5:4 Aspect Ratio (1280 x 1024 resolution)

[Josh7289]

I've heard people saying the 5:4 aspect ratio (specifically with the 1280 x 1024 resolution on a 17" LCD monitor) cuts off peripheral vision in FPSs (and naturally all other games, then) when compared to a traditional 4:3 aspect ratio screen. However, this does not make sense to me. When I think of it, I think the view would be the same as a 4:3 aspect ratio view, but you will be able to see even more in the top of the monitor since the 5:4 aspect ratio is taller than the 4:3 aspect ratio. Am I correct in thinking this? If not, please correct me, because, if I am wrong, then I will just play my games at 1024 x 768 on my 17" LCD monitor and just cut off the sides to the 1024 x 768 image stays in its native 4:3 aspect ratio as oppossed to being forced into a 5:4 aspect ratio monitor.

Also, while just using my computer for basic things (not games) at 1280 x 1024 resolution on a 17" LCD monitor with a 5:4 aspect ratio, will the visualizations looked stretched or something in Windows Media Player when I maximize the program? ;;

Seriosly, though...Can you help me here? Thanks for all the help!

 

[casper114]

As far as the 1280x1024 goes I think it just depends on how small you want the icons to look. Or The depth of the games is what i see the biggest difference in. So I think it's just personal preference.

 

[SynthDude2001]

For the peripheral vision, it depends on whether or not the game adjusts your field of view based on aspect ratio. I know Half-Life 2 does this (at least for widescreen monitors), but most others probably won't by default - so the same scene would be rendered, though slightly distorted because of the differences between 4:3 and 5:4 (and many games are still "designed" with 4:3 in mind by default). However, these two aspect ratios are close enough that you likely wouldn't notice anything.

 

[Tostada]

It depends on the game. Games are generally made for 4:3 displays, so when you're playing in 1280x1024, does it give you the same view as a 1280x960 display but add 32px to the top and bottom, or does it give you the same view as a 1366x1024 display but chop off 43 pixels on each side?

Some games distort the aspect (but it would look correct on a CRT in 1280x1024), so those will show you the same amount as a regular view (same as 1280x960 screen stretched to 1280x1024, or a 1366x1024 screen compressed to 1280x1024, however you want to look at it).

Obviously it's extremely easy to test how a game works. Just change video modes and see if you can see farther

 

[dullard]

It is just a 6% difference either way. Not enough to worry about. You aren't missing anything significant. Just go with what looks best on your particular monitor.

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
it depends on whether or not the game adjusts your field of view based on aspect ratio. I know Half-Life 2 does this (at least for widescreen monitors), but most others probably won't by default

That's certainly not true for any games in the last 5 years I've seen. Every game I've ever seen on a 16:9 display looks fine. Doom 3, Far Cry, etc. They don't just stretch a 1.33:1 picture onto a 1.60:1 or 1.78:1 display.

I suppose maybe a few of them would do something different for online play. I mean, that's a definite advantage having a 120-degree field of view on a widescreen as opposed to a 90-degree field of view on a standard screen.

 

[Josh7289]

Thank you all so far, but do most games cut off some of the sides of the image in a 5:4 aspect ratio? And if not, do any that you know of do this?

But really, will things like the visualizations in WMP look stretched or something similar?

Thanks again.

 

[Josh7289]

Bump.

 

[aplefka]

For me, I prefer the look of 4:3 to 5:4. I tried it for a bit and it was just weird. This was on a 19" CRT.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: aplefka
For me, I prefer the look of 4:3 to 5:4. I tried it for a bit and it was just weird. This was on a 19" CRT.

That might be because CRT screens are usually 4:3 physically...

 

[Josh7289]

Can anybody just answer my questions?

~_~

 

[Continuity27]

Originally posted by: aplefka
For me, I prefer the look of 4:3 to 5:4. I tried it for a bit and it was just weird. This was on a 19" CRT.

Your screen's physical dimensions are 4:3, 5:4 SHOULD look distorted on your screen. If your screen was a little taller, or not as wide, 5:4 would look better. Think 4 units horizontally by 3 units vertically. 1:1 would be a perfect square. 4:3 is wider than it is tall. A 5:4 is still wider than it is tall, but to a lesser extent than 4:3... comparitively, you can say 4:3 is 20:15, and 5:4 is 20:16. Not much of a difference, but enough to notice distortion. If your screen was physically 5:4, 4:3 would look weird to you too. (Too fat)

 

[kazeakuma]

Originally posted by: Continuity27

Originally posted by: aplefka
For me, I prefer the look of 4:3 to 5:4. I tried it for a bit and it was just weird. This was on a 19" CRT.

