Widescreen Gaming Forum

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CZARMAN aka 彼得爸爸

Hello! Thank you for the widescreen fix! The game looks amazing on 16:9!

HOWEVER, there is a big issue that unfortunately makes this unplayable still. Icons in the inventory, slots and portraits are severely offset/gone. They seem to scale right with size, but their alignment scatters. At 1920x1080, they are completely not visible. At 1024x768 - they are about a row/line above their original slots (vendors and backpack). At 1680x1050, they are exactly a row below where they are supposed to be (vendors). At 800x600, only the upper row is visible (backpack). Also - menu buttons are offset as well. You have to click elsewhere nearby to actually click on them. Quite a mess.

Is this known? Did I do something wrong? Any idea on how to fix this? I would love to help in any way I can as I would REALLY want to play this game 16:9. But the missing icons problem makes it really hard. Thank you for your time!

Ok I think the problem IS known, as shown in the pictures. 4:3, bottom left corner, you can see a bullet icon next to bullet count. In the rest of the aspect ratios, you can see the icon is missing, which is the problem It seems the alignment of the icons doesn't scale with the aspect ratio properly. Icon size does scale though, I believe. Keep in mind that HUD placement is perfectly fine - it's just the icons that seem to disappear/go outside the screen borders, thus I doubt it is userinterface problem.

Now, I used Dawn of War (first series) as an example of completely and properly changing game aspect ratio for all its elements. You had to change the 4:3 aspect ratio hex value (AB AA AA 3F) to 16:9 aspect ratio hex value (39 8E E3 3F) for its .exe file, Platform.dll, spDx9.dll, and UserInterface.dll. So I decided to do the same for Boiling point. I have searched for all .dll files, and if they had the AB AA AA 3F hex value, changed it to 39 8E E3 3F. I only managed to find 2 files that have AB AA AA 3F, and that's DX8RENDER.dll and vital.dll. Rest .dlls didn't have them, neither did Xenus.exe. However, changing those did not help the icon alignment. I think vital.dll is from Vital Engine (game's engine), but changing the value for it did not affect anything, so I'm not sure of its purpose.

Thus I believe Boiling Point has a file that dictates the alignment of the icons that is independent of HUD placement, as HUD is aligned properly. Something to note is the icons change size with different resolutions. I think that means something but I have no idea. The icon placement must be a "code-rule" (I don't know proper terminology), instead of, say, a readily made picture with all icons permanently in place and spaced stationary, with the game blocking an icon out if it is not in the player's possession. That's because you can rearrange icons in any way you want. So there must be a code that dictates their alignment - the position on the screen, the spacing, etc. If we could somehow find this code/file, we could have ourselves a fully functioning widescreen classic.

Two files interest me so far. The kir_interface.mat file in Boiling Point\materials\inventory - but I don't know how to open it or understand it. And the vital.dll - what effect it has on the game if changing its 4:3 code did nothing.

It would be nice to get some interested people to help me. I know this game is rather an obscure gem, but there are many fans of it. Together we may figure something out. The outcome will be worth it - playing the game 16:9 properly. Really hope someone will join my call!