Widescreen vs. Fullscreen Implementation

[MoeStooge]

Since most of what I've read indicates that all Xbox 360 games (not sure if Sony is mandating the same) are going to be widescreen HD, how easy is it for developers to provide both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios for their games? I assume technically it's not that difficult, but for actual gameplay it might be a little annoying.

I've played several PC games in 16:9 (err 16:10), but it's still fairly uncommon. It's seems like their could be a potential difference in gameplay experiences. Games might be slightly easier in widescreen or slightly harder in 4:3 mode. Is this really no big deal?

 

[_leech_]

...how easy is it for developers to provide both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios for their games?

I'm assuming they won't even bother, games will just be letterboxed on 4:3 televisions.

 

[ERP]

Since most of what I've read indicates that all Xbox 360 games (not sure if Sony is mandating the same) are going to be widescreen HD, how easy is it for developers to provide both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios for their games? I assume technically it's not that difficult, but for actual gameplay it might be a little annoying.

I've played several PC games in 16:9 (err 16:10), but it's still fairly uncommon. It's seems like their could be a potential difference in gameplay experiences. Games might be slightly easier in widescreen or slightly harder in 4:3 mode. Is this really no big deal?

I haven't scanned the TRC's of late, but I believe that letterboxed is considered OK by MS.

In terms of support ot's not particularly difficult, you just need an alternate HUD layout and to set your camera matrix to a different aspect ratio. But it's one more thing in the test matrix, so I have no idea if we'll see significant support for native 4:3.

 

[Fafalada]

In terms of support ot's not particularly difficult, you just need an alternate HUD layout and to set your camera matrix to a different aspect ratio.

Uhmm, changing aspect alone wouldn't be quite the right way to do it, as you'd get a "zoomed out" perspective, significantly enough that it 'can' affect how the game is played.

Not to mention as a result you'd inevitably get people bitching about how they see less stuff in 16:9 and how something must be wrong with 'widescreen' because of it. Some have complained about the same thing in games this gen that did this, and it was only a secondary mode, if 16:9 was native they might be even more upset over it.

 

[EasyRaider]

I don't want to play in letterboxed 16:9. If game devs can't be bothered to add a less wide aspect ratio, I won't bother buying their games.

 

[ERP]

Uhmm, changing aspect alone wouldn't be quite the right way to do it, as you'd get a "zoomed out" perspective, significantly enough that it 'can' affect how the game is played.

Not to mention as a result you'd inevitably get people bitching about how they see less stuff in 16:9 and how something must be wrong with 'widescreen' because of it. Some have complained about the same thing in games this gen that did this, and it was only a secondary mode, if 16:9 was native they might be even more upset over it.

One way or another your going to see more in one of the setups. Depends on if you crop or zoom which version that will be.

Most games aren't so sensitive to the aspect ratio that it's an issue, but I agree to the extent that it's an additional entry in the test matrix and I think that's more likely to be a bigger deal than the technical issues.

Given it's not required to support 4:3 Natively it'll be interesteing to see how many publishers bother.

I've said before I think this author for 16:9 720p is just a tad early right now for the mainstream, hopefully this focus won't hurt the more common 4:3 480i/p gaming experience.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I'd have thought main gameplay would be in cropped 4:3 and cutscenes choreographed to a 16:9 would be letterboxed to avoid the problems of content (NPCs etc.) being cropped out of the picture.

 

[randycat99]

I'm guessing a lot of developers will adapt an "intermediate" widescreen presentation (unless that particular game presents a great imperative to specifically go with 4:3 or 16:9). That is, the viewer will see an image that fills most of the screen regardless of the type of display they have, with only minor black bars on either the sides or top/bottom. I've seen this on a few TV shows. It seems like a good compromise to satisfy everybody most of the time.

Heh, even 16:9 stands as a rather "mild" widescreen format, as things stand today. Most "widescreen" displays are still showing black bars anyway when it comes to the typical, modern "panoramic movie" that is sporting 1.85:1, 2:1, 2+...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Lots of UK broadcasts are like that. Don't much care for it myself. IMO either go widescreen or not. The partial widescreen adds very little extra width that it hardly seems worth bothering with.

 

[randycat99]

Well, that's the trick, right? It's intended to work "juuuust about right" on anybody's TV. It's a middleground to suit everybody.

 

[EasyRaider]

720p cropped to 4:3? Meh, what a waste of performance.

(edit)
MS forces everyone to support 720p 16:9. I doubt we'll see any intermediate aspect ratios.

I have a feeling I'll skip this generation of consoles and focus on PC gaming.

 

[kyleb]

I'd bet that most games will be designed around 16:9 and then either letterboxed or cropped by the engine to kind of a pan-and-scan like mode for 4:3 displays.

 

[_leech_]

I don't want to play in letterboxed 16:9. If game devs can't be bothered to add a less wide aspect ratio, I won't bother buying their games.

Everything is moving towards either 16:10 or 16:9 widescreen. Deal with it.

 

[Apoc]

Everything is moving towards either 16:10 or 16:9 widescreen. Deal with it.

Not in Europe. I know only one person with a 16:9 tv and he is going back to a 4:3 because all tv-shows are 4:3 here.

 

[_leech_]

Not in Europe.

The transition is going much slower in Europe but it will happen.

 

[Fafalada]

I've said before I think this author for 16:9 720p is just a tad early right now for the mainstream, hopefully this focus won't hurt the more common 4:3 480i/p gaming experience.

Well since other platforms don't mandate 16:9 I figure at least crossplatform will not go away from 4:3 support for awhile yet.

 

[EasyRaider]

16:9 is great for most movies. For games I feel it sacrifices a bit too much up/down view. And really, it should be pretty trivial to support 4:3 and/or 16:10. In most cases you don't even need a different HUD layout. Just keep the elements fixed relative to the sides of the screen.

 

[Dural]

16:9 is great for most movies. For games I feel it sacrifices a bit too much up/down view.

If widescreen is implemented correctly you are not losing anything vertically, you are adding more screen horizontally.

 

[Reznor007]

Perfect Dark and Banjo-Tooie on N64 supported optional true 16:9 modes, where you got to see just a bit more on the sides. There were no problems with that, and that was years ago.

 

[MoeStooge]

If widescreen is implemented correctly you are not losing anything vertically, you are adding more screen horizontally.

That picture illustrates one of my concerns. The widescreen user will see someone hiding on his left or right before the 4:3 user will. It may seem like a small thing but I can see it making a difference in multiplayer games.