Help for the new guy?

[turk187]

I played X-com and X-com TFTD back when they were brand new games and now I'm looking forward to playing them again, but I've got a couple of issues.

I downloaded and installed open x-com and it works but, I've got a huge monitor of doom and I'm playing in a little box that's literally the size of my hand. How can I increase the size of the play window? there is a discussion thread from 2013 that mentions editing the config.cfg file, but there doesn't seem to be one.

And, I always used a money cheat program that changed my amount of money to maximum so I didn't have to worry about that part of the game. Could someone tell me how to edit the current save file to adjust the amount of money I have?

I want to play the game through before I start playing with Mods, but "Final Mod" looks awesome.

[Yankes]

You can set resolution in option menu. It have lot of option compared to original one.

[turk187]

You can set resolution in option menu. It have lot of option compared to original one.

Thank you. I did not think about that.

[Hobbes]

And, I always used a money cheat program that changed my amount of money to maximum so I didn't have to worry about that part of the game. Could someone tell me how to edit the current save file to adjust the amount of money I have?

Just open a saved game file with Notepad or another editor and find the line that says: "funds" and edit the value there.

[7Saturn]

I've got a huge monitor of doom and I'm playing in a little box that's literally the size of my hand. How can I increase the size of the play window?

You could also use the Scale-settings, seting them to »2x«. That will help you with small menus. The rest should already be scaled up. However, that's something for the devs: Can you create scaling as well for all menus, so they are taking the whole screen? The scaling option »Full Display« doesn't seem to do the trick.

[Meridian]

On a 1920x1080 monitor, I'd recommend OpenXcom resolution of 1280x720 with  "1/2 display" scaling (instead of "2x original") for battlescape and "1/3 display" for geoscape.

[Meridian]

However, that's something for the devs: Can you create scaling as well for all menus, so they are taking the whole screen? The scaling option »Full Display« doesn't seem to do the trick.

That's not what "full display" means... if you want bigger menus, you need to set "1/2 display" or "1/3 display"...

[7Saturn]

Then what does »full display« mean? The game uses the full display, anyways, when played in full screen. So what does it stand for?

[Meridian]

Then what does »full display« mean? The game uses the full display, anyways, when played in full screen. So what does it stand for?

It's not very easy to describe, but I will try.

First of all there are 2 basic modes:
1. first mode is "stretch to fit", i.e. stretch the original image (320x200) to fit the openxcom resolution (that's why it works well only with 16:10 aspect ratios... on other aspect ratios it has black bars on the sides)
2. second mode is  "zoom to fill", i.e. zoom in and the rest of the display is filled with solid color (e.g. black for dialog windows, blue for geoscape controls, etc.) -- there's more magic going on with the globe itself and in the battlescape, but you have asked only about menus/dialogs

The first mode is represented by options: Original, 1.5x Original and 2x Original
The second mode is represented by options: Full display, 1/2 display and 1/3 display

Your question was only about "full display", so let's forget the first mode completely and talk only about second mode.

For menus and dialogs, the original (320x200) is zoomed:
- "full display" = no zoom
- "1/2 display" = 2x zoom
- "1/3 display" = 3x zoom
and the rest is filled with solid color.

Therefore I would not recommend "full display" to anyone (only use I found so far is to make screenshot of the entire battlescape at once).
"1/2 display" is nice if you play on lower resolutions, especially if the ratio is other than 16:10 (for example 854x480).
"1/3 display" is nice if you play on medium resolutions (for example 1280x720)
On high 16:10 resolutions (e.g. 1680x1050, 1920x1200), I would probably recommend the first mode (stretch to fit, for example 2x Original).
On high non 16:10 resolutions (e.g. 1920x1080), you will either have to live with black bars on sides... or as I said in the previous post, play in a window instead at lower resolution (I found 1280x720 to be the best for me so far).

[7Saturn]

Well I just tried it again, and now I again remember, why I avoided 1/3 resp. 1/2-mode: It interpolates a lot, leading to a rather unfamiliar look. That's why I prefer 2x instead of 1/3. But you are right, the ratio is not exactly optimal, when not using 16:10 screens.