Is this right? (Wide screen resolution question)

I just installed a new video card into my aging system and fired up CoH. Runs wonderfully now at 1060x1050 as far as video lag and stuff goes. Resolution looks a bajillion times better than it did back in the day when I was running at (I think) 1280x720.

But everyone is taaaalllllll....

Here's what my character used to look like on my screen
Here's what he looks like now
Here's some passing civilians

Is this what it's supposed to look like and I just need to visit the costume shop and lower the leg slider to the bare minimum and push out the body sliders to widen him out? Or am I seeing distorted graphics? I was trying to eyeball if Atlas's globe looked properly spherical or not but I was hard to tell. But I suppose the wheels on the truck in the last image look "right" even if the people all look like supermodels on the catwalk.

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The first picture looks like you are squished down, or stretched side to side. The second looks normal to me.

As a test. Just look at the Atlas globe. Is it round?

If it isn't, then you are using the wrong aspect ratio. Try a different resolution.

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I think the globe looks round. You're probably right and I'm just not used to seeing it the "right" way. I just needed a second opinion.

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[ QUOTE ]
I think the globe looks round. You're probably right and I'm just not used to seeing it the "right" way. I just needed a second opinion.

[/ QUOTE ] If the globe looks round NOW, then it must mean it wasn't correct before.. so you are right.. you were just use to seeing it incorrectly.

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On another note, happenin' dude for a character there. Very "smooth character" looking.

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August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012

Wow...just wow!

I love the concept! Looks ok to me. Love how you got the 70's polyester vibe going there, now if you could get a couple gold chains hanging around his neck, he would be perfect!

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Wait... Are you sure that's 1060x1050? That's almost square. NO monitor has that kind of proportion. Are you seeing black bars on the sides or something, because at this resolution, things WILL be distorted unless parts of the screen aren't displaying.

The first pic you posted was squashed. Very much so. The second pic was exactly right, however, and this is indeed how things should look. I went through the same problem when I realised I had been playing at a squashed resolution for two years. You'll get used to it. Things are better that way

Here are a few important questions - what is your screen? What size is it, what is its aspect ratio? If it's an LCD, what is its native resolution? Let us know these facts and we can pick a selection of resolutions that would fit the aspect ration of your screen and ensure nothing gets squashed or stretched.

For reference, there are four formats that I've seen widely used.

4:3 - this is old tube TVs, old CRT monitors and only a FEW LCD screens. Native resolutions for these are things like 1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200 and so forth.

5:4 - this is for most modern-day non-widescreen LCDs. It's "taller" than 4:3, which will cause things to look stretched vertically if you're using a 4:3 resolution. The only resolution I'm aware of that's 5:4 is 1280x1024, but that's for a 17'' screen. Bigger ones will have higher native resoltions of the same ratio.

8:5 (or 16:10) - this is what most common widescreen LCD monitors will support. Correct resolutions include 1280x800, 1440x900, 1920x1200 and so on.

16:9 - this is common for widescreen TVs and some very large or very high-end widescreen LCD monitors. I don't actually know what resolutions are appropriate for these as I haven't seen many, but the one I have here at work is at 1920x1080.

Be aware that using a resolution not appropriate to your screen's aspect ratio will cause things to be distorted and not appear as they should or, in the best case, display black bars either above and below, or to the sides of the screen. As City of Heroes supports all kinds of aspect ratios (including such that I've never seen on any screen ever), you shouldn't have to do with one that isn't appropriate to yours.

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Or he can use Windowed mode instead of Fullscreen and the aspect ratio should be fine no matter what size he changes the screen to (providing his desktop is at the correct aspect ratio as well).

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Or he can use Windowed mode instead of Fullscreen and the aspect ratio should be fine no matter what size he changes the screen to (providing his desktop is at the correct aspect ratio as well).

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not always a given, though. Pretty much half the time I go to help with someone's computer, their Desktop is at the wrong resolution for the monitor. I've seen my fair share of 5:4 LCDs and 8:5 widescreens at 1024x768 just because people don't know what to put there. If the OP was using the wrong resolution before, I'd like to figure out what the right resolution for his screen would be even if he does end up playing in windowed mode.

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I was assuming it was 1680x1050 16:10 very common resolution for most run of the mill flat panels.

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Combat Kangaroos, Justice Server. First 50's
Jirra Roo Plant/Storm/Stone/Musculature Controller
Combat Kangaroo Rifle/Energy/Mace/Spiritual Blaster
Kung Fu Kangaroo Martial Arts/Reflexes/Body/Spiritual Scrapper
Tribal Arc Shield/Elec/Mu/Spiritual Tanker

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Or he can use Windowed mode instead of Fullscreen and the aspect ratio should be fine no matter what size he changes the screen to (providing his desktop is at the correct aspect ratio as well).

[/ QUOTE ]

Or he can just go with the native resolution for his new monitor which is probably printed right on the box in nice bold print.

And those screenshots look fine (but he could use some anti-aliasing - hate those jagged edges)

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Wait... Are you sure that's 1060x1050? That's almost square. NO monitor has that kind of proportion.

[/ QUOTE ]I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that I cropped the images. I was focused on the character/citizens themselves and not the surrounding landscape.

Consensus seems to be that I'm just not used to seeing the game the "right" way. I'll need a couple visits to the cstume shop since some of my characters were made with the old view meaning that I used "thin" heads to make it look correct and now they're really thin looking heads

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Or he can just go with the native resolution for his new monitor which is probably printed right on the box in nice bold print.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't see him mention a new screen, just a new video card, which is what had me concerned. Some LCDs Windows can detect and determine the maximum resolution for, but some it just registers as "Plug-n-Play monitor" and gives them allowed resolutions all the way up to 2500xSomething, which they obviously don't support. If it's an old(ish) monitor with a box filed away somewhere and no resolution written on the sticker at the back (mine doesn't have it listed), it could be bit of a pain figuring it out. The manufacturer's site should have it listed, but wading through the tangled mess that is most manufacturers' websites has been hell and high water for me in the past.

