Widescreen Gaming Forum

A gallery of Surround-friendly interface screens presented with their single-screen counterparts. Because Hor+ is simply worth it. Enjoy if you can !

Additions are most welcome, please provide one single-screen and one surround screen for the comparison-enduced amazement of all.
Single-screen shot can be any AR (4:3, widescreen, whatever).
Surround shot can be any AR (15:4, 48:10, even faux Surround is okay).

Games listed in no particular order.

Colin McRae DiRT
Hop into holographic folderland...
16:10

48:10


Race Driver GRiD
Very nice background despite the strange letterboxing (widescreen is even anamorphic in places).
16:9

48:10


Colin McRae DiRT 2
Just like the whole caravan interface, all loading screens were clearly made for Surround. Notice the polaroid-like surround thumbnail on the left.
16:10

48:10


Overlord 2
Going Surround is like opening the gates to the infernal abyss.
16:10

48:10


Armed Assault 2
The real-time background scene is great for testing different "3D" (i.e rendering) resolutions on-the-fly.
16:10

48:10


Need For Speed: Shift
Not much to see on the side screens, but more floor tiles and moving arabesques can't hurt.
16:10

48:10


Torchlight
Saved games replace the main menu's limited architecture with a surround preview of the current map.
16:10

48:10


Wolfenstein
Surround wreckage & nazi patrol courtesy of dopefish: WidescreenFixer works wonders even on the main menu.
16:10

48:10


Operation Flashpoint: Dragon rising
Menus consist of Hor+ dioramas that slide into position over a stretched sky.
16:10

48:10


Lego Indiana Jones 2
The entire top-secret warehouse in one look.
16:10

48:10


East India Company
It's all about the ocean.
16:10

48:10


Sacred 2
If only the whole game could be as Hor+ as this...
16:10

48:10


Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Hardly more than pillarboxed... except for that blimp patrol flying across all three screens.
16:10

48:10


Star Trek D.A.C.
Menu background is essentially Vert-, but will be temporarily Hor+ each time a new resolution is set.
16:10

48:10


Batman: Arkham Asylum
Paddy's trick also works for the menu backgrounds (just enter the gallery, select a trophy to view, press your "FOV key", then exit). However that same FOV value is actually the VFOV of the menus and the HFOV of the gameplay... hence the Vert- oddities in this generally Hor+ game.
I used "fov 88" at 5040x1050 to match the 4:3 design.
4:3

48:10


Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
Gorgeous real-time rendered backgrounds that also demonstrate the impact of the aspect ratio over shader effects: less distant fog, stretched glare...
16:10

48:10

Very cool, this made me want to buy Wolfenstein till I realized it was still overpriced at $39.99

You could easily buy a second-hand disc for half that price... and donate the rest to dopefish. :P
Here's a second batch of MMMMs, old & new:

Sacraboar
16:10

48:10


TimeShift
4:3

15:4


Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
Very atmospheric scene with passers-by walking across the entire display.
4:3

15:4


The Saboteur
Using the hack made by Racer_S for v1.0. Like in Wolfenstein, no need to load a game to make sure the tool works !
16:10

48:10


Drakensang
Not the best example...
16:10

48:10


Fantasy Wars
Okay, this one is even worse.
4:3

48:10


Euro Truck Simulator
To think this elegant Hor+ showroom could've been some ugly stretched menu...
16:10

48:10


Flock!
Yes, the 3D scene is perfectly Hor+. Behold the destructive power of wrongly scaled 2D...
16:10

48:10


Fuel
Although it seems completely still, the background of each "camp" menu is rendered in real-time. Kinda makes up for the scariest mouse cursor ever.
16:9

48:10


HAWX
All menus are displayed over a Hor+ hangar, so plane selection is just as immersive as the rest of the game.
16:10

48:10

Feel free to raid any of my DR threads. I did the menus in a lot of them.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Any titles to suggest off the top of your head ?

Rise of Flight now has most all menu items on the center screen.
Sorry I don't have any screenshots for you, but it is quite nice and handy when setting up for a mission.

Yep it's great to have all menu items on the center screen at last, but the 3D background (plane showroom) is still Vert-. It won't do ! :P

the 3D background (plane showroom) is still Vert-. It won't do ! :P

I'm not concerned with that. Besides, there is a object Viewer, if you want to have a closer look at the stuff in the game.

Sure, but this thread is exclusively dedicated to Hor+ menu backgrounds :!:

I suppose we all have different priorities. The back ground can be a solid black backdrop and it would be fine with me. I just want menu buttons on the center screen. For me, that's all that is important. I really dislike game menus that have some on one side, with others on the other side. Like Test Drive Unlimited, for example. The menus stretch across the entire area, leaving some things unviewable with Bezel Management enabled. The pictures are of no importance as they serve no real purpose. In fact, I would be hard pressed to even tell you what most of my games have as a backdrop to the menus. It is just something I pay no attention to and don't care anything about. And, the tread title is Multi-Monitor Main Menus, not Multi-Monitor Main Menu Backdrops :!:
:P

In the shots above, both Star Trek D.A.C. and Fuel would be undesirable.
Star Trek D.A.C. appears some of the words would be cut off with BM on.
Fuel is a jumbled mess with buttons scattered around the screens.