How to make WINE virtual desktop full screen

[wasab]

I am trying to play HOMM4 on linux mint using wine. So far the game works but the full screen mode doesn't work. I am using a virtual desktop in wine configuration, it will crash if virtual desktop is not enable. The highest resolution the game supports is 1280x1240 which is below my 1080p resolution of my laptop monitor. I expect the game to stretch to full screen if I enable the full screen mode in the game setting but instead it does this. 

https://ibb.co/jCvtWw

which is half of my screen. Anyone knows how to fix this issue? I am using cinnamon desktop btw. 

 

[Ashleyyyy]

try not using virtual desktop. 

[wasab]

9 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

try not using virtual desktop. 

Game won’t run without it. You have any setting that allows HOMM4 to run without virtual desktop?

[Ashleyyyy]

3 minutes ago, wasab said:

Game won’t run without it. You have any setting that allows HOMM4 to run without virtual desktop?

i don't play that game, but any game i've ever played using Wine ran without virtual desktop...

 

have you tried playonlinux?

[wasab]

1 hour ago, firelighter487 said:

i don't play that game, but any game i've ever played using Wine ran without virtual desktop...

 

have you tried playonlinux?

it is running on playonlinux. This happens to all the games i ran with virtual desktops. 

I guess i just have to play at that screen sizes. cinnamon desktops seem to have full screen bugs with some games hence virtual desktop is needed. 

[Wild Penquin]

I've seldom had problems with running wine games without a virtual desktop, and do so semi-regularly (mostly games).

 

However, I do remember a few cases, but these were old Windows games (XP or pre-XP era) which are difficult to run on modern Windowses, even. In that case, one workaround was to run in a low-resolution virtual desktop (a high one would make the program crash), and then manually set the Linux DE resolution to the same resolution, and use the DEs "full-screen" mode (which essentially removes borders). Fiddly, but works (at least in some cases).

 

That being said, the whole stack (Windows program <-> wine <-> Window manager <-> DE ... whatever, I might be confused / forgetting a step) is quite complex. You might try the above workaround in any case.

 

I *think* I also saw a peace of software for running old (DirectX) games (which were originally low-resolution only) on more modern windowses, more specifically higher resolution panels. But the name evades me and I can not find it via Google. IIRC, for immersion, this was mandatory for some low-resolution (old) game I played a few years ago (IIRC Might & Magic series, but not Heroes).

 

IIRC Cinnamon is quite lightweight but not so good at advanced window management (as it uses hacks for transparency etc., and these cause weird bugs at corner cases). You might also want to try another DE, like KDE or Gnome (a longshot, but as a bonus you'll see a few other DEs if you have not yet tried them out).

[wasab]

5 hours ago, Wild Penquin said:

I've seldom had problems with running wine games without a virtual desktop, and do so semi-regularly (mostly games).

 

However, I do remember a few cases, but these were old Windows games (XP or pre-XP era) which are difficult to run on modern Windowses, even. In that case, one workaround was to run in a low-resolution virtual desktop (a high one would make the program crash), and then manually set the Linux DE resolution to the same resolution, and use the DEs "full-screen" mode (which essentially removes borders). Fiddly, but works (at least in some cases).

 

That being said, the whole stack (Windows program <-> wine <-> Window manager <-> DE ... whatever, I might be confused / forgetting a step) is quite complex. You might try the above workaround in any case.

 

I *think* I also saw a peace of software for running old (DirectX) games (which were originally low-resolution only) on more modern windowses, more specifically higher resolution panels. But the name evades me and I can not find it via Google. IIRC, for immersion, this was mandatory for some low-resolution (old) game I played a few years ago (IIRC Might & Magic series, but not Heroes).

 

IIRC Cinnamon is quite lightweight but not so good at advanced window management (as it uses hacks for transparency etc., and these cause weird bugs at corner cases). You might also want to try another DE, like KDE or Gnome (a longshot, but as a bonus you'll see a few other DEs if you have not yet tried them out).

HOMM is from 2003 I believed. I tried setting screen resolution to match the game but it just shrink the screen and give me those black borders. I had the same issue on my previous laptop which ran windows 7. 

[Wild Penquin]

6 hours ago, wasab said:

HOMM is from 2003 I believed. I tried setting screen resolution to match the game but it just shrink the screen and give me those black borders. I had the same issue on my previous laptop which ran windows 7. 

So, are you getting the game scaled to fill the screen vertically then?

 

I haven't played HOMM4 (IIRC, could have tried it some day but forgotten) but I've but a fair amount of time into HOMM3 back in the day. That was a 4:3 game. Is HOMM4 also 4:3 (screenshots I can find do look that way)? So I take it you are trying to play on a 16:9 monitor and want it to fill the whole screen?
 