And, yes, use some anti-alising Years ago I discovered that, counter-intuitively, increasing anti-alising to x2 or even x4 had very little effect on framerate in this game. I don't know why that is, but it remains true. I guess it's because this works only on the 3D geometry and not on the textures - street markings remain jagged with any setting of anti-alise that the game supports. It still makes the game a lot more pleasing, though.

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Wait... Are you sure that's 1060x1050? That's almost square. NO monitor has that kind of proportion.

[/ QUOTE ]I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that I cropped the images. I was focused on the character/citizens themselves and not the surrounding landscape.
Consensus seems to be that I'm just not used to seeing the game the "right" way. I'll need a couple visits to the cstume shop since some of my characters were made with the old view meaning that I used "thin" heads to make it look correct and now they're really thin looking heads

[/ QUOTE ]

Before you go out and remake your costumes, make sure that you're using the correct resolution. You don't want to "fix" them into something else that's not quite right. And believe me, I went through this - it's better to make your characters the "right" way because that's what they look like on other people's screens. You want to know what other people see, after all

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Got a quick question for you, S_T. Do *laptop* screens have a native resolution, and if they do, how do you determine what it is?

My work laptop is driving me nuts--I've tried several resolutions, and none of them seem quite right.

Thanks!

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My Characters

Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012

Ok, I see the problem. I screwed up typing in my resolution. It's 1680x1050. which is the native resolution for the monitor, an Acer AL2216W.

I didn't realize that I mistyped it before. It's people like me who make tech support jobs difficult.

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Oh, as far as antialiasing goes, do you mean my card settings or in the game? I tried to look for in-game settings but didn't see any under Video. I just now found card settings in the "ATI Control Center" and jacked it up to 4x. I'll have to see if it makes a difference (positive or negative).

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[ QUOTE ]
Ok, I see the problem. I screwed up typing in my resolution. It's 1680x1050. which is the native resolution for the monitor, an Acer AL2216W.

I didn't realize that I mistyped it before. It's people like me who make tech support jobs difficult.

[/ QUOTE ]No, it's people who did what you did and then insist they made no mistake that are the problem. No one doing support should have an issue with a user who freely admits fault and takes corrective action.

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[ QUOTE ]
Got a quick question for you, S_T. Do *laptop* screens have a native resolution, and if they do, how do you determine what it is?

My work laptop is driving me nuts--I've tried several resolutions, and none of them seem quite right.

Thanks!

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not S_T, but I stayed in Holiday Inn Express last night...

All LCD type monitors are fixed resolution, aka native. To determine what that's supposed to be, the hit or miss method works ok, but you can always... well, ok, mostly... go to the manufacturer website and search up your laptop's model number. Or google it, it's amazing what google will show up with.

For example, just pulling one out of my head (after looking at hp.com first), an HP dv6z laptop's resolution is 1366x768. And if you google 'hp dv6z resolution' you get this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...p;oq=&aqi=

And the 4th one down has it right there (as of this posting)

So... maybe I helped?

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August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012

Since it is an ATI graphics card, I'd recommend leaving Anti-Aliasing turned Off.

If you cannot find an Anti-Aliasing setting, then you have your Graphics settings in the game set to not use or not show the Advanced Settings.

To get to the Advanced Settings, go to Menu >Options and click on the Graphics and Audio tab. The 4th line down should be Advanced Settings. Set this to Enabled. This will allow you to get to these settings.

Now, I'd really recommend adjusting the settings to the recommendations in the first post of BillZBubba's stickied ATI Issues and Settings Recommendations thread. It will give the settings to set in the Catalyst Control Center and in the games Options. It also gives a brief explanation on some of the settings and why they need to be set that way.

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If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.

Black Pebble is my new hero.

Yes, indeed you did. (Though I probably should have thought of that myself!)

My laptop is a HP 8510p, so the answer is...1680x1050. In case you were wondering.

Thanks!

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My Characters

Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Got a quick question for you, S_T. Do *laptop* screens have a native resolution, and if they do, how do you determine what it is?
My work laptop is driving me nuts--I've tried several resolutions, and none of them seem quite right.
Thanks!

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm not S_T, but I stayed in Holiday Inn Express last night...
All LCD type monitors are fixed resolution, aka native. To determine what that's supposed to be, the hit or miss method works ok, but you can always... well, ok, mostly... go to the manufacturer website and search up your laptop's model number. Or google it, it's amazing what google will show up with.
For example, just pulling one out of my head (after looking at hp.com first), an HP dv6z laptop's resolution is 1366x768. And if you google 'hp dv6z resolution' you get this:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...p;oq=&aqi=
And the 4th one down has it right there (as of this posting)
So... maybe I helped?

[/ QUOTE ]

Beaten to the punch... Man, I knew I shouldn't have stayed off the forums over the Weekend

But yes, pretty much that exactly. I'd advise people with LCDs to stick to their native resolution if at all possible, as that's the only resolution that actually looks good. While LCDs cane display lower resolutions than their native, they do so via some kind of nasty interpolation or whatever that's called, resulting in ugly, jagged pixels even on high-but-not-native resolutions.

That's actually one of the reasons I've avoided large LCDs - their native resolutions are quite high, which makes games slow down more if I want to play them right.

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Oooh, lookit what I found... perfect example included inside!

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

And yes, it's interpolation, Samuel, just as you thought.

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August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012

Heheh looks like Leisure Suit Larry if he was practicing his talents well beyond retirement age

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