dum question: Can Starcraft's resolution be changed?

[NotoriousJTC]

I just installed starcraft,broodwarz, and the patches on my new system. But everything looks very large on the screen, like its running at a lower res than it was on my old system. I did upgrade my monitor from 15" to 17", but it doesnt seem as large on my friends 17" monitor. Maybe it's just me?

Anyone know if there a way to make the game play at a higher res.?

 

[Zucchini]

Its just you. the game is locked at 640x480. since that game came out i've gone from 15 to 17 to 19" monitors.. it looks @#% big now.

 

[Sunner]

Its locked so people with bigger monitors and faster comps wont get an advantage by increasing the resolution and hence being able to view more of the battlefield at once, which is a HUGE tactical advantage.

But IMO it doesnt look too bad, and Im on a 19".

 

[Zucchini]

Well i don't know about that.. its locked because its an old game

 

[Sunner]

They(Blizzard) stated several times that this was the primary reason.
It isnt so old that resolutions above 640x480 were out of the question technically.

During the long wait for StarCraft this question was asked many times.

 

[Holler]

that is just an excuse. It you wanted to lock a resolution why not give the user the power to set it in a particular lan game? I think dungeon keeper 2 has a in game res lock setting if i'm not mistaken.

 

[Pete]

That's not that great a reason--what about the people who play it single-player? True, there are always hacks for multi-player, but they sell so many damn copies you'd think they'd have the resources to combat that.

 

[RagingGuardian]

Well most of these games have annoyingly low resolutions. Maybe because they aren't 3D or just that the developers like low res crap. Maybe they're just lazy. Starcraft is old though.

 

[xtreme2k]

It is the images and the units they first created fit best in a 640 resolution

Diablo2 also locked to 640in game, 800 in menu.

 

[Soccerman]

I feel that they've done the right thing, not letting people with higher res to have an advantage. it caters to all those grass roots people, who don't want to spend sooo much, (it' runs well on any Pentium system that is greater then 100mhz).

of course, allowing for higher res, without changing the actual visible screen size would be a workaround, but then it would mean that they need to make much more detailed animations etc.. there really is no point to supporting increased resolution if you ask me.

of course, I run on a crappy old monitor, so I'm at the opposite spectrum..

btw, for an example of a game that it doesn't really matter What res you run at (there's no advantage, besides it looks nicer), take a look at homeworld.

if they had taken the time to impliment that into SC, then it would have taken even LONGER to get it out!

 

[Loralon]

Sunner and Soccerman are correct: the game was locked in at 640x480x8 so that people with larger monitors wouldn't have an advantage. Also, any workaround that would maintain viewable screen area constant would require alot more artwork since you'd need models and environments modelled to scale in each different resolution.

 

[Looney]

Yeah, i heard that same crap about locking resolution so that others don't have an advantage too... i think it's crap as well. Look at Diablo 2... ugliest freaking game i've seen in a long time (all i have are 19"s).

 

[Sword]

I think that a lot of people here dont understand one simple thing....

The game itself makes it a good game not the graphic interface....In addition, graphics are attractive at beginning but if you like the game you will forget the graphic interface soon.

Anyway, I am a veteran of starcraft BW and I am playing on a 19" monitor...its not that bad...and It would not be easier to beat me with high res

 

[Futuramatic]

Wah Wah... your computer is better than mine, you have an advantage

Dear God... why dont we limit resolution on other games too than, if this is such a valid arguement? Blizzard was too lazy to implement it... as they were with Diablo 2 and prolly will be with WC3.