Zeno Clash

[StingingVelvet]

Widescreen Grade: A
Ultra-Widescreen Grade: A
Multi-monitor Grade: B
4k Grade: Incomplete

Read Full Detailed Report - Zeno Clash

Zeno Clash is a first-person shooter/brawler developed by ACE Team. The game has an incredibly unique visual style and impressive graphics using the Source Engine from Valve. A PC exclusive, Zeno Clash controls and plays very smooth and is a must-play for fans of the genre.

4:3

16:10

16:9

3x1

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[The_cranky_hermit]

Any singleplayer anomalies?

Also, the windowboxed FMVs are a blemish.

And with this game, we finally have a WS supported game for every letter of the alphabet!

*gets rid of placeholders Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders and Zoop*

[StingingVelvet]

Any singleplayer anomalies?

Also, the windowboxed FMVs are a blemish.

Really? I assumed it was the same as pillarboxing. The intro is the only video I have seen, though there might be one at the end (I am on level 14 of 18 )...

No anomalies... game is pretty polished.

[The_cranky_hermit]

Pillarboxing = Black bars on two sides. Necessary when the screen is wider than the content
Windowboxing = Black bars on all four sides. No good reason for it.

[StingingVelvet]

I'm pretty sure it's meant to be dream-like... in the game you wake up after seeing these visions of your father-mother, which is the FMV.

As I said, all scenes after that are in-game with forced camera perspectives.

[Dem Pyros]

Cranky, I thought we said that using anamorphic cut scenes (for the sake of anamorphic cut scenes) was alright?

It seems to be the "windowboxing" you're referring to is just a vignette... where the video cut off from the sides is intentional.

[The_cranky_hermit]

Anamorphic FMVs are fine. Anamorphism means that the black bars on top and bottom get smaller as the screen gets wider. This isn't anamorphism. The black bars on top and bottom do not change size. If it were proper anamorphic, 16:10 and 16:9 would look like this:

[StingingVelvet]

Well I updated and gave the game a B+ as suggested... I don't really know if I agree with that, as the windowboxing seems like a style choice (dream-like) and is only used once, but... I bow to those with more experience.

Great game by the way.

[scavvenjahh]

As bitter as I am that this gem is only available on bloody Steam, I gotta agree with you. Cranky, is it really legit to bash a cut scene that scales properly in all ARs ? Is there any precedent ? (this reminded me of Dark Messiah, but this one has stretched FMVs in 16:10 in addition to black bars)

Sure, the devs clearly screwed up as there's not a single AR in which this sequence looks "right" (no black bars) BUT that's the whole point : not a single AR. As far as ws support is concerned, is there really any flaw ? :? I think we need a 5:4 shot to decide, and then again, I think I'd put my vote to certify this game.

[DaFox]

Yeah I'm with you guys as well, Honestly its not even widescreen related, it functions exactly the same in all aspect ratios.

[g00seberry]

I've tried this out myself, and it is definitely meant to be like this. It's pillar and letterboxed in all ARs. They then faded out the corners to black so it purposely looked like tunnel vision for the dream, but they just did it a but rubbishly.

Seeing as the grading is judging the change from 4:3 > Wide , this shouldn't be an issue.

[The_cranky_hermit]

Is there any precedent ?

There are 11 other games with windowboxed cut-scenes, which were considered blemishes.

Civilization
Civilization II
Dungeon Siege II
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Planescape: Torment
Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire
SimCity 4
Sins of a Solar Empire
Splinter Cell
Ultima VII
Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption

Sure, the devs clearly screwed up as there's not a single AR in which this sequence looks "right" (no black bars)

It looks right in 4:3 to me. The pillarboxing there seems to be intentional. And the letterboxing is necessary in order for the intentional pillarboxing to work. There's no reason, however, for 16:10/16:9 to have more pillarboxing than 4:3 does. And therefore, no reason that the letterboxing should remain constant.

They then faded out the corners to black so it purposely looked like tunnel vision for the dream,

That's probably the best way they could have achieved tunnel vision on 4:3. A better way to achieve it on widescreen, though, is to just use pillarboxing, the way I demonstrated.

[StingingVelvet]

Seeing as the grading is judging the change from 4:3 > Wide , this shouldn't be an issue.

Yeah, listing it as a widescreen-related flaw is pretty much inaccurate.

[The_cranky_hermit]

Even if you consider the 4:3 to be flawed to begin with, that makes the widescreen even more flawed.

[StingingVelvet]

Even if you consider the 4:3 to be flawed to begin with, that makes the widescreen even more flawed.

I think their point is that it is windowboxed exactly the same in all ratios, and scales perfectly for widescreen ratios. It is not at all widescreen related, it's an intentional "flaw" in order to make the memory seem hazy and dream-like.

[The_cranky_hermit]

I think their point is that it is windowboxed exactly the same in all ratios

Which is bad. It should be windowboxed *less* in ratios that approach the baseline, which appears to be 16:9.

[StingingVelvet]

I think their point is that it is windowboxed exactly the same in all ratios

Which is bad. It should be windowboxed *less* in ratios that approach the baseline, which appears to be 16:9.

But they didn't want the image to fill the screen in any resolution... they wanted black borders in all aspect ratios.

[scavvenjahh]

I have no idea how you can tell 16:9 is the baseline (without the black bars, I get a 16:10 picture), and honestly I don't have any idea of what they were trying to do. Haha ! I'm lost. Stating there's no good reason for the windowboxing doesn't really help. I don't know their reasons, but I can still see this as Hor+.

All the other titles are kinda old and their cut scenes are hard to compare with these ones. Half of them are 2D games ! Windowboxing in Civ II only occurs in higher resolutions. In Marvel : UA there's windowboxing in 16:10 only, Vampires Redemption is Vert-, Dungeon Siege 2 was obviously not designed for anything but 4:3, and Splinter Cell has... Hor+ letterboxed cut scenes :?

Zeno Clash may be weird, but I need better proof that it's flawed.

[Tanuki]

These answers might help an understanding...

Are the FMVs pixel-based?

Can you find the FMV files?

What is the source aspect ratio of the files?

Is the letterboxing encoded in the source files?

[The_cranky_hermit]

But they didn't want the image to fill the screen in any resolution... they wanted black borders in all aspect ratios.

Again, look at my pictures of the "ideal" implementation. They still have the black borders! The picture just isn't needlessly shrunken.

I have no idea how you can tell 16:9 is the baseline

By getting rid of the letterboxing on the 4:3 image. This creates a 1600x900 image with surreal-ish pillarboxing, which is what I believe they were aiming for.