XWA Custom & Widescreen Resolutions

[Atx]

Wow, that does sound pretty cool...thanks a lot man!

[Darksaber]

Version 2.02

To add widescreen support, you'll need a hex editor such as Be.HexEditor. Open your XWINGALLIANCE.EXE file (back it up if you wish) and search for the line 0010a370 (or search for the highlighted string in the picture below).



The groups we're interested in are 80 04 and 60 03; they represent the resolution 1152x864. You can change these values to whatever resolution you require (theoretically - I've only tested it in 1440x900). After you're done, save the file and make sure 1152x864 is selected in the config menu in game. The frontend is a fixed resolution, but once you start up a battle, it should switch to your widescreen resolution of choice.

Speaking of which, here are some common widescreen resolution hex codes:
1280x720 - Replace 80 04 with 00 05 and replace 60 03 with D0 02
1280x800 - Replace 80 04 with 00 05 and replace 60 03 with 20 03
1366x768 - Replace 80 04 with 56 05 and replace 60 03 with 00 03
1440x900 - Replace 80 04 with A0 05 and replace 60 03 with 84 03
1680x1050 - Replace 80 04 with 90 06 and replace 60 03 with 1A 04
1920x1080 - Replace 80 04 with 80 07 and replace 60 03 with 38 04
1920x1200 - Replace 80 04 with 80 07 and replace 60 03 with B0 04

Again, I only tried 1440x900, and that's also my monitor's maximum resolution.

The hex codes representing 800x600 look to be four or five lines above 1152x864, as well (20 03 and 58 02). I didn't see the other resolutions anywhere nearby, though.

I noticed no problems during the short time I played in 1440x900 (single player). It didn't stretch (the HUD scaled properly) and there were no glitches or corruption that I saw.

1024x768 (4:3)


1440x900 (16:10)

[Tony Knightcrawler]

Oh thank god, I was thinking I would have to buy a new monitor before I ever play XWA properly again!

[EtherShock]

Your mileage may vary though. I have to reset the resolution after every time I enter the hangar, otherwise I get an error message and the mission doesn't load.

[Bman]

Thanks all and Darksaber for posting the detail. Ok, I have general question regarding this. I still have my older "Nvidia GeForce FX 5950 Ultra" video card which has a "DVI" out-port (no HDMI ports). If I were to purchase a LCD High Defintion TV (HDTV), would it accept this signal even if I set my desktop to highest setting (1600x1200 pixels), or do I need to buy a modern day video card that would support HDTV or Plasma? I would of course edit the XWA executable file first as mentioned above. I think I read HDTV's have native resolutions which are not too flexible. Can anyone clear this up ? Thanks.

[EtherShock]

You could probably get a DVI to HDMI or to component video converter for your port (unless you already have component ports on your card) but I have no idea if it will work. I don't see why it shouldn't though, since HDTVs are essentially huge, relatively low resolution computer monitors. Maybe someone else will know more, or you could ask this at an HD board. They'd know for sure probably.

[Django]

Hi all,

I just registered here to tell you about the Hack BooTx has announced at widescreen gaming forum, for I was wondering that I didn't found anything about it here on your great Project. Well after registering I was able to find this Thread by simple browsing the Forum since the search doesnt work for me (is it a restriction for Newbies to this Forum?).

Well, it took me several hours before I found the hack by google and meanwhile I downloaded the UCP of darksabers Website.
After installing the UCP with the 1600x1200 resolution and doing the hack I launched XWA, after several years I resigned the Rebel Special Forces.

It was the absolute WOOOOHHHH effect!
This best game I ever had on my HD is running perfectly with amazing new Graphics!

So since you allready have the information here in your Forum the only two things left for me are to thank you for making this possible and to give you the hint to make this information easier accessible for other Users.

1. THANK YOU a lot for your work - you guys are great!
2. Please add this Information to your Tutorials, since I don't believe that I'm the only one cleaning carefully the dust of my XWA-CD.

Note: some technical glitches I realized playing the first Mission
- in the Mission briefing the display of the Ships doens't work (They just disapear after being scanned by the blue grid)
- maybe someone would like to alter the FONT.dat for better display in the cockpit for this combination(UCP+Hack).
But those are minimal details and they will not prevent me to destroy the Death Star again in Hi-Res

*Salute* by former RSF_Django

[Tony Knightcrawler]

It was working fine the other day... now it wants me to install it again. Quite a pain. I dunno what's up.

