Poor resolution support, a funny observation

[Obi_Kwiet]

Has anyone noticed that games have become more restrictive with resolutions these days. It's seems that many are preprogrammed to support only a few; 640x480, 1024x768, 1280x1024, and 1600x1200. That's it! You have to resort to hacks and .cfg edits to get anything optimal! And worse almost any game made before 2004 will support any res. your monitor can handle. Why the heck did devs decide to start limiting our options like this? What gives? Why did it get worse?

 

[Martyr]

it just seems like that because a certain company is lazy. and they bought alot of titles

 

[Kahnvex]

the thing I feel there is no excuse for are the games that come out on the 360 with native widescreen support that don't offer the same on their PC counterparts.

 

[BronxBartoni]

it just seems like that because Electronic Arts is lazy. and they bought alot of titles

Got that for ya.

 

[Frosteh]

Just the difference between a good game and a bad one, older games like UT99 you could pass pretty much any resoltion you wanted and it would work.

I think with the different aspect ratio's being introduced that's caused problems, we have 3 very common aspect ratios of 4:3, 5:4, and 16:10 all need to be catered for and all need the correct visual adjustments to huds and menu's etc.

 

[oVerCaffeinated]

Having a different resolution than your competitors is cheating

 

[LuminaryJanitor]

It's seems that many are preprogrammed to support only a few; 640x480, 1024x768, 1280x1024, and 1600x1200.

What makes it worse is that 1280x1024 isn't even a 4:3 resolution, often leaving CRT users with nothing between 1024x768 and 1600x1200. As well as giving a lot of people the impression that 1280x1024 fits in with the rest of that list, when they should be using 1280x960.

 

[Frosteh]

What makes it worse is that 1280x1024 isn't even a 4:3 resolution, often leaving CRT users with nothing between 1024x768 and 1600x1200. As well as giving a lot of people the impression that 1280x1024 fits in with the rest of that list, when they should be using 1280x960.

Yeah an all to common mistake, frustrates the crap out of me I must say.

Also irritating to see that a lot of 4:3 CRT users have 1280 x 1024 as their desktop sizes >.<

 

[sculelos]

Yeah an all to common mistake, frustrates the crap out of me I must say.

Also irritating to see that a lot of 4:3 CRT users have 1280 x 1024 as their desktop sizes >.<

Hehe, yea it is quite irritating, but I also think it's irritating to see no native resolutions on lcds.

 

[MrFace]

Yeah an all to common mistake, frustrates the crap out of me I must say.

Also irritating to see that a lot of 4:3 CRT users have 1280 x 1024 as their desktop sizes >.<

I dont know why people get their panties in a bunch. I use 1280x1024 on my work computers, how does this make me a bad person?

 

[sculelos]

I dont know why people get their panties in a bunch. I use 1280x1024 on my work computers, how does this make me a bad person?

It doesn't make you a bad person, but it does stretch your image horizontally a little bit, but if you like it that way by all means keep it.

 

[TheCommander]

Isn't 1152x864 4:3?

 

[Frosteh]

I dont know why people get their panties in a bunch. I use 1280x1024 on my work computers, how does this make me a bad person?

No one said it does.

You're not using a correct ratio resolution for the aspect ratio of your monitor, if you don't mind the resulting deformed picture then thats fine. I find it irritating that people spend money on PC's but don't take the time to set them up correctly thats all, no big deal.

 

[MrFace]

No one said it does.

You're not using a correct ratio resolution for the aspect ratio of your monitor, if you don't mind the resulting deformed picture then thats fine. I find it irritating that people spend money on PC's but don't take the time to set them up correctly thats all, no big deal.

Maybe we aren't so prissy about such things? 1280x1024 looks fine, and it looks a HELLUVA lot better than running 1024x768 on a 19" LCD

 

[Martyr]

Maybe we aren't so prissy about such things? 1280x1024 looks fine, and it looks a HELLUVA lot better than running 1024x768 on a 19" LCD

lcd vs crt makes a difference

 

[BinarySynapse]

Just the difference between a good game and a bad one, older games like UT99 you could pass pretty much any resoltion you wanted and it would work.

