Playing games in non native resolutions for LCD

[osirus35]

I have been looking into taking my first dive into the LCD realm and I had a couple of questions which I have not seem to have found the answers to while searching these and other forums.

First off im an avid gamer and like to play many types of games. Many of the games I can run 1600x1200 but most of the time I play 1024x768. Lets assume I get a screen with native res 1600x1050 or even 1920 x 1200 (nice size for watching movies and play WoW). If i needed to run a game at 1280 x 800 beacuse of it is a demanding game would the game look just as good on the bigger screen (scaled down of course) opposed to a screen which has a native resolution of 1280 x 800?

Also do you have any suggestions for a nice gaming LCD monitor?

 

[vlad_Swe]

In my experience, the quality of down-scaling from native resolutions on LCDs is mainly based on the original resolution of the monitor. You'll see overall better results running 1024x768 on a 1600x1200 native screen than on a 1280x1024 native screen.

As for how to handle resolution scaling, I'm not sure whether different manufacturers differ in quality, but I'm quite happy with the way my VP201b handles lower resolutions. Leaving the scaling to the card instead of the monitor is also a way of getting better (or worse) results.

 

[TheRapture]

osirus, I know my GTX control panel has options to control scaling, i.e., if I want to play a game at 1024x768, I can choose to either have it displayed in a "window" with black bars on all 4 sides, or I can tell it to "stretch" the 1024x768 image to full screen. The stretched image does not look as good obviously, but you get all of the speed associated with the smaller res.


So yes, if you use the "window" option you can play games and keep them crisp and sharp.

 

[kelim]

osirus, I know my GTX control panel has options to control scaling, i.e., if I want to play a game at 1024x768, I can choose to either have it displayed in a "window" with black bars on all 4 sides, or I can tell it to "stretch" the 1024x768 image to full screen.

Are you doing that with Forceware?

 

[TheRapture]

Are you doing that with Forceware?

yep....you can choose to have the card do the scaling or the display.....

 

[osirus35]

right now im looking at the Gateway FPD2185W (seems to be a pretty good choice for a 20" widescreen lcd) but i just wanted to clarify. For CoD 2 I play at 1024x768. Would i be able to scale the image down on the gateway to a widescreen res similar to 1024x768 and have it still look good?

Also any other 20" widescreen lcd suggestions?

 

[TheRapture]

right now im looking at the Gateway FPD2185W (seems to be a pretty good choice for a 20" widescreen lcd) but i just wanted to clarify. For CoD 2 I play at 1024x768. Would i be able to scale the image down on the gateway to a widescreen res similar to 1024x768 and have it still look good?

Yes, you can....it will play in a window on the display with black borders around the top and sides, the image will be crisp still because it IS actually running at the native res of the monitor....

 

[Zak]

I
.....taking my first dive into the LCD realm....
If i needed to run a game at 1280 x 800 ...
would the game look just as good on a bigger screen ... opposed to a screen which has native res. 1280 x 800?
Also do you have any suggestions for a nice gaming LCD monitor?

Yes, if you have a Digital LCD monitor and quality Digital video card.
Let the card manage LCD's "scaling" (size n' shape of the screen-picture)----and you'll have the "best of both worlds",
I.e. the biggest undistorted game screen your DVI digital video card can draw.
Of course, you can make your game-screen smaller on a big panel.
I never do, I always go for biggest, but that's just me,

An LCD has only one "native resolution".
But if it's a digital LCD controlled by digital video card (use "Display Adapter Scaling") it can "digitally-draw" flawless un-distorted screen-pics at MANY resolutions.
In some cases, pic will fill whole screen.
In some cases, pic has black border, 2 sides.
In some cases, pic has black border, top n bottom.
In some cases, pic has black border all 4 sides.

If pic is distorted (at "non-native resolution") the Gamer probably has Display controls not set optimally, or set wrong, or he's running his LCD in analog VGA mode, instead of digital DVI mode.
(And prolly complaining "LCD's have lousy pics at non-native resolutions").

EXAMPLE:
From Manual, here's the resolutions my LCD can run at.
A digital (DVI) video card (when your Display-ctrl is set to "Display Adapter Scaling") can draw flawless pics at all these resolutions.
At any Rez chosen below, the DVI card calculates how big it can make the pic (without distortion) then draws it.

At the lower resolutions, the pic will be very coarse n' ugly-----but accurate, un-distorted.
As you go each higher rez, the same pic will look nicer and nicer.
Till you finally reach "supreme-niceness", the highest rez it can go (an LCD's "native rez") ...
640x480
720x400
800x600
832x624
1024x768
1152x720
1152x870
1152x900
1280x768
1280x960
1280x1024
1600x1000
1600x1200
1680x1050
1920x1080
1920x1200 *** (HP-L2335 23" Digital-Analog LCD).

