Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => Modding => Bug/Patch Discussion => Topic started by: Fibonacci on March 19, 2017, 06:19:58 PM

Title: 1366: The number of the beast
Post by: Fibonacci on March 19, 2017, 06:19:58 PM

Doing some trial and error attempting to get PRACX and DirectDraw=0 options to behave on my laptop I've discovered a few things. Some code in the game assumes that the resolution is divisible by 8. Whether using Windows 7, XP, WINE 2.3 on Ubuntu 16.04, XP virtualbox guest under Ubuntu 16.04, or a 7 virtualbox guest under Ubuntu 16.04 the results are identical for me. A resolution of 1366x768 results in visible artifacts when it does work, and crashes when it doesn't.

Solution for either WINE (winecfg, graphics tab, emulate a 1368x768 desktop), or Virtualbox guests (file, preferences, Display tab, Maximum Guest Screen Size set to Hint, Width 1368, Height 768) was to resize the screen to 1368x768. 1360x768 also worked, but left a visible vertical gap. 1364x768 was not an improvement over 1366x768.

Now with either Directdraw=0 or PRACX enabled, the graphical artifacts vanished, redraws are noticeably quicker, and I haven't gotten any of the crash conditions that plagued 1366x768.

The one drawback I can tell is 2 columns of pixels off the edge of the screen can interfere with edge scrolling. I have not figured out a way to force the nonstandard resolution in regular XP or 7 yet to try those combinations.

So, if you're interested in playing on an unusual screen size like mine, and have been stuck with crashes when attempting to get the full use of it, try bumping up the resolution to the next multiple of 8.

Title: Re: 1366: The number of the beast
Post by: Daemonjax on May 08, 2017, 11:46:09 PM

Thanks.  Had the same problem with 1366x768... 1360x768 works fine for me.  I'd have to make a custom resolution for 1368x768, and I'd rather not dick around with it (radeon) for 8 more pixels.