Hmm, doesn't it do that already, or do I misunderstand your suggestion? In DOSbox I have set scaler=none, and then these:

fullresolution=0x0 (not sure if this works in Linux though, on Windows it detects and uses whatever your desktop resolution is, I think)
windowresolution=1152x864
output=ddraw (or overlay)
...
aspect=true

With these settings I get good output both in windowed and fullscreen modes. I've set the windowresolution to that value because it is close to the vertical resolution of 1600x900, which is the native resolution of the laptop, and having some room vertically also for the window borders.

Naturally if your desktop resolution is something else, then you should select some other windowresolution closer to that. For instance if the native desktop resolution is 1920x1080, I'd probably use windowresolution=1400x1050.

Well, I will be damned... its working exactly same over here.
I use DosBox GameLauncher here, its a bit of ... overcomplicated and does not allow to dictate exact window resultion (there is a plenty amount of standard ones), but it allows to set 0x0 and fullscreen. I just tested and it scales both fullscreen and window to given sizes. Awesome!

It looks like, its important to set scaler to none, otherwise resolutions are simply ignored and scaler factor is used.
Thanks a bunch!!

Going to put that as a note in my TiddlyWiki.

My monitor is indeed a Samsung TV. And the previous one did have a separate PC mode. This one doesn't.

After trying many things over the last year, I found two solutions:

1. For DOSbox, use this in the config file:

fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=desktop
windowresolution=original
output=overlay

2. For everything else: buy an nVidia GPU and tell it to do all scaling, keeping the aspect ratio. That works with all recent GPUs/drivers, AFAIK. I have never been able to get this to work satisfactory with an AMD/ATI GPU.

In my experience Dosbox works around the aspect ratio settings of the videocard (AMD as well as Nvidia), so no need to dig into that just use standard settings. If you have an AMD card check the overscan settings for your display and resolution you want to use and pull the slider all the way to the right.

For 320x200 games also make sure you have aspect=true and if you want my recommendation, scaler=advmame3x which looks nice in some 320x200 games.

There are two ways to solve this problem while using modern monitors, where "modern" is most LCD flat panel computer monitors made in the last 10-15 years in general. You've stated you're using a 41" display so I assume that is a television and not an actual computer monitor, please correct me if that is not the case.

The first way, is via the monitor's on screen display. Most (but not all) monitors have a menu in the on screen display where you can configure how content is to be shown on the screen if it is not the native resolution of the display. The usual options are:

1) Fill - scale the source image to fit the entire screen by stretching it in both directions. If the source image is not the same aspect ratio, then it will be squished more in one axis than the other and human faces will look fat or narrow for example. A perfect circle will appear as an ellipse.

2) Aspect correct - The image is scaled in both directions while maintaining the aspect ratio until one dimension hits the limits of the screen. Black bars are shown on the other dimension with the image centered.

3) No scaling - The image is shown centered on screen with a black border all around it. One pixel in the source image is one pixel in the native resolution, so the lower the resolution of the source image, the much smaller it will be centered on the screen.

Some displays may have other scaling options such as:

4) Non-linear - Usually the image is scaled as in option 1 above however it is scaled non-linearly in one or both dimensions so that content near the center gets scaled less and appears aspect correct so for example human faces look right, while the further you get from the center things scale more and more. I haven't seen a computer monitor with this particular mode but it is very common on televisions for watching movies etc. and usually looks the best.

By tweaking the monitor scaling you can usually find a mode that works best with a given game at whatever resolution. If the display has limitations that do not support the resolution being used or some other problem that just does not work out or lacks scaling options then option #2 can be used instead.

Option 2: Most if not all modern video hardware going back for quite a number of years has scaling options in the hardware/drivers. The AMD and nVidia control panels and presumably Intel and other vendors as well have options for customizing the scaling of the display. The options should be similar to the display scaling options I mentioned above and work more or less the same.

If neither of these solutions are available or simply do not work and you've got the latest drivers and software installed from your video hardware vendor then I'm not sure there are any other options than using the settings that are the best that your hardware is capable of and accepting the less than optimal results, or alternatively switching to a better display or using a better GPU either of which does have more flexible options.

It should probably go without saying but this isn't a bug in the games or a flaw in anything GOG is selling. Games are developed using the hardware available at the time and subject potentially to the limitations of the hardware at that time. Some games may be developed in a more forward thinking manner that may possibly be able to adapt to newer display technologies more nicely or may even get patched over time with enhancements to support widescreen and/or high resolutions, HUD scaling, mouse pointer scaling or other options - but it is not universal.

In terms of what you can expect from any particular game in the store that you do not yet own and can test, that is really dependent more on your own hardware than anything else so there is no really easy way to know unless you can test it first hand. If you buy a game and it does not scale on your screen to your expectations due to limitations of your hardware, I do not believe that would likely qualify for a game refund under GOG's refund policy if the game actually works, and if they did make an exception once they probably would not do it repeatedly so I would not rely on that.

It's basically a buyer-beware situation where you need to determine if you'll have the compatibility you are seeking on your own I believe, or upgrade to better hardware where it just works which may or may not be feasible depending on your own personal situation.

HTH Steam hardware stats gives even more accurate info I believe and shows 1920x1080 as the top resolution with 36.95% for gamers, so it is indeed incredibly common and one could say "industry standard" by that measure. Definitely would be the default resolution any modern game would be developed and tested on primarily.

It's a necro. Read the last post of the OP, not the first.

a necro of the OP
he necro'd his own thread 2 hours ago after almost a year

Thanks for sharing the solutions you found. Hopefully it will be helpful for the next person who has this problem.

I know, that's why I asked skeletonbow to read the OP's last post rather than his first, which was the one he responded to.

FFS... that needs to be highlighted with the <BLINK> tag after like 3 months or something.

Don't you DARE bring that horrible thing up. Next thing you'll suggest using tables for layout and I'll have to call an exorcist.