Widescreen Gaming Forum

It has been years that the black bars on the top and bottom for the game is getting annoying on resolutions narrower than 16:9 and I would like to request a method to expand the vertical fov and HUD for resolutions like 1440x1080 or other portrait aspect ratio to be in Vert+ so that more of the vertical space is shown like the standard 4:3 ratio. I know it's possible to have Hor+ scaling for wider ratios though.

I have not tested your screen-size. But with some monkeying you may well be able to fill screen on this game. Have you tried:
1. windowed (low chance)

2. High chance: FWS with 3 FAKE VERTICAL monitors (2 short fake screens on top & bottom of a fake center screen of 16:9 resolution).
A. Go to FWS menu Settings, Configuration, Display Detection. Checkmark Enable Detection Override
B. Enter Width & Height (your real fullscreen), HUD W&H (your fake 16:9 center's size), HUDX (zero), HUDY (the height of your top-fake-screen).
C. Horizontal Display Count = 1, Vertical Display Count = 3.
D. Save changes.
E. If uncertain of the math, tell me your resolution...

3. High chance: Failing #2, try #1 & #2 together.

Hints in link below. But it's for manual PLP, so you must fake-out FWS bit different (vertically instead of horizontally).

http://www.wsgf.org/blog/imusrt/2015/10/23/sonic-all-stars-racing-transformed-manual-plp-instructions-2013

I have a 16:9 display and I tried that. That didn't work. Looks like there has to be a new way to get rid of the borders as I am testing with a 4:3 resolution I have.

I am hoping we have misunderstood each other.

1. In FWS Detection Override, fill in these details & try the game (if your resolution is 1440x1080):

Width: 1440
Height: 1080
Hud Width: 1440
Hud Height: 810 (which is 1440/16x9)
Horizontal Display Count: 1
Vertical Display Count: 3 (fake top & bottom)
Hud X: 0
Hud Y: 135 (which is 1080 minus 810 divided by 2 = height of fake top)

2. Worse idea:
For certain problems (e.g. your letterboxing problem: bars on top & bottom), a single-fix won't work for other games.
This is because every game is different (re letterboxing issues & code required to fix each case). You need complex per-game fix.
So if this tall-resolution-fixer tool was created, it would require a plugin (with testing & development) for every single game it supports. This will not happen, tall resolutions are not popular enough.

3. Better idea:
What may happen, however, is the improvement of FWS. This is your best & easiest hope (followed by hex/memory edit, very hard for letterboxing).
So I am suggesting you try hard to get FWS to work. And if it won't, contact FWS developer & state your 4:3 issue. And state above test you have attempted & failed.
FWS has the potential to fix 4:3, using above monkeying. If it doesn't work, FWS should be improved by the developer to allow it. Thereby supporting 4:3. This specific feature you should request.