The purist in me says: don't. Play it in the aspect ratio it was meant to be played =). If you still want to stretch the game, set your desktop to a 4:3 resolution. Then fiddle with your monitors settings, there should be a way to force it to 16:9 (the exact wording depends on the manufacturer). Your graphics card driver might have some option to do this on the GPU (NVidia on the Linux does, but the process is somewhat complicated, but possible; the feature is actually quite standard and I wouldn't be surprised if it worked exactly the same on all modern GPUs).

 

Or do you have black borders all around? What does your monitor say - i.e. what resolution does it report? Does it match the (lower) resolution you have set? NVidia drivers can be set in such a way they will center everything (instead of scaling) for lower resolutions.

[Wild Penquin]

Ok, I didn't remember I actually owned HOMM4 on gog.com. Well, I wen into the trouble of installing it (and yes, I have tried out this one sometime some years ago ... I prefer HOMM3).

 

It does seem a bit odd in fullscreen, though. There are issues like the mouse cursos not sticking to the window, ALT+TAB:ing might resume the game in a state it is supposed to work. But no virtual desktop required here. I get best results when setting my windows version to XP (with 7, things were even more messed up, like double mouse cursor etc.).

 

However, after I exit the game, wine does not restore the correct desktop resolution (which is a PITA).

[Wild Penquin]

Just a few more things:

 

Win XP definitely works better than 7 (didin't try above that). It seems the game is in a broken state if I ALT+TAB more often but less often if I focus it by clicking on the task bar instead; I have no idea why these focus methods make a difference, but they do. The game still glitches occasinoally, if I ALT+TAB away (but once focused correctly full-screen, there seem to be no issues). Except, at exit, I need to manually set my desktop resolution back.

 

About the software to run old Windoes games; I finally found the right google words. It was dxgl (more specifically I searched for "directx wrapper").

 

https://www.dxgl.info/

 

Not sure it will work for HOMM4, but if it keeps giving you headache, perhaps worth a shot (I definitely remember using this with MM6-7 with this).

 

IIRC there might be other wrappers out there (or not, I might be thinking about Voodoo wrappers).

[wasab]

2 hours ago, Wild Penquin said:

Just a few more things:

 

Win XP definitely works better than 7 (didin't try above that). It seems the game is in a broken state if I ALT+TAB more often but less often if I focus it by clicking on the task bar instead; I have no idea why these focus methods make a difference, but they do. The game still glitches occasinoally, if I ALT+TAB away (but once focused correctly full-screen, there seem to be no issues). Except, at exit, I need to manually set my desktop resolution back.

 

About the software to run old Windoes games; I finally found the right google words. It was dxgl (more specifically I searched for "directx wrapper").

 

https://www.dxgl.info/

 

Not sure it will work for HOMM4, but if it keeps giving you headache, perhaps worth a shot (I definitely remember using this with MM6-7 with this).

 

IIRC there might be other wrappers out there (or not, I might be thinking about Voodoo wrappers).

I tried what you suggested but i dont see any option here. 

 

Maybe i need to edit some configuration file? 16:9 ratio doesnt exist , only this is there

 

[wasab]

Here is my hardware configuration.

Will it work better if i use integrated graphics instead? 

 

[wasab]

2 hours ago, Wild Penquin said:

 

 

About the software to run old Windoes games; I finally found the right google words. It was dxgl (more specifically I searched for "directx wrapper").

 

https://www.dxgl.info/

 

So, i should just copy, paste, and override all the .dlls? 

[Wild Penquin]

Never mind dxgl, it does not work with HOMM4 (well I can run it but it does not get past the main menu). The project is WIP, but good to know it exists, and might be usefull for some old oldies.

 

So you can not select any other resolution than your displays native? The defaults for NVidia Linux drivers are not actually retro gaming friendly. You probably have nothing else enabled. To confirm: What's the output of "xrandr"?

 

(hint: use the

 feature above, that will be way easier to read than screenshots).

 

Example:

 

 

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 3440 x 1440, maximum 16384 x 16384
DVI-I-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-4 connected primary 3440x1440+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 797mm x 333mm
   3440x1440     59.97*+  99.98    49.99  
   2560x1440     59.95  
   2560x1080     60.00    59.94  
   2048x1536     85.00    75.00    60.00  
   1920x1440     85.00    75.00    60.00  
   1920x1080     60.00    59.94    50.00  
   1856x1392     75.00    60.01  
   1792x1344     75.00    60.01  
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1600x1200     85.00    75.00    70.00    65.00    60.00  
   1600x900      60.00  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1400x1050     74.76    59.98  
   1280x1024     85.02    75.02    60.02  
   1280x960      85.00    60.00  
   1280x800      59.81  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94    50.00  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      85.00    75.03    70.07    60.00  
   832x624       74.55  
   800x600       85.14    75.00    72.19    60.32    56.25  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x480       59.94  
   720x400       85.04  
   700x525       74.76    59.98  
   640x480       85.01    75.00    72.81    72.81    59.94  
   640x400       85.08  
   640x350       85.08  
   512x384       70.07    60.00  
   400x300       72.19                                                                                                                                                                               
   320x240       72.81    60.05                                                                                                                                                                      
   320x175       85.27                                                                                                                                                                               
DP-5 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)    

