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Icewind Dale (PT, BG ...) in high resolution?

ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
edited September 2012 in Archive (General Discussion)
So I am one of those impatient lads who are so thrilled to get a chance to re-play my most loved game from childhood that I just simply cannot wait till the September 18th. I must have something to fill the hole in me until B-Day happens. I thought of re-playing Icewind Dale. It was a pretty good game, so I think that would do the trick till I get my hands on BGEE. There is a bit of an issue playing it nowadays though... Back in the old days, I played it on a CRT monitor and everything was fine. Now when I'm trying to play a game like Icewind Dale, I have a problem finding the right resolution and settings. I have a laptop with a native resolution of 1920*1080. If I use this res. everything gets so small that I can barely see them not to mention the unreadable texts. If I lower the resolution, everything becomes blurry because my display doesn't like anything that isn't its native res.

I'm pretty sure there are many of you who played these games recently on a modern PC and faced the same situation. The question is, how do you play it? Which resolution works the best for you? There must be an acceptable way to play IWD.

Any suggestions?

Comments

  • shawneshawne Member Posts: 3,239
    Honestly? Even with widescreen mods, I tend to keep it at 800x600. Anything more tends to expand the layout while shrinking the characters to the point where Morte is just a moving white dot. :)
  • ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
    @shawne But doesn't it get blurry for you? I'd love to play it at 800x600 but the blurriness gives me a headache..
  • shawneshawne Member Posts: 3,239
    Not that I've noticed, at least not with the G3 Widescreen mod...
  • ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
    Well, I'm trying to play it using the G3 Widescreen mod as well, but it's still blurry.

    Thanks for the comment anyway!
  • shawneshawne Member Posts: 3,239
    Ah... my monitor's a flatscreen rather than a widescreen, so 800x600 is still in the ballpark of native. That probably explains it...
  • DemossDemoss Member Posts: 52
    Depends... does IWD give options in config like BG2 in regard to res? Widescreen mods isn't that good in my books :/
  • ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
    IWD1 doesn't but IWD2 does give higher resolution options, though they are not supported IIRC.
  • DemossDemoss Member Posts: 52
    The unsupported ones work fine though :p
  • ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
    Unfortunately those don't work for IWD1 but I will give them a try in IWD2 for sure.
  • DemossDemoss Member Posts: 52
    Yeaaah i can't remember what i had set in my IWD run a year or so ago, i may of used the widescreen mod but still at a lower res, no way should you use your native resolution with it though. :/
  • Awong124Awong124 Member Posts: 2,642
    I'm playing IWD now with 1920X1080 resolution on the monitor, and using the highest resolution supported by IWD and it looks fine for me. Though my monitor is 21", I don't know what size screen your laptop is. BG looks horribly blurry and huge though.
  • ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
    At my native res I can't see a damn thing, using the widescreen mod I can use a lower but 16:9 res, but then I have that annoying blurriness.. Maybe it has to do with my display, I dunno.
  • ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
    @Awong124 It's a 17" laptop with a native res of 1920x1080. I cannot choose any option other than 800x600 & 1024x768 in the IWD config file, because they are grayed out. They wouldn't work anyway, since I have a 16:9 display. So I guess you are using the G3 Widescreen Mod to get the 1920x1080 res? I can do that too, but the texts are so tiny I can barely reed them.
  • Awong124Awong124 Member Posts: 2,642
    No, I just use 1024X768. The picture doesn't get stretched, you just get 2 black bars on the sides, that doesn't really bother me that much.
  • ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
    @Awong124 I get it. If you can do that on a 21" monitor and be able to see and read everything, then I should be able to do the same on my 17" display with the same (full HD) res, playing the game on 1024x768. Tomorrow I'll give it a try. Those black bars wouldn't bother me neither, I just want to see and read everything that's there.
  • Awong124Awong124 Member Posts: 2,642
    Yeah, let us know how that works out.
  • ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
    I'll make sure to share my observations.
  • TheGreatKhanTheGreatKhan Member Posts: 106
    When I played a modded version of PST, I'm pretty sure I played on 1024x768. I actually thought the picture was very nice. Background looked polished, characters were a decent size, and you got a pretty decent view of the area. I tried placing it a bit higher and it got too small. I wouldn't even want to imagine who would want to play it on very high resolutions.
  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    Well, that's the reason I choose carefully the resolution when I buy a new laptop or a desktop monitor. I want buy anything with a height of past 1024. My laptop is 1366x768, my new desktop monitor 1600x900. I rather make concessions to my old games and media, than to the newest of the newest HD-overpowerdness.
  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    Actually, when I read the topic title I thought it would be about speculation if the IWD and PST source art would be found - I surely hope, unlike the lost art of BG, it does surface when the team does an EE for those games!
  • DjimmyDjimmy Member Posts: 749
    If you have a big tv, connect it with your laptop and play in 1920x1080 or just play in 800x600. I have no problems with both. Also play it when your eyes are not tired.
  • ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
    I've played with the different resolutions only to conclude that the most convenient way to play these games is to play in windowed mode at 1024x768. This way I don't have to deal with any sort of blurriness as a result of up-scaling nor do I have to use a magnifier to be able to read the in-game texts.

    At least on my 17" full HD display, this seams to be the way to go. Luckily with BGEE I won't have this problem...
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    I've played a lot of runs with the widescreen mod and up to 1776x1000. I don't like the character avatars to be so small.

    So nowadays, I just play with 800x600 and learn to ignore the letterbox strips on the sides of my screen. Even 1024x768 makes the avatars too small for my liking.
  • ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
    @belgarathmth If I set the resolution to 800x600 and make it centered (to avoid up-scaling) I end up with a really small square in the middle of my screen with black strips not only on the sides but above and under the square as well. It's like seeing a small window positioned in the center of the screen surrounded by darkness.
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    edited September 2012
    @Scofield, that sounds like you need to mess with your monitor settings. It should be able to display the square from the top to the bottom of your screen with black bars only on the sides. My HDTV does that by default when I set it for 800x600 - it displays the same as a 4:3 aspect ratio television picture.
  • ScofieldScofield Member Posts: 119
    @belgarathmth I'll check this option in my catalyst control center, because that's the only place where I can mess with these kinds of settings (I have a laptop). Even if I could get it working like that, I believe I would still be left with an up-scaled image at least vertically. If everything stays sharp and I don't see blurriness then I don't mind playing in a 4:3 aspect ratio with black bars on the sides.
  • DemossDemoss Member Posts: 52
    PST can upscale well with a mod called Ghostdogs PST UI mod, use it with widescreen mod and it also has an option to make the text bigger if need be. :D
  • Space_hamsterSpace_hamster Member Posts: 950
    I too like the original resolution, the larger res just changes the game too much. Hopefully the zoom mode on BG ee works!
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    @Space_hamster, the ability to zoom in and out depending on the situation will indeed be priceless, especially if you can have widescreen aspect that fills a 16:9 screen without zooming out so much your avatars turn into microbes.

    I'm buying and supporting BG:EE for a lot of reasons, but I'd buy if for just that one thing.
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