Widescreen

[pcelt]

Could you please let me know if Afrika Korps display is fully compatible with a widescreen ---and if not, what issues exist and are they surmountable. i am using XP.
Many thanks

[Schrullenhaft]

The CMx1 titles, CMBO, CMBB and CMAK (the 'Afrika Korps' one) are NOT compatible with most widescreen resolutions. The games were released for both Mac and PC (different executables, of course) and it supported only a few, discrete resolutions often found on both platforms. Typically the CMx1 titles will support the following resolutions (I may not recall all of them here):

640x480 (CMBO only, 'software rendering')
800x600 (minimum for CMBB and CMAK)
832x624 (Mac-oriented resolution, usually not supported on PCs)
1024x768
1152x864
1152x870 (Mac-oriented resolution)
1280x768
1280x960
1280x1024
1600x1200


Not all resolutions will appear for each video adapter. Some of these resolutions may only appear on Mac or PCs only (and not the other platform). You usually won't see any resolutions available for selection if it is HIGHER than your current desktop resolution.

The more common widescreen resolutions seen nowadays such as 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1400x1050 and others are not explicitly supported and never will be at this point because the CMx1 family is considered a "finished product". To my knowledge the 1.04 patch geared toward Windows Vista compatibility did NOT change the available resolutions.

[pcelt]

Schrullenhaft----many thanks for your detailed and helpful clarification,
Cheers

[JoMc67]

Pcelt,
CMx1 may not be fully compatible, but I just purchased a LG 19" Widescreen, and it works just fine on all 3 games. Units are very slightly stretched, but really not noticble.

Joe

[Joachim]

Guess "compatible" has 2 meanings here.

The game runs on widescreen as JoMc67 states. stretched, but given CMx1's graphics, that doesn't matter much. I credit me with a good view on the battlefield but that was never disturbed by this stretching. If it runs - is it compatible?

But Schrullenhaft is correct that there is no setting for widescreen in the available graphics mode. If there is no setting - is it not compatible?

BTW: My LG W2242T has a "4:3 in Wide"-button which switches between wide (16:9?) and 4:3. 4:3 has 2 black bars on the left and right. That would solve the problem most easily. But I usually don't even press that button - reasons cf. above.

[Schrullenhaft]

Yes, the CMx1 series will run on any display that supports the above listed resolutions. "Compatible" in this case was meant in terms of 'explicit support', for which the CMx1 games do not have explicit support for the widescreen resolutions that have become very common now.

The quality of CMx1 games on widescreen displays will vary. Setting a resolution as close as possible (typically not exceeding the vertical/second resolution) is the best bet, but for some people the "stretching" effects that most LCDs will perform may be annoying. For others it will not be an issue, but the appearance will be different from that of the specific native resolution of the screen.

The "4:3 in Wide" option is pretty nice, but fairly rare in most displays. It does reduce the display area, but it keeps the aspect ratio and avoids the stretching that some might find annoying.