• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 18:19
CEST 00:19
KST 07:19
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview9[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off7[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway132v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature4Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy12
Community News
LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments2Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?39Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax6Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris48Weekly Cups (Aug 11-17): MaxPax triples again!15
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw? Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy Heaven's Balance Suggestions (roast me) Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson has passed away Speculation of future Wardii series
Tourneys
RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast Mutation # 486 Watch the Skies
Brood War
General
Pros React To: herO's Baffling Game BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BSL Polish World Championship 2025 20-21 September ASL20 General Discussion
Tourneys
Is there English video for group selection for ASL Small VOD Thread 2.0 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL20] Ro24 Group F
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale
Blogs
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
How Culture and Conflict Imp…
TrAiDoS
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
INDEPENDIENTE LA CTM
XenOsky
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1272 users

Resolution(640x480) work around

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Normal
frozenclaw
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
Canada410 Posts
January 14 2011 10:17 GMT
#1
Hey TL, I found a way to have SC 2 run at 640 x 480 if you have a crap computer like I do.
In your variables.txt file, change the resolution to windowwidth and windowheight to 800and 600 respectively. Also change width and height to 800 and 600. Then run SC II in compatibility mode at 640 x 480. You can then change your screen resolution via control panel or Nvidia(I only have an nvidia card) to 800 x 600 or whatever.

Note: If you try and put the resolution in resolutions to 640x480, it won't work. At least for me.

Hope this is helpful to everyone barely running SCII
Wolf
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Korea (South)3290 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-01-14 10:19:28
January 14 2011 10:19 GMT
#2
Whoa, going to try this.

Edit: Any idea how to modify those files on a Mac ?
Commentatorhttp://twitter.com/proxywolf
TL+ Member
frozenclaw
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
Canada410 Posts
January 14 2011 10:20 GMT
#3
Nope sorry, should be in my documents or equivalent
rift
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
1819 Posts
January 14 2011 10:34 GMT
#4
What about widescreen (16) resolutions lower than 1280x720?
Paradice
Profile Joined October 2010
New Zealand431 Posts
January 14 2011 10:41 GMT
#5
Strange - running an app in Compatibility Mode makes Windows load a whole lot of extra junk into the app's environment, which technically slows down the execution... I'm very surprised you've got a video card bad enough that the diff between 800x600 and 640x480 is enough to compensate for that!

p.s. screenshot? Would love to see how mangled it looks
Darren1337
Profile Joined October 2010
Ireland73 Posts
January 14 2011 10:50 GMT
#6
I don't know if I'd enjoy playing the game when it looks like a lot of blocky crap. A screenshot would be great.
Uniden!
iPlaY.NettleS
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Australia4336 Posts
January 14 2011 10:58 GMT
#7
this would be great for those SC2>BW conversion custom maps , really give that feeling of nostalgia ROFL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7PvoI6gvQs
Puosu
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
6985 Posts
January 14 2011 11:12 GMT
#8
Running SC2 on 800/600 or 640/480 will make mice like the LMO usable, like in BW. Assuming tournaments allow you to play around with the settings like this the trick might be of use to some progamers.

Can you force low resolutions that have 16:10 or 16 aspect ratios?
Wolf
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Korea (South)3290 Posts
January 14 2011 11:16 GMT
#9
Ahhhh it drives me nuts that ": 9" makes that face.
Commentatorhttp://twitter.com/proxywolf
TL+ Member
frozenclaw
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
Canada410 Posts
January 14 2011 11:36 GMT
#10
On January 14 2011 19:34 rift wrote:
What about widescreen (16) resolutions lower than 1280x720?

Probably try putting your own values into your variables.txt
Or deal with the black bars
frozenclaw
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
Canada410 Posts
January 14 2011 12:10 GMT
#11
[image loading]
rift
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
1819 Posts
January 14 2011 12:11 GMT
#12
I actually tried 640 480 and 800x600 using windowed mode. Since the mouse cursor is a sprite and not 3D, the "tip" of the pointer will remain within the cursor and not at the end of the sprite (the sprite will be larger). This makes it very hard to click on things at these resolutions.
MisterD
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Germany1338 Posts
January 14 2011 12:30 GMT
#13
what happens if you simply turn down your windows resolution to 640x480 and then run in "Windowed (Fullscreen)"? does that not work? Because that would be the easiest solution to achieve that resolution when you can't select it directly from the options.
Gold isn't everything in life... you need wood, too!
red_b
Profile Joined April 2010
United States1267 Posts
January 14 2011 12:30 GMT
#14
that's unfortunate rift, Id love to play sc2 on a crt.
Those small maps were like a boxing match in a phone booth.
frozenclaw
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
Canada410 Posts
January 14 2011 12:48 GMT
#15
On January 14 2011 21:30 MisterD wrote:
what happens if you simply turn down your windows resolution to 640x480 and then run in "Windowed (Fullscreen)"? does that not work? Because that would be the easiest solution to achieve that resolution when you can't select it directly from the options.

I don't have that setting
frozenclaw
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
Canada410 Posts
January 14 2011 12:49 GMT
#16
On January 14 2011 21:11 rift wrote:
I actually tried 640 480 and 800x600 using windowed mode. Since the mouse cursor is a sprite and not 3D, the "tip" of the pointer will remain within the cursor and not at the end of the sprite (the sprite will be larger). This makes it very hard to click on things at these resolutions.

