Welcome to the LnLP Forums and Resource Area

We have updated our forums to the latest version. If you had an account you should be able to log in and use it as before. If not please create an account and we look forward to having you as a member.

Screen Unreadable at High Resolution

Keith Mair

Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
5
Points
1
Age
68
Location
UK
Apologies is this has been answered, I have tried to search for a solution.

I am running the game at the default screen resolution (3200 x 1800) on a Dell XPS 13 laptop. The toolbar buttons at the bottom of the screen are too small to be readable.

I have followed the advice in the manual and created a shortcut, adding the line: ‑resolution 2048x1152.

I get an error message detailing that the resolution is not supported on my computer. It is. I can successfully change to this resolution using the 'graphics resolution'command.

Is there a solution to this other than changing my screen resolution?

I am running Windows 10.

Grateful for any advice.
 

Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor

Panther Games Designer
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
Messages
3,415
Points
113
Location
Canberra, Australia
Website
www.panthergames.com
Keith, Welcome. I have to admit that we never anticipated a screen of that size on a laptop. My last dev laptop that I bought supports a 1920 x 1080 screen. I recall the guy who sold it to me warning me that things would look small on it. So yes things are going to look real small on a 3200 x 1800 screen squeezes into a laptop format. That arrangement does provide hi definition but it comes at the expense of making apps like ours that do not scale to maintain dialogs at a certain percentage of the screen size basically unplayable. I am afraid there is nothing I can do about that.

However, you could experiment with the screen resolutions. When you launch the game you should see a list of available resolutions. Eg:
Startup Options.jpg
Some of these will be greyed out, meaning they are not suitable for your graphics card. The other, though, are. Try selecting one of those. I would recommend 1600 x 900 if you have it. This would keep the same 16:9 format that your screen is exactly half of your screens dimensions. Try that and let me know how you get on.
 

Keith Mair

Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
5
Points
1
Age
68
Location
UK
Keith, Welcome. I have to admit that we never anticipated a screen of that size on a laptop. My last dev laptop that I bought supports a 1920 x 1080 screen. I recall the guy who sold it to me warning me that things would look small on it. So yes things are going to look real small on a 3200 x 1800 screen squeezes into a laptop format. That arrangement does provide hi definition but it comes at the expense of making apps like ours that do not scale to maintain dialogs at a certain percentage of the screen size basically unplayable. I am afraid there is nothing I can do about that.

However, you could experiment with the screen resolutions. When you launch the game you should see a list of available resolutions. Eg:
View attachment 3604
Some of these will be greyed out, meaning they are not suitable for your graphics card. The other, though, are. Try selecting one of those. I would recommend 1600 x 900 if you have it. This would keep the same 16:9 format that your screen is exactly half of your screens dimensions. Try that and let me know how you get on.


Hi Dave,

Many thanks for the lighting quick reply, it is greatly appreciated.

I do appreciate that the laptop is very high resolution.

My problem is that the only option given is to 'match current screen resolution'. All the other options are greyed out.

I have no problems running the game on my desktop, but work away from home during the week, so my laptop is my only option then.

Please don't spend any time on this. I appreciate I am in a unique situation.

Many thanks again.

Keith
 

Keith Mair

Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
5
Points
1
Age
68
Location
UK
I have tried that but get the message that the resolution is not available. There is no dedicated video card: Intel® HD Graphics.
 

Keith Mair

Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
5
Points
1
Age
68
Location
UK
Dave,

I am at home for the weekend and don't have my laptop with me. I can change the screen resolution from the control panel, but hoped to avoid that. Many thanks for your help. I believe changing the screen resolution is my only option.

Keith
 

Keith Mair

Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
5
Points
1
Age
68
Location
UK
Thanks Dave. I will play about with that when I get back to the flat tomorrow.
 

Kolbex

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Messages
18
Points
1
Age
44
Location
USA
I also have a 3200x1800 laptop, which like Keith's makes the windows too small to read. Unlike him, however, I am able to select other resolutions on startup, but I have a different issue. As shown below, when I select 1920x1080 (same ratio as 3200x1800), the game launches fine, but the menus are all black. I think I managed to launch a scenario once like this, and the command windows were black as well (although the map and its counters were fine). It is, sadly, unplayable in this state.

I am running Windows 10, which I know is not supported, and I have an old laptop somewhere I could probably dig out to play, but I would prefer to have it on this machine. Setting the exe to Windows 7 compatibility doesn't help, I'm afraid. The laptop in question has an GeForce GT 750M as well as Intel 4600 integrated graphics. Screenshot of issue below.

blackmenu.png
 

Kolbex

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Messages
18
Points
1
Age
44
Location
USA
Pretty sure I just clicked where I knew from prior experience the buttons should be. The scenario options screen was also blacked out. I can try to get some more screenshots and any other information for you if you think it would help.
 

Kolbex

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Messages
18
Points
1
Age
44
Location
USA
Ok, here you go, scenario options:

scenariooptions.png

Trial and error allowed me to open the scenario:
loaded.png

Couple of things. First, my CO2 is updated to the latest version (5.1.24, I think it said?). Second, this map is zoomed in as far as it will go. The size of the window in the upper left and the tiny size of the counters (what made me try to set it to 1920x1080 in the first place) doesn't look to me like 1920x1080, it looks an awful lot like the native resolution, which looks like so:

3200.png

Although the image certainly comes out at 1920x1080 as a screenshot. I'm not really sure. I would even play it at some lower widescreen resolution just to save my eyes the strain of trying to make out the counters, etc. if the windows didn't come up black every time.
 

Kolbex

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Messages
18
Points
1
Age
44
Location
USA
Really, I think you just need to implement arbitrary zoom and the ability to cope with Windows text zoom. Easy peasy, right? xD
 

Rob

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2014
Messages
155
Points
18
Location
Vancouver BC, Canada
Hi guys,

This probably won't work for either of you -- but you never know. I had a similar "black' areas problem with another (non-Panther) war game last year and the solution was to slow my graphics refresh rate to 60 Hz. Worked perfectly after that!
Hope it helps.......

Rob.
 
Joined
Oct 28, 2014
Messages
3
Points
1
Location
Steenwijk
I have more or less the same problem but even worse.
I try to run CO2 on my new iMac 27inch late 2015 under Windows 10.
The resolution is 5120 x 2880.... the fonts is very small and worse when zooming into the map it is broken into four segments.
 

Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor

Panther Games Designer
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
Messages
3,415
Points
113
Location
Canberra, Australia
Website
www.panthergames.com
The game is not designed to run on such large hi res displays. It uses non-scalable fonts, so yes they will appear small. Can you provide a screen dump so I can get a better idea about what you mean by the map being broken into four segments.
 
Top