metroid prime 16:9 fit (or any game) (1 Viewer)

[Eric-sherbrooke]

I want to hear form people who had played with Metroid prime on 16/9 HDTV in progressive scan. Do you play it in 4/3 or you strech it?? does it still look amazing??

What do you most often do with 4/3 games??

 

[Doug Schiller]

It isn't true 16x9 but you can stretch the HUD and it is very playable in that mode.

Doug

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I hate the 'fat' look, but some don't mind.

 

[liana]

to be honest I have yet to find one GC game that doesnt look great in 16x9.

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

I don't stretch any videogame I own. If a game doesn't have a 16:9 option, I will run it in 4:3 mode and place mattes over the gray bars.

 

[Christopher_S]

I've played a few games stretched, both on my PS2 and Gamecube, and I am beginning to wonder if the game designers aren't cheating a bit for widescreen, even when there's no 16:9 mode. This weekend, I played Tiger Woods 2004 stretched, and it looked fantastic. Anyone else think programmers are "splitting the difference", making the game just a touch squeezed on a 4:3 display to get better results for those who stretch? Just an errant conspiracy theory.

 

[John Doran]

i dunno about any conspiracy, but i can confirm that every game i have played stretched to 16:9 has looked amazing. every single one.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

And I can confirm that every game I've played stretched looks absolutely terrible.

It is subjective and depends on the viewer's discrimination and preference.

 

[John Doran]

It is subjective and depends on the viewer's discrimination and preference.

while i think you're definitely right about this, i think it's also enormously dependent on the quality of the stretch-mode being used to do the stretching: i would hazard that the the quality of the stretching-algorithm on my TV is one of the best, since i know what the "fat-look" is, and i am unable to notice it on the games i play.

perhaps ironically, in fact, the only time i notice the short-and-wide look is when i play Syberia in 1080i. which is weird.

anyway. i'm just saying.

 

[Eric-sherbrooke]

i dunno about any conspiracy, but i can confirm that every game i have played stretched to 16:9 has looked amazing. every single one.

What's your screen???, It is true that Toshiba have a very good stretching-algorithm, I heard it is almost natural in the center and more stretch on on side.

 

[Christopher_S]

I have a Toshiba, and there is a stretch mode just like what you're describing, where the center remains relatively normal-looking, and the sides are stretched more. I don't use this mode for games, since I think uneven distortion in different screen areas would hurt gameplay (and possibly cause motion sickness in a game like Metroid Prime!). This mode also cuts a small amount of picture information from the top and bottom of the screen.

I'm using an even stretch across the screen, and yeah, it's just my opinion and preference, but I think it looks great for MOST of the games I've played. High Heat 2004 looked rotten that way, but the aforementioned Tiger Woods and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter look fantastic.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I'll agree that even stretching is better. The 'improved' stretch modes that stretch more on the sides and less in the middle are even worse to me. I don't like seeing objects get fatter near the edges and skinny in the middle; I also don't like the fisheye look for first-person games.

Any stretch algorithm is a distortion of geometry and one of the reasons my set is ISF calibrated is so that I can have correct geometry.

 

[John_V]

I played through Metroid Prime on my Sony 34" widescreen using the "wide zoom" stretch mode the whole game..and I HATE stretch modes!

But for some reason on Metroid, it was actually a better experience! I think it's because the distortion just isn't that noticable on a first-person game like this.

The reason I liked stretching it is because it fills your field of view better and it seems like you're more "in" the environment. When I would try switching back to the 4:3 mode, I felt like I was trapped, and had tunnel vision.

That's my experience anyway. Stretch is good for Metroid, bad for everything else. I tried using a stretch mode for Zelda, and hated it. Looked ugly.

Who else can't wait for F-Zero?! That'll have a 16:9 mode built-in!

 

[Darren Haycock]

I'm a bit surprised that 16x9 modes haven't been more mainstream for this generation of gaming. I don't have a widescreen tv yet, but I remember playing GoldenEye and noticing the 16x9 mode which I thought was really cool. I didn't think many titles for the N64 would support it, but I thought that most games on the new consoles definitely would.

 

[RobBenton]

Metroid looks great on a widescreen tv stretched.. you can even adjust it a bit in game so that it is not quite as stretched. I really cannot tell it is stretched at all.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

I find it somewhat unusual that while on the one hand the idea of panning and scanning a movie is taboo yet playing with the original aspect ratio of a game is OK. Just kind of weird. That said for someone who plays a lot there is logic to filling the screen as, calibrated or not, too much time with the sides unused is to the detriment of a widescreen TV. What I also find unusual from the developer's perspective, moreso for games from Microsoft, is why they haven't truly embraced it for the Xbox given its slant towards HDTV.

I guess the big question is how a particular aspect ratio affects actual gameplay. For driving games of first-person shooters I would think there would be more emphasis on widescreen formats as it increases peripheral vision consistent with how we see. For games like top-down "Baldur's Gate Styles" or 3rd person it may not be as compelling.

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

Originally posted by Jay Mitchosky:
I find it somewhat unusual that while on the one hand the idea of panning and scanning a movie is taboo yet playing with the original aspect ratio of a game is OK. Just kind of weird.

Jay, I feel exactly the same way. I don't understand the reasons behind this contradiction at all. Who cares if it looks "OK" stretched? It's still a distorted image for Mario's sake!

 

[Ike]

To be blunt, I play games to be entertained, I watch movies as art. I'm sure that's offensive to someone, but that's me. So, I use the Just mode on my Panasonic and I never notice.

It comes down to which way is more fun to me. Playing it when it's "correct" but smaller, there's a risk of burn in and grey bars on the side is less fun than playing it stretched, fills my screen, and I can adjust the brightness/contrast for all areas of the screen. I can't notice the stretching.

 

[John Doran]

I find it somewhat unusual that while on the one hand the idea of panning and scanning a movie is taboo yet playing with the original aspect ratio of a game is OK.

what's taboo about changing the aspect ratio of a movie to 4:3 is that you actually lose part of the picture in so doing.

making a 4:3 game into a 16:9 image leaves the content of the picture intact, and just distorts it a bit (pretty much unnoticeably, if you have the right stretching algorithm).

so, personally, i don't think its odd at all not to want to lose part of your movie picture, but at the same time also want your video game to fill up all of your widescreen TV.

for me, i like playing games on every square-inch of display available to me because the image is bigger, and the bigger the image, the better. simple as that.

 

[Christopher_S]

Uh, well, I do.

And a lot of it has to do with the potential screen damage Jay mentioned.

But, and I'll admit this freely, another part of it has to do with the fact that I just prefer the 16:9 AR. I just do. Sorry, no explanation, but it's true. And if the game "looks "OK"" that way, and isn't distorted to the point that it distracts me from playing the game, then that's what I'll do.

Despite increasing attempts to make games that look like movies, (and unfortunately, movies that feel like games), I'm not yet convinced that they are the same thing, or must be treated the same way.

I watch movies in their OAR. I fix games to my liking for the screen they're on. Is that a contradiction? I don't think so. You might. That's what makes the world go 'round, I guess.