Widescreen Gaming Forum

The TVs in-game do not implement WS correctly (stretch), in all versions of the game. Kinda odd since most of the game itself does.

Do you have any screenshot comparisons of the TV screen stretching? Both eZ' and dopefish have TV screenshot comparisons that are hor +.

Do you have any screenshot comparisons of the TV screen stretching? Both eZ' and dopefish have TV screenshot comparisons that are hor +.

Those screens above are of a 4:3 ingame TV set, (and this is the truly ironic part)
the 16:9 ingame TV sets have stretched video. *laughs*
Yeah, hows that for irony :P

The TV shows are bink videos (look in the movies folder in the game directory, you will find them there), they are in 4:3 format.

I wonder if Q&A at Rockstar North forgot to check the TVs in the "nicer" safehouse apartments you get later in the game. (Playboy X's apartment, and the regular safehouse on the same island, might be a widescreen TV set in one of the other safehouses too, can't recall)

Kinda odd really, if it was me I'd have made the bink videos 16:9 and anamorphic/letterboxing when shown on the 4:3 tv sets in the game.
If we're lucky Rockstar might one day add a small update to a patch and turn on anamorphic/pillarboxing on those video files. (should just be a few bytes that need changing right?) heh.

I figured it might be something like this. It isn't really relevant to the DR though, as it's not something AR specific.

Anything else that needs to be added/removed/changed from the DR cranky?

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Formerly eZ`

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If I'm understanding it right, the ingame 16:9 TVs display a stretched image in the game world, independent of what settings you're using for the game.

If that's the case, it's not really important to mention in the DR. It doesn't mean Rockstar programmed that part of the game incorrectly for widescreen monitors - it just means that Niko doesn't understand how to adjust the TV's settings from their factory default (or maybe he's worried about burn-in).

So it looks like it'll get a B+ then?
A shame, I was hoping a giant game like GTA IV would get a A but then again, compared to the old GTA games this is a huge improvement obviously.

By the looks of it though most of the stuff preventing that A should be fixable in a patch. (hear that RockStar? get cracking :P )

So hopefully in a few patches it may get a chance for a re-evaluation and reach that coveted A right?

Police database images are 16:9, and therefore squished or stretched to match other AR's.....

It looks like the background in 4:3 is Vert - and Hor +.

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The internet pics have a tracking zone for the cursor which is strange. In 4:3 there are barriers around the entire screen to prevent tracking while other aspect ratios go to the top and bottom but have invisible bars to prevent the scrolling to the sides which seems to eat almost all of the visible mouse cursor. Look for the small, black line on the right in the second pic.





The stretching itself seems to be more interesting. None appear correct. Based on comparisions, 16:10 is closest but not correct, 5:4 and 15:9 are the same but stretched wider than 16:10, and 16:9 and 4:3 are the same but stretched even wider than the 15:9 and 5:4 pics.











I used the "@" symbol and the in-game tw@ posters as a guide, which unbelievably, cannot seem to be consistent either. At least the minimap icon has the correct "@" symbol. :|









Just food for thought.

Given that 4:3 and 16:9 match, I think that the best way to think of it is from an implementation perspective, rather than going by what it's supposed to look like. 4:3 and 16:9 appear to be two separate baselines, which would make them "correct." Other aspect ratios are implemented by stretching/squashing the closest baseline, which is incorrect. The result of 16:10 looking correct is a consequence of two wrongs making a right. The first wrong is that the background designers screwed up, but that's not a gradable mistake, since support for aspect ratios and resolutions has nothing to do with it. The second wrong is that someone programmed this screen to stretch horizontally, which is a blemish, though in this case, the grade remains unaffected.

All cut-scenes are rendered in-game. They are natively 16:9. 16:10 is hor- and lesser Aspect Ratios are letterboxed.

There are some cut-scenes which are fullscreen Hor +.







The cut-scenes that letterbox are, well, stupid. The widescreen(16:10, 15:9, 16:9, etc.) resolutions are Hor + while the non-widescreen resolutions(5:4, 4:3) use some form of letterboxing. So the 16:9 cut-scenes are cropped horizontally in 15:9 and 16:10 while they are preserved in 4:3 with letterboxing. But the 5:4 resolutions once again crop horizontally but do so from the letterboxed 4:3 image. So either someone decided that the cut-scenes can lose some from the sides and still be okay or the PC port team was not on the same page with the original developers and missed the point of the letterboxing in 4:3. I think you can guess which one I am leaning towards.








Niko baby, I need your manly man's help!

Grand Theft Auto IV screenshot. PLP manual full spread. Full-size & instructions here