 

 

 

[wasab]

4 minutes ago, Wild Penquin said:

Never mind dxgl, it does not work with HOMM4 (well I can run it but it does not get past the main menu). The project is WIP, but good to know it exists, and might be usefull for some old oldies.

 

So you can not select any other resolution than your displays native? The defaults for NVidia Linux drivers are not actually retro gaming friendly. You probably have nothing else enabled. To confirm: What's the output of "xrandr"?

 

 

 

Ok, i got this output 

1920x1080     60.05*+  59.93  
   1680x1050     59.95    59.88  
   1600x1024     60.17  
   1400x1050     59.98  
   1280x1024     60.02  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1360x768      59.80    59.96  
   1152x864      60.00  
   1024x768      60.04    60.00  
   960x720       60.00  
   928x696       60.05  
   896x672       60.01  
   960x600       60.00  
   960x540       59.99  
   800x600       60.00    60.32    56.25  
   840x525       60.01    59.88  
   800x512       60.17  
   700x525       59.98  
   640x512       60.02  
   720x450       59.89  
   640x480       60.00    59.94  
   680x384       59.80    59.96  
   576x432       60.06  
   512x384       60.00  
   400x300       60.32    56.34  
   320x240       60.05  

how can i force a 16:9 ratio? That would solve my issue perfectly well without messing with the games .dlls.

 

I can change the resolution yes but not in 16:9 ratios so it leaves black borders 

[Wild Penquin]

So you got all the required resolutions listed / enabled.

So, are you having black borders all around (top, bottom, left, right) ?

[wasab]

Just now, Wild Penquin said:

So you got all the required resolutions listed / enabled.

So, are you having black borders all around (top, bottom, left, right) ?

yes. let me upload an image. This is what i have. You can see there are black areas left and right when i do game's 1280x1024 resolution 

[Wild Penquin]

In case the problem is with a laptop (monitor) which does not allow any scaling options on the monitor, I can not help you.

 

The current NVidia Linux driver is a mess in this regard. It has to do with the fact that the X.Org codebase is old and resolution switching - especially in conjuction with wine - is a mess to begin with. There is no way to do set scaling options currently via a GUI.

 

You might try to check out "IncludeImplicitMetaModes" in xorg.conf. See this thread for more information: https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/525718/linux/how-can-i-get-gpu-scaling-to-work-/ . Here's the documentation (for your driver version): https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/384.111/README/xconfigoptions.html

 

Something like this might work (haven't tried it since I don't need it):

Option "IncludeImplicitMetaModes" "Scaling=Aspect, UseModePool = true"

Or break it. You might also want to try "UseModePool = false"

 

What adds complexities here is that wine and NVidia drivers disagree on the way xrandr should be handled (or something). IIRC I red some forum posts about this some time ago. Chances are it is impossible (or very difficult) to get it to scale to 16:9 (except with a proper external monitor). I was able to add some resolutions to do what I want way back, but wine insisted on doing things it's way and reverted everything whenever I tried to run a game with it.

[wasab]

1 hour ago, Wild Penquin said:

In case the problem is with a laptop (monitor) which does not allow any scaling options on the monitor, I can not help you.

 

The current NVidia Linux driver is a mess in this regard. It has to do with the fact that the X.Org codebase is old and resolution switching - especially in conjuction with wine - is a mess to begin with. There is no way to do set scaling options currently via a GUI.

 

You might try to check out "IncludeImplicitMetaModes" in xorg.conf. See this thread for more information: https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/525718/linux/how-can-i-get-gpu-scaling-to-work-/ . Here's the documentation (for your driver version): https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/384.111/README/xconfigoptions.html

 

Something like this might work (haven't tried it since I don't need it):

Option "IncludeImplicitMetaModes" "Scaling=Aspect, UseModePool = true"

Or break it. You might also want to try "UseModePool = false"

 

What adds complexities here is that wine and NVidia drivers disagree on the way xrandr should be handled (or something). IIRC I red some forum posts about this some time ago. Chances are it is impossible (or very difficult) to get it to scale to 16:9 (except with a proper external monitor). I was able to add some resolutions to do what I want way back, but wine insisted on doing things it's way and reverted everything whenever I tried to run a game with it.

Okay, thanks anyway. I am just going to play in unscaled 1280x1024. I can tolerate it.