City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Looking for help with widescreen resolution

je_saist

By je_saist,
Posted on: 2010-02-16 20:44 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs

 

Posted

So... I decided I would give CoH a try because I have a friend that LOVES it and he finally convinced me to join him. But I have an issue that makes the game very difficult for me to enjoy and play the way that fits me.

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Here is my issue.

I'm currently playing on 3 monitors with an overall resolution of 5040x1050. Now I know that CoH "technically" supports widescreen resolutions, but that is only through vert-. Meaning that if you use any widescreen resolution then you are actually seeing less then your non-widescreen friends.

I also understand that this isn't much of a problem for most normal widescreen gaming of 16x9 or 16x10 (though some would argue that even at those aspect ratios vert- is unplayable).

My issue is that when playing at 5040x1050 the FoV is so narrow and zoomed that it makes it very awkward to play.

Other games I play at this resolution either have a proper FoV adjustment or Players have found a method to "hack" files in order to get a proper FoV.

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So my question is... Does anyone know of such a fix? Or can anyone offer any advice? I've asked in game and everyone just calls me a newb and tells me to read my manuals lol. They say widescreen is just fine and don't quite understand my problem. I've also searched these forums and googled with no success.

Before you reply and say I don't understand what widescreen is, please check this out to fully understand my issue. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/200...n-and-fov.html

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Sorry for the wall of text, and thanks for the help!

 

Posted

question: Is this an Eyefinity display setup?

 

Posted

Matrox TripleHead2Go Digital.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zierce View Post
Matrox TripleHead2Go Digital.
Okay. That isn't exactly supported by the CoH engine.

Pumbumbler noted in this post : http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...&postcount=146

Quote:
Besides, the maximum field of view of CoX has been reduced since its inception, so extra wide views do NOT get you any more peripheral vision, it actually just enlarges the graphics to match the maximum allowed width. This means extra wide screens actually cut down on the vertical field of view in CoX. I would guess they did this for PvP to ensure a 'level' playing field.
So unfortunately, what you want, you probably are not going to get with Matrox's technology. As far as I'm aware, there is no user-editable method to change the game's field of view. As Pumbumbler theorizes, this might be because of Player Versus Player content and ensuring a level playing field. I theorize that a lack of multi-monitor solutions on the market might also be a reason the development staff has not enabled the game to support resolutions behind 16:10 and 16:9. The lack of multi-monitor solutions, however, is changing.

ATi launched their Eyefinity display mode last year, and Nvidia is launching an equivalent technology called Surround 3D with it's upcoming high-end GF100 Fermi graphics card. Right now the developers are requesting that gamers contact the graphics card vendors to make sure that their features will work with Issue 17's Ultra Mode: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...38&postcount=1

It's possible that the game will be introducing updates to the game that will enable support through Eyefinity and Surround 3D. We don't know for sure if the developers are going to do that yet. Given that backlash against games like Global Agenda that don't support Eyefinity: http://hardocp.com/article/2010/02/1...enda_editorial ... I hope our developers are taking note and making sure some of these new features are supported with a new graphics engine.

So, now is probably a good time to start pushing for multi-monitor support again. I do have to give the caveat though that updates for Eyefinity and Surround 3D may not mean that your particular setup will be supported if, or when, such updates are pushed to the live server builds.

 

Posted

Thanks for the in-depth response je_saist, yours was the first answer I got whenever I ask the question that someone didn't just call me a newb for not knowing what widescreen was.

I'll keep an eye on the forums and see if any updates come around that change FoV for multiscreen resolutions.

I guess having a wider FoV does give some advantage in pvp though so I can kinda understand that argument. Although other mainstream mmos with pvp allow it (wow,eq,eq2,champions,star trek,eve,aion, and probably some more i've tested it with that i can't remember)

So it seems CoH is just an exception when it comes to MMOs. I'll keep my fingers crossed that support comes with the Going Rogue expansion and maybe re-subscribe then.

Thanks again for the great info!!

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zierce View Post
Although other mainstream mmos with pvp allow it (wow,eq,eq2,champions,star trek,eve,aion, and probably some more i've tested it with that i can't remember)

So it seems CoH is just an exception when it comes to MMOs.
Just outta curiosity, how about DaoC, WAR, AoC, Lotro? I know you've played some of those, not sure about all. But, anyway, yea, the more examples you can show of other MMO's that DO have proper FoV widescreen support, the better.

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Posted

I'm highly disappointed to hear City of Heroes does not support Eyefinity. While I didn't pick and choose my system upgrade solely on CoX, it's quite a blow to see the game lacking in a feature so many of its competitors support.

