Civilization 4 resolution?

Nohbody8

Just installed Civilization 4 Complete and when I tried to run it, the actual screen resolution wasn't matching up with what the options menu said the screen resolution was supposed to be. I can only see about 2/3 of the screen and the mouse calibration seems to be off as well. I have to position the mouse to the left of what I actually want to click on. As soon as I exit the game, my computer goes back to displaying the correct resolution. What's going on?

EDIT: Just started it up again and what seems to be going on is that the vertical axis is squished while the horizontal is stretched and I can only see half of that axis. Also, all changing the screen resolution in the game seems to accomplish is reducing the size of the screen used but it's still squished and stretched. The only difference is that there's a black border around the picture which changes depending on what resolution I selected.

dsplaisted

This sounds like it may be an issue with your video card and/or monitor.

Try changing the resolution, or running it in windowed mode.

jothki

Yeah, I'd guess that you somehow rigged up the video card to not perform any scaling on the image. Your screen is displaying exactly what the game would look like if the monitor was that resolution, but since your monitor isn't exactly that resolution, the image goes off the screen or doesn't fill part of the screen. If you check the control panel settings for your video card, it shouldn't be too difficult to locate the correct option.

Nohbody8

I looked through control panel and desktop manager for my video card and nothing jumped out at me as what I needed to scale the image. This is a pretty annoying problem to say the least.

Nohbody8

Well, it just got even more frustrating 'cause I just started up the original version of Civilization 4 that installed along with the expansion pack version I'm trying to play and the resolution was just fine. WTF?

Stormwatcher

we need some more computer specs.

Nohbody8

1.80 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500, and a DELL E773c monitor. Never claimed it was a beast. I only really play Civ4 on it.

Drakmathus

I fired up civ 4 to see if there was an aspect option in the video settings. There wasn't, but I ended up playing for 2 hours. Thanks a lot!

Nohbody8

I wish I had that problem.

elliotw2

If you're running the more recent versions of Nvidia drivers, open the control panel, and under Display should be "Change flat panel scaling" Just change it to Nvidia scaling, either with or without fixed aspect. If you don't have a flat panel, then try a new graphic card/monitor

WMain00

Must resist firing up Civilizations 4 myself.

Lly

I had this same problem when i installed it years ago. Can't for the life of me remember how I fixed it. I think in my case it was caused by changing monitors. I set it up to run at a high resolution, then changed monitors to one that couldn't cope with that resolution. But like i said, it was a good 5/6 years ago so i may be remembering wrongly.

Edit: This may not be the same issue, I only mentioned it because the result sounds pretty damn similar to what you are experiencing.

Nohbody8

elliotw2 wrote: »

If you're running the more recent versions of Nvidia drivers, open the control panel, and under Display should be "Change flat panel scaling" Just change it to Nvidia scaling, either with or without fixed aspect. If you don't have a flat panel, then try a new graphic card/monitor

From what I gather from you and what the Nvidia control panel are telling me, this only matters if you're using a flat panel, correct? Unfortunately, I'm still running a CRT. What I really don't get is that I can alt-tab out of the game's weird resolution problems to my desktop. The desktop will be weird for a second as well and then correct itself.

dsplaisted

Have you tried changing the resolution of Civ IV or running it in windowed mode?

Nohbody8

I have tried changing the resolution in the game. All that does is lower the amount of screen that's used but doesn't really change what I can see. Hate to admit this but I'm not quite sure how to run it in windowed mode.

RBach

It's a checkbox in the graphics options.

BTW, make sure it's fully patched.

Nohbody8

Patching it was the first thing I did. It's a checkbox in the graphics options for the game or the video card? I don't recall seeing anything in the game options.

dsplaisted

It's in the game's graphics options. Uncheck "Full screen mode."

RBach

Game options. It's actually labelled "Full-screen mode"

Nohbody8

Oh, I've checked that and it doesn't do anything at all for me. Is a re-install in order? I already had to re-install once.

Shens

Did you check it and restart the game? I know I had to do that when switching between the modes.

Nohbody8

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! Window mode is not ideal but I'll definitely take what I can get while the other people more gifted with computers than me on these boards figure out what's really going on.