I wonder if DxWnd would help for those games...

Plants vs. Zombies uses DirectX 8, not 7. If you do not want to play on an ugly pixellated screen like that, switch to windowed mode. To switch to windowed mode, just disable Full Screen in the game options. PopCap does not recommend disabling 3D acceleration, and it warns something like this when you try to disable acceleration:

Disabling Hardware Acceleration is not recommended and may decrease performance.
Disable it anyway?

This notice does not appear in Plants vs. Zombies.

Hello. What brought you here?

KJ_Jose wrote:

Plants vs. Zombies uses DirectX 8, not 7.

Maybe it uses a DX7 function for that specific bit, or rather a function that originated in DX7 and was unchanged in DX8. I wouldn't know, but the people in that link seem to know what they're talking about.

If you do not want to play on an ugly pixellated screen like that, switch to windowed mode.

Have you tried changing your desktop resolution to 4:3 before launching the game? It works for me (i.e. the game is much less ugly and pixellated), and there seem to be numerous corroborating reports on the Steam forums from other users.

Jorpho wrote:

Hello. What brought you here?

My interest in gaming.

Jorpho wrote:

Have you tried changing your desktop resolution to 4:3 before launching the game? It works for me (i.e. the game is much less ugly and pixellated), and there seem to be numerous corroborating reports on the Steam forums from other users.

That is not recommended. Your downside is a disproportionally stretched, bloated screen. You'd better try Windowed mode.

KJ_Jose wrote:

Jorpho wrote:

Hello. What brought you here?

My interest in gaming.

Fine and dandy, but is there something that led you to look for a thread from four years ago..?

KJ_Jose wrote:

Jorpho wrote:

Have you tried changing your desktop resolution to 4:3 before launching the game? It works for me (i.e. the game is much less ugly and pixellated), and there seem to be numerous corroborating reports on the Steam forums from other users.

That is not recommended. Your downside is a disproportionally stretched, bloated screen. You'd better try Windowed mode.

I agree that it is unsightly when a 4:3 screen ratio is stretched over a widescreen, but my video card is configured to run a 4:3 screen ratio without stretching, i.e. with black bars on each side of the screen. In the NVIDIA control panel, the appropriate setting is in Display->Adjust desktop size and position->Scaling tab->Aspect ratio, but this may only work if your monitor is connected via DVI or HDMI. I'm not sure where the equivalent function is in the ATI control panel. And of course some TVs and monitors let you set the aspect ratio independently.

I suppose the black bars on each side of the screen can be aesthetically displeasing, but it's at least as good as windowed mode.

(To be quite clear, I know PvZ already runs with black bars on each side of the screen when you try to run it in fullscreen mode. But changing the desktop resolution before starting the game, as above, will cause the ugly pixellation to go away.)

(And to be extra, perfectly clear, none of this requires disabling hardware acceleration from within the game.)

To enable Windowed Mode, just disable Fullscreen.

Windowed mode may be able to fix the bad framerate that you experience when in fullscreen.

No one has said anything about any kind of bad framerate, or asked how to enable Windowed Mode. I do not have the slightest idea why you are referring to this.

All I am saying is that the game runs perfectly in fullscreen mode if you change your desktop resolution to something with a 4:3 aspect ratio, provided your video card is configured to display a 4:3 aspect ratio as pillarboxed rather than stretched. Please try this if you haven't already. I tested it again just now and it still works, though I may have had to disable my second monitor.

Jorpho wrote:

KJ_Jose wrote:

Jorpho wrote:

Hello. What brought you here?

My interest in gaming.

Fine and dandy, but is there something that led you to look for a thread from four years ago..?

Well, he seems to be all over any thread ever mentioning PopCap games and almost nothing else, which is a bit weird, but people have their various obsessions so I'm not knocking it. 😀

Stiletto wrote:

Jorpho wrote:

Fine and dandy, but is there something that led you to look for a thread from four years ago..?

Well, he seems to be all over any thread ever mentioning PopCap games and almost nothing else, which is a bit weird, but people have their various obsessions so I'm not knocking it. 😀

Well I already made a topic on the VOGONS forums that does not mention any PopCap game, rather askin' if you use Windows XP. Those kinds of games, though, will count to what games anyone gets to run on Microsoft Windows XP. Here: Who's still using XP?