Your screen's physical dimensions are 4:3, 5:4 SHOULD look distorted on your screen. If your screen was a little taller, or not as wide, 5:4 would look better. Think 4 units horizontally by 3 units vertically. 1:1 would be a perfect square. 4:3 is wider than it is tall. A 5:4 is still wider than it is tall, but to a lesser extent than 4:3... comparitively, you can say 4:3 is 20:15, and 5:4 is 20:16. Not much of a difference, but enough to notice distortion. If your screen was physically 5:4, 4:3 would look weird to you too. (Too fat)

If you want to see what happens, here's an easy way. Start in a 4:3 res, and draw a perfect circle in your drawing program of choice. Now switch to a 5:4 res, the circle is no longer round.
Simple way of seeing just what distortion it causes.

 

[svi]

That's certainly not true for any games in the last 5 years I've seen. Every game I've ever seen on a 16:9 display looks fine. Doom 3, Far Cry, etc. They don't just stretch a 1.33:1 picture onto a 1.60:1 or 1.78:1 display.

It's true for some of the games in the last 5 years. All of the rest that I've seen, with the exception of games running on Source, generate a larger image and clip the top and bottom bits off. Pick your poison: distortion or loss of FOV.

You're welcome to try it out. Out of idle curiosity (emphasis on idle), I took screenshots of widescreen resolutions and 4:3 resolutions in all the games I play. All except the Source-based games either stretched or clipped the image.

I've heard people saying the 5:4 aspect ratio (specifically with the 1280 x 1024 resolution on a 17" LCD monitor) cuts off peripheral vision in FPSs (and naturally all other games, then) when compared to a traditional 4:3 aspect ratio screen. However, this does not make sense to me. When I think of it, I think the view would be the same as a 4:3 aspect ratio view, but you will be able to see even more in the top of the monitor since the 5:4 aspect ratio is taller than the 4:3 aspect ratio. Am I correct in thinking this? If not, please correct me, because, if I am wrong, then I will just play my games at 1024 x 768 on my 17" LCD monitor and just cut off the sides to the 1024 x 768 image stays in its native 4:3 aspect ratio as oppossed to being forced into a 5:4 aspect ratio monitor.

Also, while just using my computer for basic things (not games) at 1280 x 1024 resolution on a 17" LCD monitor with a 5:4 aspect ratio, will the visualizations looked stretched or something in Windows Media Player when I maximize the program? ;;

Seriosly, though...Can you help me here? Thanks for all the help!

The reason you wouldn't see more on the top and bottom of the screen is that most engines generate 4:3 images and make them fit on other aspect ratios (16:10, 5:4, et al) by either stretching the 4:3 image to fit or cutting off whatever portions don't fit (or something with the same effective results).

You'll be fine with web pages and word processing and bears, oh my. See, with 2D applications, everything is a certain width and height in pixels, and so long as your pixels are square everything will be as it should. You'll have a slightly taller screen than most, but this will have no effect on how individual images or text are displayed.

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: aplefka
For me, I prefer the look of 4:3 to 5:4. I tried it for a bit and it was just weird. This was on a 19" CRT.

That might be because CRT screens are usually 4:3 physically...

Yeah but whenever I say I run 1280x960 people are like "Oh that's weird, so it's a little distorted then?" And I'm like uhhh no not at all. I guess monitors are different these days or seomthing.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: aplefka
Yeah but whenever I say I run 1280x960 people are like "Oh that's weird, so it's a little distorted then?" And I'm like uhhh no not at all. I guess monitors are different these days or seomthing.

On a 5:4 LCD (17 or 19 inch non-widescreen) 1280x1024 is the proper resolution to run for no distortion. However, you would be right to run 1280x960 on a CRT. No CRT that I know of that has ever been sold to the general public (hence, I wouldn't know about it if it weren't) has needed a 5:4 resolution. 1280x960 is the proper res for any CRT (as are 800x600, 1024x768, 1400x1050, 1600x1200, 2048x1536, etc.), and anyone who claims otherwise just can't see (in fact, I got into a big argument with some idiot on here who claimed that I was out of my mind because I said that I could tell a clear difference between x960 and x1024!).