I think with the different aspect ratio's being introduced that's caused problems, we have 3 very common aspect ratios of 4:3, 5:4, and 16:10 all need to be catered for and all need the correct visual adjustments to huds and menu's etc.

you forgot the fourth one 16:9, 1280x720 and 1920x1080. but it's not that common on PC's I guess. (unless you use a HDTV for a PC display)

 

[Sheazle]

I'm using a westy 37" 1080p LCD as my primary display (it's mainly a media center pc, but I've got a 7950GT in it for gaming when the girlfriend isn't home). most games support 1920x1080, but some don't. (Empire Earth 2 is the only one I can think of atm.) But I know there have been others. It's really a pain in the ass trying to play at other resolutions, the monitor does a good enough job scaling other resolutions, but it will never look as good as native.

It's really not that much to ask, It has more to do with the graphics card/drivers than with the coding of the game anyway. It's just laziness.

 

[LuminaryJanitor]

Yeah an all to common mistake, frustrates the crap out of me I must say.

Also irritating to see that a lot of 4:3 CRT users have 1280 x 1024 as their desktop sizes >.<

Yeah, annoys the hell out of me, too... I thought I was the only one . With the possible exception of the guy at Valve who felt the need to label 1280x1024 as an LCD resolution in the HL2 settings.

Maybe we aren't so prissy about such things? 1280x1024 looks fine, and it looks a HELLUVA lot better than running 1024x768 on a 19" LCD

A 19" LCD is probably going to be 1280x1024 native, so this resolution will look perfect for you (screens like yours are, as far as I know, the sole reason this resolution exists). If you ran it at 1280x960, everything would be slightly stretched out vertically.

 

[BinarySynapse]

Yeah, annoys the hell out of me, too... I thought I was the only one . With the possible exception of the guy at Valve who felt the need to label 1280x1024 as an LCD resolution in the HL2 settings.


A 19" LCD is probably going to be 1280x1024 native, so this resolution will look perfect for you (screens like yours are, as far as I know, the sole reason this resolution exists). If you ran it at 1280x960, everything would be slightly stretched out vertically.

Umm, 1280x1024 came out long before LCD's were capable of displaying 1024x768. I have a 21" CRT that displays 1800x1440, which is a 5:4 resoltion and shows 1280x1024 perfectlly, but I've never seen a LCD with that resolution.

 

[LuminaryJanitor]

I have a 21" CRT that displays 1800x1440, which is a 5:4 resoltion and shows 1280x1024 perfectlly, but I've never seen a LCD with that resolution.

Is it actually a 5:4 monitor (and not just a 4:3 monitor running a 5:4 resolution)? I've never even heard of a 5:4 CRT.

 

[BinarySynapse]

Is it actually a 5:4 monitor (and not just a 4:3 monitor running a 5:4 resolution)? I've never even heard of a 5:4 CRT.

HP P1110 max resolution 1800x1440@85 Hz. Images look perfectly shaped at 1280x1024 and 1800x1440. 4;3 res's I have to adjust the vertical height down to shapen everything up. But even then you can't tell it's not fillnig the whole screeen compared to other CRTs.

 

[Frosteh]

you forgot the fourth one 16:9, 1280x720 and 1920x1080. but it's not that common on PC's I guess. (unless you use a HDTV for a PC display)

I wouldn't consider 16:9 common in PC displays I think this is more of a one off, this is a proper cinematography aspect ratio used for cameras, movies and TV displays.

Maybe we aren't so prissy about such things? 1280x1024 looks fine, and it looks a HELLUVA lot better than running 1024x768 on a 19" LCD

Who said anything about 1024x768, thats another 4:3 resolution and shouldn't be used on a LCD which has a 5:4 aspect ratio.

It's perfectly simple, commonly LCD's have a 5:4 aspect ratio, unless they're widescreen in which case they're commonly 16:10

Commonly CRT's use 4:3 ratio.

Correct 4:3 resolutions
640 480
800 600
1024 768
1280 960
1600 1200
1920 1440
2048 1536

Correct 5:4 resolutions
???
1280 1024
???

I dont know any common resolutions below or above 1280 1024 for LCD's but if you divide the width (in pixels) by the height a correct ration will give you 1.25

1280/1024 = 1.25

1024 768 is not a 5:4 ratio and should not be used with a LCD which has a 5:4 ratio.