[TomJeffJones]

I've been running a successful campaign in 1680x1050 through this hex-edit...no problems yet though I'm only at the 'defend the liberty' mission. I'm on an 8800GTS 512 which works great due to the other hex-edit posted by Reimar that solved the disappearing objects problem.

[Q]

I've been running a successful campaign in 1680x1050 through this hex-edit...no problems yet though I'm only at the 'defend the liberty' mission. I'm on an 8800GTS 512 which works great due to the other hex-edit posted by Reimar that solved the disappearing objects problem.

In other words the fixes found here:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?s=ca ... 842&st=140
I thought it would be nice to at least let people know what you are talking about.

[Darksaber]

Moving to
Soft/Hardware Problems

[rogue518]

Thanks Darksaber, man.... little hacks like this makes XWA look alot better!!!

Sincerely, Rogue518

[waylon]

Does anyone know hex codes for other resolution?
For example 1360x768, it's maximum resolution for my LCD 1366x768 just can't work. It works on 720p but I hope I can extend to 1360X768.

[Darksaber]

Hey dosy, read the posts again, you'll find your answer

[waylon]

I read it over and over, there is no hex code for 1360X768 only 1366 which didn't work for my monitor.

[Darksaber]

Try this for yours

1360x768 - Replace 80 04 with 50 05 and replace 60 03 with 00 03

Not sure if its right

[waylon]

50 05 and 00 03 works, it really feels great, I might want to play TFTC all over again. Thank you Darksaber!

[Darksaber]

Your very welcome

[Hullbreacher]

I have a laptop w/1440x900. I applied the hex hack and saved the file, and I think it worked but I'm not sure! I can't tell if I'm looking at what I always look at or if it could look better. Is 1440x900 supposed to be a selectable menu item in-game in the video options menu or is it just...hacked? sorry if this is a little confusing.

[EtherShock]

If your graphics card is set to centered output, then at standard 4:3 resolutions, you would notice pillarboxing, and if the widescreen hack worked, the image would now fill the entire screen. You should notice a dramatic difference. However, if you're using display adapter scaling, then the image would've went from soft to sharp.

I don't think 1440x900 is a standard resolution, but just to be sure, check the other widescreen hack thread. Hope this helps.

[Hullbreacher]

I know two things for sure: I definitely never had pillarboxing on my new system, and "1440x900" is not a selectable menu item in XWA's video options. My main question is, should 1440x900 be a selectable menu item, and if so, then why did the hack not work?

The image does look pretty good. I'm still getting a lot of artifacts though, esp. with onscreen messages. I'll try to post a screenshot later to show you.

Thanks for all your help btw everyone!

[EtherShock]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that with display adapter scaling set, the image would stretch to fit the whole screen. I don't think XWA had any default widescreen resolutions, because widescreen displays were either nonexistent or uncommon at that time.

Are you selecting the resolution you altered in the menu? For instance, if you altered the 1152x864 values in the exe, you would have to select 1152x864 in the settings in order to tell the game to use that setting, but since you altered the exe, it actually says that value is actually set to display whatever resolution you indicated when you changed the original hex values. Does this make sense?

[BooTx]

Yes, if you changed 1152x864 in the hex editor you should select 1152x864 in the in-game menu. It will use the widescreen resolution that you changed it to (1440x900 in this case). Some configs don't support pillarboxing (especially by default) so it's likely that a standard (4:3 or 5:4) resolution would just looked stretched out on your widescreen monitor. 1440x900 should give you an increased horizontal view and not stretch at all (and should look quite a bit sharper on top of that, as it's your monitor's native resolution).

[ERADEEJAY]

Hello guys, please help me..
I do all the steps in the guide, but when I open my game i cant select 1152x864 in the in-game menu because the options don´t let me.
I can chose 640x480 - 800x600 - 1024x768 and 1280x1024.

I have an nVidia 8600mgt - 1680X1050 monitor, I install darksaber´s Ultimate Craft Pack 1.1 all the ships in the download section and i want to set up XWA at 1440X900.

Thanks...

[EtherShock]

Did you try searching the boards? If not, please try searching the boards first.

Does anyone else feel this thread should be merged with the original widescreen thread? It would avoid confusion.