Stardew Valley at 1366x768 resolution
March 22, 2020 6:43 AM Subscribe
I finally bought Stardew Valley to play on my laptop (on Steam.) I know the graphics are kinda retro, but it looks worse than screenshots I've seen and sometimes doesn't seem to function like it should in terms of what's showing up on the screen. From googling it seems that this is because my old Thinkpad X220's screen (max resolution of 1366x768) is a lot lower than most and the game was designed for higher resolutions. Is there anything I can do to fix this? I have both Windows 10 and Ubuntu on my laptop. I have zero experience with gaming.
This thread suggests 1360x768 is the minimum well-supported resolution for the UI elements, and that the tiles used in the game area are 16x16 blocks --- how many pixels per block will depend on your zoom level. Under the settings menu you can change whether it's fullscreen or windowed, as well as the resolution it's displayed at; play with the settings there until it looks good? Fullscreen at a resolution of 1360x768 should look good on your screen, but if you want to play windowed, you're going to have a substandard experience --- the standard game area might display alright, but end-of-day reports, dialogue, and the like might spill off the edge of the screen.
posted by jackbishop at 7:13 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by jackbishop at 7:13 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
Does this video apply to your issue? I noticed that while going through the full-screen resolution options, 1366x768 was an option.
Follow-up question, are the proper drivers for your laptop's display installed, so that even just in Windows or Ubuntu (not in a game), the display is running at 1366x768 already? A lot of games seem to pull the available resolution options from the system, and if you don't have the correct drivers loaded, the desired native resolution may not be available as an option.
posted by xedrik at 7:33 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
Follow-up question, are the proper drivers for your laptop's display installed, so that even just in Windows or Ubuntu (not in a game), the display is running at 1366x768 already? A lot of games seem to pull the available resolution options from the system, and if you don't have the correct drivers loaded, the desired native resolution may not be available as an option.
posted by xedrik at 7:33 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: My laptop display is at 1366x768 currently.
Thank you for that video - I didn't know how to get to the menu that video shows within Starwdew valley (by hitting the escape button.) My installation didn't have the bug they were talking about and my game was set to the right resolution for my display but at least knowing there are options to play with there is useful. (As a non-gamer I've found the whole interface/play experience really unintuitive and it's been disappointing given that everyone has told me it's a relaxing game.)
I might just try to hook it up to my old 1080p TV (will it look/play much better there?) but I will need to buy a cable for that.
posted by needs more cowbell at 7:48 AM on March 22, 2020
Thank you for that video - I didn't know how to get to the menu that video shows within Starwdew valley (by hitting the escape button.) My installation didn't have the bug they were talking about and my game was set to the right resolution for my display but at least knowing there are options to play with there is useful. (As a non-gamer I've found the whole interface/play experience really unintuitive and it's been disappointing given that everyone has told me it's a relaxing game.)
I might just try to hook it up to my old 1080p TV (will it look/play much better there?) but I will need to buy a cable for that.
posted by needs more cowbell at 7:48 AM on March 22, 2020
A 1080p TV display might give you 1920x1080 as a resolution. See this description of display resolutions for too much information.
A cable would be a relatively inexpensive way to test this. Otherwise, you'll need to find a different laptop or gaming console. Another video, similar to the one xedrik mentioned, is this one
Good luck
posted by blob at 8:14 AM on March 22, 2020
A cable would be a relatively inexpensive way to test this. Otherwise, you'll need to find a different laptop or gaming console. Another video, similar to the one xedrik mentioned, is this one
Good luck
posted by blob at 8:14 AM on March 22, 2020
will it look/play much better there?
1920x1080 >> 1366x768, so it would pretty much have to. And the cable you need for this is cheap.
The only perplexing issue I've seen with wiring computers to HDTVs is that HDTVs often have an overscan mode, often on by default, that makes them scale the incoming 1920x1080 signal up a little and then deliberately crop off the edges of the resulting enlargement. You'll want to turn that off. Depending on your HDTV, the procedure for doing this can range from straightforward to barking mad but there's almost always a way.
posted by flabdablet at 8:37 AM on March 22, 2020
1920x1080 >> 1366x768, so it would pretty much have to. And the cable you need for this is cheap.
The only perplexing issue I've seen with wiring computers to HDTVs is that HDTVs often have an overscan mode, often on by default, that makes them scale the incoming 1920x1080 signal up a little and then deliberately crop off the edges of the resulting enlargement. You'll want to turn that off. Depending on your HDTV, the procedure for doing this can range from straightforward to barking mad but there's almost always a way.
posted by flabdablet at 8:37 AM on March 22, 2020
I'm guessing that it probably does, but does your laptop have 256MB free RAM for its on-board graphics processor (one of SV's system requirements) after SV is loaded?
posted by davcoo at 9:51 AM on March 22, 2020
posted by davcoo at 9:51 AM on March 22, 2020
Response by poster: Laptop does have >256MB free RAM after it's loaded.
Zooming out to 75% has helped a bit. Seems like I've done the most I can do without hooking it up to my TV.
Overall I'm finding the (deleted, apparently) comment someone made here about how just not everyone finds Stardew Valley and that sort of gameplay relaxing to be really helpful. I wanted and expected it to be soothing and fun and joyful right out of the box, and it isn't (for this annoying graphics thing among others), at least for me. There's some peace in accepting that.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:34 AM on March 23, 2020
Zooming out to 75% has helped a bit. Seems like I've done the most I can do without hooking it up to my TV.
Overall I'm finding the (deleted, apparently) comment someone made here about how just not everyone finds Stardew Valley and that sort of gameplay relaxing to be really helpful. I wanted and expected it to be soothing and fun and joyful right out of the box, and it isn't (for this annoying graphics thing among others), at least for me. There's some peace in accepting that.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:34 AM on March 23, 2020
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posted by needs more cowbell at 6:46 AM on March 22, 2020