Good job !

Really nicely done!

I posted about it on AoCGroup forums, too, I hope you don`t mind. It is one of the biggest AoC gaming communities, check it here -- http://www.aocgroup.com.ar/viewtopic.php?t=11348 .

Please feel free to join an informal AoE series development group here - http://groups.google.com/group/aoc-dev .

Keep up the good work

Could you change the color of the purple section to something else perhaps?

All stuff is now to be found on my own server @ http://boekabart.dyndns.org/aoe2wide/
Which should also make image embedding work...:

[PNG, (1.64 MB)]

The sources are public at http://boekabart.dyndns.org/aoe2wide/hg

To get the mercurial repo:

hg clone http://boekabart.dyndns.org/aoe2wide/hg/ aoe2wide

(if you run this from your game folder, a future version will automatically find the HG versioned DAT file so you can easily get updates).

Btw. yes, it needs refactoring badly.

Here`re the screens (click to enlarge):

Can anyone please write a detailed tutorial? I can't make any sense of this.

.dat and .exe in Patches\Data?

In main folder?

I don't even understand this 1680x1050 package, it doesn't have proper folder layout.

Looking to utilize it for 1920x1080. Thanks.

I have a 1680x1050 monitor, and I'm really excited.

So, what do I need to download, and where do I need to put the files?

Edit...I was able to figure it out. I put the input.txt, AoE2Wide.exe, etc in the main aoe2 folder, and then it worked like a charm. Awesome stuff!

So, my suggestions for updating this are as follows. Please find a way to move the mini-map back to the bottom-right corner, and then the place where selected units are shown can be stretched to cover the gap. Please find a way to make the font size for the resource totals fit inside their boxes. Top-right corner - please find a way to change the background color to fit the rest of the screen.

All 3 changes are to make the game "look better" - if you didn't add them, it's fine...I can adjust to a different spot for my mini-map, etc.

[This message has been edited by cool120 (edited 01-19-2010 @ 03:25 PM).]

Where is input.txt? Can someone please .zip .7 .rar this up.

does this let you see more on the screen?

if so that would make it cheating for multiplayer purposes

This is the step-by-step for EVERYONE:

http://boekabart.dyndns.org/aoe2wide
Download from the folder latestpatcher the EXE and DAT file and put then in your game main folder. If you don't have the right age2_x1.exe, download it, from the above url, also to the same location.

Now all you should have to do is double click the AoE2Wide.exe application and it should generate an age2_x1_XXXXxYYYY.exe for you (and a drs file in the data directory), for your current desktop resolution(s). Run this executable. Let me know if it's all you hoped it would be. I've understood that not all icon locations are correct at the moment, but it already should be playable.

If it doesn't generate an exe, something went wrong (in vista/win7, you must run aoe2wide as admin if your game is installed in c:\program files, for example, for the correct write rights).

if so that would make it cheating for multiplayer purposes

Agree, it does give the players an unfair advantage.

Neither is fair when someone plays on 800x600 or 1024x768, and his opponent on 1280x1024, but that is reality :$

lol, I imagine now how would it be if someone plays on 800x600, and someone on 1920x1200, the second guy would have more than 4 times bigger visible area on his screen than his opponent, like if the first one plays with 4 monitors :$

Added shrink support for the images.

Now everything 1280 and wider will be done by patching 1280x1024.
Tested: 1280x960, 1440x900.
NOT working: 1280x800, 1366x768 I don't know why yet.

This doesn't work at all for me.

I tried your 1680x1050 "donepatches" it fails to initalize graphics. (windows XP)

I already tried the .dat and aoewide.exe in main folder, it gives me this error: cannot find interfac.drs

Can you please .zip/.rar/.7z a complete working 1920x1080 package for me? Thanks.

Update:

I've made the patcher a bit more usable. It can now (but doesn't have to) be put in (and run from) any subfolder of the main game directory, together with the dat file if you please. It will search 'upwards' for the main gamefolder. My age2_x1.exe can be in either the main folder or age2_x1, whatever you prefer, and you can give its name a suffix (e.g. age2_x1_1.0c_nocd.exe or age2_x1_pre_widescreen.exe or so) so you can recognize it (and not use it if you want to play online 1.0e). The patcher will find and recognize it (by name, size and MD5 checksum).

