Widescreen Gaming Forum

Someone on this form called Max Payne 2 the nemesis of widescreen gaming. After attempting to play it on my new widescreen, I must agree.


Now, mind you that MP2 has 1680x1050 as a selectable resolution. However, the image is +horz AND + vert, and the additional vertical information is packed into the same amount of space, causing the image to look compacted.

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=13712

:?: Why does this occur?

:?: Can it be fixed?

No solution was ever found... not too sure whether it's even on anyone's agenda. It's a crying shame too because Max Payne 2 is a great game. :cry:

i have this game permanently installed on my system. but i've never tried to hack it into widescreen glory. The next time i'm at home on a rainy weekend with nothing to do, I'll try getting it working. This is one of the best games ever (for storyline alone)

update: it's not raining, but you tickled my curiousity. So i did a little poking around on google and unwittingly ended up back on WSGF:

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/5720

Having poked around in MP2's .RAS files, i'm certain there will be a way to modify the FOV so it's permanent. But i'll try that some other time. Hope this helps u starters.


EDIT: Also MP2 runs at 1920x1200 natively on my system.

Here are some lines of code that may interest you form the MP2_Init.ras file.




LookAtHorizontalLimit = 90.0; // in degrees
LookAtVerticalLimit = 70.0; // in degrees
(This one especially interests me, because as I said, the game seems to be +vert when run at 1680x1050, even though its shouldn’t be.)


[Message] String = "maxpayne_gamemode->gm_changefov(1, 0);";
(This one is repeated a few times throughout the file)


[Message] Frame = 0; String = "MaxPayne_GameMode->GM_ChangeFOV( 0.7, 0 );";


//DefaultFOV = 80; // degrees
DefaultFOV = 70; // degrees
[i](If the first of these two does nothing, and is only a notation, as indicated by the “//â€Â

Having poked around in MP2's .RAS files, i'm certain there will be a way to modify the FOV so it's permanent.

The problem seems to go beyond the FOV. Even if it is adjusted, Max look squashed vertically. Those screenshots I linked to show what it looks like AFTER the FOV has been tweaked.

I spent weeks trying to get this fecking game working by editing files in the .ras archives.

I had more luck with Perimeter, and I had to unpack, resize (to a widescreen res) and repack files in the archive files for that game to even get the thing to boot... not to mention find and edit at least four different res references in the various .ini and .exe files.

Overall, I gave up on Max Payne 2. :(

ACK! :shock:

I edited the MP2_Init.ras file and now Max Payne 2 won't even run. I even put all the settings back the way they were.

You discovered the other problem with MP2... ;) which I honestly forgot about until you mentioned it. I ended up keeping the whole directory backed up for when something like that went wrong... :)

If you want to ask for better widescreen suppport for Max Payne 2, email this address:

[email protected]


Be sure to tell them we want the game to be + horz. If you do E-mail them, please post that you did so here.

Wow, i'm glad I came across this thread. Prices have just about gotten as low as they are going to get on this one, and I was considering finally picking it up. The pic on the screenshot page looks really stretched though, and not in a good way.

I might just play this one with black bars.

It's my fault that it looks worse than normal. I took those screenshots. Back then, I thought that increasing the FOV could make up for being stretched, so the widescreen shot is both stretched and has increased FOV. I know better now.

what about changing the "DefaultFOV" value, your solution mentioned changing the MAxPayne_Gamemode->GM_ChangeFOV, how can one change the "DefaultFOV" value from within the console?

It's my fault that it looks worse than normal. I took those screenshots. Back then, I thought that increasing the FOV could make up for being stretched, so the widescreen shot is both stretched and has increased FOV. I know better now.

Oh, thank you for the heads up, Cranky. So this one might actually look "ok", relatively speaking, when stretched.

It's my fault that it looks worse than normal. I took those screenshots. Back then, I thought that increasing the FOV could make up for being stretched, so the widescreen shot is both stretched and has increased FOV. I know better now.

Oh, thank you for the heads up, Cranky. So this one might actually look "ok", relatively speaking, when stretched.

Personally, I think it's better to play it with black bars than stretched 20% horizontally. But that's my opinion of any game that stretches.

Everyone seems so concerned with FOV, but the real problem is the aspect ratio is not correct. You can swing the FOV up and down all you want, Max will still be a fat dwarf in widescreen.

Personally, I think it's better to play it with black bars than stretched 20% horizontally. But that's my opinion of any game that stretches.

First off, I may be dumb, but I couldn't find any rules so I don't know if it's not allowed to bump an old topic around here...

But my question is this: how do I just get the black bars? I'd much, much rather play it like that then play it stretched, but I don't see that option. When I play it in 1024 x 768, it just stretches that resolution to my laptop's monitor. When I play it in 1280 x 800, it stretches the game (as listed here), but is technically that resolution.

How do I get it letterboxed?

What you want is called pillarboxing (letterboxing means black bars on the top and bottom, and you want them on the side). How this is done depends on your graphics card. Or if you have an old graphics card that does not support aspect scaling (nVidia supported this long before ATI did), then it depends on your monitor. You'll want to do it through your graphics card if possible, though.

"Removed"