diff --git a/src/eva2/gui/TopoPlot.java b/src/eva2/gui/TopoPlot.java
index 879338cf..012ba71b 100644
--- a/src/eva2/gui/TopoPlot.java
+++ b/src/eva2/gui/TopoPlot.java
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ public class TopoPlot extends Plot {
     		if (tmp < min) min = tmp;
     		if (tmp > max) max = tmp;
     		if (withGradientsIfAvailable && (problem instanceof InterfaceFirstOrderDerivableProblem)) {
-    			double[] deriv = ((InterfaceFirstOrderDerivableProblem)problem).getFirstOrderGradients(pos);
+    			double[] deriv = ((InterfaceFirstOrderDerivableProblem)problem).getFirstOrderGradients(problem.project2DPoint(pos));
     			for (int i=0; i<2;i++) maxDeriv=Math.max(maxDeriv, Math.abs(deriv[i])); // maximum deriv of first 2 dims
     		}
 
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ public class TopoPlot extends Plot {
     		for (int y=0; y<gridy; y++) {
     			pos[0]  = border[0][0]+x*deltaX;
     			pos[1]  = border[1][0]+y*deltaY;
-    			double[] derivPos = ((InterfaceFirstOrderDerivableProblem)problem).getFirstOrderGradients(pos);
+    			double[] derivPos = ((InterfaceFirstOrderDerivableProblem)problem).getFirstOrderGradients(problem.project2DPoint(pos));
     			Mathematics.svDiv(1.1*(2*maxDeriv/Math.max(deltaX, deltaY)), derivPos, derivPos);
     			Mathematics.vvAdd(pos, derivPos, derivPos);
     			getFunctionArea().drawLine(pos, derivPos);
diff --git a/src/eva2/server/go/problems/AbstractProblemDouble.java b/src/eva2/server/go/problems/AbstractProblemDouble.java
index a3bde4d1..cbe8d3da 100644
--- a/src/eva2/server/go/problems/AbstractProblemDouble.java
+++ b/src/eva2/server/go/problems/AbstractProblemDouble.java
@@ -338,12 +338,12 @@ public abstract class AbstractProblemDouble extends AbstractOptimizationProblem
     	return makeRange();
     }
 
+    public double[] project2DPoint(double[] point) {
+    	return Mathematics.expandVector(point, getProblemDimension(), 0.);
+    }
     
 	public double functionValue(double[] point) {
-		double x[] = new double[getProblemDimension()];
-		for (int i=0; i<point.length; i++) x[i]=point[i];
-		for (int i=point.length; i<x.length; i++) x[i] = 0;
-		return eval(x)[0];
+		return eval(project2DPoint(point))[0];
 	}
     /**********************************************************************************************************************
      * These are for GUI
diff --git a/src/eva2/server/go/problems/ExternalRuntimeProblem.java b/src/eva2/server/go/problems/ExternalRuntimeProblem.java
index b896fcce..25cd5510 100644
--- a/src/eva2/server/go/problems/ExternalRuntimeProblem.java
+++ b/src/eva2/server/go/problems/ExternalRuntimeProblem.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import eva2.server.go.strategies.InterfaceOptimizer;
 
 
 import eva2.server.go.problems.Interface2DBorderProblem;
+import eva2.tools.math.Mathematics;
 
 public class ExternalRuntimeProblem extends AbstractOptimizationProblem implements Interface2DBorderProblem, InterfaceProblemDouble {
 
@@ -328,11 +329,11 @@ public class ExternalRuntimeProblem extends AbstractOptimizationProblem implemen
         return (InterfaceDataTypeDouble)this.m_Template;
     }
 	public double functionValue(double[] point) {
-		double x[] = new double[m_ProblemDimension];
-		for (int i=0; i<point.length; i++) x[i]=point[i];
-		for (int i=point.length; i<m_ProblemDimension; i++) x[i] = 0;
-		return eval(x)[0];
+		return eval(project2DPoint(point))[0];
 	}
+    public double[] project2DPoint(double[] point) {
+    	return Mathematics.expandVector(point, getProblemDimension(), 0.);
+    }
 	public double[][] get2DBorder() {
 		return getDoubleRange();
 	}
diff --git a/src/eva2/server/go/problems/Interface2DBorderProblem.java b/src/eva2/server/go/problems/Interface2DBorderProblem.java
index 21baae85..5b033f06 100644
--- a/src/eva2/server/go/problems/Interface2DBorderProblem.java
+++ b/src/eva2/server/go/problems/Interface2DBorderProblem.java
@@ -12,9 +12,20 @@ public interface Interface2DBorderProblem {
      */
     public double[][] get2DBorder();
 
-    /** This method returns the double value at a given position.
+    /** 
+     * This method returns the double value at a given position. The value should be
+     * based on the same projection delivered by the project2DPoint function.
+     * 
      * @param point     The double[2] that is queried.
      * @return double
      */
     public double functionValue(double[] point);
+    
+    /**
+     * Project a 2D point to the default higher-dimensional cut to be displayed (if required for plotting).
+     * 
+     * @param point the double[2] that is queried
+     * @return a (higher dimensional) projection of the point
+     */
+    public double[] project2DPoint(double[] point);
 }
diff --git a/src/eva2/tools/math/Mathematics.java b/src/eva2/tools/math/Mathematics.java
index 70e21e50..e0070568 100644
--- a/src/eva2/tools/math/Mathematics.java
+++ b/src/eva2/tools/math/Mathematics.java
@@ -1020,6 +1020,27 @@ public class Mathematics {
 		} else return v;
 	}
 	
+	/**
+	 * Expand a vector to a higher dimension (len) by filling it up 
+	 * with a constant value.
+	 * 
+	 * @param x
+	 * @param len
+	 * @param v
+	 * @return
+	 */
+	public static double[] expandVector(double[] x, int len, double v) {
+		if (len <= x.length ) {
+			System.err.println("Error, invalid length in expandVector, expecting l>" + x.length);
+			return x;
+	 	} else {
+	 		double[] expanded = new double[len];
+	 		System.arraycopy(x, 0, expanded, 0, x.length);
+	 		for (int i=x.length; i<expanded.length; i++) expanded[i] = v;
+	 		return expanded;
+	 	}
+	}
+	
 	/**
 	 * Calculate the average length of the range intervals over all dimensions.
 	 *