Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hello all --

I've searched for this topic in the forum and I'm probably just missing it somewhere. Sorry to ask what I'm sure must be a frequent newbie question, but considering it will weigh heavily on whether I buy a WS monitor, I would appreciate your input.

So...what happens when you run a game without a WS solution on a WS monitor? Does it just run normally but in 4:3 in the middle of the screen? Are there any negative consequences of this? I suspect not, but I just want to make sure.

Thanks!! :D

hawkeye

Depends on the monitor and/or the settings of your video card, but one of two things will happen:

(a) The 4:3 res will be stretched to fill the width of the monitor, leaving no black space but causing the aspect ratio to be screwed.

(b) The 4:3 view will appear in the middle of the screen, at the correct aspect ratio with no stretch, but with black bars on either side.

Some monitors have the ability to select between either, some can only do one or the other, and sometimes you can select what you want with the control panel of your video card.

Ahhh...that makes perfect sense. But it also begs the question...how do you answer those questions for a particular monitor? Is there a way to know ahead of time how that will be handled? In the reading I've done, I can't decipher that from monitor descriptions/specs. Maybe I'm just missing it?

Actually, it might help to expand the previous post a bit.

I'm planning a Dell 30" Ultrasharp WS with an ATI X1950XTX video card. Now I would think that that combo would offer such flexibility, but what should I look for in the specs that will tell me for sure?

Thanks!

I can confirm that the ATI drivers will not offer any black bars. So, look for a monitor that has scaling. If you can give me the exact model of the monitor, I might be able to find some information about it (just a google search).

Now, older Nvidia cards had scaling built in, but a few on this board have said their 7900s do not offer it.

Thanks for the info Rich (I think!) :D

The monitor is the Dell 30" Ultrasharp Flat Panel.

If I get the link insert right, you can find it here...

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&sku=222-0863&redirect=1

Unfortunately Dell doesn't give much in the way of specs, but I'm sure I could call them if I had to.

Just to make sure I'm clear on what you said above. The ATI cards will NOT give black bars which means the game could be stretched and distorted to the point where it at least looks bad and may be unplayable? Or is that overstating the effect?

And of course that's only for games that do not provide a WS option or for which there is a WS solution/hack. It seems like a lot of games are covered here (especially the most popular ones) so I'm thinking that would be somewhat rare? Fair to say?

hawkeye

Now, older Nvidia cards had scaling built in, but a few on this board have said their 7900s do not offer it.

That's strange. My 7900 offers the same 4 options for handling widescreen that my 6800 did. Although I only use the option that stretches while preserving the aspect ratio, so the other modes might be glitchy.

Gosh darnit I shoulda browsed the site a little more thoroughly. The Dell monitor is included in the Monitors List and there are a couple of reviews. Still can't tell whether it scales or not, but I'll ask over there.

Thanks guys!

[quote]
Now, older Nvidia cards had scaling built in, but a few on this board have said their 7900s do not offer it.

That's strange. My 7900 offers the same 4 options for handling widescreen that my 6800 did. Although I only use the option that stretches while preserving the aspect ratio, so the other modes might be glitchy.
When I got my ViewSonic VX2025wm, I found I could get black bars by preserving the aspect ratio using the NVIDIA control panel, since the monitor would stretch if left to itself. However, this was when running a 6600GT. The card was not powerful enough for what I wanted, so I upgraded to a 7600GT, but then the preserving of aspect ratio option would cause an Out of Range error on the monitor and I had no choice but to let things stretch. A common issue, I tried the suggestion made of using the other DVI port, but it had no effect.

Funny how a newer card lost functionality that the older cards had. :lol:

Thanks for the info Rich (I think!) :D

The monitor is the Dell 30" Ultrasharp Flat Panel.

If I get the link insert right, you can find it here...

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&sku=222-0863&redirect=1

Unfortunately Dell doesn't give much in the way of specs, but I'm sure I could call them if I had to.

Just to make sure I'm clear on what you said above. The ATI cards will NOT give black bars which means the game could be stretched and distorted to the point where it at least looks bad and may be unplayable? Or is that overstating the effect?

And of course that's only for games that do not provide a WS option or for which there is a WS solution/hack. It seems like a lot of games are covered here (especially the most popular ones) so I'm thinking that would be somewhat rare? Fair to say?

hawkeye

A quick google search brought up this review: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1908451,00.asp
"Since the display has no built-in scaler or video processing circuitry, any scaling is entirely dependent on the quality of the video card's scaling." Monitor looks great though.. the review sounds pretty good.

As far as I know (I read through quite a few forums cause I own an ATI card), there is no solution to get black bars on the ATI cards. If a game doesn't support it, yeah, the monitor will stretch it. It doesn't look that bad, but it's enough where you'll notice it. Personally, I usually try to stay away from games who doesn't support widescreen (I own a Viewsonic who doesn't have any scaling).

Most of the newer games have widescreen support, or they can hacked or edited (woohoo for widescreen gaming forums!) with help on here. In the past year of owning my widescreen monitor, I've only run across a few games that stretch (older games I installed), but if I like the game enough I'll just live with it.