what will a larger monitor do for me in RTS?

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BottomsUp

Gawd
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Aug 29, 2010
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Hi

I have had a 1680x1050 monitor for a long time and have never really considered upgrading because I'm a 99% FPS player and prefer to purchase mid range VGA vs high end. For example I currently have a GTX470 that I paid $200 for at the time and that was the max $$ i could justify given how much I play.

So...around Christmas I discovered Starcraft2 and like it. I've been trying to get all the achievements in SP mode, but still suck major in MP mode. One thing I've wondered is if a bigger monitor and higher res would allow me to see more of the map at once? That is the sole reason I'm even posting this since I don't care about needing to use less AA or having a larger monitor in general.

To net it down will I see substantially more map space with a 1900x1200 monitor vs 1680x1050? screenshot comparisons would be great. Apologies if this is a newb Q.

Thx
 
1920x1200 monitor will not do anything for you because they are both (1920/1680) 16:10 monitors. If you have a 16:9 monitor you will see slightly larger area.
 
Starcraft 2 is +hor fixed vert based upon your aspect ratio, and is limited to single screen. You basically see more horizontally with a wider aspect ratio resolution. For a comparison see here -
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6251839/index.html

Now this does not necessarily need a wider aspect ratio monitor. For instance if you use a 1920x1200 screen, you can have it display a 1920x1080 resolution with black bars. Likewise even with your current screen, you can run at a lower 16:9 resolution to get the same viewing area. Of course non 1:1 scaling has issues of its own in terms of image quality.
 
limitedaccess said:
Starcraft 2 is +hor fixed vert based upon your aspect ratio, and is limited to single screen. You basically see more horizontally with a wider aspect ratio resolution. For a comparison see here -
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6251839/index.html

Now this does not necessarily need a wider aspect ratio monitor. For instance if you use a 1920x1200 screen, you can have it display a 1920x1080 resolution with black bars. Likewise even with your current screen, you can run at a lower 16:9 resolution to get the same viewing area. Of course non 1:1 scaling has issues of its own in terms of image quality.
Click to expand...

^ Yes, exactly what he said. I didn't elaborate haha.
 
refraxion said:
1920x1200 monitor will not do anything for you because they are both (1920/1680) 16:10 monitors. If you have a 16:9 monitor you will see slightly larger area.
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What?

1680x1050=1764000 pixels
1920x1200=2304000 pixels

1.3 times larger area will definitely be helpful. Also, 16:9 ratio might make the area wider, which may be beneficial in FPS, but won't do much in RTS games, especially since most 16:9 monitors don't go above 1080P.
 
spydermonkey said:
What?

1680x1050=1764000 pixels
1920x1200=2304000 pixels

1.3 times larger area will definitely be helpful. Also, 16:9 ratio might make the area wider, which may be beneficial in FPS, but won't do much in RTS games, especially since most 16:9 monitors don't go above 1080P.
Click to expand...

You are right in terms of the physical characteristics of the monitor, however what the monitor inevitably displays is determined by the software. And in this case the software, Starcraft 2, does not work that way. Most games nowadays are developed along a principal of +hor fixed vert. Meaning regardless of resolution/aspect ratio the game will display the same view vertically, and more horizontally depending on the aspect ratio of the resolution used.

You do not get more screen space in games designed this way like you would with desktop 2D content with a higher resolution.

The best example of this is portrait eyefinity/surround setups. If you look at the screenshots they typically display the same on screen viewing area as a single monitor used in that setup would despite being 3x the resolution.
 
I am pretty sure you will see more map area, but don't quote me on it as I don't know the game and its settings very well.

Don't forget your video card will need to produce a higher res, and therefor you will see less frames per second and running at a higher res will require you to upgrade your video card much sooner than if you kept the 22" @ 1680x
 
Dylan80 said:
I am pretty sure you will see more map area, but don't quote me on it as I don't know the game and its settings very well.
Click to expand...

You will NOT see more area.

2560x1600 sees the same as 1920x1200, 1680x1050, 1280x800, etc. because they are all 16:10.

SC2 is aspect based Hor+ and not pixel based.
 
spydermonkey said:
What?

1680x1050=1764000 pixels
1920x1200=2304000 pixels

1.3 times larger area will definitely be helpful. Also, 16:9 ratio might make the area wider, which may be beneficial in FPS, but won't do much in RTS games, especially since most 16:9 monitors don't go above 1080P.
Click to expand...

.. I was talking in regards to SC2.

