Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000

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Post Subject: Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000
Posted: 8 March, 2010 - 12:27
The_cranky_hermit
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Full Detailed Report - Aliens Versus Predator
Aliens Versus Predator is a first person shooter from Rebellion and 20th Century Fox, set in the universe created by the four Alien movies, but featuring an original story with a special guest star appearance of Predator - the interstellar trophy hunter in search of the most dangerous game. Aside from that, this game has no relation to the AvP movies which actually came out a few years later than this game. There are three characters - alien, marine, and predator. Each has his own weapons, abilities, and characteristics, and there are three separate campaigns to play through, one for each character. AVP also features a multiplayer mode where you can join your favorite species and fight in a deadly contest of natural selection. This information is based on Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000, a re-release of AVP Gold available exclusively on Steam. This version is updated with proper widescreen support (the old retail version stretched), and uses Steamworks for multiplayer. Make sure you have the latest patch - if you use Steam online regularly, this should happen automatically.

Aliens Versus Predator

Aliens Versus Predator

Aliens Versus Predator

Aliens Versus Predator

 
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Post Subject: Re: Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000
Posted: 8 March, 2010 - 14:05
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scavvenjahh
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Nice !

"The_cranky_hermit" wrote:
==Cut-scenes==

Only FMVs - they are forced 640x480, with hard letterboxing. This means windowboxing in widescreen.

==Grading==

FMV windowboxing is a blemish.

I don't get it. Forced 640x480 = no FMV correction at all, so how would it be graded ? :?
Windowboxing only happens if your display supports 1:1 scaling. If your monitor could only display 640x480 stretched, would FMV correction be stretch ? Regardless of each user's setup, any screenshot taken during FMVs will always be 640x480 and include the same letterboxing.
Absence of correction may be considered a blemish per se, but it can't be rated "flawed" if you get my meaning.

Since the only cut-scenes are each campaign's intro/outro and given the original game's age and ws support, I know I'd certify this one...

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Post Subject: Re: Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000
Posted: 8 March, 2010 - 22:05
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The_cranky_hermit
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I'm assuming that users have their graphics cards set to perform aspect scaling, which is pretty much the best case scenario here. Stretched FMVs would be a blemish too.

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Regardless of each user's setup, any screenshot taken during FMVs will always be 640x480 and include the same letterboxing.
It's not just about the screenshots - it's about what actually appears on the screen. In this case, these aren't the same thing, and a widescreen user will see black bars on all four sides.

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Absence of correction may be considered a blemish per se, but it can't be rated "flawed" if you get my meaning.
I'm not sure I get your meaning.

This theoretical image:

is objectively preferable to this simulated image of what a widescreen user would actually see:

The fact that it looks like the latter instead of the former means there is a flaw in how the FMVs are handled. The flaw is that the 16:9 FMVs have hard-letterboxing, and are forced 640x480. It would have been better to have them at 640x360, and to have the game's video player scale them to native res, preserving aspect ratio. In fact, it's within Rebellion's capacity to fix this... if they and Valve are OK with all the customers having to redownload about 200MB of data.

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Post Subject: Re: Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000
Posted: 9 March, 2010 - 09:32
#3
scavvenjahh
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My point was, the game doesn't "add" windowboxing to cut-scenes, it just draws a 640x480 picture, always. To me this is quite different from, say, the FMV in Zeno Clash. Anyway, I see now that the Wiki draws no such distinctions, so nevermind.

Rebellion have been doing a great job of bringing the original game's content to modern PCs, but why oh why did they leave the stupid 640x480 menus and FMVs untouched ? Sad

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Post Subject: Re: Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000
Posted: 9 March, 2010 - 09:48
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StingingVelvet
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We've had this debate before with the movies... as long as they look as intended in widescreen I think they should be fine, but I know others disagree.

The important thing is someone can read this report and know it's an "A" experience, despite the "B."

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Post Subject: Re: Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000
Posted: 9 March, 2010 - 11:39
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The_cranky_hermit
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Quote:
My point was, the game doesn't "add" windowboxing to cut-scenes, it just draws a 640x480 picture, always.

That would be fine if the FMVs were 4:3, but since they are 16:9, drawing a 640x480 picture is a flawed approach.

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The important thing is someone can read this report and know it's an "A" experience, despite the "B."
Only if they don't care about the FMVs. The original intent was for FMVs to use the full width of the screen, but that doesn't happen if your screen is wide.

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Post Subject: Re: Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000
Posted: 9 March, 2010 - 13:15
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StingingVelvet
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"The_cranky_hermit" wrote:
That would be fine if the FMVs were 4:3, but since they are 16:9, drawing a 640x480 picture is a flawed approach.

Well, considering when it came out they obviously wanted to have black bars to make it more cinematic.

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Post Subject: Re: Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000
Posted: 9 March, 2010 - 13:59
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The_cranky_hermit
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Black bars don't make things more cinematic. Wide aspect ratio does. Black bars is just a byproduct that must occur when video AR exceeds screen AR.

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Post Subject: Re: Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000
Posted: 9 March, 2010 - 14:20
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The FMVs are indeed 16:9 (640x360) bink files, designed to be letterboxed and play at 640x480... So windowboxing is indeed the best case scenario in widescreen, and marking this as a blemish makes sense.
Thanks for explaining.

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Post Subject: Re: Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000
Posted: 9 March, 2010 - 15:07
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StingingVelvet
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"The_cranky_hermit" wrote:
Black bars don't make things more cinematic. Wide aspect ratio does. Black bars is just a byproduct that must occur when video AR exceeds screen AR.

At that time, when most everything was 4:3, adding black bars was a technique used to make things appear more cinematic.

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Post Subject: Re: Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000
Posted: 9 March, 2010 - 23:20
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The_cranky_hermit
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Quote:
The FMVs are indeed 16:9 (640x360) bink files, designed to be letterboxed and play at 640x480.

Didn't realize that. I just assumed they were 640x480 bink files. So I take back what I said about downloading 200MB - all they'd have to do is update the bink player to handle multiple resolutions and aspect ratios.

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So windowboxing is indeed the best case scenario in widescreen
Second best. Anamorphism would be the best case scenario in widescreen.

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At that time, when most everything was 4:3, adding black bars was a technique used to make things appear more cinematic.
No, using a wide aspect ratio was a technique used to make things appear cinematic. Still is. Black bars is a matter of situational geometry necessity, not making things appear more cinematic.

This:

does not appear more cinematic than this:
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