This solution works with both the original IL-2:Sturmovik, and IL-2:Sturmovik:Forgotten Battles
Edit the conf.ini file in the root directory as follows:
[window]
width=1920
height=1200
ColourBits=32
DepthBits=24
StencilBits=8
ChangeScreenRes=0
FullScreen=1
DrawIfNotFocused=0
EnableResize=1
EnableClose=1
SaveAspect=0
Use3Renders=0
Set your height, width, color, and set the "SaveAspect" to 1. This last one ensures Hor+, according to some threads at the Ubi forums.
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If a resolution is selected lower then the physical screen resolution the picture might be offset to the left and the intro video not full screen. This is because some monitors do an auto adjustment when the screen resolution is changed - simply press the auto button on your monitor when the video commence or later when you have just started a mission. The menu and the still pictures shown are in 4:3 format and centered on the screen (your monitor permitting) whereas the video - using the game engine - and game missions are all in wonderful widescreen.
There are two very miniscule bugs:
Using PageDown (most rearward cockpit view) the rear part of the wings or other very peripheral objects might in rare circumstances - and only very briefly - become transparent, in the part of the view that would be invisible in 4:3. Assign key buttons to increment and decrement the FOV gradually as PageUp and PageDown toggles between extremes. On a widescreen the rearmost cockpit view is to far back even without this very sparsely occurring bug.
In rainy whether the screen sometimes are more gray on the vertical sides outside the 4:3 geometry, this is seen only with a particular shade of gray, as soon the picture becomes but a shade lighter or darker the banding disappears.
This game is breathtakingly beautiful - especially running with 4S-AA, 4xAniso and Transparency antialiasing. 4S-AA and TAA doesn't work with OpenGL though (might be specific to nVidia cards). TAA is especially useful with IL-2 Sturmovik as it removes jaggies from fake 3D-details in the cockpits. In OpenGL the outlines of the black instrument panel in the P47 is a jagged blur, but in DirectX it's perfectly smooth.
There’s a minor bug with DirectX independent of widescreen. Screenshots only work in OpenGL; screenshots taken in DirectX are just meaningless blocks of pixels.
There is some loss in ground texture detail using DirectX sins the "Perfect" option is not available (Video Options/Custom), but those extra details are causing a firework of pixelnoise in OpenGL so you probably wouldn't want to use this option anyway.
The surround sound option works even without a Matrox decoder but reverts to 4-channel stereo - works very well, just as the rest of the game. It’s so comforting with your rote comrades' engines murmuring close behind your back while flying to intercept a fleet of deadly enemy aircraft.