Yes it pushes more pixels, but NO it does not show more. A 16:9 monitor for SC2 will show slightly more area due to it being hor+.
 
limitedaccess said:
Starcraft 2 is +hor fixed vert based upon your aspect ratio, and is limited to single screen. You basically see more horizontally with a wider aspect ratio resolution. For a comparison see here -
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6251839/index.html

Now this does not necessarily need a wider aspect ratio monitor. For instance if you use a 1920x1200 screen, you can have it display a 1920x1080 resolution with black bars. Likewise even with your current screen, you can run at a lower 16:9 resolution to get the same viewing area. Of course non 1:1 scaling has issues of its own in terms of image quality.
Click to expand...

You can get around the non-1:1 scaling when not using a native aspect ratio by setting the video drivers to 1:1 or the monitor to 1:1 (if it is capable of doing so). So instead of a stretched image you end up with black bars top and bottom.
 
Bottom line if your thinking by upgrading you'll get some kind of advantage from increased real estate you won't be.
 
It entirely depends on the engine that the RTS uses as to how it displays the battlefield at different screen resolutions.

Some RTS engines use fixed pixel widths, especially those which use 2D sprites, this means when you scale the resolution up you simply see more of the battlefield. However more modern RTS games tend to be a fully rendered 3D scene with a fixed FOV (Field of View) for the viewpoint and so altering the resolution doesn't necessarily let you see more of the battlefield, it just makes the image more crisp.

When it comes to aspect ratio (ratio of width to height of the display) 2D engines tend to stretch the image so it becomes distorted. 3D engines tend to 1 of 2 things, they will either be vert- or Horz+ which means they will either subtract vertical space until the aspect ratio is right, or they will add horizontal space until the aspect ratio is right.

Everything else being equal (no scaling between resolutions) Vert- implementations are going to leave you seeing less of the battlefield where as Horz+ will show more. www.widescreengamingforum.com have a good list of vert- and horz+ implementation in games and my site has a few as well www.pcgamingstandards.com although I don't have many RTS games at the moment.
 
SC2 is just like WC3/Dota/Hon.. it uses a fixed cam distance meaning you will only see so much of the map period.. it will just stretch it out over your resolution.

There is no real advantage to a bigger monitor unless you have the ability to zoom out the camera.
 
Yeah, it was likely done for balancing reasons. In some custom games, you can zoom the camera way out there :p
 
I wish there was a way that I could utilize my 1920x1200 27" monitor for SC2 better. I understand the balance issues and stuff, but I also dont play competitively and would enjoy this just for playing SP and with friends. Oh well, and yeah OP like others have stated, regardless of monitor size or res, you will see the same stuff on screen (for SC2).
 
jeremyshaw said:
Yeah, it was likely done for balancing reasons. In some custom games, you can zoom the camera way out there :p
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Came to say this.

They're not going to let you get an advantage in with a higher resolution monitor; being able to view significantly more map area in an RTS would not be fair to other players.
 
Actually in SC2 specifically it's really bad because the view distance is brought right into the map, on a 2560x1600 monitor this makes everything huge.

For what it's worth it seems like a common opinion that this was done on purpose to require more micro management from the players therefore increasing the skill level and competitiveness of the game. I don't know if that's true or not but it doesn't seem all that far fetched considering StarCrafts history.
 
Size may make a difference.... but only depending on how far you can zoom out.

Supreme Commander allowed you to zoom so far out that your units became Icons, it also supported Dual Displays (one of which was basically your minimap blown up, but was still zoomable) unfortunately it was a CPU intensive game with its own share of problems even though I enjoyed it for a long time.

Most RTS' nowadays still don't have the same kind of features, especially the ones meant to get you into the action really quickly.

I wish some RTS games would allow you to zoom out further but most do not.

Don't worry about not being the best in Multiplayer for RTS, most of the guys that are top notch are really into the games, and know all the shortcut keys, and study build orders and such. I play DOW SoulStorm against the AI's to improve but in comparison to online I'm still a scrub.
 
soul555top said:
I wish there was a way that I could utilize my 1920x1200 27" monitor for SC2 better. I understand the balance issues and stuff, but I also dont play competitively and would enjoy this just for playing SP and with friends. Oh well, and yeah OP like others have stated, regardless of monitor size or res, you will see the same stuff on screen (for SC2).
Click to expand...

I mentioned this already. You can simply run the game 1920x1080 fixed aspect or 1:1 scaling. 1920x1080 fits perfectly 1:1 in your 1920x1080 screen. In fact your actual viewing area (in terms of square inches) would be approx the same as 27 inch native 1920x1080.
 
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