4:3 applications on 16:10 displays?

TinyTeeth

Member
Dec 14, 2004
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I'm currently looking at three different displays, Samsung 204T, Apple Cinema Display 20" and Dell 2005FPW. As you probably know, the main distinguishing feature here is that the Samsung 204T is a regular 20" display while the Dell and Apple displays are wide-screen.

My question is: What do older games that do not natively support wide-screen resolutions look like on a wide-screen display? The one game I am specificially thinking of is my all-time favourite - Fallout 2. If I can't play this game in a satisfactory manner on a wide-screen display I'm afraid that option is ruled out. I understand the image will be horizontally stretched to fit the screen, but is there a way to have to vertically-running black bars on both sides of the screen instead?

Thanks in advance.
 

Jon855

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2005
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Yes there is a way, go to display properties and under setting there should be a checkbox that says keep aspect ratio or something like that. I can't confirm this at the lab using a 4:3 instead of my 16:10 laptop at my apt... I'm sure somebody else around here will help you out, but it's possible yes.
 

duragezic

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,234
4
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Dell 2005FPW has the option to fully fill the screen no matter the resolution (default), display the image 1:1, or Aspect, which will keep the same ratio but fill as high as the height of the screen and whatever is left in width is shown with black bars on the left and right sides. So aspect is a pretty handy feature I'd say.
 

jiffylube1024

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
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Originally posted by: Markbnj
On the Dell it is a front panel setting.

Yup, the Dell has 3 settings in the screen menu: 1:1 (which displays the resolution pixel perfect on the screen, so for example 640X480 would be a small box, pixel-perfect in the middle of the screen), Aspect (which means it would stretch it horizontally and vertically so that it would be the height of the screen but keep the same 4:3 aspect ratio and have black bars on the left and right side), and stretch (which stretches the image to fill the screen).

On the 2005fpw you could switch between 1:1 and Aspect stretching to see which you liked best.
 

Busithoth

Golden Member
Sep 28, 2003
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my 2405 has the same option, though it was only enabled once I set the monitor to 800x600 resolution first. (?)
then I could go into the on screen menu and change it to 1:1, which looks great to me.
 

JBT

Lifer
Nov 28, 2001
12,094
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I wouldnb't be suprised if you could get fallout to work as Widescreen.

I'd check out WSG Forum and see if they have any info.
 

TinyTeeth

Member
Dec 14, 2004
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Sounds even better with the Dell screen then! Does anyone know what it's like on the Apple Cinema Display?

By the way, thanks for the answers so far.

Edit: WSG Forums had a great FAQ, thank you for the link.
 

duragezic

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,234
4
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Apple Cinema Display is like just about every other LCD: a non-native image will be stretched to fill the whole screen. And for 4:3 or 5:4 resolutions, this tends to make it look like crap on a widescreen LCD. Widescreen is great but the Dell's features make it that much more of a viable option, especially for those doubting widescreen, so it makes it less of an issue.