Also, I've gotten rid of the pinkyness: I think I figured out how to repeat the last pixel on the line until the end of it. Not perfect, but a lot better (especially in the top of the screen!).
Also the Slp patcher code has been cleaned up a lot, and i've changed the vertical stretching method so it's not so very obvious (almost invisible!) anymore in e.g. the 'save' screen.

Widescreen resolutions 1280 and wider, and somewhere-between-800-and-900 and higher work (1440x900 does, 1280x800 or 1280x720 don't).

Always The Latest Patcher Binary: http://boekabart.dyndns.org/aoe2wide/latestpatcher/
Feel free to browse http://boekabart.dyndns.org/aoe2wide/, it contains everything so far including source tarballs and the HG/mercurial repository.
http://boekabart.dyndns.org/aoe2wide/donepatches/ contains applied patches for 1440x900, 1600x1050, 1920x1080 and 1920x1200. Extract to game main folder and go!

Screeny (1440x900):

[This message has been edited by boekabart (edited 01-21-2010 @ 09:52 AM).]

You are a God.

Just wondering, why are the resource numbers slightly misaligned? Can this be fixed?

[This message has been edited by lnkuih (edited 01-21-2010 @ 02:53 PM).]

I don't get it, isn't it a simple matter to just change some numbers in the registry in order to change the resolution? I thought it was that..

Edit: nvm, that was for another game..

[This message has been edited by Jatayu (edited 01-21-2010 @ 12:47 PM).]

just tried this on GR (the 1440x900) and the host said it switched my game back from 1.0c to 1.0, weird.

brb gonna try again.

Thanks a lot. Working good on 1920x1080.

I noticed the advanced hotkeys are floating in the air without any shortcut hotkeys, but this is no big deal.

Will this be working for 1.0c? 1.0e? Voobly?

Most people play on 1.0c so if anyone could port it that would be awesome.

oh wait, so that wasn't an error on my part? is this not available for 1.0c yet?

I was under the impression that the executable I'm using is in fact a (nocd'ed) 1.0c executable.. Am I wrong here?

Note that I won't be able to patch the original 1.0c, since it's in fact a small exe that does the CD check and decrypts the age2_x1.icd file which is the exe in encrypted format (as far as I've understood).

If indeed my exe is 1.0, I'll probably start figuring out the locations to change in order to patch the 1.0e executable - it seems to me that that would be more useful than a 1.0

If my exe is 1.0c, I'll still do it but a bit later in the process.

"age2_x1" md5 hash = B1B52D891550029ADEFD6A0A5C33ECBE (ver 1.0)
"age2_x1" md5 hash = F27238DFA1C3EC444152C85F01AF30A0 (ver 1.0c)
"age2_x1" md5 hash = CB15BCFAFFFBC3BA80F307D41F50E546 (ver 1.0e)

I`m not 100% sure if I found the right 1.0c file, but 1.0 and 1.0e are correct. Those are all no-cd versions.

EDIT: I`ve found the correct 1.0c no-cd file, I edited the md5 checksum, it is OK now.

[This message has been edited by BugA_the_Great (edited 01-22-2010 @ 08:07 AM).]

Yes, well, my hash is: 0D-9D-3B-61-BC-11-BF-DA-72-D7-D1-75-04-50-E0-25

I plan to make a little tool that will automatically locate the code-to-patch in other versions too (as the assembler should be the same, practically, i hope).

Other Good News: Now everything wider than 1023 works, that should include 1024x600 (based on 800x600), 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x800, 1440x900 and so. Did so by finding out all the relevant resolutions for 1024x768 as source, and I've fixed the scaling-down-limit-bug (missed a MaxY for 1280x1024 somewhere).

Damn, what file version do you have...

You can check it by starting the game, and clicking that flag on the main menu screen, in the upper left side of the screen (it has AoC logo on it), between two shields.

Good news for the rest I guess that assembler code should be the same, yes.

I did just like the instuctions but when I run the new age2_x1_1366x768.exe it was just a much smaller window and a lot of pink and black in the edges just like before. what went wrong?