(WARNING: Some of these changes could be considered cheating on multiplayer servers. I only recommend getting Freelancer into widescreen for single-player gaming or checking with the server admins to see if these changes are allowed!)

I was recently inspired to have another go at Freelancer, the 3D third-person space combat/exploration game released by Microsoft, but I ran into a curious problem. I now have a 1920x1080 monitor, and the last time I played the game I had a 1280x1024 monitor... Freelancer does NOT have built-in widescreen support.

The first thing I did was follow some guides online in regards to forcing the game into widescreen modes using a slew of configuration file changes, but this left the status bars in weird positions and chopped off much of the top and bottom of the 3D parts. ("Vertical -" widescreen style.)

Unsatisfied with this solution, I continued searching for a better one and found one that works perfectly. IE: Everything where it should be on a widescreen display and proper 3D aspect ratios. The only problem really is that LOD kicks in too quickly, so things lose detail noticably sooner, but it's a small price to pay to have the game fill the entire screen.

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Here's what you do:

1. Download the following files from the http://adoxa.110mb.com/freelancer/ website:
http://adoxa.110mb.com/freelancer/dl.php?f=jflpdll
http://adoxa.110mb.com/freelancer/dlp.php?f=hudshift

2. From the ZIP files you obtain, place the following files in the following folders:
HudShift.dll --> Freelancer\EXE Folder
jflp.dll --> Freelancer\EXE Folder
Hudshift.ini --> Freelancer\DATA\INTERFACE folder

3. Open up HudShift.ini and uncomment the particular HUDShift item that applies to the resolution you want to use. For instance, for me, since I wanted to use 1920x1080, find:

; 16:9 (1280x720, 1440x810, 1600x900, 1920x1080).
[;HUDShift]
Horizontal = 0.17

...and change it to this:

; 16:9 (1280x720, 1440x810, 1600x900, 1920x1080).
[HUDShift]
Horizontal = 0.17

4. Locate the file "dacom.ini" in the Freelancer\EXE folder and add the following lines after .\flmaterials.dll in the Libraries section:

jflp.dll nofovx
HudShift.dll

5. Boot the game. Everything will be positioned wrong but you should still be able to click things. Go to the options screen and you'll notice that the selection of screen resolutions will now have your desired resolution in it. Select it, then leave the display settings so the new screen resolution will activate.

6. Done! Enjoy Freelancer in full widescreen glory! :3

(NOTE: These changes might not work with some mods. The only way to know is to try for yourself. To go back on these changes, just remove the alterations you made to dacom.ini and remove the files you applied.)