Ahhhh it drives me nuts that ": 9" makes that face.

You probably click fast enough to not even pay attention to the cursor
airen
Profile Joined September 2004
Sweden82 Posts
January 27 2011 22:53 GMT
#17
Wow this is awesome. The difference in performance is so significant, I can now play 2v2! Thank you so much.
For those who have problems with the mouse cursor and using window mode: make sure you don't resize the window after starting the game. Even though the graphics change when resizing, the "aiming" does not and that's just garbage. (At least my old computer behaves this way.)
KaluGOSU
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States171 Posts
March 13 2011 04:03 GMT
#18
You explain this so poorly, please tell me how to run in compatibility mode?
Halt! Thou shalt not pass. Thou hast much anger, young one
Slago
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada726 Posts
March 13 2011 04:12 GMT
#19
On January 14 2011 21:10 frozenclaw wrote:
[image loading]


doesnt look too bad good option for people with bad computers
I came here to kick ass and chew bubble gum and I'm all out of... ah forget it
infinity2k9
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United Kingdom2397 Posts
March 13 2011 04:24 GMT
#20
Does it actually run any better like this though?
Keitzer
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States2509 Posts
March 13 2011 04:25 GMT
#21
very interesting... i wonder how many people will actually utilize this
I'm like badass squared | KeitZer.489
Emporio
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States3069 Posts
March 13 2011 04:30 GMT
#22
I have a video card that is not sufficient to play SC2 (it has massive lag just from the very beginning when the workers are mining) and changing my resolution this way makes it completely playable though there is still some lag at relatively large confrontations.
How does it feel knowing you wasted another 3 seconds of your life reading this again?
stormchaser
Profile Joined January 2011
Canada1009 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-13 05:30:11
March 13 2011 04:39 GMT
#23
Many thanks to the OP for finding this, maybe I could get sc2 running on my laptop now! xD

EDIT: On second thought, i tried it out, and it doesn't seem to be working. Maybe its my laptop's monitor that doesn't allow it? Or perhaps i did something wrong.
1. I went to the variables.txt file and edited the width into windowwidth and the height into windowheight.
2. I then changed the number for windowwidth to 800 and the windowheight to 600.
3.I went to the starcraft.exe file and clicked on properties. I went to the compatibility tab and selected 640x480 resolution.
4.Launched the game. I checked the options menu and under the resolutions tab, it seemed to be blank so that made me think it worked...partially? Well either way it still seems to be stubborn and not go into 640x480 res. >
Mangemongen
Profile Joined April 2010
Sweden125 Posts
March 13 2011 21:31 GMT
#24
Anyone tested 16 lower than 1280x720? I wanna know because I have to run in 4:3 on a 16 to get 75 hz.
Sabre
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
United Kingdom1086 Posts
September 30 2011 17:06 GMT
#25
sorry for the bump but is there any update on workarounds for this? My computer really lags severely in sc2 and I do want some form of playability out of the game before i inevitably upgrade my computer ^.^
UK TrackMania Champion | Former SC2 player | http://www.twitter.com/Sabre_CS
jodogohoo
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Canada2533 Posts
February 09 2012 09:15 GMT
#26
im trying to do this right now but when i set my resolution to a small resolution, it pops back up to a bigger one, there is like a limit of how small i can make the resolution in sc2 windowmode D= how do i work around this
Normal
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 4h 41m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SpeCial 92
ForJumy 26
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 17639
Artosis 334
firebathero 87
sSak 45
Aegong 42
NaDa 18
Dota 2
monkeys_forever505
420jenkins440
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K554
Super Smash Bros
Liquid`Ken1
Other Games
summit1g7840
FrodaN1122
fl0m581
ToD179
Sick165
C9.Mang0161
ViBE63
Maynarde35
PPMD29
Mew2King28
Nathanias27
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV16
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 18 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• musti20045 45
• davetesta37
• StrangeGG 35
• IndyKCrew
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• sooper7s
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• Azhi_Dahaki14
• Michael_bg 2
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota22143
Counter-Strike
• imaqtpie1174
• Shiphtur199
Upcoming Events
OSC
4h 41m
MaNa vs SHIN
SKillous vs ShoWTimE
Bunny vs TBD
Cham vs TBD
RSL Revival
11h 41m
Reynor vs Astrea
Classic vs sOs
Maestros of the Game
18h 41m
Serral vs Ryung
ByuN vs Zoun
BSL Team Wars
20h 41m
Team Bonyth vs Team Dewalt
CranKy Ducklings
1d 11h
RSL Revival
1d 11h
GuMiho vs Cham
ByuN vs TriGGeR
Cosmonarchy
1d 15h
TriGGeR vs YoungYakov
YoungYakov vs HonMonO
HonMonO vs TriGGeR
Maestros of the Game
1d 18h
Solar vs Bunny
Clem vs Rogue
[BSL 2025] Weekly
1d 19h
RSL Revival
2 days
Cure vs Bunny
Creator vs Zoun
[ Show More ]
Maestros of the Game
2 days
Maru vs Lambo
herO vs ShoWTimE
BSL Team Wars
2 days
Team Hawk vs Team Sziky
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 18: Qualifier 2
SEL Season 2 Championship
HCC Europe

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Qualifiers
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025

Upcoming

LASL Season 20
2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Polish World Championship 2025: Warsaw LAN
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
EC S1
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.