 

[TheGoat Eater]

OK - got a problem, I can't find "Display Adapter Scaling" in forceware for use with my widescreen LCD - (Viewsonic VA1912wb - which I think has problems with scaling) Can you help point me in the right direction?

 

[TheRapture]

OK - got a problem, I can't find "Display Adapter Scaling" in forceware for use with my widescreen LCD - (Viewsonic VA1912wb - which I think has problems with scaling) Can you help point me in the right direction?

Under the screen cap I have shown below....

 

[TheGoat Eater]

but in nView display settings I don't have the option "Digital Flat Panel Settings" -WTF?-

I have a 6800GT w/ ForceWare 82.12, and a Viewsonic VA1912wb

 

[TheRapture]

but in nView display settings I don't have the option "Digital Flat Panel Settings" -WTF?-

I have a 6800GT w/ ForceWare 82.12, and a Viewsonic VA1912wb

You are using DVI connection yes? And here is where the settings are...

 

[Zak]

You guys don't need this, but a newby might.

Where to find the video-card buttons that control LCD screen "Size n' Shape".....

Click "Start" icon on desktop, it opens.
Put mouse on "Settings" and click on "Control Panel".
Then dbl-clk "Display" icon.
Go to "Settings", "Advanced" and you see folders at top.
One of them has Name of your video card (mine says "GeForce 6800 GT").
Open the folder. If you have Nvidia card you;ll see 4 control buttons and a small "picture-screen" underneath.

Click on any of the 4 buttons.
That little 'pic-screen" instantly shows you what the button does to "size n' shape" of the LCD screen.
If you want your Video card to control the screen, click "Display Adapter Scaling" button.
If you want LCD to control the screen, click "Monitor Scaling" button.
I prefer 'Adapter Scaling' cuz Nvidia cards have so many controls a Gamer can really 'tweak" his LCD (its Size, Shape, Color, Brightness, K-Temp, Contrast, etc.).
ATI cards prolly do too.
Note: the other two buttons, you can find out their function by experimenting.
When you've finally made your choice, hit "Apply" button and go play yer game.

PS: make sure the LCD is recognized by WinXP as a "digital" LCD.
If its not, install the drivers that came with your LCD

 

[TheGoat Eater]

You are using DVI connection yes? And here is where the settings are...

DVI -yes

In the middle section in device settings color correction is the only option showing - device adjustments is not showing (I'm no noob, the option isn't there). I installed all of the drivers - I'll reinstall them again.

 

[TheRapture]

DVI -yes

In the middle section in device settings color correction is the only option showing - device adjustments is not showing (I'm no noob, the option isn't there). I installed all of the drivers - I'll reinstall them again.

Wasn't trying to say you were a newb Just trying to help....I missed that one a few times at first too....

Sounds like your display is not being deteced as "digital"....

 

[TheGoat Eater]

Sorry about that - this is getting me a little (a lot) frusterated as I am using the DVI, but the option should be there. I do know that these monitors have issues with scaling but it should be in the videocard options too - Right?

 

[TheGoat Eater]

can anyone help me figure out this problem w/ my monitor - I'm not sure what to do now

 

[peacetilence]

In games it's not as bad as you would imagine. There are the absolutist elitists who must have everything perfect, who can afford to put up 100's-1000's of $ dollars up for marginal performance enhancements (1-2 fps) who will say that it is blasphemy to run LCD's at non native resolution. You would almost think that the screen would become distorted and look like pixelated inverse colored garbage the way some of these people talk about it. All that happens when you use a non native res on an LCD is that the screen becomes slightly more blurry. Getting more blurry the lower from native you go.

Before I owned my 7800GTX512 I played FEAR at 1024x800 on my 2405FPW. Sure it's wasn't as crisp as running it at native but it sure as hell beats trying to run that game at 1920x1200 at 10 fps. IMO scaling on LCD's is nowhere near as big a deal as people make it out to be.

 

[burntflesh]

In nView display settings > device settings untick "treat digital display as hdtv" , hit apply Device adjustments option should appear. Hope that helps.

 

[ras2a]

IMO scaling on LCD's is nowhere near as big a deal as people make it out to be.

I suppose that, if LCD monitors are clearer than most CRT display's, then this bluriness would have less of an impact than one might think? Especially if you were a new CRT owner and used to 'less than pin sharp' images?

 

[jaminus]

The xbox 360, even though its got an ATI R500 GPU that dominates virtually all other PC video cards on the market, lacks advanced scaling options using the VGA output. My Gateway FPD2185W also has no scaling options in VGA mode, but fortunately, it does a very good job scaling 768p VGA to the panel native res of 1680x1050. It is not perfect, but compared to most LCDs, the FPD2185W has great scaling processing.