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Gray_Lensman
- Posts: 497
- Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:04 am
- Location: Who is John Galt?
Thanks for a great tip Grey!
I've always used MS mice but never bothered to install the Intellipoint software. I've also had problems seeing the map detail in the game (old guy here
apy: ). It's not a problem on my desktop where I've got the 24" widescreen but I also play the game in bed on my laptop. Till now, my solution was to change the resolution on the laptop which worked but reduced screen the real estate and just didn't look as nice. 
After reading your post, I grabbed the latest Intellipoint software and mapped magnify to my middle button like you did. Works like a charm. Now I don't have to fiddle with my rez and have to constantly rearrange my icons after playing AACW
I've always used MS mice but never bothered to install the Intellipoint software. I've also had problems seeing the map detail in the game (old guy here
apy: ). It's not a problem on my desktop where I've got the 24" widescreen but I also play the game in bed on my laptop. Till now, my solution was to change the resolution on the laptop which worked but reduced screen the real estate and just didn't look as nice.
After reading your post, I grabbed the latest Intellipoint software and mapped magnify to my middle button like you did. Works like a charm. Now I don't have to fiddle with my rez and have to constantly rearrange my icons after playing AACW
Attached is a link to a free magnify utility from Iconico. It should work with any mouse. I have tried it with AACW and MS Vista with screen shots below (if it works with Vista it should work anywhere). The magnify window can be moved around and resized. If you have a dual monitor set up it can sit on the second monitor all the time. The magnify window is zoomed by clicking it and using the mouse wheel. The zoom control will pass back to the game if you click on the game window.
http://www.iconico.com/magnifier/
[ATTACH]1282[/ATTACH]
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First post but have been lurking and playing for a while.
Enjoy,
Tom...
http://www.iconico.com/magnifier/
[ATTACH]1282[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]1283[/ATTACH]
First post but have been lurking and playing for a while.
Enjoy,
Tom...
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Gray_Lensman
- Posts: 497
- Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:04 am
- Location: Who is John Galt?
Thanks Tom. I hoped someone will post some link to get this gadget for free .
.Forrest said something about killing a Yankee for each of his horses that they shot. In the last days of the war, Forrest had killed 30 of the enemy and had 30 horses shot from under him. In a brief but savage conflict, a Yankee soldier "saw glory for himself" with an opportunity to kill the famous Confederate General... Forrest killed the fellow. Making 31 Yankees personally killed, and 30 horses lost...
He remarked, "I ended the war a horse ahead."
He remarked, "I ended the war a horse ahead."
Your welcome. The link is in the original post just above the screenshots. But here it is again.
http://www.iconico.com/magnifier/
http://www.iconico.com/magnifier/
Well, I tested this since I have always had problems with the fonts. I got myself a 21.3" LCD with my new system instead of a 20" LCD to get the fonts 12% larger in this and other games with very small text.
This free magnifier works nice running a second display, 20" CRT at 1600x1200 (magnification set to 2X). However, the magnified text lacks crispness due to the second display being a CRT. A second LCD would resolve that, but I use the CRT for old DOS games running at very low res (320x200) in DOSBOX. So, I think a second big LCD is the way to go for older eyes and games such as this. (maybe someday when I retire my DOS games)
Another issue which might bother some people is the distraction of constant motion on two displays.
Finally, I found a really good application of having four processors. When I first started the magnifier and the game, the game map was scrolling with a noticeable lag. I guess zooming an area of 800x600 pixels updated in realtime must be pretty CPU intensive. Anyway, I then allocated separate processors to the magnifier and the game. From that point on, the game began to scroll as smoothly as before.
This free magnifier works nice running a second display, 20" CRT at 1600x1200 (magnification set to 2X). However, the magnified text lacks crispness due to the second display being a CRT. A second LCD would resolve that, but I use the CRT for old DOS games running at very low res (320x200) in DOSBOX. So, I think a second big LCD is the way to go for older eyes and games such as this. (maybe someday when I retire my DOS games)
Another issue which might bother some people is the distraction of constant motion on two displays.
Finally, I found a really good application of having four processors. When I first started the magnifier and the game, the game map was scrolling with a noticeable lag. I guess zooming an area of 800x600 pixels updated in realtime must be pretty CPU intensive. Anyway, I then allocated separate processors to the magnifier and the game. From that point on, the game began to scroll as smoothly as before.
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Gray_Lensman
- Posts: 497
- Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:04 am
- Location: Who is John Galt?
The magnify window can be placed anywhere on the screen or on another monitor if desired. The window can be resized as desired. The display in the magnify window will then show the magnification under the cursor.
I like to place the magnify window on my second monitor and enlarge it a bit. I then leave it up all the time.
Tom...
I like to place the magnify window on my second monitor and enlarge it a bit. I then leave it up all the time.
Tom...
Yep, the second monitor things works nice. I've done some more testing with it. I believe it needs two things to be totally useful for games in that mode:
(1) Mouse wheel driven zoom.
