Windowed Mode

[Sirid]

One of the things that bugged me about Civ 3 was that it was impossible to play in a window. I don't know if this was mentioned elsewhere but is this possible in Civ 4?

[Ninot]

I believe either Solver or MarkG have mentioned they played in window mode.

[asleepathewheel]

if its like the beta, then it will be in the ini settings.

I have it set to ask upon loading if I want full screen or windowed.

Thank god for windowed mode.

[Sirid]

Great, thanks for the info. That's a relief to hear.

[Fidel]

well, sulla's screenie is windowed
and then there's this part of civfanatics chat log

[20:21] <@Gogf> CivGeneral: Question for the Fraxis: Can Civ4 be run in windows mode [without dual monitors]?

[20:21] <+FIRAXIS_Trip> yes, you can run windowed mode whenever you want

[20:22] <+FIRAXIS_Trip> all programmers run windowed

[Nailfoot]

Is "windowed mode" so popular because you can chat online ETC at the same time? I have almost never played a game in windowed mode, simply because I get engrossed in the game and wouldn't remember to chat or post pics anyway.
Of course, it is good the option is there for those that like to minimize the game for whatever reason.

[snoopy369]

It is presumably popular because it's easier to alt-tab to other things in general ... you can keep SP Civ4 in the background and do other things, going back to them every so often

But definitely chat is a big reason.

[Sirid]

Actually the reason it concerns me so much is because my laptop resolution is messed up due to another incident I had with a fullscreen game. What happened was it changed my resolution upon starting, and while I was playing my computer froze up (overheated). So I had to do a hard reboot, and when I got back to the desktop the changed resolution was still there, but the windows resolution was recognized as the original, so from then on there was a permanent offset. I managed to "fix" it by turning my windows resolution all the way up to the highest setting.

Now whenever I play games I either play them in windowed mode to avoid this problem or change my windows resolution to a much lower setting beforehand in case something like that happens again. That's really a pain (incidentally it's the way I always played Civ3), so I'd prefer to have a window option. And I'm really glad there is one for Civ4.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Nailfoot
Is "windowed mode" so popular because you can chat online ETC at the same time? I have almost never played a game in windowed mode, simply because I get engrossed in the game and wouldn't remember to chat or post pics anyway.
Of course, it is good the option is there for those that like to minimize the game for whatever reason.

For me definitely,
as I often have ICQ open when playing a game
and so can return to the normal windows screen and check if new messages have appeared.

But it can also serve a more practical purpose:
In Railroad Tycoon 3 for example I have made an Excel sheet where I note which Station is already connected to which.
So here it´s a very good thing to be able to switch between windows and the game and vice versa, to update the Excel sheet with the new stations built, or to use the excel sheet to decide to which stations new trains should travel.

[smellymummy]

i was looking for the option to have the game drawn on dual monitors. is this changed in the .ini also?

[MarkG]

yes, you just set the resolution accordingly (there is a width and a height setting, as well as the windowed or full screen option)

[LordShiva]

Ask Markos, he knows.

edit: And he's also quicker than I am.

[smellymummy]

could you post an example?

i'm using ScreenHeight = 1024 and ScreenWidth = 2560 (i did the inverse too..) and i just get an error upon loading

[MarkG]

try ScreenHeight = 970 and ScreenWidth = 2500
and put it in windowed mode


btw, i can safely bet that dual monitors are not officially supported

[Sirid]

Does this mean you have to adjust numbers in the .ini file in order to get the game to play in a window every time, or is it one of the setup options?