To wide screen or not to widescreen

2006-02-09 04:30:01

#1

Cali[F8S]: Member; +0|6693

Comments welcome....

I'm looking to upgrade my 19" crt (about time too I hear you all cry) to a 19" tft.

I've see a couple of candidates that suit my needs and budget, however, I am undecided about screen formats.

Should I go for widescreen or not??

Unfortunately, I do not personally know any gamers with a widescreen and wondered if any of you lovely people can offer some advice?

How do games perform/feel in widescreen?
Apart from watching movies on my PC, what are the benefits of widescreen?
What are the drawbacks?
Anything else anyone can think of?

Thanks in advance!

Cali[F8S}

(standard monitor) http://www.aria.co.uk/productinfocomm.asp?ID=19732&SpecialStatus=1

(Widescreen) http://www.misco.co.uk/productinformation/~Q66735~WW~/ACER+AL1916ws%2F19+TFT+1440x900+8ms+Silver.htm

2006-02-09 05:08:33

#2

ViPeY: Member; +0|6679|Hampshire, England

Almost all new games support widescreen resolutions - so u get an extra wide view of the game which is handy and potentially gives u a bit of an advantage over players without widescreen. However, I don't think BF2 supports widescreen properly (don't quote me on that but i'm sure some1 will confirm this one way or the other). I think if you use widescrren on bf2 your viewing angle/width/whatever u want to call it is the same and it just chops off some of the height to get the correct dimensions.

I think I saw a good screen shot comparison on these boards a while back - try searching for it.

See this thread: http://forums.bf2s.com/viewtopic.php?id=2725 for some more info.

Really I think widescrren is the future and u may as well go for it unless you are thinking of changing your monitor again within the next year or two or you only play BF2 and can never see yourself stopping

2006-02-09 05:13:31

#3

fannwong00: Member; +6|6693|Paris, France (Sporean)

Hi,

I'm on an Apple 23", the widescreen works fine. I see lots more.

Best

2006-02-09 05:18:56

#4

mjw: The All Rounder; +22|6759|Rotherham, England

bf2 does not support widescreen. i have a 21" widescreen and all bf2 is stretch the image and chop a little bit off the top and bottom. Don't get me wrong it doesn't look terrible and i think EA and Dice are looking towards supporting widescreen in a future patch, so i would reccomend widescreen as most other games support it and if they don't they have .ini files that can be changed to make them support it anyway.

2006-02-09 05:28:38

#5

iLLmatic: Member; +0|6750|uk

widescreens..

great for movies / photo editing etc..

shite for games.

2006-02-09 08:39:27

#6

Leatherface-TCM: The Saw is Family; +0|6821

Great for games
Great for movies
Great for everything
but BF2 does NOT support widescreen (as stated above)
I have the 24" Dell and I love it but it does stretch my image a little
Monitor native is 1920x1200
game is 1600x1200 so a 320 pixel stretch

For a game that supports wide screen you just get the benefit of seeing more of the action/playing field - no drawbacks just benefits.

iLLmatic wrote:
widescreens..

great for movies / photo editing etc..

shite for games.

Why shit for games - can you add more info to that as I think they are great for games

Last edited by Leatherface-TCM (2006-02-09 08:40:56)

2006-02-09 08:59:59

#7

Viper007Bond: Moderator Emeritus; +236|6805|Portland, OR, USA

Widescreen hax.

https://bf3s.com/sigs/044900892044e7fc95e599e832a086ae9bcd7efb.png

2006-02-09 09:48:59

#8

Cali[F8S]: Member; +0|6693

Thanks guys much appreciated.

I'm gonna get something at the end of the month and at this time I'm swaying towards widescreen.

As someone stated, it is the way forward and I do play more than just BF2 (sorry!)

Cali

2006-02-09 13:09:39

#9

sixshot: Decepticon Geek; +50|6675|Planet Seibertron ;)

I'd like to chime in on the widescreen dealie... so...

So while you may be able to run BF2 to an extent in terms of widescreen, do note that you may need a good video card to render those extra pixels added to the widescreen format. It may be worth it to run the game in widescreen to an extent... but it may backfire if your video card isn't up to par/speed to push the added pixels onto the screen.

For those who has already tested the widescreen idea, can you add more stating what your video card so that he (and others) can get a better idea how powerful a video card is needed along with framerate if possible. I've long contemplated on the widescreen idea but have never jumped into it. I'd like to see as much information plastered here so that everyone has a good idea as to what's the "minimal spec".

2006-02-09 13:15:56

#10

Buzerk1: Member; +44|6836

My XPS M170 is a 17" widescreen and I used 1152x864 (my native is 1920x1200).

I whish BF2 did support widescreen

Last edited by Buzerk1 (2006-02-09 13:19:16)

2006-02-09 13:26:10

#11

oakley_addic: Member; +2|6652

Cali[F8S] wrote:
Comments welcome....

I'm looking to upgrade my 19" crt (about time too I hear you all cry) to a 19" tft.

I've see a couple of candidates that suit my needs and budget, however, I am undecided about screen formats.

