Windowed Mode: Difference between revisions

[[LEGO Island]] does not officially have a [[Windowed Mode]], however one can be enabled with the use of registry tweaks. The mode is somewhat limited, it seems the feature was either never completed or perhaps only intended for testing during development. Regardless, the game is fully playable in it with only a few graphical compromises.

 

 

 

LEGO Island will refuse to run windowed if the graphical mode selected is Direct3D HAL (hardware mode). Instead you'll have to select a software mode (RGB/MMX/Ramp) in [[CONFIG.EXE]]. Software modes are inherently slower since the CPU is used to render graphics without any involvement of the GPU, however this is only noticeable on older computers since modern CPUs are fast enough to render LEGO Island at its maximum frame rate. Using a software mode will also disable [[dgVoodoo]] and any of its features.

 

LEGO Island is designed to run at particular bit depths (either 8-bit or 16-bit) and will ordinarily switch into an appropriate mode on startup automatically. However in windowed mode, LEGO Island naturally makes no change to the display mode whatsoever. Since it was never intended to run at any bit depth over 16-bit color (most modern computers run at 32-bit color), its graphics are not correctly initialized in this state, and as a result, all of the game's bitmaps (2D backgrounds/sprites) will be missing. While this doesn't affect the outside 3D island gameplay, it does affect any indoors rooms including all build sequences. This issue is particularly obstructive for the opening registration book sequence that predominantly uses 2D sprites, making it extremely difficult to even start playing the game. To work around this, LEGO Island must be run at a lower bit depth so that its graphics initialize correctly (see below for instructions on setting LEGO Island's or your system's bit depth to a lower one).  

Use the [[LEGO Island Rebuilder]] tool. It does everything below automatically with one setting and requires no administrator privileges or registry editing to do so.

<center>https://i.imgur.com/vAXy68m.png</center>

'''Solution:''' Run LEGO Island in 16-bit or 8-bit (256 color) mode.

'''Explanation: ''' "Ramp Emulation", which we had to enable in step 1 for windowed mode to work in the first place, is limited to 16-bit or 8-bit color mode. For reference, a modern computer will usually be running in 32-bit color mode (also known as "True Color" or "Millions of Colors"). When running in full screen, Lego Island will automatically change the display mode to the color mode set in [[CONFIG.EXE]], but it doesn't in windowed mode which causes this issue.

'''Tutorial:''' Starting with Windows XP, applications can be individually set to run at a different bit depth. To do so, right click LEGO Island and click Properties in the context menu. Then switch to the "Compatibility" tab.

 

From Windows 8 onwards, 16-bit mode is also available providing much more color and the mode is only set for the application rather than the whole system. This is strongly recommended for playing LEGO Island windowed.

Alternatively, you can manually set the bit depth yourself to 16-bit in Display properties (pre-Vista) or Screen Resolution (post-Vista).