sivran
Long Live The Suite
Premium
join:2003-09-15
Arlington, TX
clubs:
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| [Need] Widescreen resolution utility of some sort
Ruri-Ruri says, |
Hey software forumites, I have a request! Google the All-Knowing hasn't been much help in this matter, but surely someone here can be. If anyone's found a useful utility of the kind I seek, I'll bet it's dadkins. 
What am I looking for? A tool, a utility, something that should've been built into my monitor (perhaps higher-end, more expensive widescreens have it), or even my video driver, that would blank out the extraneous pixels of an LCD (or other widescreen) monitor running a full-screen app in non-native resolution.
Anyone who's ever played a game with no widescreen support on a widescreen monitor knows the problem. The game's 4:3 aspect ratio gets stretched out to 16:9 or 16:10, making things appear wider than they should be. And I'm sure we've all seen, on some laptops, where the windows loading screen didn't take up the entire screen because it wasn't big enough. On some, games would actually run that way.
I am hoping that such a tool exists to force this behavior, although I admit, I have my doubts.
--
Think outside the fox...Seamonkey |
|
dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| The driver/control panel of your video card/GPU should allow you to reset the resolution.
Playing/displaying anything that is not the same Aspect Ratio(AR) of the screen will either get you and I the "black bars" *OR* stretch the image/picture.
For images, you can maybe get a bigger image and crop it to the screen res, or crop to AR and stretch, then display it.
For video, this is more of a problem - stretch is about all we can do other than just dealing with the bars.
No real acceptable options. Sorry
4:3 is either semi-square with bars, stretched/squished, or top and bottom cut off when sized to widescreen. 
I have this issue with many Blu-ray Discs @ 1920x1080(16:9) playing on a 1920x1200(16:10) screen.
I will always have some sort of "black bars".
Sorry I cannot be of more help. 
--
Think outside the Fox... Opera |
|
sivran
Long Live The Suite
Premium
join:2003-09-15
Arlington, TX
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
| Yes, that's what I want, black bars around my game, instead of it being stretched out.
Unfortunately I think it'd probably have to be built-in to the monitor, or included in the driver. I'm not sure it's something a third party app, unrelated to either, would be able to do without risking major snafu.
Gee I was a bit loopy there at nearly 4AM when I wrote that post wasn't I..
--
Think outside the fox...Seamonkey |
|
dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| 
FO2 First Run |
I got nothing else - sorry!
--
Think outside the Fox... Opera |
|
sivran
Long Live The Suite
Premium
join:2003-09-15
Arlington, TX
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
| Nice video card. 
So with that game if you set it to 4:3 it'll have black bars around it on your 16:10 monitor? Pretty cool, and shows it's possible to do outside the driver level. Hope may yet remain.
--
Think outside the fox...Seamonkey |
|
dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
3 edits | Actually, since I set it to 1440x900x32, if I set it to anything other than 4:3, the cars look like a shoe box.
Weird, but I have to leave it at 4:3.
Yeah, the card does ok. 
Dig through the game's options settings or see if it has a First Run thing like that one.
I had to remove my savegame and try starting the game to get that setup screenie.
Once the First Run is set, it creates the savegame.
No idea if you can do this on other games...
OT: Mine is a Unimog(kinda banged up), his is a Jeep Hurricane(parked on the scuttled tugboat)
--
Think outside the Fox... Opera |
|
earletp
join:2004-02-03
PDX
1 edit | reply to sivran
Check your video card driver...
If you have an Nvidia card you'll have this option, I imagine ATI has something sinmilar.
edited to add... or you could choose the do not scale option. |
|
sivran
Long Live The Suite
Premium
join:2003-09-15
Arlington, TX
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
| Must be XP/Vista only. Latest version of nVidia drivers, no control panel applet.
Maybe one of these days I'll update to XP. My 2k server is due for a reinstall anyway.
