Monitor problem

[MONOLITH]

I have a widescreen 21" monitor. Native resolution 1680x1050.

Problem is, anytime I start a game that is in 1024x768, the image is shifted to the lower right, as if the bottom right corner of the screen is the center of that image. The result is I see one quarter of the image (shifted bottom right) and the rest of the screen (top and left) is black.

I tried hitting the "auto" adjust button on the monitor, but it doesn't fix it.

Anyone run into this before? There are some games that only go to 1024x 768, and it seems those will be unplayable for me.

[Ronin]

Could you have some sort of virtual desktop setup that could be making that happen?

[MONOLITH]

If I knew what a virtual desktop was I could tell you.   :tongue:

[Ronin]

If I knew what a virtual desktop was I could tell you.   :tongue:

Well, um, it's a desktop, you see.  And it's "virtual".  

Now, for the real explanation.  Sometimes you can setup a "desktop" that is larger than can be displayed at one time on your screen.  What you see on your screen is a "viewport" onto the virtual desktop.  Generally, if you have one of these setup, you'd know it.  I do recall some monitor/video card drivers (ATI used to love this) setting this up automagically.  But it should be somewhat obvious if it's setup that way.  I'm pretty sure you could tell by checking your advanced video settings for your desktop.

You probably don't have one.  But it's one of the few things I can think of that can cause the odd behavior you're having.  I suppose it could also be some oddity of your monitor.  What's the make and model of your monitor?

[MONOLITH]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8043253&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat104900050012&id=1158104010371

[Ronin]

Sorry Monolith,  I do not know why it do dot mon.

I fiddled around with my wife's LCD monitor (and even read the manual :yikes: ).  But if her monitor is capable of being setup to do that, I can't tell it.  Her games don't do that.

This is "usually" a function of the video card.  But I've seen some weird stuff with monitor drivers before, too.  Check to see if you have a "virtual desktop" setup on your video card (advanced settings?).  ATI cards used to do that by default.  But it's been a few years since I've used an ATI video card.

Oh, and by the way.  Nice monitor.

[MONOLITH]

Yeah this monitor is really sweet. It's awesome for playing the Xbox on.

[sithdemon]

what happens if you strech the image, or re-adjust it's orientation with the monitor controls?

[DaSmerg]

Is this happening with your puter wired up to it or the XBox?

[MONOLITH]

The PC.

I have the desktop set to 1680 x 1050. Any other resolution runs fine and 'self adjusts'. But for some reason, anytime I hit 1024x 768, the image is offcenter and down to the right.

it's probably something really simple, but without knowing what it is, it will never get fixed.

Mostly it doesn't matter, because I play all games at 1680 x 1050 now (or as close as the game allows), but there are a couple of older games that only allow 1024x768, so on those I'm screwed. (and I tried to locate the config.ini to manually change the resolution, but that isn't readily accessible in all games structures).

[DaSmerg]

And this is happening with an ATI card isn't it?  Is the recentering only on older games as you said or pretty consistantly with a range of games when you go down to the lower res?

[Lazerblade]

Have you tried checking and/or adjusting the scaling modes while in-game? A lot of games, when you launch them, will reset the monitor resolution even if it's the same resolution as your desktop. That's the power down/up most of us CRT users hear when we launch a game. I'm not sure if you'd hear that on your LCD or not. Anyway, that's my guess. And is it possible that your video card may be part of the issue as well? I mean obviously if your old monitor ran fine with the same video card then it should work fine with the new monitor, UNLESS you made an adjustment (such as native resolution or drivers) to your video card settings after purchasing the new monitor.

[MONOLITH]

And this is happening with an ATI card isn't it?  Is the recentering only on older games as you said or pretty consistantly with a range of games when you go down to the lower res?

ATI, yes.

But I hadn't tried to set a 'new' game to 1024x768 and see what happens. I'll check it out and report back.

[MONOLITH]

Have you tried checking and/or adjusting the scaling modes while in-game? A lot of games, when you launch them, will reset the monitor resolution even if it's the same resolution as your desktop. That's the power down/up most of us CRT users hear when we launch a game.

Understood. And you cannot hear it with an LCD.  The desktop res vs the game res doesn't seem to matter.

There's two games in particular that are doing this (without checking Smergs question above),

Stronghold Crusader, and Silent Hunter 3.

Both of these games only came with 2 options 800x600 and 1024x 768.

With SH3, I have a high res mod that gave a new DXdll that allows you to set any resolution; I have it at 1680x1050. but when the game first loads, the initial start up video is at 1024x768 and that video is offset on the screen. then the Dll kicks in and the game is fine.

Crusader, I tried to find the config file to play with the res setting, but cannot find it.  I can change the setting from in game, from 1024 back to 800, and then the image is fine. Turn it back to 1024, and it's screwed again.

For some reason my card or my monitor has a skewed perception of where the 'center' of 1024x768 is.

[DaSmerg]

Maybe another good question for you to look into as well is do you have your monitor driver loaded as well?

[Ronin]

Just a thought.  It might have something to do with the video card being set to a refresh rate that is "off" for your monitor.   Many games will set refresh rate to be the lowest possible when setting the video resolution.  Many don't bother to check to see if the resolution and refresh rate that is already set and set it anyway.  And some change the refresh rate to a lower rate when they do that.  Changing refresh rates can affect bloom, positioning and even interlacing on a monitor.

Most LCDs, I think, allow only on refresh rate.  These old games might be resetting the refresh rate to something that isn't supported on that monitor.

As has been asked, did you install the drivers for your monitor?  If you did, then DirectX can tell which refresh rates are valid and the problem _might_ go away.

Do either of those games allow you to choose the refresh rate?

[MONOLITH]

Do either of those games allow you to choose the refresh rate?

They do not .

Checking into the settings....

Factory drivers are loaded.

[MONOLITH]

Running dxdiag actually brought me back to another problem I had posted about awhile back. I don't know if these are related or not. I doubt it, but...

When I run DXdiag, and get to where you do the draw tests, and it makes the spinning cube with the X logo on it; my cube is spinning so hyper fast you can't make out what it is.

That's really weird, but I can't find the reason, and all my games play just fine, there's no other graphics issues.

[Ronin]

Two more questions:

1. Can you play any game at 1024x768 and have the screen look normal?  Or is this all games?

2. Can you set your desktop to 1024x768?  If you can does it seem to work normally although a bit "squashed"?

[MONOLITH]

2. Can you set your desktop to 1024x768?  If you can does it seem to work normally although a bit "squashed"?

Hhmmm...just tried it. I cannot set the desktop to 1024x768, it does the same thing.

So, I would assume any new game would do the same. So, my monitor simply will not display 1024x768 properly; and nothing to do with gaming.