(2) Dettach mouse pointer - a lot of games pop-up text, but not at or directly under the mouse pointer. However, if you move the pointer to be over the text you want to view, then the text goes away. There needs to be a way to leave the cursor where it is for the active window and even a mouse button depressed, and then move the magnifier viewer. Even with the AGE engine this problem arises. With region rollover text, sometimes the text is offset too far to the right to completely fall under the magnifier on the second display.
It's funny how the demographic that strategy games is targetted for has aging eyes and perhaps of all game genres has more screen text which is increasing and becoming smaller. This is not fully compensated by the transition to high-resolution large LCD displays. I think this is another reason that I enjoy some of the old DOS classics. When you put a 300x200 DOS game in a DOSBOX window on a 20" CRT set for a resolution one step up from the window, you end up with a game that is extremely readable and easy on the eyes. The game basically sharply fills the 20" CRT. If you had played the same game on your main LCD desktop in a DOSBOX window, it would be sharp, but the size of a postage stamp. These days I find the combination of two displays; a large LCD and a large CRT to be the ideal balance for work, new games, and old games.
(1) Mouse wheel driven zoom.
(2) Dettach mouse pointer - a lot of games pop-up text, but not at or directly under the mouse pointer. However, if you move the pointer to be over the text you want to view, then the text goes away. There needs to be a way to leave the cursor where it is for the active window and even a mouse button depressed, and then move the magnifier viewer. Even with the AGE engine this problem arises. With region rollover text, sometimes the text is offset too far to the right to completely fall under the magnifier on the second display.
It's funny how the demographic that strategy games is targetted for has aging eyes and perhaps of all game genres has more screen text which is increasing and becoming smaller. This is not fully compensated by the transition to high-resolution large LCD displays. I think this is another reason that I enjoy some of the old DOS classics. When you put a 300x200 DOS game in a DOSBOX window on a 20" CRT set for a resolution one step up from the window, you end up with a game that is extremely readable and easy on the eyes. The game basically sharply fills the 20" CRT. If you had played the same game on your main LCD desktop in a DOSBOX window, it would be sharp, but the size of a postage stamp. These days I find the combination of two displays; a large LCD and a large CRT to be the ideal balance for work, new games, and old games.
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Gray_Lensman
- Posts: 497
- Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:04 am
- Location: Who is John Galt?
I used to just have a single 20" CRT and was holding off getting an LCD due to my gaming. Lots of old games and old odd ball resolutions. LCDs look like crap when not native and interpolated. A good CRT basically will rival an LCD when the LCD is forced to interpolate.
One of the best things I like about my new system is its ability to drive (NVidia 8800 GTX) two displays. I finally have the sharpness for all the text stuff that I do (the LCD is my primary) and new games that run native. However, I kept all the benefits of a CRT for older games.
Another great thing about switching to using an LCD is that I am now able to run at 96DPI. 96DPI on a CRT at 1600x1200 really makes text too small and blurred. So for years (Windows 95 - XP), I set the DPI to around 130 which scaled everything very nicely. Sadly many games these days are unable to handle scaling and will become a totally garbled display at anything other than 96DPI.
This included the AGE engine too. However, I was able to play BOA by making a custom mod to the FONTS.INI file to readjust the font sizes such that text was properly scaled to the art work. However, there was a list of other games that I simply could not play. But with the sharpness of the LCD, I can tolerate the small fonts of 96DPI.
Lastly, one other thing I like about this ... I play Sub Command and Dangerous Waters on a Window on my CRT. These games benefit greatly by boosting the brightness of the CRT. A very bright CRT makes it possible to spot faint sonar contacts that you would otherwise miss. It would be inconvenient to have my whole desktop brightened, but since I have the game on a separate device, it is no problem at all.
One of the best things I like about my new system is its ability to drive (NVidia 8800 GTX) two displays. I finally have the sharpness for all the text stuff that I do (the LCD is my primary) and new games that run native. However, I kept all the benefits of a CRT for older games.
Another great thing about switching to using an LCD is that I am now able to run at 96DPI. 96DPI on a CRT at 1600x1200 really makes text too small and blurred. So for years (Windows 95 - XP), I set the DPI to around 130 which scaled everything very nicely. Sadly many games these days are unable to handle scaling and will become a totally garbled display at anything other than 96DPI.
This included the AGE engine too. However, I was able to play BOA by making a custom mod to the FONTS.INI file to readjust the font sizes such that text was properly scaled to the art work. However, there was a list of other games that I simply could not play. But with the sharpness of the LCD, I can tolerate the small fonts of 96DPI.
Lastly, one other thing I like about this ... I play Sub Command and Dangerous Waters on a Window on my CRT. These games benefit greatly by boosting the brightness of the CRT. A very bright CRT makes it possible to spot faint sonar contacts that you would otherwise miss. It would be inconvenient to have my whole desktop brightened, but since I have the game on a separate device, it is no problem at all.
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