[SOLVED] Netbooks

[levi]

Okay, so long story short, I have a netbook with a like 10 inch display. What's the problem? Well, when I open a game, it's much too large to fit on my screen. 

Here is an example of Little Busters:

 

Now, you'll have one of two suggestions. One being up my resolution. Here is the result:

(That actually doesn't look bad but in person it is highly distorted. The windows orb is an oval! I don't know why it ended up looking decent, because it sure doesn't look it.)

 

The final suggestion would be fullscreen mode, but that also looks warped. Is there any way to read it with black borders or something? Or resize the window? I tried messing around with the GAMEEXE.ini file but I couldn't figure it out. I experience problems with this in almost all games besides Higurashi because of the small window, and CHAOS;HEAD, because it has an option to maintain the intended resolution when in fullscreen.

 

Here are my resolution options for reference:

 

Thank you in advance for the assistance!

[RinXD]

Um dont play it on a netbook their only meant to surf the web check email

[Eclipsed]

Hi levi, welcome to the forums and thank you for posting your inquiry regarding visual novels and screen resolutions.

If I remember correctly, Little Busters has a native resolution of 800x600 (you can't change this, you can only play 800x600 windowed mode or full screen, which will either scale (stretch) or maintain aspect ratio (black bars) based on your computer's settings (assuming it does have the settings)).

What's your netbook's native resolution? Is it 1024x768 or 1024x600? Either way, both resolutions should be *barely* enough to comfortably view Little Busters! (as seen in your screenshots) so I'm confused about what you mean by "The windows orb is an oval"

~~~

Do netbook processors even have an integrated graphics processor? xD 

If you did, there should be like a graphics control panel where you could change the settings so that all programs you run would maintain aspect ratio when you go fullscreen

 

[RinXD]

Net books are not meant to play games or do anything involing graphical processes there meant to surf the web check email etc

[zoom909]

in res. 1024x600, if you Hide the taskbar, then can you see the whole window?

[RinXD]

And no one listens to the guys whos career is computers my work is done here

[Eclipsed]

He's not trying to play BattleField 7, relax Rin.

And if you even bothered to read his post, he can run the game just fine, only has resolution issues.

[RinXD]

I read his post but the thing you dont realize about a netbook is its a bare minimum PC and a very light version of Window OS his customization options are limited as to shown its not like a full blown laptop with bells and whistles where you can customize things. The netbook was deisgned as a travel PC to keep you connected to the web. the only chance he stands is maybe hooking the netbook to a monitor if it has a vga out port which i doubt.

[Flutterz]

I think I might be able to help, since I've also apparently committed a heinous crime by playing 50-some VNs on my netbook. As much as you might be right that netbooks are made to browse the web, most netbooks are capable of running basic games and almost all VNs (mine is 4 years old and every VN except IMHHW runs on it), so why wouldn't someone play them on it?

 

What I do is switch the VN to fullscreen and then use Fn+F4 (you might have it on a different F-button) to switch to the max resolution, and in most cases it sets the VN to a good resolution with black borders on the sides, and this works with 95% of VNs. However when I tried that with Little Busters for some reason it switches to a tiny minimized window and needs to be manually switched back to fullscreen and then back to windowed. So try that and if it doesn't work, do this:

1. Ctrl + Alt + Delete

2. Start Task Manager

3. Open the processes tab

4. Find explorer.exe

5. Click "End Process" then "End Process" again in the popup window

6. Close Windows Task Manager

Now it should be nice and centered on your screen with no taskbar, and if you have a dark wallpaper it's even better.

To get the taskbar and everything else back do this:

1. Windows Key+R

1.5. If that doesn't work for some reason open the task manager again, then click File, then New Task

2. Type in explorer.exe

3. Press OK

 

Alternatively you can make Windows automatically hide the taskbar when you're not hovering over it, but I don't like that and if you try to click on one of the buttons in the bottom of the game window it will pop up which is annoying.

If you want to try that go to the Control Panel, Appearance and Personalization, Taskbar and Start Menu and check Auto-hide the Taskbar.

 

PS. The reason why it looks fine on the screenshot is because your netbook is still rendering the full resolution, but has to squeeze it so that it fits on the screen, but once it is a picture it doesn't necessarily have to fit, so it looks fine.

[RinXD]

^ thats way too much work just to play a VN

[Flutterz]

^ thats way too much work just to play a VN

[RinXD]

um switching the locale is easy but having to hide your task bar every time is too much work

[levi]

Thanks for the responses guys. I should have clarified, but 1024x600 is the native resolution. What I meant by the "windows orb being ovular" is that 1024x768 stretches a little bit more out of the display and the aspect ratio is all sorts of messed up (thus instead of being a circle, the orb is more of an oval).

 

And I wish I had a better computer Rin, but sadly I don't. 

But yup, the problem lies in the resolution; not the performance of the PC.

 

Anyhow, after fiddling around with your guys suggestions, I got it to work. I had to change my system locale back into English to read my graphics card's menu system and I changed some option into maintain aspect ratio. Thanks to everyone for their responses!

 

I really appreciate your guys help.

[Flutterz]

um switching the locale is easy but having to hide your task bar every time is too much work

[Eclipsed]

 

Thanks for the responses guys. I should have clarified, but 1024x600 is the native resolution. What I meant by the "windows orb being ovular" is that 1024x768 stretches a little bit more out of the display and the aspect ratio is all sorts of messed up (thus instead of being a circle, the orb is more of an oval).

 

And I wish I had a better computer Rin, but sadly I don't. 

But yup, the problem lies in the resolution; not the performance of the PC.

 

Anyhow, after fiddling around with your guys suggestions, I got it to work. I had to change my system locale back into English to read my graphics card's menu system and I changed some option into maintain aspect ratio. Thanks to everyone for their responses!

 

I really appreciate your guys help.