Should I go for widescreen or not??

Unfortunately, I do not personally know any gamers with a widescreen and wondered if any of you lovely people can offer some advice?

How do games perform/feel in widescreen?
Apart from watching movies on my PC, what are the benefits of widescreen?
What are the drawbacks?
Anything else anyone can think of?

Thanks in advance!

Cali[F8S}

-----I saw couple games on wide screen adn they look pretty good as long as the screen itself is good, i would not get the one you'r looking at for couple reasons:
1) dot pitch size is too big
2) the brightness is too low

----i don't know why other people say that bf2 does not support wide screen, as long as it detects it you can set it up, because i have a regular screen but i do have the options to set it at wide screen.

peace
oakley_addic

(standard monitor) http://www.aria.co.uk/productinfocomm.a … alStatus=1

(Widescreen) http://www.misco.co.uk/productinformati … Silver.htm

2006-02-09 16:01:07

#12

Cali[F8S]: Member; +0|6693

Well, on the subject of the video card, I'm currently running an nVidia 5950 Ultra 256mg. Which although it isn't a top en card, handles BF2 prett well. I don't have to turn it down too much to hit 70+ fps at 1200x1600. I guess a P4 3.2 prescott and 2 gig of matched Kingston RAM isn't doing any harm!

I know there are those out there who will never be happy unless they are running the absolute best...but then again I've played against some of those and lets jsut say, the system is better then their game play!

I do appreciate the issues with the Pixel Pitch size but then again, lets get real here...Im playing a game! This isn't life and death, this isn't work or a profession. As long as I can see those pesky enemies, then I can kill them!

In an ideal world, a 24" widescreen Dell would be my choice, but at this time spending more that £200 isnt really an option. I could consider waiting but to be honest, I've been waiting long enough already!

Thanks again for all the helpful advice...I'll check back and let you know what I decided on....if you even give a fuck!

Cali

2006-02-09 16:15:06

#13

Cali[F8S]: Member; +0|6693

An update...

I've just gathered a bit more knowledge about Pixel Dot/Pixel Pitch...

This is taken from Wikipedia..

a typical entry-level 0.28 mm (diagonal) monitor has a horizontal pitch of 0.24 or 0.25 mm, a good quality 0.26 mm (diagonal) unit a horizontal pitch of 0.22 mm.

Considering the monitor I am looking at fall slap bang between "entry level" and "good", with a PD of 0.27...I think I can say I am unconcerned with this.

Thanks again..least it's made me investigate it futher...

Cali

Wikipedia quote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_pitch

2006-02-09 16:29:16

#14

sphera: Member; +0|6722

I'd get a widescreen so you get the benefit for games that -do- support it as well as using other apps besides games (movies, viewing 2 letter pages at once, etc) and for BF2, just play in a window or letterbox your 4:3 resolution fullscreen.

2006-02-09 16:36:06

#15

Ryan: Member; +1,230|6843|Alberta, Canada

for widescreen, you can have an advantage, you can see what others cant.

2006-02-13 09:17:36

#16

Cali[F8S]: Member; +0|6693

Well, I opted for the widescreen. Should be here tomorrow

Hoping it all works out.

Thanks again for the guidance.

Cali

2006-02-13 17:55:11

#17

sixshot: Decepticon Geek; +50|6675|Planet Seibertron ;)

Awesome. Let us know of your experiences! I'm always envious of those with widescreen panels.

2006-02-13 18:57:55

#18

Maj.Do: Member; +85|6752|good old CA

take a pic of bf2 on it. i want to see : )

2006-03-09 18:39:48

#19

phoenix12: Member; +0|6764

I just got my 24" wide from Dell, and it's nice! No BF2 though.. won't even launch. Just CTD after splash screen. I have to disable it and play on my 17" I sent EA tech a note but doubt they will be much help. WoW plays great, btw...

2006-03-10 12:53:49

#20

Impaqt: Member; +37|6638|Chicago, Il

I had that issue at first as well. The trick is to leave the game resoution alone and only add the forced resolution to your startup shortcut. if your config file res is not a standard resolution thats in the list it crashes to desktop, but adding the custom res to the startup it loads fine.

Of course with a 1920x1200 resolution I hope your running a X1800/7800GT or Higher setup or your framerates are gonna suck ass.

2006-03-13 05:12:21

#21

Tor77: Ron Jeremy Apprentice; +84|6652|Norway

I play on a 52" HD plasma. I have the 7800GTX card from XFX and hook it up via DVI. It works out great with no problems at all.

However, it IS a little too big so I'm buying an additional monitor. Wouldn't go under 20" tho.

2006-03-13 16:45:42

#22

Wildstar: Member; +0|6647

If you want to use widescreen, read this.

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1030

2006-03-13 21:29:15

#23

unnamednewbie13: Moderator; +2,053|6772|PNW

Wildstar is right. You can either use widescreen with command-line parameters or by setting it in one of the many available launchers.

BF2S Forums To wide screen or not to widescreen

iLLmatic wrote:

Cali[F8S] wrote:

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