Widescreen Gaming Forum

[quote][quote]Thanks Yoda!, I couldn't take a screenshot to show people! That's exactly the bug I get when playing the game in DX9 mode with vista.

That looks like a driver issue. Are you guys running the Nvidia beta drivers 163.44? They strongly suggested it for Bioshock.

yup, got the betas up and running. i'm just gonna play the game with the crappy FOV until they release the DX10 fix for it...or 2k patches the game themselves.

Hey just to confirm I'm also using the latest betas too! Ooh and well spotted for the DX10 shadows Gabbo!!! I can see the difference now, its not much though is it lol... wow a new OS/DX10 card and all i get is slightly sharper shadows.. oOo

You know, whatever 2k says, I think this has been a textbook example of 'massive overreaction.'

I agree with the sensible posters in here — the game is awesome and was worth all the money I spent (I can't say that about a lot of games). At the same time, the game should have been released hor+, not vert-.

But really, that's about where the sensibilities end. The people that canceled their pre-orders are, to put it bluntly, pretty stupid. Depriving yourself of a great game because *gasp* it doesn't allow you to see 20% more on the sides is like saying, "Hey, that Porsche doesn't have side mirrors that let you see all 180 degrees behind you." — That's a stupid reason not to buy it if you were going to before you knew about it.

I find it amusing that people will not buy a game, not because it's doesn't work or has really crappy gameplay, but because they have to move the camera a bit more to see more. Heaven forbid someone make a game that lets 4:3 users an advantage - because truth be told, 2kgames knows that that's what it is, even if they claim they optimized it for widescreen first and then 'un-letterboxed' for the 4:3 users. Maybe they did; it doesn't make a difference.

But thousands of diggs and hundreds of complaints about it not being 'proper' widescreen? Why aren't people complaining more about it not unlocking properly, video driver problems causing BSODs, or other actual -issues-?

Now that the game has been hotfixed by Racer_S, would you newcomers please shut up about how this "destroys your faith in 2k" and how they're all "idiots for not properly supporting widescreen". They made a choice, and I see no reason why they should stick by it. If they say they planned for widescreen first, and then chose to expand top and bottom so 4:3 users wouldn't letterbox, why is that so unbelievable? The end result is the same: 16:9 shows up as a 'crop' of 4:3, but it can't hurt to at least have a little bit of trust in them.

Good for them for being on vacation. I would too, if I had just spent the last months making a game that tops the metacritic list of games.

Here's a hint: buy the game, play the game, and then come back and play it again with the patch Racer has so nicely provided us. If you tell me it made a grave difference in gameplay, tell me how and we can go from there. If you haven't played the game yet and are saying how it's wrecks it — pardon the language — shut the hell up.

Christ.

Would someone just give the devs and these people a TH2G set-up and let them see how V- (or however the devs want to spin it) is just absolutely wrong...

I can't see how playing this game on a TH2G with its V- leaves the game playable at all...

Just a report, I added the -dx9 switch to my shortcut (I am running vista x64 with a DX10 card, 8800GTS 640), and the hack works perfectly for me, with no detail reduction but everything proper FOV wise. It is an IMMENSE improvement.

[quote]Thanks Yoda!, I couldn't take a screenshot to show people! That's exactly the bug I get when playing the game in DX9 mode with vista.

That looks like a driver issue. Are you guys running the Nvidia beta drivers 163.44? They strongly suggested it for Bioshock.

Yes, I am.

Christ.

Would someone just give the devs and these people a TH2G set-up and let them see how V- (or however the devs want to spin it) is just absolutely wrong...

I can't see how playing this game on a TH2G with its V- leaves the game playable at all...

They actually developed for tall formats, either not realizing it or simply dissembling about it to take some heat off of the forums.

Their Vert- approach makes sense if we are to have thinner and taller monitors because it shows more of the top and bottom as the display gets taller. So the taller your monitor, the better your view. We do not however (nor is our actual physical vision set this way... we have our eyes side by side), we have shorter and wider monitors, in which case Horz+ makes sense because it shows more side to side as the display widens, so the wider your monitor, the better your view.

This is why Horz+ should be the default. We have plenty of people with monster widescreen setups (triplehead2go), but about zilch with massive tallscreen setups. If us widescreeners rotated our displays 90 degrees, we'd have a "huge" advantage over 4:3 gamers again! Bring that up on the forums to stifle the 4:3 people saying that widescreeners lose the advantage with vert-. We don't... it's still there, just rotated :)

I don't mean to be a dick or anything, and I'm grateful for the fix Racer_S, but is there any chance you could reassign those keys? I happen to be left handed so the numpad controls a lot of my stuff, * is my medpac key, and - is to hack, so every time I hit it the screen distorts. I know it's insignificant, but maybe you could make a lefty version of the patch? Anyways, thanks in advance if you decide to consider this.

