No the intros to games generaly arent movie files even though the developers will make a movie file of them to post online during betas to wet peoples apetites for the game. I have had this same problem happen with a lot of games but once I get in the game and set the res higher it fixes it. This game doesnt have the intro linked to the in game res yet though so its a problem.

if i understand that correct, your saying the exe is forcing them to run 800x600. If thats it, its wrong the exe dont do anything to the resolution before they have finished loading. The .bik videos are made in 800x600

Another workaround is to disable them
you can do that in the user.setting located
xp C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Setting\
vista C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting\

change ShowIntroMovies to FALSE

Okay maby I didnt make it cear enough. When I decided to switch over to LCD a few years ago I did intensive research on them so I could buy the best one and know everything about them I could. It has been a while but I distinctly remember reading than running an LCD monitor below its native resolution can damage it. You can do it but it is very bad for it. There is a processor in every LCD monitor as well as ram and its all running on its own little BIOS. My monitor is a pretty high end model and has built in protection so it shuts down after 30 sec or so so I dont ruin it if a res comes up that is not healthy for my monitor.

Running at a lower resolution than what is native to your monitor makes your monitor processor have to translate everything and you will actualy get lower FPS than running at a higher res. Programs like FRAPS wont tell you this and will display how many FPS your computer is cranking out without regard for what your monitor is actualy displaying. Actualy running at ANY resolution other than your LCDs native resolution is bad for it and hurts your Frams Per Second. For some reason it is a lot worse for it to run below spec than above.

Ohh I wasnt offended. I was mostly refering to the comment about turning it off and on not damaging the monitor. I wasnt worried about that harming it. Mostly my reply was aimed at people who dont have built in protectiong and dont know that they are harming their monitor. You can look your monitors native resolution up online and if you want your monitor to have a long happy life I suggest running your computer and games at that resolution or higher, never lower. This will also improve your frame rates. Some LCDs have realy high native resolutions.

The problem is not so much my monitor shutting down in protection mode as it is all the people whose monitor doesnt shut down. That intro is damaging every LCD monitor that displays it.

@multianna - I just realized something, the config line yor referring to:
change ShowIntroMovies to FALSE
most likely does not have anything to do with the company and game logo .bik file. That is why it makes no difference. It is referring to an intro movie not included in the beta that will probably play when you play the game the first time.

Just tested this cause I have a few minutes and it appears to be the case.

@devs

Can you make it so removing or renaming the .bik files (for those who do not wish to see them) does not cause a big giant error message of doom. That or make a config option where I can turn them off?

Have you purchance checked your refresh rates? I used to play CS on a Nokia 27" (I think it was 27") with a native resolution of 1280x1024. I never had it on that resolution when I played CS and I used that monitor for three years and it never had any issues with the resolution droppage.

Most games now a days with not be at your monitors native resolution, unless it's in windowed mode to begin with. However, a lower resolution is not going to cut the life on your LCD or damage it.

However, I have seen refresh rates being too high or too low create conflicts when trying to switch the resolutions, especially doing things like turning off the monitor.

Okay I did some research because my memory might be faulty and here is what I found. Only people with 17" or bigger monitors need to be worried about running too low a resolution but everyone with an LCD needs to be careful about running too high a res. The refresh rate can also cause this problem. I have a few links here.

http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2.nsf/lookup+1/598CF4A694783B1BCA2570D800800E31

http://www.mcse.ms/message2069807.html

The probem is not my settings but the fact that the intro overrides the settings in my Video Card as well as my settings in game. I did disable the intro so it is not a problem for me anymore and thankyou for the help. This issue needs to be fixed though.

I turned up more than those forum postings but the others were all manufacturer made PDFs that were like 200 pages long lol. The processor in LCDs is what can be damaged and the damage is caused by overheating. The processors in LCDs all use passive cooling that is not very efficient. Higher end LCD models can run resolutions that are higher and lower than what is native but everything has to be translated by the processor. It takes more processing to translate a lower than spec res than a higher than spec one. Translating from the native res will slow down your LCD refresh rate. You will notice more ghosting of the mouse.

My monitor continues to display the image even when it says the input signal is out of range but shuts itself down when the processor reaches a critical temperature. Not all LCDs have this feature and cooking a processor will certainly lower its life expectancy if it doesnt have a total meltdown that is.

Thats all from me on this subject. Please fix this. Thankyou

I have looked all over for a utility to lock the resolution and refresh rate to the same as my desktop with no luck. Do you know of one in paticular I can try to find?

Try this.

Yes, it won't lock the resolution, just the refresh rate. To avoid stretching, just set it to 1:1 mode rather than stretch-to-fit in your video driver settings. Any resolution lower than the screen's optimal res will just be letterboxed then.


I would still like to see just where you read that using scaling on an LCD (a rather key function, mind you) can cause damage under normal circumstances. If such a thing did happen, I'd attrbute it more to poor design or running the display in a too warm/dusty environment to begin with. I play older games that run only at 640x480 and 800x600 (scaled up) all the time, and I've never had any problem at all resulting from doing so. And my display isn't a high end model by any means.

Edit: Just looked up IBM Thinkvision LCDs. Every one of them listed support for resolutions as low as 640x480 or lower (yes, including 800x600)--that wouldn't be the case if using those resolutions caused damage, which could open IBM up to lawsuits.

And unless the system is REALLY badly designed, you shouldn't have a really out of control temp! A short term rise of a few degrees shouldn't hurt anything, and if you get any more than that your system is borked anyway.