Battlefield 1942/Vietnam Video Problem

[Mark_Warner]

Ok. I've been through EA tech support on this, and let me tell you: they are completely worthless.

For about a month now, I have been unable to get Battlefield 1942 or Vietnam to work in 1280x1024 resolution. EA would have me believe that my video card, driver, and monitor combination obviously is what is making that particular resolution impossible, as BF scans hardware at startup to see what resolutions are supported. They are so confident of this, in fact, that 2 of their "support" personnel responded to my tech support email with the same exact text, word for word. Obviously, their "support" system has macros and form messages that give a particular spiel at the press of a button...or whatever.

They kept insisting that my video set up could not support this resolution in spite of the fact that I attached the output from their "go_ez.exe" support system which very clearly states (and I quote):


Supported Display Modes

| 16 | 256 | 16 bits| 24 bits| 32 bits
---------------------------------------------------
640 x 480| * | * | * | | *
800 x 600| * | * | * | | *
1024x 768| | * | * | | *
1152x 864| | * | * | | *
1280x1024| | * | * | | *
1600x1200| | | | |


and

Current Mode (Primary) : 1280x1024 32

Every other game I have (RavenShield, AthenaSword, Half-Life 2, Doom3, Far Cry,UT2004, etc) runs perfectly well at 1280x1024. The very most ridiculous thing here, is that Battlefield will allow me to configure the game to run in 1280x960, which is not even supported by the monitor. So much for auto-detecting the hardware's capabilities.

The reason I need this resolution is that my gaming machine has 2 x 19" LCD monitors, and their native resolution is 1280x1024. Hence, every other resolution appears fuzzy and looks like crap. It isn't so bad that it is unplayable, but it isn't great.

I emailed them back and asked them if there was a config file option, or a command line option to force BF to run at a particular resolution. They responded and said (very long-windedly): no.

So. Are they right? Am I just hosed for Battlefield running in a decent resolution?

In case it helps, here are the specs:

Athlon64 3000+
1024MB DDR400
VIA K8T800
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, 256MB
2 x Sceptre X9 Komodo IV 19" LCD monitors (analog connection, not DVI)

[Mister Natural]

One thing worth mentioning when playing a game such as BF1942. The higher the rez you run, the smaller your target is when trying to shoot something.
BF1942 is one of the few games I play at 800x600 for this reason.

Doesn't solve your problem, but it might make for a few more kills.

[JBark]

The BF games don't support 1280x1024, because it isn't a 4:3 resolution like 640x480, 800x600, etc... 1280x960 is a 4:3 resolution. There's an option on the nvidia display settings to keep the aspect ratio when using non native resolutions. The means that 1280x960 won't be stretched, you'll get small black bars at the top and bottom of your screen instead.

You can enable 1280x1024 in the BF games, but it stretches the sceen and everything seems to look a but funny. I used to have a link to what file you had to edit, but I can't find it. I find the using the "keep aspect ratio" option looks better anyway. I believe it was video.con, and once you change it you have to make sure you don't edit your video settings ingame.

[Mark_Warner]

Thanks. That answers my question.

[huxley]

So it did turn out to be a video card configuration issue like they said...

[Mark_Warner]

No. It turns out the game apparently can't do that resolution. I would think that so-called tech support personnel would know this sort of thing.

[GlobalFear]

I have a 19" lcd, too. Same problem. I just figured bf1942 didn't support it.

[deathBOB]

You can edit the .con files of the game to support any resolution, including 1280x1042... look around on the web, there is a lot of good info on tweaking BF...

[Disarray]

Man bob, man with your sig should have bravely gone forth and found that info! Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward...................................

[JBark]

http://www.tweakguides.com/BFV_6.html

Video.con

game.setGameDisplayMode 1280 960 32 85

This setting controls the resolution, color depth and refresh rate of the in-game image. You can alter this using the in-game Display Mode setting, however if you want to choose a non-standard resolution and/or refresh rate (e.g. Widescreen), set it here. Make absolutely certain your display device supports the resolution and refresh rate you are selecting otherwise you may end up with an 'out of frequency' error or black screen, and even cause damage to your display.

Note, the resolution will change for in-game gameplay as specified above, however the main menu resolution will always remain the same and cannot be changed.

You'll want:
game.setGameDisplayMode 1280 1024 32 60

Note, all it's going to do it stretch 1280x960 into 1280x1024, so everything will look odd.