How to enable widescreen/custom resolutions in Dredd vs Death – Steam Solo (2025)

Overview

This guide will show you how to run the game in a widescreen/custom resolution. This guide also provides links to my “Custom Res Tool” that automates the process of setting a custom resolution and enables setting a custom FOV and correct aspect ratio.

Custom Resolution Tool

To make patching in a custom resolution 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. The tool is written in .Net 3.5, so you might need to install the .Net 3.5 runtime[www.microsoft.com] if needed (if you’re running Windows Vista or later, the .Net 3.5 runtime should be installed already).

This tool is now also mentioned on the PCGamingWiki page for Dredd vs Death[pcgamingwiki.com] and the WSGF.org page for Dredd vs Death[www.wsgf.org] as the preferred widescreen solution!

Latest version:

• beta 0.3: Download[www.byeclan.be] – Virustotal results[www.virustotal.com]

Older versions can be downloaded from here[www.byeclan.be].

Version history:

• beta 0.3: FOV/aspect ratio fixes work with the latest GOG version of the game, the custom resolution fields now automatically show the current desktop resolution for easier patching, and updated help text
• beta 0.2.1: changed build process to eliminate false positives, and updated help text
• beta 0.2: added FOV and aspect ratio fixes, updated hex patcher code, and some (small) improvements
• beta 0.1: initial release

*NOTE*

* Latest version should not show up as a false positive anymore *

It has been brought to my attention that the tool gets picked up as malware by some AV products. Rest assured though, this is a false positive.

It seems that my default build process (which uses a packer to combine all external DLLs into the exe) is the cause of this. Apparently some AV products will classify anything that uses a packer as malware, just because a packer was used in the build process.

I’m gonna see if I can change the build process so this doesn’t happen for future versions.

Anyway, if you don’t trust this tool, you can always try the manual fix described below (custom resolution only for the moment. If you want me to update the guide with instructions on how to patch in a custom FOV and aspect ratio, let me know in the comments).

Screenshots

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 (1920×1200 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 also we regained the lost space at the top and bottom.

Manual fix – Needed tools

To be able to force the game into using a widescreen (or custom) resolution, we’ll need a couple of tools:

1. A decent hex editor, for example XVI[www.chmaas.handshake.de] (freeware)

2. A decimal-to-binary converter, for example this online one[www.binaryhexconverter.com]

Manual fix – The actual fix

Step 1: Start the game and create a profile.

Step 2: Change the ingame settings to your likings, and remember what resolution you chose. It is best to change everything you want now, because changing anything after applying the fix might revert the game back to the original non-widescreen resolution (though I haven’t tested if this is really the case).

Step 3: Navigate to the install folder of the game. The easiest way to do this is rightclicking on the game in your Steam library, then chose Properties, then go to the Local files tab, and click on the Browse local files… button. This will take you straight to the folder we need.

Step 4: In the install folder, look for a file called save0.dsg. This should be in the root folder of the game (same folder of the Dredd.exe executable). MAKE A BACKUP OF THIS FILE IN CASE SOMETHING GOES WRONG!

ALSO: Make sure you chose the correct save0.dsg file size: +- 1KB), and NOT the one in the save0 folder (size: +250KB)!

Step 5: Open this file in a hex editor (see links above for good freeware hex editor).

Step 6: Now comes the tricky part. We need to change the hexadecimal representation of the resolution we chose in step 2 to the one of the resolution we want. To do this, we will need to convert the decimal representation of the resolution to a hexadecimal representation. Easiest way is to use an online decimal-to-hex converter (see links above). Don’t worry, the actual conversion is quite easy and is explained below if you’re interested, but for sake of convenience I’ve created a table with the default resolutions and their hexadecimal representations, and a table for the more common widescreen resolutions (both tables can be found below).

For example, say we chose the ingame resolution 1152×864, then we’ll need to look for the hexadecimal values 80 04 and 60 03. We want to change this to 1920×1200, which translates to the hexadecimal values 80 07 and B0 04.

We’ll start by looking for the first value (80 04).

The first result you get should be the value you need. You can easily check this by looking for the second value (60 03) which should be visible just after the first value.

To run the game in our wanted resolution, all we need to do is change 80 04 to 80 07, and 60 03 to B0 04.

Step 7: Now save the file, and we’re done.

All that is left to do, is run the game and check if the fix worked. Keep in mind that the game will always start in 800×600, but as soon as you load your profile the game will automatically switch to the resolution we edited in.

Manual fix – Resolution tables

Default resolutions

Widescreen resolutions – 16:9

Widescreen resolutions – 16:10

If your wanted resolution isn’t in these tables, and you can’t get your head around the manual conversion process, feel free to post a comment with the resolution you want, and I’ll convert it for you.

The decimal-to-hexadecimal explanation

As stated above, to be able to edit in our custom resolution we need to convert the resolution values from decimal to hexadecimal. This process is quite easy, and shouldn’t take more that a minute.

For example, say we chose the ingame resolution 1152×864. Using a decimal-to-hex converter, 1152 becomes 480, and 864 becomes 360.

Hexadecimal values however are always stored in pairs of 2, so if needed we need to add a 0 at the start until we get an even number of hexadecimal characters. So 480 becomes 04 80, and 360 becomes 03 60.

The game saves these values in reverse order, so we need to change up the hexadecimal value in pairs of 2 characters. This way, 04 80 becomes 80 04 and 03 60 becomes 60 03.

So, in short: 1152 >> decimal to hex: 480 >> pad with 0’s if needed: 04 80 >> reverse hex pairs: 80 04

That’s it. As you can see, it’s not exactly rocket science and with the right tools it is quite easy.