Native resolution is essentially the actual number of physical pixels in an LCD screen and is therefore the resolution at which an LCD monitor looks its best. Larger LCDs tend to have more pixels and thus a higher resolution. More detailed information can be found in the wikipedia article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_resolution

Are you being serious? I'll assume you are... The native resolution of a monitor is the physical, fixed resolution that monitor uses. This doesn't apply for CRT monitors so I suppose you could have been making a smartass remark. Anyway, to use any other resolution, the monitor has to scale and it causes distortion. That means it's best to use the native resolution of your monitor for your desktop and also for games.

Larger monitors would naturally have a larger surface, therefore a higher resolution with more pixels, etc. Smaller laptop monitors would have less, and they also tend to have different aspect ratios.

The "native resolution" is for LCD displays. All LCD displays have a native resolution that is referring to the fixed resolution of the panel. Essentially, an LCD panel has a fixed number of pixels and cannot display more or less pixels than that. A CRT monitor can change resolutions while an LCD has to scale the image to "change resolutions" causing a loss of image quality.

Most widescreen laptops (and LCD monitors up to 19") are set to 1440x900 or so now, while a larger LCD monitors (24"+) are 1920×1200. Most 22" monitors are set to 1680 x 1050.

All LCD displays list a maximum resolution, that is usually the native resolution.

what specs are your machine that youo have any trouble running CO? I have it cranked and the only time i see a hint of trouble is when i turn on the silly outline thing.

Speaking of CO, I've finally hit Lemuria and see know hint of this rubberbanding I heard ppl cry about. Did they fix it?

Lemuria rubberbanding isn't as bad as it was a month ago, because there aren't as many people playing the game now. I was in Lemuria last night with an alt and there was only 1 instance available with only 6-10 people in it, so the rubberbanding was pretty minimal.

I'm running with 4GB and graphical splendor, but my processor is a core2 quad and vista (have Windows7 but had to undo upgrade as broadband provider hardware simply isn't compatible) - I suspect the bigger factor though is that I'm slightly off the beaten track in the North of the UK.

I'm sure my machine can handle the engine (though I've heard theories that fewer cores works best for CO), but playing any technically-demanding MMO long-distance can be unpredictable for me.

I did spend a few beta sessions purely trying every tweak on the forums, but the Cryptic engine evidently just isn't a fit for some folks.