 

[George Powell]

If on an LCD the 1280*1024 is fine, as this is the native resolution of the monitor. On a CRT I agree that a correctly scaled display does look better.

As far as peripheral vision the only time 5:4 would be better than 4:3 would be if you cocked your head over to one side. As far as I have seen recently peoples eyes are next to each other rather than on top of each other.

This reason also means that a widescreen display offers better peripheral vision and I have found during the last week or so since I got a widescreen display more comfortable on the eyes during normal use.

 

[Josh7289]

Then I guess I will be running games at 1024 x 768 so I can have the widest view possible, and I will just put black bars on all four sides.

 

[Continuity27]

Originally posted by: Josh7289
Then I guess I will be running games at 1024 x 768 so I can have the widest view possible, and I will just put black bars on all four sides.

What about 1280x960? That way you only have black bars on the top and bottom.

On another note... FFXI is great in that you can set any resolution in the registry, and set the aspect ratio in the game, you can do 4:3, 5:4, 16:9, 16:10 etc. :thumbsup:

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: kazeakuma
If you want to see what happens, here's an easy way. Start in a 4:3 res, and draw a perfect circle in your drawing program of choice. Now switch to a 5:4 res, the circle is no longer round.

Not on a CRT. Since you can independantly stretch horizontally or vertially, likely it WON'T be even close to round on 4:3 on a 4:3 monitor. Yes, with some adjustment you can make it round, but very likley it isn't round with just about any CRT in the world. In fact, with a little adjustment you can get it to be perfectly round on 5:4 resolution on a 4:3 monitor.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: dullard
Not on a CRT. Since you can independantly stretch horizontally or vertially, likely it WON'T be even close to round on 4:3 on a 4:3 monitor. Yes, with some adjustment you can make it round, but very likley it isn't round with just about any CRT in the world. In fact, with a little adjustment you can get it to be perfectly round on 5:4 resolution on a 4:3 monitor.

Even on my mediocre Philips 19" CRT, the usable image area is 14x10.5 inches, which is exactly 4:3. Stretching things to accomodate a 5:4 resolution such as 1280x1024 would produce noticeable and annoying black bars on either side of the image. While it could be done, it would look bad, and the effort required to measure everything and make sure it matches up perfectly does most certainly not offset the simplicity of just using the right resolution in the first place (1280x960 or 1600x1200 depending on your taste for text size).

 

[Auric]

As far as full-screen applications (i.e. games and other graphics as opposed to OS desktop), using the full display area of a 5:4 LCD @ 1280x960 is the inverse of using the full display area of a 4:3 CRT @ 1280x1024. Each will distort the image by stretching (vertically and horizontally, respectively). The image will not be cropped. However, the available display area should be cropped via monitor adjustment or driver options to prevent the distortion. The field of view can only be increased if the game is designed for 5:4. Often though, while the 3D renderer may adjust to different aspect ratios, the 2D (particularly HUD's) does not so it is still preferred to use a 4:3 AR.

So, to maintain the correct AR on a 5:4 1280x1024 max LCD, it is generally required to disable scaling from the panels hardware controls (often lacking) or the GPU's control panel (only available via DVI). With NVIDIA, centered output and fixed aspect ratio scaling are available, thus allowing lower resolutions like 1024x768 or 1152x864 to be used for higher performance, either using less than the maximum horizontal screen area or being scaled up while maintaining the correct 4:3 AR. With ATI, scaling to the maximum can only be disabled and for some queer reason only 4 of the 7 lower resolutions are displayed centered while some of the most useful for games: 600, 768 and 864 scale up and stretch to 1024). However, at least 1280x960 works as expected with matting top and bottom.

WMP plugins that have resolution configuration can either use the full 1024 or 960 matted without distortion. Those that do not seem to adjust automatically to the desktop (desktop @ 1280x720 still results in round visualizations being round rather than oval).

 

[Josh7289]

Since the controls on the GPU's control panel to do this are only for DVI, then do you know if Samsung's 730B 17" LCD Moniter can crop the image for me since I will only be able to use RGB for now? Thank you very much.

 

[Josh7289]

Bump.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: Josh7289
Since the controls on the GPU's control panel to do this are only for DVI, then do you know if Samsung's 730B 17" LCD Moniter can crop the image for me since I will only be able to use RGB for now? Thank you very much.

Check the manual or their support site -perhaps a PDF download if you don't have a paper one to see if the monitor has its own scaling options.