Resolution Madness

[RClive]

I've got an unusual issue with DW2. The game runs just fine. I've experienced a couple of CTDs, due I'm pretty sure to trying to Zoom in or out too quickly. This is a known issue, and they're working on it, and it hasn't really affected my ability to play the game.

I downloaded the game the day it came out, but was very busy with work, so I didn't have time to do any extensive playing for several days thereafter. I did start it up at least half a dozen times to just look at it and start a couple of trial games. Everything ran perfectly, no problems at all.

Then, beginning the Sunday after release, with the upgrade to the 1.0.1.8 patch, I began to get a weird issue when I started up the game. Rather than the game occupying the full screen of my monitor, the game screen was parked in the upper left, leaving much of the normal desktop still visible around it. There were three options for Graphics Resolution - 2560x1400, 3200x1800, and 3840x2160. Each of these settings could be Applied from the start screen, and they did change the size of the game screen, relative to the overall monitor, but the game continued to only take up a portion of the overall screen.

The game itself worked just fine, although it was much harder to see things, especially the text, especially on the smallest resolution setting. But I could do everything normally - start a new game, load an old one, and it played with no problems - just on a part of the overall monitor screen. I tried a variety of fixes, and started up the game repeatedly, always with the same results: the game ran fine, but only using a portion of the overall monitor.

Then, with the 1.0.2.1 patch on Friday, hooray! The game went back to being full screen, just in time for a weekend of heavy gaming. I spent quite a few hours on Friday and Saturday playing, on a full screen. But then on Sunday, even before any new patches, for reasons unknown, it reverted back to the smaller partial screen display. And despite the new 1.0.2.2 patch, it continues to do this.

As I said, the game seems to run just fine - I spent a solid six hours on Sunday playing on a partial screen. It's an adjustment look only at the top left of the screen, and the text is rather smaller than I'd like, but it is playable. Screen shots of the various resolutions are attached. I don't have any of the full screen version, since I forgot to take any at the time, and now I can't get the game to use full screen.

I've got an unusual system, which may be contributing to the issue. I use an iMac, 5k 27" computer. It's got an AMD Radeon Pro 5700XT, 64 gigs of RAM. I have Windows 10 installed through Boot Camp, and do my gaming on that side of the system. Not having any issues with performance, and as I noted, this issue hasn't been constant. It wasn't there on initial release, appeared with the 1.8 patch, disappeared and then reappeared with the 2.1 patch, and remains in effect at the moment.

This isn't a game-breaking issue at all, just a puzzling one that is causing some eyestrain. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Windows is set to 3840x2160, so with that option, that's how big the game thinks my monitor is, for some reason.

[Wakavengerf]

I have similar set up and same problem.

[Erik Rutins]

Please try the following:

1. Delete the gamesettings and gamestartsettings files in your /data sub-folder of your installation.
2. Update to 1.0.2.4
3. Re-launch the game.

If that fails to resolve the issue, please report here and be sure to include your sessionlog.txt

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 6&t=380457

[RClive]

Tried the fix, upgraded to the latest version, but it didn't work. Still getting the same less-than-full-sized game screens. I submitted a report, along with the sessionlog.txt

[RClive]

Tried the fix again with the 2.6 patch, but am still getting the shrunken game screen. Game still works fine, is just smaller than the full screen.

[WiZz]

Dumb question: did you try Alt + Enter?

[RClive]

Not a dumb question at all. No, I had not tried that. When I did, all I got was the icon shortcut properties, or the taskbar, and the same smaller game screen. If you have more details, I'd appreciate it.

I think a key issue here is that originally the game was full screen, then went to the smaller screen with the 1.8 patch, was temporarily restored to full screen by the 2.1 patch, but then reverted back to a smaller screen. So it's something that's been introduced by the patches, probably in combination with my unusual setup of playing it on a Mac via Boot Camp. It did try briefly to launch full screen last night, but that only led to the Blue Screen of Death, and then after a reboot, back to the smaller version.

[WiZz]

Ok. Try to mess up with GameSettingsOverrides.txt in data folder of game folder. It has options:

GraphicsResolutionWidth ;0
GraphicsResolutionHeight ;0
GraphicsResolutionFullScreen ;

Try to fill up with your actual resolution and force fullscreen.

[RClive]

So would I just enter the resolution numbers after the semicolon? What about the FullScreen one? What would I put there? Is there a code for Yes/No, something like that?

[WiZz]

In your case it will look like this:
GraphicsResolutionWidth ;3840
GraphicsResolutionHeight ;2160
GraphicsResolutionFullScreen ;true

But for start try only this:

GraphicsResolutionFullScreen ;true

[RClive]

Will do, thanks. I'll let you know how it works.

[RClive]

OK, after various experimentation with the Game Settings Override, I can report that regardless of various individual or combination of settings, the game stubbornly remains confined to the top left of my monitor. More specifically:

With just the FullScreen set to true, the game would produce the Launch screen the the Play button, but once pressed, and the little loading screen (the one with the red planet and fleet in it) came up, the game would then freeze up my entire system. A hard freeze, too - Ctrl+Alt+Delete did nothing, had to power down and reboot.

By the way, I can tell from that little loading screen if the game is going to load full screen or smaller screen. There is a significant size difference, if the game is going to load smaller, the loading image is noticeably smaller as well.

If I enter the values for the display, nothing changes - the game starts normally, but still at the smaller size in the top left.

If I put true in the ForceFullScreen line, the game still starts small in the top left corner. Apparently the game thinks that that is the entire size of my monitor, the rest of it notwithstanding.

