Widescreen and games

ianric · Post by **ianric** » 14 May 2009, 21:07

Hi

Just read Snowdogs post about widescreen and it sort of answers my question. I'm going to be upgrading my Acer AL1916 monitor soon to a Samsung widescreen something.

I watch alot of movies, TV etc and I've just started to get back into games. I love the Crysis WS screenshots on your site.

Just wondering about WS and games, what happens if a game doesn't support WS and there isn't a fix/hack? Does it get stretched or letterboxed or do you select a resolution that suits?

Cheers

Ian

Post by **Abram** » 14 May 2009, 22:16

Screen change list:

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Screen_Change

Master games list:

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Essential_Games_List

If a game has no proper WS support then at least one of three things will happen:

Vert-, where the game takes the 4:3 image and crops the top and bottom to make it fit to 16:10 or 16:9.

Stretch - when a game has widescreen resolutions available, but stretches the 4:3 or 5:4 image to make it fit.

Pillarboxing - when there's NO widescreen, but only 4:3 and 5:4 resolutions available. The 4:3 image will be set to the middle of your screen and black bars will fill in the rest, like letterboxing on film. (and your hardware is cabable)

Note that to achieve pillarboxing you need DVI or HDMI on your monitor, a monitor that has 1:1 pixel mapping, or can force 4:3 through its' OSD.

Make a list of games you may play and check out the Master Games List for more info on any specific game.

PS - what're your hardware specs? If you plan on visting often, I'd suggest slapping you hardware specs in your sig.

...One of these days I'll have to see how make link-able text.

ianric · Post by **ianric** » 15 May 2009, 21:37

Hi

Thanks for the info. Very enlightening. So basically, the effects are similar to a normal widescreen TV?

The monitor I have seen is a Samsung Lavender here http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164043

Cheers

Ian

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 15 May 2009, 22:37

Hi

Thanks for the info. Very enlightening. So basically, the effects are similar to a normal widescreen TV?

Pretty much. :)

The monitor I have seen is a Samsung Lavender here http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164043

Cheers

Ian

Looks quite a nice screen. Then again, for Â£170, it's gotta be a TN-Film panel...

Widescreen Gaming Forum