Frontlines: Fuel of War

Post by **Mach1.9pants** » 09 Mar 2008, 21:31

Widescreen Grade: B
Multi-monitor Grade: C

Read Full Detailed Report - Frontlines: Fuel of War

Frontlines: Fuel of War is a near future online FPS in the Battlefield series style. The titular schtick is the 'frontline' mechanic which limits capping of flags to those on the frontline. Unlike many such online shooters it has no persistent stats and unlocks are only gained by in game kills during that round.

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 10 Mar 2008, 05:11

Can you re-do the first set of screenshots? The first two aren't from the same place, so they don't really demonstrate hor + behavior.

If you want to show that the surround is broken but don't want to take three new shots, you can just take a 4:3 shot and a 16:10 shot, and use those in place of the old 4:3 shot, leaving your original 16:10 -> surround comparison right below it.

Post by **Mach1.9pants** » 10 Mar 2008, 05:26

Can you re-do the first set of screenshots? The first two aren't from the same place, so they don't really demonstrate hor + behavior.

If you want to show that the surround is broken but don't want to take three new shots, you can just take a 4:3 shot and a 16:10 shot, and use those in place of the old 4:3 shot, leaving your original 16:10 -> surround comparison right below it.

Whoops I must have taken a step forward some how when switching between the screenshots. They are NOW in almost the same place is this OK? If not I will do them all again, cos I have to restart my PC to get back onto my 24"
Cheers
M1.9P

StingingVelvet · Post by **StingingVelvet** » 10 Mar 2008, 11:03

I like the single player campaign and play it a lot... the videos are anamorphic and not stretched, I can submit some pics if you refuse to load up the opening movie and test them out.

Post by **Mach1.9pants** » 10 Mar 2008, 11:32

I like the single player campaign and play it a lot... the videos are anamorphic and not stretched, I can submit some pics if you refuse to load up the opening movie and test them out.

No I absolutely REFUSE to have anything to do with it! ;)
LOL fair enough, I just never saw this as a SP game. The vids seemed cheesey and the SP quite different from the MP (ie you can drive AND shoot a jeep in SP, not MP) so no use for practice IMO. Same way I never played more than a few minutes of BF all, UT3, ETQW etc etc SP stuff. I never even realised people did!
So I will take some screenies of the opening vid (which I have only ever watched once or twice and now just ESC through) and remove my opinions of the SP from the DR.
Cheers
M1.9P
EDIT: vid and menu shots up for StingingVelvet; new screenies in the exact same place for Cranky :)

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 10 Mar 2008, 23:07

Thanks for re-doing the shots. They're close enough.

I noticed that comparing the 5:4 to the 16:10, the proportions don't seem to be consistent. So I tried stretching the 5:4 shot to 1365x1024 (a 4:3 resolution), and then when comparing the two, the proportions seemed right.

So I'm hypothesizing that 5:4 is *not* properly supported. 4:3 is, and using a 5:4 resolution makes the game use a 4:3 FOV frustum.

Also, the HUD seemed fine, unless I'm missing something. So my guess is that in your 16:10 shots, the HUD that seemed slightly stretched is actually perfect, and the HUD in the 5:4 shots is a bit too tall (but would be perfect at a 4:3 resolution).

Edit: Scrolling down a bit more, I saw your menu screenshots. It does in fact show a 4:3 option but not a 5:4 one.

==Singleplayer anomalies==

Can you do a comparison here too?

==Cut-scenes=

FYI, these are hor +, not anamorphic. Anamorphic would be if the black bars got smaller but the FOV frustum remained the same.

==Grading==

Probably a B+. I just want to see the scope comparison shots, and I also want to know if you still think the HUD is stretched.

BlueMak · Post by **BlueMak** » 11 Mar 2008, 00:09

WAIT, WAIT WAIT. The game uses Unreal 3 engine AND is Hor+ out of the box? Very nice.
I hope the campaign is longer than Call of Duty 4.

And to other developers, look at this game, you can have Hor+ too!!!

Post by **Mach1.9pants** » 11 Mar 2008, 00:55

Your right Cranky, the HUD is not stretched in WS but squashed in 5:4 d'oh sometimes I can't see the trees for the forest! :oops:
Now fixed (I hope) :)

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 11 Mar 2008, 02:14

Game graded. B+, coverage is 100%. The sole blemish is the stretched scope view (pillarboxing would be an appropriate way to handle this).

imk · Post by **imk** » 11 Mar 2008, 07:15

For the record, you can enable the console and windowed mode by editing the .ini files in C:Documents and SettingsMy DocumentsMy GamesFrontlines - Fuel of WarGCGameConfig.

In GCInput.ini:

[Engine.Console]
ConsoleKey=Tilde
TypeKey=SemiColon

In GCEngine.ini:

[WinDrv.WindowsClient]
StartupFullscreen=False

Using the console, you can adjust your FOV with the fov command.

