Widescreen Gaming Forum

Can you find the FMV files?

What is the source aspect ratio of the files?

Is the letterboxing encoded in the source files?

Again, it is one video only, a dream you have before the game starts. It is located in the game's bin file and is in bink format. It is a 4:3 video with black bars on all 4 sides ingrained in the image.

As a 4:3 video I believe pillarboxing is all they could do in widescreen, unless you are saying it should have been a 16:9 video, which would be weird of you to do given your respect for a developer's vision.

It seems completely obvious to me you are meant to be seeing the imaged through a hazey mental fog, and the developer chose a 4:3 windowboxed format to convey that.

Regardless of what you call it, I disagree that this a problem There is no change in the vertical aspects of the image that result in less viewable area, image loss or a smaller image in relation to the current resolution or aspect ratio. There is no flaw here.

The flaw is that this:

Should not be a 4:3 video. It should be a 16:9 one. The black bars on the top and bottom serve no purpose to further "developer's vision." They shouldn't have been hard-rendered into the image.

Technically, it's the same thing as being a non-anamorphic widescreen DVD. Which pretty much everyone agrees are crap on a widescreen monitor.

Also, even with a hard-letterboxed FMV, it's still possible to crop off the letterboxing through software playback.

It's a design flaw (or artistic choice or whatever) even in 4:3. Don't let your expertise of widescreen support blind you ;) Zeno Clash was developed for the PC only, probably with only 4:3 resolutions in mind, so just forget about ideal 16:9. We're not grading a DVD movie here.

It's a design flaw (or artistic choice or whatever) even in 4:3.

I see it as an artistic choice in 4:3 that was handled improperly in the transition to widescreen.

Zeno Clash was developed for the PC only, probably with only 4:3 resolutions in mind, so just forget about ideal 16:9.

I have no idea what you're trying to say here. Are you saying we should overlook widescreen faults in games that weren't made with widescreen in mind?

We're not grading a DVD movie here.

That's why it's considered a blemish, rather than something that ruins everything.

Maybe I'm just trying to say that we should be more lenient toward blemishes in indie games than in blockbusters just like we are more lenient toward blemishes in TripleHead than in widescreen - especially for kinda controversial micro-blemishes like this.

(I'm always glad to post a link to a certified DR on a small dev's forum, and get proud, happy, amazed, intrigued replies. Makes me feel like I'm working for the cause, spreading civilization with gold and words of joy !) :lol:

You could post a link and say "this could be certified... just fix it so the intro FMV crops the black bars in widescreen instead of expanding them."

It's a design flaw (or artistic choice or whatever) even in 4:3.

I see it as an artistic choice in 4:3 that was handled improperly in the transition to widescreen.

If it was anamorphic it would lose the black bars on the top and bottom in 16:9 and TH resolutions, which they did not want.

Your widescreen non-anamorphic DVD example just proves you are not factoring in the idea that they intentionally chose the format they used. See how the corners are faded to black? In the video there is also black that takes over the screen, like the character is blinking, from time to time.

It was an artistic choice, not a misformat. It was designed to be a 4:3 video so it could look like a small circle of vision in a black fog, and it scales and displays properly in all aspect ratios.

There really is no widescreen related flaw here, and nothing you have said proves otherwise.

If it was anamorphic it would lose the black bars on the top and bottom in 16:9 and TH resolutions,

I agree.

which they did not want.

I don't agree. It's pretty clear to me that the lack of anamorphism is an oversight on their part. The letterboxing serves no purpose in widescreen. There's no reason for it to be there in widescreen.

It was designed to be a 4:3 video so it could look like a small circle of vision in a black fog

If it actually was a complete circle in a 4:3 frame of black fog, this would make sense. But as it is, the "circle" is actually a 16:9 shape, with "black fog" filling the rest of the 16:9 frame. Then you have black bars on the top and bottom which don't look like fog at all. They're just your standard, everyday letterboxing, which are supposed to recede in widescreen.

There really is no widescreen related flaw here, and nothing you have said proves otherwise.

This:

is better than this:


Therefore, the latter is flawed.

As a 4:3 video I believe pillarboxing is all they could do in widescreen, unless you are saying it should have been a 16:9 video, which would be weird of you to do given your respect for a developer's vision.

I have not said anything about the game. The information I requested may have helped everyone reach a consensus.

Did you confuse my post with another?