Hello ~ this is my very first thread so apologies if this Detailed Report is not as perfect as it should be.


==Game Information==

Silkroad Online is a free MMORPG game. It combines pretty graphics, lots of Engrish and reasonable fun. Your character becomes a Trader, Hunter or Thief and you do your job - leading a caravan, protecting a caravan or ambushing a caravan - in the setting of ancient Chinese Silk Road.
Or you just grind your way to higher levels and better items by slaughtering gazzilions of mythological creatures....
http://www.silkroadonline.net/


==Version==

This report is based on current English/international SRO. As of today, client version is 1.091 and since it's the only client version I can run (otherwise it will just update itself), I didn't test with older (or newer...) client versions.


==Method==

The game doesn't have any native widescreen support.
I made it my goal to run this game widescreen and succeeded, in a rather strange and hackish way.

This is what you have to do:
1. get a hex editor. I googled and found a free XVI32 which is doing its job perfectly.
2. Use the hex editor to open game's config file, silkcfg.dat. You can find this file in game's program directory (typically c:\program files\silkroad\). You need to run this game at least once to have this file created.
3. Open silkcfg.dat with XVI32
4. At byte locations 8 and 9 there's a little-endian encoding of your horizontal resolution. At byte locations 12 and 13 there's a little-endian encoding of your vertical resolution. Screenshot: http://syskin.is.dreaming.org/sro1.png
5. Change the resolution to your native resolution. In my case, this meant changing 40 06 to 80 07 (780 hex = 1920 dec). Use windows calculator in advanced mode to quickly convert numbers.
6. Save the file.

If you broke the file or otherwise you're in doubt, start Silkroad's welcome screen, choose "option" and pick a resolution again. The config file will be re-created. There's no risk. Don't forget to reduce shadow quality from the game later on, or it will be very slow.

The outcome is, game runs at your native resolution.

I was unable to run the game at anything but 1920x1200. When given other numbers (1680x1050, 1920x1080, 0x0) the result was quite random and often resulted in 1920x1200, which actually made me write incorrect things here [this is an edit].

[edit much later] to be precise, this is because silkcfg.dat is not a config file. Config file is setting\SROptionSet.dat. When you modify silkcfg.dat, game notices the change and then re-creates SROptionSet. If you do something wrong, SROptionSet will not be modified.
Also, if you make a backup of silkcfg.dat and copy it back later, it will be considered "old" and ignored. Backup SROptionSet.dat instead.


==Screen change==

The game runs at HOR+.

Screeshots at default zoom (56k WARNING they're not resized, 250kb each; resizing makes them uber-ugly!):
1600x1200 http://syskin.is.dreaming.org/sro2.jpg
1920x1200 http://syskin.is.dreaming.org/sro3.jpg


==Supported resolutions==

No idea, under this trick it ONLY runs at 1920x1200 for me. Very likely if you have another native resolution, this other resolution will be used if you enter it correctly. Please test yourself and post here!

List of widescreen resolutions the game successfully ran at: 1920x1200
List of widescreen resolutions that were not tested: all others...
List of widescreen resolutions the game fails to run at: all but my native


==Singleplayer anomalies==

n/a

==Multiplayer support==

Seems to play very fine.

The game did crash a couple of times at startup for me, but I definitely can't say if it's related to this trick. The game sometimes just crashes without it too. It *is* possible that this trick makes the game more crashy, but more statistical testing would be required.
It is also possible that simply higher resolution crashes more.

Anyway, if it crashes at startup, run again.

[edit much later] No, don't worry, I haven't had a crash since I wrote this report. It's all perfect! [/edit]


==Aspect ratio support==

Please test if you've got 16:9 monitor and I'll update this section. For me, 1920x1080 made it run at 1920x1200 first, then 1600x1200, but either way not 1080.


==HUD stretch==

HUD remains native and beautiful. See screenshots above.


==Cut-scenes==

The only cut-scene is intro and it uses game engine, therefore it's HOR+.

Screenshot: http://syskin.is.dreaming.org/sro4.jpg


==Grading==

Once you do the config hack, it plays very fine and there is nothing I would change. But of course hacking config files is not an acceptable way of activating widescreen.
If your video card fails to give you good framerates at your native resolution, you're screwed too -- but my 6600gt supports 1920x1200 at VERY acceptable framerates so I'd say you'll be fine. Just remember to disable detailed shadows, they kill performance.

Major unresolved issues:

* activating requires hex edit
* only native resolution seems to run

[edit much later]
Minor issues:
* there's a funny graphics glitch on the far left and right of widescreen - water reflection is wrong there. It has absolutely no impact on gameplay.

Final screenshots:
http://syskin.is.dreaming.org/sro5.jpg
http://syskin.is.dreaming.org/sro6.jpg



[edits]
- lots of typos >_<
- updated instructions, 0x0 doesn't make it run at widescreen but instead at random
- updated results and screenshots, kudos to The_cranky_hermit for pointing out my bad mistake!
- added a paragraph how to recreate config file if you broke it
- crashing problems turned out to be false; added info about the funny graphics glitch

Any chance you could provide a pair of screenshots from the exact same camera angle? Your widescreen shot is at a much higher angle than the 4:3 shot.

BAH you're right!! Not only you're right, but when I finally made the SAME screenshots, it turned out to be HOR+!

Thanks, I'll be updating the guide now.

I never knew I was this much of a bonehead (btw there are some other things wrong too).

BTW, SRO is currently linked from games list to this solution: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/fo ... php?t=2196 which unfortunately doesn't work - see edit at its bottom. The game is also rated D because of that. My solution not only works but should improve the rating, once it's confirmed.

Thanks for updating the screenshots. Just some info for others - ignore the player and the monsters in those screenshots, or it looks like they aren't the same camera angle. But if you only look at the landscape, then it's clearly hor +.

==Grading==

Calculated grade: D+

Major unresolved issues: None
Minor unresolved issues: None

Summary of widescreen-related flaws:
Complicated and inflexible solution

Cranky's coverage estimate: 97.5%

Thanks.

Do you think it would be useful if I provided a couple of pre-edited configuration files? They don't seem to hold anything but resolution and quality/detail level, and they're 20 bytes big, so it should be OK.

This way, users could just copy the file they need and skip manual editing steps.

It's your call, but if I was playing the game, I'd rather edit my own config files than use someone else's. Feel free to provide config files if you think someone might want them, though.