Pimping StarCraft on a Widescreen Display

**calcfreak83** · June 8th, 2008

if any of you have ever tried running StarCraft on a widescreen display, you'll know what I'm talking about. Either you can run Starcraft in windowed mode, and be forced to squint at the 640x480 display, or you can try and play in fullscreen mode, without the bottom third of your screen.
Here I show the ordinary user how to play StarCraft the way it was meant to be played.

The secret to having StarCraft play in fullscreen mode, is X. If you start StarCraft in a custom XServer with its own resolution, you can get it to display the full screen.

Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf in your favorite editor, and add the follow lines:

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "SCLayout"
    Screen      0  "StarCraft Screen"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier     "StarCraft Screen"
	Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "StarCraft Monitor"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Virtual     640 480
        Depth       24
        Modes      "640x480@60" "1280x800@50"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "StarCraft Monitor"
    VendorName     "Plug 'n' Play"
    ModelName      "Plug 'n' Play"
    Gamma           1
    ModeLine       "640x480@60" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525  -hsync -vsync
EndSection

KeyBoard0 is your keyboard, Device0 is your graphics card, and Mouse0 is your mouse. You should replace these values with the actual values from your xorg.conf

Next, we must change a line of /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config:
change the line

Code:

allowed_users=console

to:

Code:

allowed_users=anybody

this allows anybody to start a new Xserver, even from within an xserver. This shouldn't be a security flaw, unless your running a mainframe with thinside clients, but then you probably wouldn't be try to play StarCraft, would you?

Next, create a text file called scstart. Paste the following in:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
X :1 -layout SCLayout -ac &
XPID=$!
sleep 2
DISPLAY=:1 wine $HOME/.wine/drive_c/\
Program/Files/Starcraft/StarCraft.exe -- /usr/bin/X :1 -layout SCLayout 
sleep 1
kill $XPID

This is the basic launcher for StarCraft. Later on, I'll show you how to pimp it for extra features, but this is the basic launcher.
If you want to switch back to your desktop in the midst of a zerg rush, you can press Ctrl + Alt + F7. To switch back, press Ctrl + Alt + F8.

This is a pretty basic launcher. You'll notice on glaring problem when using this, though. You can't change the volume. The program that handles you pushing the volume buttons is a part of Gnome, and we didn't launch that. Fortunately there is a way around the problem.
install the xbindkeys package:

Code:

sudo apt-get install xbindkeys

xbindkeys is a nifty little program. It binds specific keys or key codes to commands. I'll show you how to set it up.
Start by creating a default config file.

Code:

xbindkeys --defaults > .scbind

We are going to tell xbindkeys to use a custom config file, so if you ever decide to use xbindkeys for some other purpose, you can keep your StarCraft commands separate.
Now we have to determine what the key codes for the volume keys are. Gnome sometimes messes with the keycodes, especially for volume control, so to be extra safe, we are going to find our keycodes from a recovery console. Logout, change the session type to recovery console, and log back in. You will be presented with a console in the lower righthand corner. To type in it, your mouse must be over the terminal. Type in:

Code:

xbindkeys -f $HOME/.scbind -mk

Now press the key combos for volume up, volume down, and mute/unmute. xbindkeys should reply saying something like:

Code:

Press combination of keys or/and click under the window.
You can use one of the two lines after "NoCommand"
in $HOME/.xbindkeysrc to bind a key.

--- Press "q" to stop. ---
"(Scheme function)"
    m:0x0 + c:160

the last line is the important one. It is the keycode for whatever key you just pressed (In my case, mute/unmute). Open up .scbind, and add following lines:

Code:

"amixer set Master toggle"
(mute/unmute keycode)
"amixer set Master 6+"
(volume up keycode)
"amixer set Master 6-"
(volume down keycode)

where the stuff in the parentheses are the keycodes xbindkeys returned.
Now add the following line to scstart under "sleep 2":

Code:

xbindkeys --display :1 -f $HOME/.scbind

There you have it! Volume control for StarCraft. The xbindkeys program is extremely powerful. With a little extra effort, you could have media player controls in StarCraft, this is left as an excercise to the reader (Always wanted to say that!