Hi Gravy,

:welcome

After you apply the FOV change, alt-tab out of the game and close the utility. The new FOV will stick without messing up your keys.

(I'm a numpad-using lefty too) ;)

Just to confirm, since my last post I saw the advice to try using the fix when using the Games Explorer DX9 mode option so I thought I should give it a go.

That’s just another user posting to say that the fix worked perfectly in DX9 mode but unfortunately I simply can’t get it to function at all in DX10 on Vista 32 bit.

On a side note, I personally do see a large degradation in overall (lighting & water quality specifically) in DX9 Vs DX10 I could live with that but my main reason for posting was to say I have come across the reported hellish audio fault in DX9 where I don’t have any issue in DX10.

Hope you will be able to get it 100% on Vista 32 in DX10, I have cancelled my pre-order in the mean time as the default WS was pretty much unplayable to me before the fix coupled with 2K’s attitude since the initial reports but after seeing the correct FOV on my own screen there is no way I would bother playing it any other way now.

I will look forward to your updated fix so I can re-place my order.

Thanks again for the work your doing on this.

Last but not least, I don’t know about anyone else but I cant Alt-Tab with this game, using the BioS Beta drivers from nZone (I think they are called nZone, I never really bothered to look), just thought I should mention it in case others have the same issue, the keypad binds worked for me though by going on what my eye could see.

[quote]

I am soooo fed up with this whole thing .... and I no longer care ... I with Racer_S's help have a fix to play in TripleHead ... that's what matters to me ... :mrgreen:

And ... I hope along the way a few will enjoy the hack and TRUE widescreen

Hi.

I'm sorry to hear your fed up and no longer care. I know it's hard, all the negativity from obstinate devs and trolls but if you can, brush all that aside.

Focus on the positive and not the negative. Without guys like yourself and Racer_S a very large portion of the gaming community would be left high and dry. I know I'm more than gratefull for all your concientious effort and I know many many others also feel as I do in regard to sentiments of gratitude.

If it wasn't for the efforts of people such as yourself, imbecilic, careless devs would continue to treat gamers with the contempt and lack of respect as people that they are showing them in this case. They need people like yourself who will call a spade a spade and not tollerate their patronizing self righteousness.

All power to you guys, keep up the GREAT work, brush off the negativity and allow the knowledge, that your work is greatly appreciated by a like minded community, motivate you to keep soldiering on. :wink: :wink:

Retried in DX9 mode it works, still no dice in DX10.

Now my question is: If the FOV were something that the majority of widescreen users found appropriate (not changed to, but had originally been). BUT the 4:3 version still maintained the same FOV using added horizontal space instead of letterboxing, would we still be having this argument?

Yes, we would. It might not be quite as big an issue, but there's still a problem - explained in my next comment.

I basically want to know is: Do the members of this forum feel that Widescreen HAS to have a wider FOV for games than 4:3 in every case? And if so, why?

If the FOV isn't wider, it's not just a matter of there being less environment visible, it also changes the perceived perspective. As you may have noticed the vert- implementation has the effect of making widescreen looked zoomed-in in comparison to the 4:3. With a hor+ implementation 4:3 and widescreen look the exact same in terms of perspective/zoom, there's just a little extra visible environement on the sides in widescreen. The thing is that perspective/zoom has a much greater effect on the experience than how much of the environment you can see. To keep the game experience as consistent as possible you should keep the perspective/zoom the same for all aspect ratios and simply vary how much horizontal space is visible, to do that as the aspect gets wider, the FOV must get wider along with it.

If you wish to know my personal opinion it is that the developers, much like a movie director, are entitled to their creative vision and if they say they intended the fov to be this way I will take them at their word and enjoy the game as they delivered it. (However I am curious to try the fov hack after I complete the game and see how the experience differs for better or worse)

Yes it is their choice, but all art has standards by which it's judged. Say for example that you couldn't save your game, and they claimed that the lack of saves was a creative choice because they want you to play through the game in one sitting. Would you accept this, would you not criticize them for not having save capability like every other game on the market?

Many other video game developers have implemented hor+ widescreen, largely considered to be the correct, or at the very least, superior widescreen implementation because of the perspective/zoom issue as described above. Why should we not hold Bioshock to the same standards established by other games? So while it may have been their choice, it doesn't mean that it was the best one, or that we have to like it.

One of the great things about games is that criticism such as this can be much more easily addressed than other artistic mediums. Heck Racer_S did it in less than 48 hours and he wasn't even involved the game's development. So, we might seem spoiled for asking them to match a technical standard set by other games, but in the end we're really not asking for that much.