The idea PvP wouldn't be "balanced" by this sort of technology is laughable; borderline insulting. If that was the case, everyone should be forced to play on Minimum graphics setting to assure everyone has the same viewing distance.

What seems quite a bit more plausible is the CoX cannot support this technology for whatever reason. I know the Devs have commented that they are going to need video card manufacturer's support for SLI / Crossfire technology, but this is completely different. I'd love to see a Dev stumble in here and let us know if Eyefinity (or other similar tech) ever plans to be supported.

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nibb_Nibb View Post
I'm highly disappointed to hear City of Heroes does not support Eyefinity. While I didn't pick and choose my system upgrade solely on CoX, it's quite a blow to see the game lacking in a feature so many of its competitors support.
*blinks*

Um. First thing Nibb. City of Heroes doesn't currently support Eyefinity. It's also using a graphics engine that's approaching 6+ years of age. Just because CoH doesn't support Eyefinity now DOES NOT mean that support won't be arriving with Ultra Mode. As stated in a couple threads, this issue has only really been brought to the developers attention within the past couple of weeks, and it will take time for Television and others involved at the coding level to rework default aspect ratios and field of views to be consistent across player resolutions.


Quote:
The idea PvP wouldn't be "balanced" by this sort of technology is laughable; borderline insulting. If that was the case, everyone should be forced to play on Minimum graphics setting to assure everyone has the same viewing distance.
You could also make the point here that Matrox sold Parhelia graphics cards based on it's triple-screen abilities back in 2002 and 2003. It's featured game was the PvP-Online title, Unreal Tournament.

The concept that a game should be limited for pvp-play reasons is insulting, which is why HardOCP and other gamer-centric sites have called for a boycott of Global Agenda.

However, using PvP as a reason for anything in City of Heroes is laughable in and of itself. It is possible that the development staff back in 2005, when Issue 4: Colosseum landed, thought that PvP play was going to become a centric part of the City of Heroes game. I seriously doubt that any of the surviving 15 had any clue that the PvP content would end up being the equivalent of a mill-stone tied around the necks of development resources.

Quote:
What seems quite a bit more plausible is the CoX cannot support this technology for whatever reason. I know the Devs have commented that they are going to need video card manufacturer's support for SLI / Crossfire technology, but this is completely different. I'd love to see a Dev stumble in here and let us know if Eyefinity (or other similar tech) ever plans to be supported.
... read the first part of this post again. 6 year old graphics engine, and yes the development staff is aware of the issue. Again, it's going to take time for proper multi-monitor support to be implemented.

 

Posted

I'm going to assume you weren't trying to be condescending in your post je_saist and strike a civil conversation with you.

I'm not blaming anyone for Eyefinity not being supported, but I am highly disappointed that it is not. As is my understanding of the technology, which I will admit is limited, the age of your engine isn't the question. It all comes down to if the game can support the resolution. Considering games like Halo (2003) and Max Payne (2001) can support it, I feel City of Heroes "can" support it in time.

If other players were to hint the lack of Eyefinity support was to "balance PvP" I'd chuckle and go on. If any red names tried going down that path, it would be a different story. Obviously, anyone with an older system that couldn't have the draw distance of a newer system would be at a "disadvantage" with this sort of reasoning, so my 'tongue in cheek' response was to force everyone down to the lowest resolution and most pathetic graphical settings in the issue of fairness.

We knew about the addition of the particle system months before it was released. Considering ATI's Eyefinity and nVidia's equivalent are being used as market devices, you'd have thought if we were getting something of that ilk in the newest expansion, it would have been mentioned.

All that said, I don't follow Paragon Studios and their actions as closely as I did Cryptic. Truth be told, I feel Paragon Studios is far better at giving the player what they want... Maybe they want to surprise us all and include it with Ultra mode. However, with no announcement and no mention from any red names, I won't be sitting up my screens for CoH play anytime soon.

 

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Good News / Bad News:

Good News is: the developers are open to the idea of implementing Eyefinity / multi-monitor support.

Bad News is: support won't be in I17... and possibly not Going Rogue either. The development resources just are not available.

Neutral News: if a significant number of players want Eyefinity / Multimonitor support, it's possible that priority could be bumped up to get support in by Going Rogue. However, this means that another possible planned feature will need to be delayed as techs are shifted around. What the development staff considers significant number of players to be I don't know.

Ergo, it's likely that support for Eyefinity / multi-monitor setups will be arriving in the game... but probably not until after Going Rogue.

 

Posted

Hmmm...maybe I've inadvertently entered into a parallel universe. This game used to work with my Matrox Triple Head.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/surro...ity_of_heroes/

Now, it seems it doesn't, and everyone seems to think there has never been support for triple screen resolutions.