), while the idea of launching a program in a separate X Server could be applied to any troublesome game.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

**phr0ze** · June 13th, 2008

Thanks for the post. This can be very useful for many other things as well.

How bad does this mess with Hardy's minimal xorg.conf files?

**NelsAV** · July 13th, 2008

Hey Calfreak,

I like your writeup and I think i can do it, except for the fact that I can't find the first part.

Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf in your favorite editor, and add the follow lines

I am using a Toshiba Laptop, and it runs in that tiny window surrounded by black, and I can't get it to work either, can you explain it more in depth for us slowbies?

PM, or email is fine, NelsAV@gmail.com

Thanks bud

**Crinos512** · July 26th, 2008

I know it's possible to force widescreen in Warcraft III by hacking the registry settings, maybe Starcraft has similar settings.

Here's a link:
Linkity-Link

Best of luck!

**pkl266** · July 28th, 2008

Nope, unfortunately SC has no such registry hacks, 640x480 or nothing. Thank you very much for this write up though, you have made a SC fan very happy

**Cyclothymia** · December 19th, 2008

I tried the solution and it worked, except for the fact that the top and bottom of the screen was still off by a total of a inch. The width is full screen; if I move my mouse near the top or bottom it scrolls, so the problem is getting the window to resize to 640x480.

I'm thinking that it may have to do with my Nvidia video driver having resolution auto-detect capabilities, and my T61 laptop monitor being a widescreen with a 1440x900 native resolution.

I'm pasting the terminal output XRandR errors I got when running the script below:

Code:

This is a pre-release version of the X server from The X.Org Foundation.
It is not supported in any way.
Bugs may be filed in the bugzilla at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/.
Select the "xorg" product for bugs you find in this release.
Before reporting bugs in pre-release versions please check the
latest version in the X.Org Foundation git repository.
See http://wiki.x.org/wiki/GitPage for git access instructions.

X.Org X Server 1.4.0.90
Release Date: 5 September 2007
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux Ubuntu (xorg-server 2:1.4.1~git20080131-1ubuntu9.2)
Current Operating System: Linux JM-laptop 2.6.24-21-generic #1 SMP Tue Oct 21 23:43:45 UTC 2008 i686
Build Date: 13 June 2008  01:08:21AM
 
	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.1.log", Time: Thu Dec 18 21:22:14 2008
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(II) Module "ramdac" already built-in
expected keysym, got XF86KbdLightOnOff: line 70 of pc
expected keysym, got XF86KbdBrightnessDown: line 71 of pc
expected keysym, got XF86KbdBrightnessUp: line 72 of pc
expected keysym, got XF86KbdLightOnOff: line 70 of pc
expected keysym, got XF86KbdBrightnessDown: line 71 of pc
expected keysym, got XF86KbdBrightnessUp: line 72 of pc
fixme:advapi:SetSecurityInfo stub
fixme:d3d:IWineD3DImpl_FillGLCaps OpenGL implementation supports 32 vertex samplers and 32 total samplers
fixme:d3d:IWineD3DImpl_FillGLCaps Expected vertex samplers + MAX_TEXTURES(=8) > combined_samplers
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x32f410,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:xrandr:X11DRV_XRandR_SetCurrentMode Cannot change screen BPP from 32 to 8

**bassliu** · February 15th, 2010

very cool!

**Nate53085** · February 23rd, 2010

After changing the Xwrapper I still have

X: user not authorized to run the X server, aborting.

Any ideas?

--EDIT--

Nevermind, I was just being dumb

**kaustikos** · December 28th, 2011

Hello! I used the proposed method, but the result was slightly different of what I expected. The game indeed runs fullscreen, but it fits the screen WIDTH keeping aspect ratio of 4:3. Hence the bottom part of the Starcraft menues is invisible in this mode. I mean it does not stretches in width, It just extands the width keeping aspect ratio and crops the bottom part of screen off. I woul be ok since its possible to use hotkeys and menues are not necessary. But it also prevents in-game scrolling downwards! I believe that the solution for me can still be found usind virtual desktop, but I don't understand it enough. Have anyone dealt with such problem? Please, help me!

I run SC in wine 1.2.2, Ubuntu 10.04, Lenovo SL500 laptop (integrated intel video)