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Author Topic: The Widescreen Thread  (Read 95068 times)

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Offline Hiro

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #60 on: February 11, 2008, 04:16:05 am »
Yeah, apparently some video cards let you specify that all resolutions are drawn without streatching. My doesn't have it (I looked).
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Offline Gnerma

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #61 on: February 11, 2008, 06:31:49 am »
First of all many "nice" LCD displays have the option in their internal setup to pillar or letter box non native aspect ratio signals. My BenQ 241W has such an option. Of course, many "nice" LCD displays do not have this. This is something you should really consider when buying a display. I know I wouldn't buy one without this functionality. You can never trust a source to be able to do it's own pillar/letter boxing.

If you have a Nvidia video card and are using recent drivers you can go to Nvidia control panel -> Display -> Change flat panel scaling -> and select "Use Nvidia scaling with fixed aspect ratio". This may not be available if your card is x number of generations old, I don't know. It also may not be available in OSX. I'm not aware if ATi has anything similar in their recent drivers.

Offline PiscesToAquaria

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #62 on: February 11, 2008, 07:31:44 pm »
In my case, my video card / LCD aren't crap; so I can actually play the game as centered 4:3. So it never seemed like a big deal to me.

While widescreen now works visually, it still messes with the game design in ways that have yet to be fixed.

That's what I was afraid of, and is why I suggested early on that you handle widescreen resolutions by centering the 4:3 display, with black or Aquaria art on the sides.  OpenGL sort of forced your hand the other way, didn't it?  It's probably just as well, since the perception anymore is that widescreen is better.  You're probably going to need to play with scaling to get the best compromise at different aspects.

Your first sentence I could have written myself verbatim.

Offline Alec

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #63 on: February 11, 2008, 07:44:01 pm »
We could easily add bars on the side all the time. (we already have bars that are toggled on in widescreen for certain cutscenes that weren't built for 16:9)

But yeah, I've fixed a number of oddities since then. One was a mouse input problem near the edges of the screen, I came up with a good solution for that.

I'll fix stuff as I play through.

Offline Wonko

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #64 on: February 12, 2008, 03:55:22 am »
If you have a Nvidia video card and are using recent drivers you can go to Nvidia control panel -> Display -> Change flat panel scaling -> and select "Use Nvidia scaling with fixed aspect ratio". This may not be available if your card is x number of generations old, I don't know. It also may not be available in OSX. I'm not aware if ATi has anything similar in their recent drivers.

No such option here on my Nvidia Control Panel (with advanced options), using the latest drivers for my 8600GT on Windows XP. :(
Could it be because of my crappy monitor doesn't have a DVI input, only VGA? (Samsung SyncMaster 740nw)

Offline grandchampion

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #65 on: February 12, 2008, 09:50:30 am »
So glad to hear you are addressing this issue Alec! 

I'm sure many widescreen users would be happy to play in 1280x800 if they have an older video card.  I was playing in 1024x768 on my 24" 1920x1200 monitor because anything higher has graphical glitches.  The lower quater of the screen flickers black and I think the background is offset also .  This is on a GeForce 8800GTS.

Offline Gnerma

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #66 on: February 12, 2008, 11:38:21 pm »
No such option here on my Nvidia Control Panel (with advanced options), using the latest drivers for my 8600GT on Windows XP. :(
Could it be because of my crappy monitor doesn't have a DVI input, only VGA? (Samsung SyncMaster 740nw)

It could be a lot of things, the OS, the GPU, the interface. I'm using Vista, DVI-D & a 8800 GT and it's available. I'll look into this further and post back with info on just where it's available and where it isn't.

EDIT: You were right. This requires a digital interface (DVI/HDMI).
« Last Edit: February 12, 2008, 11:48:03 pm by Gnerma »

Offline Cliftor

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #67 on: February 14, 2008, 05:34:06 am »
What do you want to know about the graphics?

OpenGL is used to employ 3D acceleration for 2D graphics.

Sorry I was gone so long.  Actually what I meant was something a little more general.  It's about traditional raster graphics vs 2D vector graphics.  At gamefaqs we sometimes argue about the future of 2D gaming.  The common complaint I hear is that traditional hand-drawn raster sprites and backgrounds are too time consuming to make for HD resolutions and with enough frames of animation to look smooth and enough level of detail to be appealing.

Some argue that 2D vector graphics is a solution to the smoothness issue, and I say so too half-heartedly, but afaik you can't get the same level of detail in your objects.  The best compromise I could think of was Viewtiful Joe's approach: Make it 2.5D, then apply intelligent filters (like celshading) to make it look hand drawn.

So, what I was wondering was, from that point of view, how is Aquaria done?  What are the basic objects, and how did you decide how to balance the time/detail aspects and the system resources aspect (I'm not certain celshading is the most system efficient way to achieve that look)?  Because I was awed by how smooth Naija's movement is and how clean the rotations are.

Offline Hiro

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #68 on: February 15, 2008, 04:25:24 am »
Hmm, all I know in that regard is that all the parts of Naija are 'bones'. And each bone has its own sprite and pivot points and stuff. 'Bones' are attached to eachother by pivot points like in your body. Or something like that. Does that help?
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Offline Alphasoldier

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #69 on: February 15, 2008, 08:07:42 am »
Hiro's kind of right... Naija has "bones" the multiple part of her body and she uses simple animations that moves and rotates the parts of her body, not only pivoting from one certain point, which makes things VERY smooth.

This game's graphics is not near Viewtiful Joe, it's really purely 2d.

And I can't really answer the balance question cause I don't know. I do know that Alec did the scripting and Derek did the Drawing, but how far that is mixed, is also something I don't know.
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Offline Alec

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #70 on: February 15, 2008, 04:51:28 pm »
The animation system is 2d skeletal. But it also has some additional options, like being able to deform parts. (Naija's body section has a subtle breathing deformation animation on it)

I'd say I did about 90% of the animations for the game. Brandon and Derek also animated and scripted some creatures later on.

Offline Cliftor

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #71 on: February 16, 2008, 03:12:36 am »
Oh I know they're not 2.5 celshaded (I played the demo and it's beautiful), but I was just using that as an example as a possible future of HD 2D gaming.

So the sprites are all hand-drawn raster?

Offline Alec

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #72 on: February 16, 2008, 06:16:25 pm »
Yeah, its like a bunch of sprites. There aren't any vector-based graphics.

(there are things are texture mapped to 2D meshes for deformation purposes, etc)

Offline Hiro

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #73 on: February 26, 2008, 04:52:05 am »
Any news on the widescreen front? Or the new patch?  ^-^
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Offline Cebidae

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Re: The Widescreen Thread
« Reply #74 on: March 02, 2008, 11:11:26 pm »
Hi I'm new! :)

Loved the demo. Really, it was fantastic!

You can have my $30........ as soon as its widescreen compatible! I want to enjoy the beautiful visuals with all my screen. :)

Don't suppose you could put a date on the update? Is it a matter of days, or weeks?