Play at any resolution.... except mine.

I do remember reading in the forum someone had made a custom resolution but I don't remember which post I saw it on. I think he had to edit one of the XML files to do it.

Simply typ in your resolution in your prefs.ini this file is located in mydocuments\my games\galciv2

Thanks for the advice. When I installed GalCiv2 on my TV computer it detected my low res and informed me I needed to run it at 1024x768.I have already uninstalled GalCiv2 from my TV computer and put it on my desktop, so I tried editing the ini file on my desktop to test things out. 800x600 loaded, but the main menu was almost too big as the first and last buttons overflowed off screen. When I loaded a game the GUI was rather crunched togethor and the minimap was absolutely unusable. The tech tree and planet viewers wasn't broken like the main GUI but they were definetly crowded. For this to be useable the devs would prolly have to rework a few things but I think it is doable. Next I thought I would try the highest resolution I can get my TV to display (960x720). This is only very slightly smaller than the required resolution so I was very hopeful. I had to test it on my desktop by turning off fullscreen because my computer monitor doesn't support that odd res. The main menu looked fine though I think some of the art was slightly cropped. I loaded a game and again the tech tree and planet viewers were fine and even though still crowded were very usable. The main GUI though wsa still broken the minimapwas sitting in the silver minimap borders and overflowed on top of the population graph etc. It did appear less broken though, and I believe for a dev it could be a minor fix.

I guess I'll stick to my desktop install for the time being. I really hope the devs notice this post and help me out in the next patch. I know there are others like me who have HTPC (home theatre PCs) that they like to play games on, but have to be wary about what resolutions their TV supports.

Well I guess whole interface was based with 1024x768 as minimum.
That's why you get everything cluttered if you force lower resolution.

It's 2006, if you're not running at least 1024x768 it's really time for a new computer, or at least a new monitor. I've picked up used machines from a second hand/junk store that can do 1024x768, although admittedly it is the highest resolutiuon they can do.

Any computer that cannot do at least that is not only going to make modern games hard to play, it's very bad for your eyes, which is going to cost you in the long run a lot more (both in dollars and in vision problems) than a low-end monitor (flat panel or CRT) or even a bargain-priced new computer.

We don't have any code to scale down the resolution, just scale up.  You would have to make a complete mod of the interface in order for it to run at 800x600.

 

Mr. Mistoffeles, I don't think you read my post. My machine is fine, 1gig of ram and an nvidia 6600. I have a very nice 32 inch monitor. It just happens to be a TV and TVs are not as high res as monitors. Most TVs are interlaced 640x480. (i'm talking NTSC american TVs. European TVs are a slightly different res). Digital TVs are 720x480 progressive. I have a very nice Enchanced Digital TV which can go all the way up to 960x720, any higher and it would be considered a HDTV which it is not. Even if it were a HDTV I'm not sure it would be able to run 1024x768 since that is not a valid HDTV resolution. (then again neither is 960x720 but it is close) HDTV resolutions are 720i/p which is equivalent to 1280x720 and 1080i/p which is 1920x1080. not even all HDTVs can do 1080p and those that can are very exspensive. As for it making modern games hard to play, Almost all FPS games support such low resolutions and even lower ones but they do have very sparse GUIs. When running at such a low res you can crank the antialiasing up to very high setting (8xS for ex.) and it looks just as good as higher resolutions. Other modern games I've gotten to run on my TV's System include, Age of Empires 3, Rise of Legends, Elder Scrolls Orblivion, Unreal Tournament 2004, Hitman 2, and Guild Wars Factions.

CariElf: Can we make a complete mod of the interface then I'd be more than thrilled to help. Really its only the silver borders to all the GUI elements that need to be scaled down and the other bits pushed closer togethor. Or new very minimal graphics used instead. Is this something that could be implemented as a user mod?

I am saddened that I can't play it on my 1st gen TabletPC.

That'll teach me to be cutting-edge.

Downtempo, you can do it on your own. The interface is fully customisable, it's all done in .x
It won't be made into a mod because it's specific for you, but you can mod your own. I can't remember the tools required, but I think it's desktopX

"Any resolution" usually has some lower limit. Like 2x2 wouldn't be that interesting. If you make the UI to work the best at 1024*786 it probably means it's a bit clumsy at 800*600. Let's still hope you'll be able to play it with the tv.