--
Think outside the fox...Seamonkey |
|
earletp
join:2004-02-03
PDX
2 edits | said by sivran  :Must be XP/Vista only. Latest version of nVidia drivers, no control panel applet. Maybe one of these days I'll update to XP. My 2k server is due for a reinstall anyway. You have the latest drivers then, if 2K is listed you should have a Nvidia control panel.
»www.nvidia.com/Download/index.as···ng=en-us
Make sure you uninstall the old drivers before you update. I've seen issues where installing over an older version can hose things. |
|
sivran
Long Live The Suite
Premium
join:2003-09-15
Arlington, TX
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by earletp :said by sivran :Must be XP/Vista only. Latest version of nVidia drivers, no control panel applet. Maybe one of these days I'll update to XP. My 2k server is due for a reinstall anyway. You have the latest drivers then, if 2K is listed you should have a Nvidia control panel. » www.nvidia.com/Download/index.as···ng=en-usMake sure you uninstall the old drivers before you update. I've seen issues where installing over an older version can hose things. I only recently put the nvidia card in. I've had 94.24 the entire time. The only nvidia icon in my control panel is their virtual desktop tool.
I guess there's no harm in uninstalling and reinstalling through.
--
Think outside the fox...Seamonkey |
|
earletp
join:2004-02-03
PDX | What do you get when you click the "Additional Properties" button on that tab?
From the .pdf for those drivers you should also be able to access the Nvidia control panel by right clicking on your desktop and choosing it from the context menu. |
|
Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium,VIP
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30
clubs:
| reply to sivran
Have you looked at PowerStrip 3.7 by Entech?
quote:
PowerStrip provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest ATI Radeon HD3800 series. It is in fact the only program of its type to support multiple graphics cards from multiple chipset vendors, simultaneously, under every Windows operating system from Windows 95 to the x64-bit edition of Vista. A simple menu that pops up from the system tray provides access to some 500 controls over your display hardware, including sophisticated color correction tools, period level adjustments over screen geometry, and driver independent clock controls. A powerful application profiler can detect when programs are launched and respond by activating specific display settings, gamma adjustments, performance switches and even clock speeds - returning everything to normal when the program closes. In-game gamma hotkeys let you light up the darkest hallways during game play, and hardware control over refresh rates - with floating point precision - ensure you're never stuck at just 60Hz no matter what OS you're using. A quick setup wizard gets you up and running with minimal fuss, extensive context-sensitive help is available for all controls, and live updates are supported to ensure you're always running the latest release. Finally, an assortment of system and productivity tools - among them, extensive diagnostics, PCIe and AGP device configuration, EDID decoding, desktop icon management, a system idle thread, Windows resource monitoring, an anti-burn-in orbiting option, physical memory optimization, an on-screen display, and the most advanced monitor support in the industry - round out the compact 1MB package.
Regards,
Doctor Olds
--
What’s the point of owning a supercar if you can’t scare yourself stupid from time to time? |
|
sivran
Long Live The Suite
Premium
join:2003-09-15
Arlington, TX
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
1 edit | reply to earletp
said by earletp :What do you get when you click the "Additional Properties" button on that tab? From the .pdf for those drivers you should also be able to access the Nvidia control panel by right clicking on your desktop and choosing it from the context menu. Oh, that pops out the sidebar-type thing. I hid it so I could reduce the size of the screenshot. Nothing useful in there.
I run bblean as my shell so I don't have a desktop in the traditional sense. I found the actual exe that launches the nvidia control panel though. Gonna have a look.
quote:
Have you looked at PowerStrip 3.7 by Entech?
Now this I'll need to explore for a bit, looks interesting.
After exploring a bit, I think the problem may be that the nvidia driver thinks it's connected to a plain old CRT. I haven't found a way to convince it otherwise though.
