Game Archives • PopcornGamer

Red Dead Redemption 2 – Fix Ultra-Wide Resolution

Author: ViLa4480 \ 11th November 2019 \ Uncategorised, Videogames \ 22 Comments

Extend your ride into the sunset!

I just recently decided to hop into Westworld… I mean, Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC knowing that this would be a game I would enjoy.
I’m currently writing a review for it (If only I could stop playing it to write my review…).

Unfortunately, just like its older brother, Grand Theft Auto 5, it doesn’t natively support my NVidia Surround ultra-wide screen resolution for my triple-screen setup.

How to set triple-screen ultra-wide 5760x1080 on Red Dead Redemption 2 — Click for a higher resolution.

This fix may not be required for everyone, but for some reason, the resolution simply didn’t show up on the game’s graphical settings. It only went up to 1920×1080.

Just to be clear, I’ve got 3 monitors and I’m also a streamer on Twitch with a streaming computer that uses one of my screens when I stream, which automatically changes my screen resolution to 3840×1080 – I’m using DisplayFusion to achieve this behavior. Plus HDMI routers, DVI adapters, screen recorders… Not even my computer understands what’s going on with my screen resolutions.

In this post, I’ll be going over several ways to fixing your screen resolution.
Please consider this a repository of suggestions. I can’t promise that they’ll all currently fix the issue, but they have worked in the past. Give it a try and let us know which one worked for you!

How to fix ultra-wide surround screen resolutions the easy way with Launch Arguments

Before following through this post for more in-depth fixes, check out a tool I developed to help you set up Red Dead Redemption 2 launch arguments. One of the sections on that tool is specific to screen resolutions. It also helps with performance, bugs, stuttering, etc.

Go check it out at this page: PopcornGamer’s Unofficial Red Dead Redemption 2 Launch Argument Composer.

If it helps you, let me know!

This fix should make the game run in any screen resolution.

UPDATE: As of the last patch, it seems like some of these tricks aren’t working for some users. Check the bottom of this post for alternative ways to make it work! Leave me a comment if it does!

A couple of years ago I posted a video on Youtube explaining how to make GTA V work at 5760×1080. Guessing that the engine was the same I thought about doing the same on my blog, but this time regarding Red Dead Redemption 2.

Apparently, the game engine has progressed quite significantly since GTA V. Back then, I managed to find a work-around for GTA V, but RDR2 seems to accept 5760×1080, much more easily.

To make 5760×1080 work, I had to go through My Documents folder and find the Rockstar Games folder. Within it, the Red Dead Redemption Folder and then the Settings folder. In it, you should find a file called system.xml

In my computer this is located at:
C:/Users/[windows username]/Rockstar Games/Red Dead Redemption 2/Settings/system.xml

In this file, down at the bottom, you’ll find:

<video>
    <adapterIndex value="0" />
    <outputIndex value="0" />
    <resolutionIndex value="14" />
    <screenWidth value="5760" />
    <screenHeight value="1080" />
    <refreshRateIndex value="0" />
    <refreshRateNumerator value="50000" />
    <refreshRateDenominator value="1000" />
    <windowed value="2" />
    <vSync value="0" />
    <tripleBuffered value="false" />
    <pauseOnFocusLoss value="true" />
    <constrainMousePointer value="false" />
  </video>

Here, you should set the screenWidth and screenHeight to your desired screen resolution.
After this step, you should save and close the file and then right-click on it and go to File Properties and set it to Read-Only. This prevents the game from making any changes to it. Keep in mind that setting this to Read-Only will keep you from saving adjusted game settings from within the game. This means that if you make any changes in-game, the settings will be reset every time you launch the game.

Also note that, for even more exotic users, if you’re using several screens but only wish to use one set of them, then you should change the outputIndex and/or the adapterIndex value. This may only be required if you’re using more than 3 screens, or when you’re having trouble with stretching or positioning on 2 screens.

Alternatively, if this change fails to set your resolution correctly, try following my GTA V video which uses windowed mode and a piece of software called ResizeEnable.

An updated method to get 5760×1080 in RDR2!

As of the last update, it seems like some of these tricks aren’t working for some users. Instead, try using the command line.

Go to your Rockstar Games Launcher -> Settings -> Red Dead Redemption 2 (on the left sidebar) -> search for the launch arguments text field
Then type the following:

-width 5760 -height 1080 -borderless

You may also replace borderless with “-windowed“.
Alternatively, try using

-allowResizeWindow

…and then try to stretch the frame of the window to your screen resolution (can’t do this in borderless mode)

The reason why you’re not usually able to go full resolution is that when not in surround mode, the game knows you have 3 screens but thinks that you only play in one of them so it sets itself to 1920×1080.

How to fix the UI being displaced or stretched

Some players might be able to set their screen resolution correctly, but the UI elements (the map, the menus) might show off-center, displaced or distorted. To fix this, you may want to try using -noDPIAdjust in your command line arguments list.
A special thank you to one of our users, Jon, who shared this solution by another player who helped him, NorbzFR.