Battlefield 2 Widescreen - Definitive Discussion Thread

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 22 Aug 2005, 14:11

Ok, I got one for all the BF2 followers and players. This is my first stop for a solution. My buddy installed BF2 on his machine. He has a NVIDIA 4800 I believe (the machine is just over 2 years old), which I updated to the latest NVIDIA drivers. The problem is, when the gamelaunches, the monitor clicks like it's "re-syncing" or changing the resolution or refresh rate. After the few clicks, he's thrown back to the desktop. I tried debugging but no luck. We switch the monitor out and same thing. He has a Sony WS Ã¢â‚¬Å“24 CRT, damn thing is a monster but I don't think it's the monitor. We applied both patches for BF2, v 1.01 and v 1.02 and no luck. Anyone, experienced this or heard of it? Solutions?? Thanks up front folks.

JustinSane · Post by **JustinSane** » 22 Aug 2005, 23:08

Its his graphics card. BF2 doesn't support the 4XXX series. Lowest you can use is a 5200 I believe.

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 23 Aug 2005, 13:50

Ahhh, JustinSane, You are correct sir.

Actually, did the research after posting here and found the answer. EA's site lists the problem as a potential HDW incompatibility issue just as you state. No listing for the card so itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a gamble. He has since purchased the exact card I just installed, ATI X850 XT. But, here lies the other issue. I have a 3Ghz Pentium CPU, a GIG of RAM and the X850. When I crank the graphics up in BF2, like setting Antialiasing to 4x and several other settings on High, performance DIES. On the 2nd map (oddly enough with setting high on the first map this doesn't happen), graphics start to turn black and "fading" occurs. Then the game will just all out crash to the desktop. I have had plenty of experience with poor performance due to HDW limitations, but this one takes the cake and I find it VERY hard to believe it's truly a performance issue. This has BUG all over it. Ideas anyone?

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 23 Aug 2005, 20:44

Ok Folks,

This is where it may have begun. This is straight out of the GameSpot online guide for BF2:

Running Alternate Resolutions

If you want to run Battlefield 2 in a resolution not supported by the in-game video options, you can adjust your startup shortcut by rightclicking on it and changing the pointer to something like this:

C:Program FilesEA GAMESBattlefield 2 DemoBF2.exe" +menu 1 +fullscreen 1 +szx 1280 +szy 1024

This would launch it in 1280x1024 resolution. You can change these numbers to anything you wish, such as 1680x1050 for widescreen monitors.

Gotta love the last sentence, but whether it works or not...hmmmmmm????

Post by **Gilly** » 23 Aug 2005, 21:10

:lol: doesnt seem so, or else we woudnt have a 11 page discusion thread on it :P

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 23 Aug 2005, 21:19

Add in the other pages from the DICE notification thread and you have more.

This is like the Eveready Bunny isn't it?

X-ray Doc · Post by **X-ray Doc** » 24 Aug 2005, 00:38

That information is correct, but it does not change the FOV. If you type in a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio resolution, the width of your screen will be filled with the same FOV as a 4:3 resolution. Plus, the top and bottom of the 3D game world is chopped off. (Not the HUD, the actual game world.)

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 24 Aug 2005, 19:22

No doubt. I believe this has been discovered by many others in this forum including myself. My issue now with BF2 now is my ATI X850 XT card. Serious graphic breakups on the 2nd mission especially. ATI has a new Catalyst driver 5.8. May load that in the interim till OmegaDrivers comes in with an update.

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 25 Aug 2005, 14:30

Wow,

Here is an update. Just as a follow-up, I have had NO luck with the WS setting as I'm sure know one else truly has. If you have, let me know. But also and more severe, I was having issues with my new X850 XT ATI card in some of the maps in BF2. Since then, I have uninstalled the OmegaDrivers I was running, those based on the 5.7 Catalyst, and installed the ATI Catalyst 5.8 drivers. BAD IDEA. I could not even get into the game. It would crash at startup right to the desktop..........NICE. After uninstalling the Catalyst 5.8 drivers and spending a painful 30 min manually cleaning the Registry inserts left behind from the sloppy uninstall, I re-installed the OmegaDrivers. Low and behold the game loads again and seems to be running better than the previous install of the OmegaDrivers. Bottom line, the 5.8 Catalyst didn't even allow BF2 to load. During this dilemma I fired off and email to EA. This, I would like to share with you all. Oh, and buy the way, I prefaced the EA Ticket with the "lack of WS support gripe".

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us here at Electronic Arts Technical Support.

First of all I would like to apologize for the inconveniences you are going through, believe me I know how you feel I'm a gamer myself. first thing I need to say is that we could not support 3rd party software drivers. We could only support official drivers released by the Hardware manufacturer. So have you tried using the ATI drivers on the 2 maps you questioned? ATI has released a catalyst 5.8 version lately perhaps you would want to try to use those (6.14.0010.6561 version). The game does not indeed support widescreen option due to the fact that the game was not developed for it.

Though you can try to use the force resolution procedure we have.

Some people with LCD screens and digital monitor cables are having a problem where the game won't let them select 1280x1024 (often the native resolution for their monitor). You can force the resolution by editing the command line of the game's shortcut to:

"C:...Battlefield 2BF2.exe" +menu 1 +full screen 1 +sax 1280 +say 1024

I love the line...

The game does not indeed support widescreen option due to the fact that the game was not developed for it.

Don't get me wrong here folks, EA support was truly trying to help, but the lack of WS support and implentation is inexcusable. Even worse, the ATI drivers caused more issues than the OmegaDrivers. EA, get the OmegaDriver's resume. Ok, I have to tend to a storm....

