Page updated: 2015-08-27
Originally, I had written a guide on the Steam community that explained how to manually patch the Dredd vs Death settings file to allow the use of a custom resolution. If you're interested in this guide, you can check it out here: Widescreen guide
But not everyone might be techsavvy enough to do the patching manually with a hex editor. So, to make patching in a custom resolution in Dredd vs Death much easier, I decided to write a small tool that does most of the work for you.
Simply download the tool, unzip it wherever you like (I recommend the install folder of Dredd Vs Death to make things easier), and follow the instructions.
I've tested the tool thoroughly, but if you happen to experience any problems, don't hesitate to contact me in the comments of the Steam guide. The tool is written in .Net 3.5, so you might need to install the .Net 3.5 runtime if needed (if you're running Windows Vista or later, the .Net 3.5 runtime should be installed already).
The tool has been tested with the latest Steam and GOG versions of the game. It might also work for the latest retail patch (1.0.1), but this has not been tested. Custom resolution patching should always work with every version of the game, because the settings file is (or should be) version independent.
This tool is now also mentioned on the PCGamingWiki page for Dredd vs Death and the WSGF.org page for Dredd vs Death as the preferred widescreen solution!
Click here to skip to the downloads section
A while ago, I started playing the Steam version of Dredd vs Death and was annoyed with the lack of widescreen/fov options ingame. So I did a bit of digging to see if there were any fixes, and the only one I could find was the FullHD patch mentioned on the GOG forums. However, that patch did not work with the Steam version, so I decided to get my hands dirty and see if I could force the game into running in a widescreen resolution myself.
It took me while but I was able to disassemble the settings file and figure out where the game stored the chosen resolution. A bit of experimenting later I had patched in a custom resolution. Proud with what I had accomplished, I decided to write a Steam guide that explained how to manually patch Dredd vs Death to run in a custom resolution.
But not everyone might have the skills or courage to fire up a hex editor to do the patching manually, and so my Custom Resolution Tool was born. I'm a programmer by trade so it was easy for me to write a tool to do the patching, and a couple of hours of coding later I had the first version of the tool up and running. Patching in a custom resolution was now as easy as pressing a button.
But while the game now ran nicely in the native resolution of my screen, the FOV and aspect ratio were still a bit off. With the help of NoxDeleo, a fellow gamer I met on Steam, I was able to deduce where the FOV and aspect ratio were stored. Those values were not stored in the settings file, but in the game's exe. This made the patching a bit trickier, because patching the wrong bytes could cause the exe to stop working. But with a bit of perseverance and lots of testing, the Custom Resolution Tool was updated with the ability to patch the exe and enable a custom FOV and correct aspect ratio for the chosen resolution.
So now everyone is able to easily patch the game and play it in virtually any wanted resolution with a custom fov and correct aspect ratio, without having to fire up a hex editor.
To show what my Custom Res Tool is able to do, I took some screenshots. While a custom resolution makes the game look better on widescreen monitors, you will see that patching the exe to force the game to use the correct aspect ratio and a custom FOV makes a huge difference.
The first screenshot shows the game running with only a custom resolution (1920x1200 in this case). Notice that there is some slight horizontal stretching due to an incorrect aspect ratio. By default the game has a 4/3 aspect ratio, so rendering in a widescreen resolution with the default aspect ratio will result in the image being stretched out horizontally.
The second screenshot shows what the game looks like with a custom resolution AND the correct aspect ratio (16:10 in this case). Notice that the stretching is gone, but we (temporarily) lose some screen space at the top and bottom. The tool will automatically calculate the correct aspect ratio based on the custom resolution
And the last screenshot shows what the game looks like with a custom resolution, correct aspect ratio AND a custom FOV (90 in this case). No more stretching, and a much better gameplay experience on widescreen monitors thanks to the custom FOV. You may notice we also regained the lost space at the top and bottom.
While the tool has everything you need to run the game in a widescreen resolution with correct aspect ratio and custom fov, there are still a couple of extra things I'd like to implement into the tool:
Latest version:
Older versions:
If for some reason you can't download the files from mediafire, contact me on Steam and I'll mail you the latest version.
The files are hosted on Mediafire because that allows me to easily see how many people downloaded the tool. At the time of writing (June 1st 2017), the tool has been downloaded over 2500 times (all versions combined) from my official mirrors.
The original version alone was downloaded 231 times, much more that I honestly expected. This pushed me to keep working on adding new functionalities to the tool (for example fov patching).