Post by **Mach1.9pants** » 11 Mar 2008, 10:34

Thanks IMK, can I do this with STEAM? that would be great:)
Edit: Found it: C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappscommonfrontlines fuel of warGCGameConfig
Why do you have to run it in windowed mode?

imk · Post by **imk** » 12 Mar 2008, 04:27

Thanks IMK, can I do this with STEAM? that would be great:)
Edit: Found it: C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappscommonfrontlines fuel of warGCGameConfig
Why do you have to run it in windowed mode?

You can do it with Steam as well.

You don't have to use windowed mode. I just put that there in case you want to run it in a window. I personally like to run all my games in windowed mode.

Post by **Mach1.9pants** » 12 Mar 2008, 04:37

[quote]Thanks IMK, can I do this with STEAM? that would be great:)
Edit: Found it: C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappscommonfrontlines fuel of warGCGameConfig
Why do you have to run it in windowed mode?

You can do it with Steam as well.

You don't have to use windowed mode. I just put that there in case you want to run it in a window. I personally like to run all my games in windowed mode.
Thanks, but hey you are weird ;) windowed mode? I want maximum screen for maximum immersion- thus TH2Go
Thanks again :)

imk · Post by **imk** » 12 Mar 2008, 05:27

I use windowed because I'm a huge multi-tasker. When running games fullscreen, alt-tabbing becomes a major pain. The delays of switching back and forth, the way it resizes windows, and the games that sometimes don't recover from an alt-tab are several reason why I run in a window. I just use a maximized window. It still covers almost all of the entire screen, but at least I can alt-tab easily.

Post by **Mach1.9pants** » 12 Mar 2008, 05:42

Makes sense, I certainly don't multi-task when gaming...apart from talking rubbish to my mates on TS2!

Post by **scavvenjahh** » 26 Dec 2009, 20:01

==Cut-scenes==

This is of little import for the grading but this game has numerous cinematics of different kinds, each with a unique way to adapt to widescreen.

Both the title intro/trailer and the hand-drawn intro to the campaign are anamorphic.

4:3

16:10

16:9

As described in the DR, other pre-rendered cut-scenes are Hor+ (actually 16:9 content that gets cropped in lower ARs) including the Briefing FMVs.

4:3

16:10

16:9

Real-time rendered cut-scenes are Hor+ with the same 'theatrical letterboxing' in all ARs. (In this scene, it seems there's also more dust as the AR gets higher...)

4:3

16:10

16:9

==Surround Gaming Support==

GeneralAdmission released a fix for Hor+ Surround, see this thread for help & feedback.

Download the Frontlines FOV patch
Download the Frontlines FOV patch (Steam version) (unconfirmed yet, give it a try!)

Once FFOW.exe has been patched, in-game Aspect Ratio settings 4:3, 16:10 and 16:9 will actually correspond to 3x 5:4, 3x 16:10 and 3x 16:9 respectively. So selecting 16:10 will get you the correct FOV in 5040x1050 & 5720x1200.
The hacked exe does not appear to hinder online multiplayer with or without PunkBuster.

Gameplay: Hor+
HUD: stetched
FMVs: all Vert- or stretched
Real-time cut-scenes: Hor+

I did my best to get screenshots you can compare to the OP's (damn you Mach for taking screenies in random spots!). Details and FX are not guaranteed to be the same either.
(The first and fifth (scope) images have bad lighting/textures on most objects; stuff turns solid black as you approach, this is a glitch that seems to appear in v1.03 on the Gnaw map only - in all ARs.)

5040x1050 ("FOVpatched" exe, in-game AR "16:10")

Post by **Mach1.9pants** » 26 Dec 2009, 22:11

(damn you Mach for taking screenies in random spots!)

Mwahahahaaaa!

Wel I like to show different things in all the screenies to make it a little interesting :0

Nice work on the hack though, if I could get the damn game to run I would trial it for you :(

McKie · Post by **McKie** » 30 Jun 2011, 05:04

Is there any new things i should know about getting this game to look good in surround. bout ready to buy it for 5 bucks on steam and wanted to play it in surround notice that this post was from a while ago. is this hack still valid ?

Post by **GeneralAdmission** » 30 Jun 2011, 06:00

Is there any new things i should know about getting this game to look good in surround. bout ready to buy it for 5 bucks on steam and wanted to play it in surround notice that this post was from a while ago. is this hack still valid ?

AFAIK there were no subsequent game patches after releasing the hack. However, I don't remember anyone confirming if the Steam version works or not, so you might be taking a gamble. If scav sees this post maybe he can comment.

FYI, the retail version is dirt cheap @ Amazon. Hack was developed using this version.

McKie · Post by **McKie** » 30 Jun 2011, 06:56

Hey, thanks for the reply. I'll see if scav sees this in the next few days before i try it.

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