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 25 Aug 2005, 15:09

I love the line...
The game does not indeed support widescreen option due to the fact that the game was not developed for it.

I can't get my head around the grammar of that sentence. It hurts just thinking about it. :lol:

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 29 Aug 2005, 14:01

EA at it's best! Maybe they should get their heads out of the console games for awhile and think about what got them there in the first place.

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 30 Aug 2005, 13:35

Adding to the woes, NO WS support and NO Co-op in BF2. That dropped the rating for me of what truly is a good game.

aRedEyeJedi · Post by **aRedEyeJedi** » 31 Aug 2005, 05:21

there is a way to make a co-op mode. Just start a SP server and have a friend join that IP

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 31 Aug 2005, 13:27

there is a way to make a co-op mode. Just start a SP server and have a friend join that IP

I have read this. Still, I believe this can be done via LAN only. The WCC (West Coast Combat) folks have a MOD that will allow Co-op but haven't given that a shot yet. As far as widescreen, doubtful there will be a mod for that. :wink:

1080p_gaming · Post by **1080p_gaming** » 13 Sep 2005, 21:47

Does anyone know the technical reason the FOV switches don't work? Is it a true limitation of the BF2 engine?

How complex is the BF2 engine and is it actually someone elses engine? It's not Quake 3 or something is it?

What we really need is a virtual weak cylindrical lens infront of our view screen to increase the FOV from 1 -> 1.1 or 1.15..... Then we would need to undo the screen hack to force the 4:3 image to encompass the entire screen.

Basically we predistort the BF2 world with a virtual lens, then we purposely distort the 4:3 FOV to fit the 16:9 screen. Yin-Yang and we are back to the proper FOV without losing any vertical information.

Does the BF2 engine support Lenses or mirrors? two fold mirrors and a cylindrical mirror could also work.......

Alternatively is there a way to mess with the FOV lower down in the guts of the engine? What about multiple screens, does BF support multiple 4:3 screens with different FOV's? We could render two adjacent 4:3 screens and crop the edges to fit our 16:9 or 16:10 ( deference to you 24" guys)
I would probably have to turn down some detail at that point, but I seem to have decent frame rates with my x850pro.

By the way, I'm new to this forum

37" Westinghouse LCD 1920x1080
Radeon x850 pro (little OC for good measure)
P4 2.8 (800) 2Gig Ram

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 13 Sep 2005, 22:13

Your new?? :lol: I kid, I kid.....Welcome.

EA blatantly claims no support for widescreen and FOV change support or editing in BF2. If you read on through this forum you will notice some get it to work, others not so lucky.

Interesting to see your X850 is running well as it should be. I have not been able to get BF2 to function properly since the install of my X850 XT a month ago. I was using OmegaDrivers and it loaded BF2 but graphics would fade out to black (this is a resolve in the ATI 5.8 Catalyst - See release notes). So, unloaded the OmegaDrivers which were based on the 5.7 Catalyst, then loaded the ATI 5.8 Catalyst and BF2 crashes to the desktop right at start up. I will keep debugging. Going to do a complete nuke tonight of BF2 and re-install.

As far as your FOV, good luck. There is plenty reading here about that.

1080p_gaming · Post by **1080p_gaming** » 14 Sep 2005, 15:41

Interesting to see your X850 is running well as it should be. I have not been able to get BF2 to function properly since the install of my X850 XT a month ago. I was using OmegaDrivers and it loaded BF2 but graphics would fade out to black (this is a resolve in the ATI 5.8 Catalyst - See release notes). So, unloaded the OmegaDrivers which were based on the 5.7 Catalyst, then loaded the ATI 5.8 Catalyst and BF2 crashes to the desktop right at start up. I will keep debugging. Going to do a complete nuke tonight of BF2 and re-install.

I'm having a similar problem with BF1942. It worked fine until I installed the 1.6 update. Now I can't play in widescreen without crashing to the desktop. Adding Desert Combat didn't help anything. I actually think DC is a superior game in many ways, chief of which is the helicopter contols and radar. Not having radar when flying into a fog screen 1km away is kinda lame.

One time in BF2 Demo I climbed to the top of the crane and did nothing but "spot" enemy aircraft and tanks. It made a huge difference for our Mig pilots.

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 14 Sep 2005, 15:55

I'm having a similar problem with BF1942. It worked fine until I installed the 1.6 update. Now I can't play in widescreen without crashing to the desktop.

One try for a fix is to completely uninstall and remove all relations to the game (Nuke it). EA has instructions on how to do this, if not on the web then request from support. I did this last night for BF2 and walla, BF2 now works. You would be amazed as to the amount of crap a standard uninstall leaves behind. As far as any WS support in Battlefield, that's a hit and miss proposition. Good luck.

X-ray Doc · Post by **X-ray Doc** » 14 Sep 2005, 18:26

As far as any WS support in Battlefield, that's a hit and miss proposition. Good luck.

I'm afraid it's a complete miss. Without an increase in the horizontal FOV you're better off just playing the game on the largest 4:3 aspect ratio monitor, TV, or projector you can find. It's definitely not a widescreen experience when the game simply crops the top and bottom of the game world to fit the shape of a 16:9 screen. :cry:

TheRealOmegaMan · Post by **TheRealOmegaMan** » 14 Sep 2005, 19:48

X-Ray Doc,

If your monitor has a "Full" aspect change you should use that. Stretching and shrinking will abound and I don't particularly like watching shorter, fatter guys and tanks, but beats getting cropped.

Widescreen Gaming Forum