Dungeon Siege 2 – Resolution / Mouse Cursor Fix Guide (Windowed Mode)

This is a simple and easy way to get the game running on modern PCs in a window that can be maximized.

How to Fix Resolution / Mouse Cursor Issue

Select the Correct Video Driver for the Game

  • Go to your game directory in the Steam folder (Steam->steamapps->common->Dungeon Siege 2).
  • Use the DS2VideoConfig tool (available inside the folder – no need to download anything) and select your actual video card instead of the default adapter that is usually selected.

After that is done, you have 2 options depending on how you prefer to play the game – with or without Steam Overlay.

Option 1 (With Steam Overlay)

  • Open your Library tab in Steam and right click the game.
  • Go to Properties and fill the following text into the “Launch Options” field:
fullscreen=false width=1600 height=900

You can change the values of “width” and “height” in order to play with a resolution that is comfortable for you.

  • Run the game from Steam.

Option 2 (Without Steam Overlay)

  • Create a shortcut of the game’s .exe file from the same folder where you found the DS2VideoConfig tool.
  • Open the shortcut’s Properties and insert the following text in the Target field after the quotation marks:
fullscreen=false width=1600 height=900

Example:

“…\Steam\steamapps\common\Dungeon Siege 2\DungeonSiege2.exe” fullscreen=false width=1600 height=900

You can change the values of “width” and “height” in order to play with a resolution that is comfortable for you.

  • Run the game from the Shortcut.

Additional Information

The Main Menu will still be low res but once you enter the game it will default to whatever resolution you specified earlier.

Additionally, once you’re in the game (After the low res starting menu) you can maximize the window from the upper right corner. It doesn’t help with the UI size but it does make it a bit more immersive.

If you do maximize it, then when you decide to exit make sure to minimize it first. Otherwise, it could jumble up you menu screen. If it does, just minimize/maximize it again until you see the cursor and can exit normally.

That’s it. Enjoy the game.

Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 4436 Articles
Egor Opleuha, also known as Juzzzie, is the Editor-in-Chief of Gameplay Tips. He is a writer with more than 12 years of experience in writing and editing online content. His favorite game was and still is the third part of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga. He prefers to spend all his free time playing retro games and new indie games.

8 Comments

  1. It seems that settings revert back to Primary Display Driver when the game is started and displays its main menu. The resolution is preserved though, so there’s no need to provide it with ‘width’ and ‘height’ parameters.

  2. without the fullscreen=false I still do not have a mouse cursor, however, I did make a small discovery.
    I added fullscreen=false along with your other suggestions. Since I forced a 1920×1080 resolution, the game gave me an error that it cannot run in it and started in 800×600. When I maximized the window I feel like the UI is actually bigger (Maybe I’m seeing things).
    I’ll experiment a bit more.

  3. For some reason when I add fullscreen=false to the launch options a popup saying “Dungeon Siege 2 cannot be run in resolution greater than 1920×1080” and crashes when I try to maximize the game. My desktop resolution is 1920×1080 and it may be a graphics card issue. If I do not add fullscreen=false it runs in a comfy 1920×1080 tho. Thank you for the guide!

    • Interesting.
      If I run it without the fullscreen=false I cannot get past the main menu – I’m basically missing the mouse cursor and keyboard inputs do not work. How do you get past the menu if you are managing to run it without the fullscreen=false?

      As for desktop resolution, mine is also 1920×1080 and I find the 1600×900 resolution to work quite well for the game in windowed mode (Of course, I maximize the window to cover as much of the display as I can).

    • The main menu is still 800×600 i think and cannot be changed from what I’ve seen. The game runs without issue in fullscreen, for me at least. The text is much smaller tho.

      maybe try this fix (add to steam launch options)
      “nospacecheck=true width=1920 height=1080 fullscreen=false vsync=false maxfps=120 nointro=true -popupwindow -adapter 0”
      remove the fullscreen=false to test.

      • without the fullscreen=false I still do not have a mouse cursor, however, I did make a small discovery.
        I added fullscreen=false along with your other suggestions. Since I forced a 1920×1080 resolution, the game gave me an error that it cannot run in it and started in 800×600. When I maximized the window I feel like the UI is actually bigger (Maybe I’m seeing things).
        I’ll experiment a bit more.

      • No, the UI is still the same size. I am not sure what some of your other suggestions are meant for. nospacecheck? popupwindow? adapter 0?
        I see no need to limit FPS, disable intros or disable VSynch – if Vsynch is enabled it limits the FPS by default anyway.
        The adapter one is probably referring to the setting that we change via the DS2VideoConfig so I see no need for that either.

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