There is, however, a new development. All this messing with settings (which have all been returned to the original defaults) has now convinced the game to start in Windowed mode, every single time. It can be manually set to FullScreen (my preferred mode) but will revert to Windowed if I exit the game and then start it again. I'm going to play with some of the settings again and see if I can make that, at least, go away.

There were one or two times where I thought the game might start in full screen mode, as I first got that smaller, top left area defined, then it changed to a full screen mode. Unfortunately, said full screen mode remained totally black, and also froze up my system again.

I have to say, this is one of the oddest non-game-breaking issues I've ever had with any game. Obviously whatever fixes they're implementing to deal with some of those serious issues are having some unintended consequences. I do hope it can be sorted out, but I also realize the priority is on more serious problems.

Any additional suggestions would be very welcome.

[SirHoraceHarkness]

Turn off windows scaling then start the game. Gotta feeling the good ole os scaling bug is at work again.

Open the taskbar then select 'settings' then 'display' and make sure the scaling option is set to 100%.

[RClive]

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try and see how it works.

After some further experimentation, I was able to get rid of the 'start in Windowed Mode' thing, which was nice. But the game still remains stuck in that upper left corner of the screen.

Since my monitor actually goes up to 5120x2880, I input those values as well, but nothing changed. I don't really want to change the overall resolution of the desktop, since everything else is configured to the current resolution of 3440x2160. I'll try the scaling and see if that helps - although since this issue hasn't been consistent the whole time, but has come and gone with different patches, it has to be something in the game code that is ultimately causing it.

[SirHoraceHarkness]

I'll try the scaling and see if that helps - although since this issue hasn't been consistent the whole time, but has come and gone with different patches, it has to be something in the game code that is ultimately causing it.

Ever since the introduction of very high resolution monitors the windows scaling mechanic has been screwing with games. I have a 4k panel set to 125% ui scaling and often have to go to the games .exe into its properties and manually change the scaling settings from os to application. Then the stuck in a corner of the screen problem goes away. Might try that too. It's also possible that having a non native resolution set for the desktop might be tossing a curve at the game.

[RClive]

Tried shutting off the scaling, nothing different. Tried setting the Display to 100%, and all that did was force the main display to the full 5120x2880 resolution, making everything tiny to the point of illegibility, without altering the game starting in the top left corner. So, back to square one.

The original version of the game did not do this - it displayed very properly across the full screen. Only with the 1.8 patch did this top left corner thing start. The 2.1 patch made it go back to full screen for a while, but then after a couple of days it reverted to the top corner, and has stubbornly stayed there ever since.

[R_TEAM]

It is not helpfull ...
but have at last NOT understand why DW2 is NOT playable on Fullscreen ?
(i DONT mean the "Fake" fullscreen in the settings - which is not more as borderless window on desktop)
I know the CampaignSeries Games - she all works ONLY as windows on Desktop - here i understand it "a little" as the game incorporates (in ninetys charme) add on programms to display important infos where start on the desktop and so it would be a little confusing if the main game would start on his own fullscreen ... (but a modern way is more than 10 years behind ..)
But DW2 can be made on his own screen ...
No bound to the desktop resolution ... where from my perpective ALL matrix games have problems if it higher as FullHD ...
(where it is a know thing for 10+ Years to have more than FullHD ...)
DW2 would run on an own fullscreen better - more compatible - and can flawless used in FullHD if the performance in 4k is bad ....
So i realy dont understand this decision .....

[SirHoraceHarkness]

Tried shutting off the scaling, nothing different. Tried setting the Display to 100%, and all that did was force the main display to the full 5120x2880 resolution, making everything tiny to the point of illegibility, without altering the game starting in the top left corner. So, back to square one.

The original version of the game did not do this - it displayed very properly across the full screen. Only with the 1.8 patch did this top left corner thing start. The 2.1 patch made it go back to full screen for a while, but then after a couple of days it reverted to the top corner, and has stubbornly stayed there ever since.

What about going to the games .exe and setting the scaling option to application?

So i realy dont understand this decision .....

Take a look at the steam windows hardware survey and you quickly find that there is no real standard for anything the customer base is using.

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey ... latform=pc

From resolutions to memory to os to cpu and gpu of every brand and make and every other possible combination its a vast swamp of potential incompatibilities. Most of the issues I see are on systems that are not in the standard range of the common hardware setups so they have a much higher chance of having issues with a launch title that has only been able to vet the game on the limited amount of beta testers on hand. These issues can be ironed out but they have to be found first and the only way that can happen is for users to submit bug reports. It seems the devs are fully aware of the issues are are working even over the weekends to get patches out so give it a bit of time and all will be well.

[R_TEAM]

@SirHoraceHarkness
this still dont answer my question .... simply ....
The game dont use his own Fullscreen - it stay on desktop ....
Every modern game (back to 2005) i know have the option for an real Fullscreen mode ...
(except very old or free/shareware games - even indy games have this option)
This minimize the problems ...
Dont problems on desktop where many other prg interact/change/buggy the display driver (Webbrowser video support/encoding - old programms - other buggy prg - desktop uncommen aspect ratios - desktop over multi monitor --- the list go on ...)
Dont problems with the maybe to high desktop resolution (even i would today only 8k classify as "very high" ...) - can set my own resolution on my own fullscreen with much less performance problems ...
So this make ZERO sense to force an game to stay exclusively on desktop nowdays ....

[RClive]

I will certainly try the game .exe fix and see if that can get the thing back to full screen. I'll let you know.

This is more in the nature of a minor inconvenience than a serious problem - the game still runs fine, and I can play it with no problems, just in a smaller space. I'm sure the developers will address it when they get caught up on the other more serious issues. And my hardware setup is likely quite rare, and I haven't heard of too many others having the same issue.