--
Think outside the fox...Seamonkey |
|
earletp
join:2004-02-03
PDX
| said by sivran :After exploring a bit, I think the problem may be that the nvidia driver thinks it's connected to a plain old CRT. I haven't found a way to convince it otherwise though. Have you installed your monitor drivers? (INF/ICM file)
If not check the manufacturers website for the latest version. |
|
Vathral
Premium
join:2002-08-26
New York, NY
clubs:
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
| reply to sivran
What monitor do you have and have you upgraded from that ancient driver version yet? :P
P.S Where is that character from or is it just fan-art? Seems familiar
--
Anime / F@H |
|
sivran
Long Live The Suite
Premium
join:2003-09-15
Arlington, TX
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
1 edit | said by Vathral :
What monitor do you have and have you upgraded from that ancient driver version yet? :P
Latest available for 2k.
quote:
P.S Where is that character from or is it just fan-art? Seems familiar
Fan art of Ruri from Nadesico.
Don't think my monitor came with a driver.
...Google turns up nothing on my monitor. Nothing resembling a manufacturer's website anyway. Cheap chinese crap, but looks good. amw a192wdb if you're curious. 1440x900, 800:1 contrast ratio and 5ms response time. Or at least, that's what the box said.
I ran one of the wizards on the nvidia control panel and one of the steps asked me if my monitor was a flat panel, I answered yes, but still no LCD-specific stuff in the control panel.
I checked the helpfile and it does mention the specific feature I'm after, so unless the scaling feature didn't make it into the driver before release it must be there. I just have to find a way to convince the software to let me use it.
I've also been playing around with powerstrip and it tends to make things unstable. Fiddling with the porch settings seems to get me close to what I want but since it's not suggesting any useful values, I'm stuck guessing.
--
Think outside the fox...Seamonkey |
|
earletp
join:2004-02-03
PDX
| It sounds like you're on the right track with your monitor not being supported properly in 2K.
I did a little checking myself and from what I've found, which is the same thing you have, is that it seems using the generic plug and play driver is what is recommended.
I did find that your monitor is made by Prolink International Inc. and had a manufacturer model of MW19E-BCD.
»www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fus···letter=A
Anything else you take from this is at your own risk but if it were mine I'd be inclined to follow the instructions from this page
»support.microsoft.com/kb/219404
and pick a monitor that has the same specs and see if it would work. If not then I would search for a generic XP LCD driver and give it a whirl.
Care needs to be used though so you don't inadvertently damage your LCD by forcing settings it can't handle. (the same can be said about PowerStrip) |
|
sivran
Long Live The Suite
Premium
join:2003-09-15
Arlington, TX
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
| I found a viewsonic driver for a monitor quite similar to mine, resolution and refresh rate spot on.
Long story short using it caused some problems with using my tv as a secondary display, and I had to revert back to the "generic" driver. It also didn't convince nvidia control panel to let me control the scaling.
I'm about ready to give up on it and say it doesn't work on Windows 2000. Either the option's just not there yet in my driver version (again, highest available for 2k) or it's just disabled on 2k.
This nvidia card is annoying in any case - opening a video results in a brief screen flicker (of both displays, if they're currently both on). The Radeon 9600XT it replaced didn't do that, but it also clearly didn't have any sort of scaling options anywhere, and would occasionally up and die on me while playing certain games, forcing me to hard reset. I also had to use the 3rd party Omega drivers to get the dual-display set up to work properly,
Ironically, the nvidia is the same model I was considering getting instead of the ATI back when I was shopping on newegg. Though this one I picked up free after rebate at Fry's.
--
Think outside the fox...Seamonkey |
|
Vathral
Premium
join:2002-08-26
New York, NY
clubs:
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
| reply to sivran
said by sivran :Fan art of Ruri from Nadesico. ooooooh yeah, that old scifi/alien show. Thanks.
--
Anime / F@H |
|
heed_from_tx
join:2005-09-29 | reply to Doctor Olds
Use Powerstrip, fantastic software. Even allows you to OC your video card too. Real time gamma fixes, fantastic if you're a gamer. If you're into that kind of thing. |
|
