[Toefur]

Sucks.

I really didn't want widescreen, but it seems difficult to get a non-widescreen laptops these days seems to be kind of difficult.

Do I just have to put up with stretched images in all my games, apart from the ones I can run in a window (which is annoying in itself), or is there some sort of... I don't know, fix or something I can modify so they dont stretch the picture?

[Intrepid Homoludens]

The images are stretched? Even after you try tweaking the settings?

I'm saving up for a modestly outfitted notebook myself. It'll be mostly for my writing and online research work, and for most other things, but NOT necessarily for gaming all the time. But I do want to able to play a few games on it as a break from my writing work, but not necessarily the most bleeding edge and tech demanding titles (my benchmark is Max Payne 2 and UT2003).

There are alot of widescreens out there, so I assume it's 'cause a lot of people like watching DVD movies on their laptops. I'd like to be able to do that too, but I don't want a widescreen, just a normal one. I want it small so it'll fit better in my black boblbee.

[Aj_]

The LCD monitor on most laptops is set to stretch out the image it displays. You can usually find the option in the BIOS, disable it.

[Toefur]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

The images are stretched? Even after you try tweaking the settings?

Admittedly, I haven't tried playing around with the settings all that much, though I don't know what else I can really do. Most games that allow you to change the resolution of the game still only give options for square sizes, and with older games there's not much hope of even doing that. I really don't know what other tweaking one can do.

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

I'm saving up for a modestly outfitted notebook myself. It'll be mostly for my writing and online research work, and for most other things, but NOT necessarily for gaming all the time. But I do want to able to play a few games on it as a break from my writing work, but not necessarily the most bleeding edge and tech demanding titles (my benchmark is Max Payne 2 and UT2003).

Writing and work related things were my main purpose, too; but I want to be able to play games for the same reason to, or even just when I'm bored. I play mostly old games, though I hope that Oblivion will run on here, and since that's new it may even support widescreen.

I was specifically looking for a non widescreen laptop, but the one I got was such a good deal, that I couldn't pass it up!

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

There are alot of widescreens out there, so I assume it's 'cause a lot of people like watching DVD movies on their laptops. I'd like to be able to do that too, but I don't want a widescreen, just a normal one. I want it small so it'll fit better in my black boblbee.

I personally don't see the point in having widescreen just for movies, but then again I'm probably just not much into that sort of thing.

That's an odd looking bag, to me anyway, what's with front of it? Solid metal/plastic?

[Toefur]

Originally Posted by Aj_

The LCD monitor on most laptops is set to stretch out the image it displays. You can usually find the option in the BIOS, disable it.

No such luck in my bios. Good bit of info to know, though.

[Aj_]

Try and find out how for your specific model, or post your model here and I can try.

[Crunchy in milk]

It depends on the game. Personally I love widescreen support and often find going back to a regular monitor a bit of a squeeze.

Default behaviour is to auto stretch programs at full screen, but I find most games will only stretch resolutions of 800 by 600 and below. So games like Diablo 2 are stretched by default, but you can disable that in the game settings to run with black lines either side while full screen. With Baldur's Gate 2 and other infinity engine games, if you pick a higher resolution (1024 by 768 +), then it wont stretch at full screen even if you want to, you're stuck with black lines either side.

Most recent 3D games do support widescreen. Neverwinter Nights offers widescreen resolutions in the in-game video menu. Return to Castle Wolfenstein for example though, offers a couple of shitty widescreen options in-game, you have to edit the config file manually to set a better widescreen resolution. Doom 3 is also niggly like that. Once you get them purring though, widescreen is a blast, especially on gui heavy games like NWN.

As far as old adventure's (hell even most new ones) are concerned, its a crap shoot. The likelyhood of them having widescreen support is low to not at all since they tend to use pre-rendered backgrounds. ScummVM supports ratio stretching (and disabling stretching) for the really old gems.

Have a squizz at this: http://www.tigerdave.com/wgl/

I don't follow his advice to the letter (he seems focused on widescreen via HiDef TV hooked up to his computer) but theres plenty of info there on a game by game basis to get you fiddling with settings with some confidence.

Outside of gaming, why wouldn't you want a widescreen monitor. Palette heavy programs like just about any graphic editor scream for widescreen, DVD's run fullscreen, You can read pdf's/ebooks and manuals with facing pages, heck some models even support portrait mode so you can preview wysiwyg a4 pages at real size.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Toefur

Admittedly, I haven't tried playing around with the settings all that much, though I don't know what else I can really do. Most games that allow you to change the resolution of the game still only give options for square sizes, and with older games there's not much hope of even doing that. I really don't know what other tweaking one can do.

I guess I'll find that out the hard way once I get my laptop.

Writing and work related things were my main purpose, too; but I want to be able to play games for the same reason to, or even just when I'm bored. I play mostly old games, though I hope that Oblivion will run on here, and since that's new it may even support widescreen.

