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revanbh: I'm not sure why this isn't already here, but a simple addition of the following line: DirectDraw=0, to your Alpha Centauri.ini file will enable you to play the game in your native resolution, no matter what resolution you are using.

It should look something like this:

Example from my own Alpha Centauri.ini file

[PREFERENCES]
ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1
[Alpha Centauri]

ds3d=1
DirectDraw=0
eax=1

FastUnitAnim=0
SmoothUnitAnim=0
MainFontSize=16
InterludeFontSize=16
DisableOpeningMovie=0
Prefs Format=12
Difficulty=2
Map Type=2
Top Menu=3
Faction=1
Preferences=10111011111000011101110110110110
More Preferences=1110100111000101101000
Semaphore=00000000
Announce=111100001110101001
Rules=1101000101110
Customize=2
Custom World=2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
Time Controls=1
Latest Save=F:\Revan\My Games\GOG Games\Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri\saves\Deirdre of the Gaians, 2187
Latest Scenario=
WindowsFileBox=0

I've found this on another old thread and all credit goes to the user zicoos. I'm just posting it here to be more visible.
This is absolutely amazing, you have some black bars underneath the interface though but it's not that problematic. Thank you very much!
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sparkyhodgo: Replace the "video mode=###" line with "directdraw=0"

That will use your desktop's native resolution. I have no idea why this isn't a documented feature.
This fixed an issue for me where my mouse cursor appeared surrounded by an ugly black box, thank you. (Win7 64)
So glad to see this here and as a stickied thread. First thing I saw when popping into this forum to see if anyone had a solution, and here it was :)
So I just installed SMAC on my Surface Pro 3. Was impossible to play before this thread, as I only got a postage stamp to play on. Now I get the whole screen. If you are playing on a high-DPI screen, you can update the fonts in the .ini to 32 to make a lot more of the interface readable.

Doesn't scale the whole interface, sadly, but does make parts of it more legible.
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revanbh: I'm not sure why this isn't already here, but a simple addition of the following line: DirectDraw=0, to your Alpha Centauri.ini file will enable you to play the game in your native resolution, no matter what resolution you are using.
Thank you so, so much.
I've been playing SMAC for ages on my 1280x1024 screen in the original resolution.

Bought a laptop with 1920x1080 and just wanted to get rid of the black borders, and now I see this.
SMAC is way easier to play when zoomed out a bit, the overview is way better.

And it looks so damn sleek. Reactions of people seeing me play it have gone from "What is that pile of garbage?" to "That looks interesting, what is it?"


Edit: I'd attach a screenshot, but that doesn't seem to work. Spam countermeasure?
Post edited December 22, 2014 by Snorpp
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Snorpp: Thank you so, so much.
I've been playing SMAC for ages on my 1280x1024 screen in the original resolution.

Bought a laptop with 1920x1080 and just wanted to get rid of the black borders, and now I see this.
SMAC is way easier to play when zoomed out a bit, the overview is way better.

And it looks so damn sleek. Reactions of people seeing me play it have gone from "What is that pile of garbage?" to "That looks interesting, what is it?"


Edit: I'd attach a screenshot, but that doesn't seem to work. Spam countermeasure?
Happy to help. ;)

People often underestimate SMAC in terms of graphics, but I find it aesthetically superior to any other game under Sid Meier moniker. Higher resolutions bring this out even more. This game is my unsurpassed 4X title.
For anyone's future reference, I have an HP Notebook running windows 10 with 1366X768 resolution. The fix that worked for me was simply disabling the startup movie by having "DisableOpeningMovie=1".
Post edited January 16, 2016 by phermann
This isn't on a notebook or 1025x600 screen, but who knows--it might help someone else.

I' on an HP Windows 10 desktop machines with an NVIDIA graphics card and 2560x1440 on my center monitor (I use 3 monitors, which causes problems with some old games). When I tried to start Alpha Centauri the splash screen would appear briefly and then the resolution would change and I'd be thrown back to the Windows desktop. If I clicked on the game's icon in the taskbar, the game screen would appear (splash screen, opening menu at different times.

I everything I had seen and finally gave up several times over the last few months.

After uninstalling and reinstalling the game again to try to return everything to default, I happened to discover that if I simply click on the flash screen (while it is still visible) the main menu appears and everything works fine except the game maintains the same shape screen (not wide) with black borders.

This did take better reflexes than I have, mostly because of the 3 monitors. When the flash screen appeared the cursor could be on any of the three, and by the time I found it, I was often back on the Windows desktop.

I had to find a better way, and I finally happened onto it. Instead of trying to click on the brief splash screen, just hitting <Enter> when it appears does it.

This is with the fresh install. No modifications, file editing or anything.

t know whether this will work for anyone else. But may this help someone.