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Heroes Community > Heroes 4 - Lands of Axeoth > Thread: Must my monitor support 1280x1024 to play Heroes IV?
Thread: Must my monitor support 1280x1024 to play Heroes IV?
Solipso
Solipso


Adventuring Hero
posted November 06, 2009 03:47 AM

Must my monitor support 1280x1024 to play Heroes IV?

Heroes IV supports 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024.

I just got a new laptop that does not support 1280x1024. Its native resolution is 1600x900, which is also its maximum. It also supports 800x600 and 1024x768. But that's not good enough to prevent the blue screens I get when I try to start the game.

Is the one and absolutely only way that I can play Heroes IV is with a monitor that supports 1280x1024?

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Invictus
Invictus


Adventuring Hero
posted November 06, 2009 06:10 AM
Edited by Invictus at 06:14, 06 Nov 2009.

In your case, what you want to do is run 1024x768 in windowed mode, which is what I do on my monitor.

Obviously, it's not required that you have 1280x1024. Otherwise, why would HOMM4 support the other two resolutions? lol
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Solipso
Solipso


Adventuring Hero
posted November 07, 2009 05:14 AM

Quote:
In your case, what you want to do is run 1024x768 in windowed mode, which is what I do on my monitor.

Obviously, it's not required that you have 1280x1024. Otherwise, why would HOMM4 support the other two resolutions? lol


Thanks for replying, Invictus. Unfortunately I don't know how to run "windowed mode." Would you, or someone else, please tell me how to do that?

(As I said in my initial post, I am unable to start the game. So I need to know how to "run 1024x768 in windowed made" before I try starting the game.)

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Invictus
Invictus


Adventuring Hero
posted November 07, 2009 07:26 AM

Can you run anything (else) on 1024x768 full screen? If you can't, then maybe you have a hardware settings issue unrelated to HOMM.
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Solipso
Solipso


Adventuring Hero
posted November 08, 2009 12:04 AM

Quote:
Can you run anything (else) on 1024x768 full screen? If you can't, then maybe you have a hardware settings issue unrelated to HOMM.


I have no trouble running 1024x768. My monitor supports that. It's 1280x1024 that it does not support, and that I believe is the reason why Heroes IV gets a blue screen whenever I try to start it up.

Compare this to Heroes III. Using Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bits, I right-click the Heroes III icon on my desktop and set it to run at 640x480. With my NVidia Control Panel, I go to "Change flat panel scaling" and enable "Use NVidia scaling with fixed-aspect ratio." Heroes III then starts up and runs and looks perfect. And--as long as I have set my display properties to 16 bits color, as opposed to 32 bits--while playing Heroes III, I can press F4 and then play the game in a window.

Nothing like that works for Heroes IV. Of course, I don't expect Heroes IV to run if I set the compatibility tab to 640x480, because Heroes IV doesn't support that resolution. The lowest it supports is 800x600. But I've tried setting my desktop resolution to both 800x600 and 1024x768. Either way, I still get blue screens when I try to open Heroes IV.

Any other ideas on getting Heroes IV to run?

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Invictus
Invictus


Adventuring Hero
posted November 08, 2009 02:51 AM

H4 defaults to 1024, not 1280 after it's installed. I think
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Solipso
Solipso


Adventuring Hero
posted November 08, 2009 04:52 AM

Quote:
H4 defaults to 1024, not 1280 after it's installed. I think


Invictus, I appreciate the attention you have applied to my trouble.

Yes, I too thought that. At least, I thought that's the way it should be. But I have my doubts. For some reason, I am afraid it may be defaulting to 1280x1024 after I have installed it and before I try to start it.

Your remark does give me a couple of ideas:

1) I'll install and try to start Heroes IV vanilla (without the expansions).

2) I'll look through the installation files and maybe find a setting I can adjust before trying to start. I mean, is there a way to set the game's resolution before I try to start it? If that's possible, does anyone know how I can do that?

I would appreciate further help that you or anyone else has to offer.

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Solipso
Solipso


Adventuring Hero
posted November 08, 2009 06:48 AM
Edited by Solipso at 03:04, 16 Nov 2009.

I have made a little progress.

I have located how to start the game in a window:
1) Right-click the game's shortcut, 2) Click Properties, 3) On the "Shortcut" tab, select "Minimized" in the "Run" space.

With "Minimized" enabled and with my desktop resolution set to either 800x600 or 1024x768, I am now able to open the game and proceed through the cinematic to the main menu. However, my cursor shows as my ordinary Window's Explorer cursor, not the game's pointing-finger cursor. When I try to click any selection in the main menu (New Game, Load Game, etc.) my system crashes.

Does someone know what's causing the wrong cursor to show?

I think my display drivers may be at fault, though they are up to date. Near the end of the "Heroes 4 on Vista" thread here, Frosty MuadDib says he has had success using Standard VGA Adapter drivers. Maybe I'll try that.

Or maybe I'll wait for my new desktop to arrive. I think I'll have better luck playing Heroes IV on it.

P.S. Good News!!   I have a new desktop and a new monitor. My desktop is running an NVidia GTX 295 and my monitor is a Samsung SyncMaster 2253BW. I still don't know if my laptop's inability to run Heroes IV was because of poor drivers for its NVidia G 105M 512MB (driver version 186.81) or my laptop's non-support of 1280x1024 resolution.
The fact is that my new monitor does support 1280x1024 and Heroes IV runs perfectly without any tweaks whatsoever. No fixed-aspect scaling, no running in a window, no tweaks whatsoever. I simply installed Heroes IV and its two expansions from Ubisoft's DVD version of Heroes of Might and Magic IV Complete. From the Winds of War desktop icon, it started right up.

Actually Heroes IV is running better than I have ever seen it. If I were accustomed to using exaggerated phrases like "looks fantastic" or exaggerated words like "awesome," I would do so with respect to how Heros IV looks on my new system. But I would not be exaggerating if I were to say it looks impressive, solidly impressive, unequivocally and absolutely impressive. It really does.

On the down side, Heroes III doesn't play as well as it does on that same laptop that refuses to play Heroes IV. On my powerful new desktop, with my new widescreen 22" monitor, the game screen is too small. And I can't get NVidia's control panel to enable fixed-aspect ratio. Heroes III is certainly playable on my desktop--the game screen isn't THAT small--and it looks great. Its screen is just too small.

P.P.S. A few minutes ago I downloaded and installed NVidia's Beta driver for my GTX 295. This was version 195.39. I am now able to play Heroes III with a large fullscreen picture.

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