I just know I won't be able to play Oblivion, or even Half Life 2 and graphically demanding titles of late for that matter. But that's okay, I plan on getting an Xbox 360, and I'll be able to experience Oblivion that way.

I was specifically looking for a non widescreen laptop, but the one I got was such a good deal, that I couldn't pass it up!

What kind of laptop is it? I've got my sights on an HP/Compaq. I'm poor, mind you, so it's all I can afford right now.

I personally don't see the point in having widescreen just for movies, but then again I'm probably just not much into that sort of thing.

I'm not demanding, myself. The movie will simply resize into letterbox format, I don't care. It's not like I'll be watching it on the laptop from across the room.

That's an odd looking bag, to me anyway, what's with front of it? Solid metal/plastic?

The shell is plastic, 1/8" thick. It comes in many colours and patterns, but I settled on black. It's Scandinavian, ergonomically designed to be easy on your back. It has multipockets inside for cds, cdplayers, hardware, etc. It's modular, too, so you can hook up a mesh bag that'll hold gym shoes or even in-line skates. I originally bought mine over 6 years ago (when I was making serious money) with the intent of eventually getting a laptop (it was designed in part for laptops, as well as travel and sports). I instead got a desktop. So now my cute little boblbee will finally get used for what I bought it for.

[Aj_]

Originally Posted by Crunchy in milk

Default behaviour is to auto stretch programs at full screen, but I find most games will only stretch resolutions of 800 by 600 and below. So games like Diablo 2 are stretched by default, but you can disable that in the game settings to run with black lines either side while full screen. With Baldur's Gate 2 and other infinity engine games, if you pick a higher resolution (1024 by 768 +), then it wont stretch at full screen even if you want to, you're stuck with black lines either side.

I didn't know you could do that in any game, haven't seen any options, and I own D2 and LoD. As I understood it the stretching happens monitor side, the gpu outputs 1024x768, and it stays that way. I don't really want to install tre game to find out. Does it out put a wide resolution with lines on either side?

I'm guessing the reasons higher resolutions don't stretch is because the vertical resolution being sent to the display, is higher than the native resolution of the LCD screen.

[Crunchy in milk]

Originally Posted by Aj_

I didn't know you could do that in any game, haven't seen any options, and I own D2 and LoD. As I understood it the stretching happens monitor side, the gpu outputs 1024x768, and it stays that way. I don't really want to install tre game to find out. Does it out put a wide resolution with lines on either side?

I have to admit, I only tested D2 and LOD on a mates 20 inch widescreen g5 revision 2 imac. Diablo 2 on the mac comes with a config tool to switch off stretched mode at the application level. I'm sure the pc version has some command line code that does the same, I've just never tried it on my PC.

It was impossible to see if D2 supports stretched resolutions higher than 800 by 600 since the game only supports 640 by 480 and 800 by 600 modes. The only options are stretched, or normal aspect with black lines either side. D2 does not support 16 : 9.

I'm guessing the reasons higher resolutions don't stretch is because the vertical resolution being sent to the display, is higher than the native resolution of the LCD screen.

I would only be guessing as to how that's limited. The widescreen monitor I tried to get stretched 1024 by 768 has a native resolution of 1680 by 1050. I'm more inclined to think its a firmware limitation on the graphics card. I don't think the monitor handles the stretching at all.

[Aj_]

I know the majority of LCD monitors will try to stretch the screen to fill the monitor, 640x512 will stretch to full screen on a 1280x1024. I haven't read this, but I've also experienced, with all the LCD monitors I've used, that they don't keep aspect ratio by default, in this case 4:3 of a normal CRT monitor, to 5:4. So I'm assuming that this is also the case with widescreen. All this is done by the monitor, you can tell the monitor to keep aspect, but the image sent to the monitor doesn't change.

[Starflux]

I've noticed my 19" LCD screen (not laptop) also has a weird tendency to go to a strange resolution of 1280*1024 instead of 1280*960 as is 4:3 standard. Lower resolutions are nicely 4:3 though. What's up with that?

[Aj_]

It's 5:4, the same as the pixels in the physical screen, 1280x1024 is the native resolution.

[RLacey]

The computer I'm using has a widescreen monitor, and there's an option in the nVidia display manager or whatever it's called (I'm normally an ATI user) that allows me to stop it from stretching games into widescreen.

So, try checking your video card options .

[Toefur]

Originally Posted by RLacey

The computer I'm using has a widescreen monitor, and there's an option in the nVidia display manager or whatever it's called (I'm normally an ATI user) that allows me to stop it from stretching games into widescreen.

So, try checking your video card options .

Oh, wow! I had another look and actually just found that! It was in the section for choosing which monitor to use (if I had other ones), and the option was opened by a button... that I hadn't, er, realised was an actual button... now to test it out... Thanks.