Hi. today I want to share the solution for making Settlers IV PL – Gold Edition v. 2.50.1516 work on MacBook Pro fullscreen in 16:10 aspect ratio resolution. Settlers IV is, in my opinion, one of the best fairy tail designed computer strategies. It was published in 2001, and you can still buy it. Also, it not using DRM, so it is essential for the emulation of the game. For make this game working on MacBook Pro 13’’ without Retina display I am using Wineskin engine to create for me blank wrapper of WS9Wine1.7.39. The game itself is very nice. unfortunately by default, it supports only 3 graphics card resolutions: 800×600, 1024×768, and 1280×1024. The First 2 options work on my machine, but there are in a 4:3 aspect ratio. So in this post, I will show you how to change default options. There will still be named in-game as defaults, but different screen resolutions will be used. For my proposal, I need to change the last option, 1280×1024, to 16:10 resolution. First I tried to make changes in gfxengine.dll file in game Exe folder with Hex Fiend editor to make it working on 1280×800 resolution. To make that solution you have to edit mentioned file with following 3 changes:
1st change: OLD: 81 F9 00 04 00 00 7F 08 81 FA 00 03 NEW: 81 F9 00 05 00 00 7F 08 81 FA 20 03 2nd change (this exists 2 times - I changed only the first sequence): OLD: F9 00 05 00 00 75 1D 81 78 08 00 04 NEW: F9 00 05 00 00 75 1D 81 78 08 20 03 3rd change: OLD: BD 00 05 00 00 BB 00 04 NEW: BD 00 05 00 00 BB 20 03
Unfortunately, there was left menu issue where one part of the left menu – HUD is black, and I spent a lot of time finding out that it is impossible to solve this issue. I checked all other resolutions and tried to change other values that I measured with screenshots, but in the end, I gave up without success.
Later, I realized that I could change the resolution of the game to the 1152×720 resolution that is also with 16:10 aspect ratio, and it is supported by MacBook Pro 13’’ without Retina display. And because resolutions 800×600 and 1024×768 work, I find out how to change only the last resolution option, 1280×1024, in-game to resolution 1152×720. I did that with 3 following changes:
1st change: OLD: 81 F9 00 04 00 00 7F 08 81 FA 00 03 NEW: 81 F9 80 04 00 00 7F 08 81 FA D0 02 2nd change (this exists 2 times - I changed only the first sequence): OLD: F9 00 05 00 00 75 1D 81 78 08 00 04 NEW: F9 80 04 00 00 75 1D 81 78 08 D0 02 3rd change: OLD: BD 00 05 00 00 BB 00 04 NEW: BD 80 04 00 00 BB D0 02
You may be wondering what that values means? for example values for 1024×768 are 00 04 x 00 03. it is because 1024 in hex is 0x0400 and 768 in hex is 0x0300. In a DLL file, those values have different bytes pairs and order, which is why there are 00 04 x 00 03. The same calculation is for 1280×1024, that is 00 05 x 00 04. And the 3 changes I found through experiments. As you probably understand 1152×720 is 80 04 x D0 02 because 0x0480 is 1152 and 0x02D0 is 720. If you like, you can change different resolutions by analyzing the hex code of gfxengine.dll from the game installation in the “exe” folder.
800x600: F9 20 03 00 00 7F 08 81 FA 58 02 (I am not sure what it does, but it has to be updated when you make changes of this resolution) F9 20 03 00 00 75 1D 81 78 08 58 02 (2 times, I am not sure what is difference between sequences) BD 20 03 00 00 BB 58 02 (2 times - resolution of the graphics card, 1st is for the main menu of the game and second is for the game) 1024x768: F9 00 04 00 00 7F 08 81 FA 00 03 (I am not sure what it does, but it has to be updated when you make changes to this resolution) F9 00 04 00 00 75 1D 81 78 08 00 03 (2 times, I am not sure what the difference is between sequences) BD 00 04 00 00 BB 00 03 (resolution of graphics card) 1280x1024: F9 00 05 00 00 75 1D 81 78 08 00 04 (I am not sure what it does, but it has to be updated when you make changes to this resolution) BD 00 05 00 00 BB 00 04 (resolution of graphics card)
I am sure that now you can hack the game by yourself to change even all default build-in options to resolutions that your computer supports. Maybe one day Blue Byte and Ubisoft decide to refresh this amazing game with modern graphics supports. It is, in my opinion, the best fun strategy ever for dinosaurs like me, and I plan to play it with my daughter in it when she grows up enough. The game is fun, smart, and a fairy tale, with delightful moments and no violence. Such games like this one are not made anymore. But still, for a small price, you can buy it like I did. And I want to thank the producers of it. Sorry I did this small hack of screen resolution. For now, it is, I think only option to have the game in a 16:10 aspect ratio. If I were a real hacker, I would add a combo box with many resolutions for anyone, but I am not that smart. Remember to use legal source games, pay for them to support producers, and thank them. Enjoy!.
p ;).