDIT1:

The Infogrames FAQ lists the following options re: Resolution/Color Depth combinations (Win98 - and the XP section specifies that it lists only changes to the Win98 section, of which I can't find any that are relevant ...):

640x480 with 256 colors.
640x480 with 16-bit color.
800x600 with 16-bit color.
1024x768 with 16-bit color.

Looks like 1024 x 768 is as good as it gets ...

Edit2 -- you are running DirectX 8.1+, yes?

-- BTW, I'd personally be happy to go along with a campaign of bombarding them with tech questions re: this issue (we could all get Zulu armbands or something J26-ish ) if this sounds at all helpful ...

*sigh*

-Oz

 

[zulu9812]

I had a nasty feeling that 1024 was the max res - do you think it could be because CivIII uses fix-sized pcx files, which look good when shrunk, but crap when enlarged?

Oh, and btw, I'm running DirectX 9

 

[Ozymandias]

Originally posted by zulu9812
I had a nasty feeling that 1024 was the max res - do you think it could be because CivIII uses fix-sized pcx files, which look good when shrunk, but crap when enlarged?

I'll resort to Occam's Razor (the hypothesis with the least number of assumptions likely to be the right one) and sadly say, "Yes".

-Oz

 

[Comraddict]

KeepRes=1 works for me. By the way you have to load actual game - ignore start screen. When you load game- it works

 

[Cheetah]

It works fine for me with keepres=1.

I used to run Civ on 1600x1200 on a 19" monitor. No problems. I found it to be to small though, and a bit slower, so I run on 1024 x768 now.

 

[zulu9812]

Yes, I have actually gone into the game and the resolution is as I've described.

 

[zulu9812]

Okay, I downgraded my nVidia drivers, and it seems that the game engine is actually showing the main map at a resolution of 1290x1024 (I think). There are still some problems. The advisor screens, and the city view sceen, and the espionage screen, are all being displayed in that smaller size with the black border around it. The diplomacy window (when you're talking to another leader) is off centre: up and to the left. The mini-map is horizontally elongated.

Finally, in what must be a completely unrelated problem, I've just noticed that in the diplomacy window the "We offer" and "They want" text is swapped about, e.g. if I click on a tech in their column it comes up on the right hand side, but has the heading "We offer", and if I click on some gold from my column it comes up on the left hand side but has the heading "We want". Wierd, huh?