Arcanum High Resolution Patch

Current Version: 1.1a (May 2nd, 2009)

INFO

Arcanum High Resolution Patch is an extensive engine hack and probably the most complex mod I've done up to this point. It rewrites many subroutines to make the engine fully scalable to any resolution, and calculates positions of all elements of the interface (well over 1000 offsets) for the desired width and height by using formulas. Additionally, it adjusts sound positioning, fixes a number of UI bugs and disables sprite mirroring (if used without the UAP).

Features:

• Full support for any resolution.
• All elements of the interface perfectly centered.
• All elements of the interface remain their original size with no custom graphics in any resolution.
• Full compatibility with any mods that are based off the 1.0.7.4 version.
• Full compatibility with older save games.
• Improved Compact UI. Can now be accessed anytime by pressing F10.
• Optional larger dialog and logbook fonts.

The patch runs on WeiDU, as it includes a rather flexible binary patcher with support for formulas. Qwinn's search and replace macro is also used.

The project took me many weeks of heavy reverse-engineering and debugging, as I had to go through the whole interface and many other functions to properly adapt the game for higher resolutions and make the engine fully scalable. I tried my best to keep everything as close to original as possible. Thus, the patch features no heavy UI changes, no custom graphics and no upscaling/stretching.

I'd also like to note that unlike the UAP, this isn't a community project, but rather something I've done for my own amusement. Ergo, the community feedback won't have much impact on the project, if any.

Official thread

COMPATIBILITY

Game version:

Arcanum.exe version 1.0.7.4 (English) required. Any modifications of it (this includes the UAP) will also work. Only Arcanum.exe matters, the patch doesn't modify any of your other files.

Note: A lot of data in German and French versions is shifted, most probably due to a different copy protection used. However, the English Arcanum.exe should work properly with the foreign versions, provided you can deal with its copy protection one way or another.

Resolution:

Any resolution is possible, if it isn't smaller than the original 800x600. Even non-standard resolutions like, e.g. 1333x789 will work, if the game is run in a window or your video card supports custom resolutions.

Note: If you have the UAP installed you can run the game in a window by using the '-window' command line argument. Otherwise, you will have to use D3DWindower or similar software.

Mods:

Fully compatible with any mods that use Arcanum.exe version 1.0.7.4 (English), clean or modified.

Save games:

Fully compatible with older save games. You can change resolution as many times as you want, without starting a new game.

CHANGELOG

Version 1.0

-Initial version.

Version 1.1

- Fixed the spells/skills buttons on the bottom panel. The spells/skill menu doesn't disappear anymore if the corresponding button is still pressed.
- Added a new optional component: Compact Options Screen. This breaks the options screen into 3 parts (top, middle and bottom), just like with the other menus.
- Fixed mouse cursor detection issues with the character creation menu. Gender, race and background fields now get properly detected.
- Fixed mouse cursor detection issues with many multiplayer related menus.
- The NPC response window now gets proportionally larger when the larger dialog font component is installed. Now all text fits correctly.
- Fixed all issues with the larger logbook font. Now all text fits correctly and page numbers are visible.
- Added size 18 dialog fonts as an option.

Version 1.1a

- Fixed a crash when clicking around in character pick/create menu.

DOWNLOADS

Mirror 1 (courtesy of Terra-Arcanum.com)
Mirror 2 (courtesy of Patches-Scrolls.de)
Mirror 3 (courtesy of Petrell)

SETUP

Installing:

Run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions. The installer doesn't auto detect your Arcanum folder, please be careful.

Changing to another resolution/Uninstalling:

Go to your Arcanum folder and run HighRes.bat (do NOT run Setup-HighRes.exe directly, it won't work).

Upgrading:

When upgrading to a new version of the high resolution patch or the UAP please uninstall the current version of the high resolution patch by running HighRes.bat.

NOTES

Some important peculiarities of the high resolution patch are listed here.

Scrolling Distance:

The patch adjusts scrolling distance according to the resolution, so that you won't be able to scroll farther than at the original 800x600. At very high resolutions (and especially with low PE) this results in scrolling distance of 1, i.e. you can barely scroll the screen if your character is already in the center (the screen becomes more scrollable as you move closer to the edges). This seems logical, since as everything is already visible, there's no need to scroll. However, if you don't like this adjustment you can run the game with the '-scrolldist:0' command line argument, this will give you infinite scrolling distance, regardless of the resolution and your character's PE. Although it's important to note that if you scroll far enough at very high resolutions you will see inactive objects.

Inactive Objects:

Everything that is 31 tiles away from the PC is inactive, i.e. AI, animation, scripts, etc don't work that far away from the player, so the objects just get frozen. At extremely high (like 2600x1900) resolutions (or with the infinite scrolling option) it may be possible to see such objects. The active radius may be increased later, if there's a demand for such resolutions, although it will have a severe impact on performance, of course.

Graphical artifacts:

If you're experiencing graphical glitches, try running the game in the software rendering mode by using the '-no3d' command line argument.

Slowdown:

In case the game runs sluggishly or you're experiencing some slowdown when scrolling the screen/having UI windows on the screen/etc, try the '-doublebuffer' command line argument. You can use both '-no3d' and '-doublebuffer' at the same time.

Main Menu:

The top and bottom in-game UI panels are now visible in the main menu, since the background is too small to cover them. Perhaps a black backdrop will be added in the future to hide them.

Known Issues:

Some multiplayer menus may not work correctly, as this is hard to test. Splash screens aren't centered horizontally yet as well.

SCREENSHOTS