Fixing Scaling / Black Box Issue on Trine or Trine 2 for AMD/ATI Video Cards

Note: Try this at your own risk. I don't know what kind of monitor you are using, if there is any risk in changing briefly to different Screen refresh rates. Also, this seems to only apply to HDMI connected monitors, so if you aren't connected by HDMI, this probably isn't the solution for you.

This fix is for Trine and Trine 2 if you have a black box around the screen. Thanks goes to RyuKent on Technology and Life for pointing out the fix, although the Catalyst Control Center seems to have changed since it was written.

Ok, the fix is quite straight forward. There is a scaling issue when we launch the game, wherein a black box appears around the screen. This is thought to be caused by the Catalyst abandoning its settings when the game is launched at a different framerate than the one you are using for your desktop.

Step 1: Launch the Catalyst Control Center. You can probably find it down on the task bar (Start menu) on the botton right. It will be a red and white looking thing. Double clicking that will launch it, and you should get a screen like this:

Note that this is in advanced view. If you don't get a screen with all the options on the left side, then you are probably in Standard View, and should go to Preferences at the top and change it to Advanced View.

Step 2: Go to the tab, "My Digital Flat-Panels", on the left, and click "Properties (Digital Flat-Panel)". If you have more than 1 display connected, then select it on the top drop down menu. Next, click Enable GPU Scaling, as pictured.

Step 3: Go back to the Tab, "My Digital Flat-Panels", on the left, and click "Scaling Options (Digital Flat-Panel)". If you have a black box around your desktop already, adjust the scaling options until the black box disappears and click apply, otherwise, continue to the next step.

Step 4: Leave the Catalyst Control Center Open. Go to the desktop, right click, and select "Screen Resolution". Then, select the monitor that you are having the black box issue on, and click "Advanced Settings", as pictured.

 Step 4: Note: This is the step that concerns me. I am not sure if changing the Screen refresh rate can damage your monitor. I did not run into any problems, but do this at your own risk.

Click the "Monitor" tab. Take note of the refresh rate you are at, because you will want to put your settings back to this when you are done. I believe this is typically 60 Hertz. Now, pick a different "Screen refresh rate" and hit apply. If a message asks you if you would like to keep the new screen refresh rate, just click Ok. Then, go back to the Catalyst Control Center and change the scaling options to make the black box disappear (assuming one appeared), and click apply there. Go back to the Advanced settings of your Monitor and change to yet another Screen refresh rate, then go back to the Catalyst Center and change the Scaling option again to get rid of the black box. Do this for all your refresh rates and make sure to click apply. Then, once you are done, change back to your original refresh rate. This last step is important, so make sure you change back to your refresh rate. Having the wrong refresh rate can be really to look at.

Congratulations! When you launch Trine, you should now have a full screen, no black box playing experience.