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Very strange aspect scaling issue.

DrezDrez Registered User regular
Note: I have a Radeon HD 5870 and a BenQ 241W. I'm running Win7 RC1 right now. My desktop is set to 1920x1200.

Also, I know I talk a lot about Bioshock 2 here, but I think the issue may be unrelated to the game and more related to my videocard settings or something. So even if you don't have the game, please read on, maybe you can suggest something anyway.

To make a long story short, Bioshock 2 had a kind of fucked-up release and has multiple, multiple issues, some of which are related to the display. After two patches, 16:10 resolutions (such as 1920x1200) have vertical 2D stretching. That is...3D textures are NOT stretched, but the heads up display is. 16:9 resolutions, however, do not. But I have a problem playing in 1920x1080.

The problem is this: In fullscreen mode, 1920x1080 does NOT come to the left or right edge of my screen. The whole thing is framed in black boxes/letterboxes. However, if I switch to windowed mode, the window properly stretches to the left and right side of my screen. This is kind of befuddling. This is suboptimal, of course, as I don't want to look at my desktop while playing Bioshock 2.

Even stranger is this: I installed Fraps so I could get a screencapture of the very odd framing issue. I put Bioshock 2 back in fullscreen mode (set to 1920x1080), take a screenshot using Fraps, get out to windows, and boom - the SCREENSHOT shows the game display with no black borders. And yes the image dimensions were 1920 by 1080 pixels. I'm not too familiar with Fraps so I'm not sure what's going on here.

I don't see any real aspect scaling options in my Catalyst Control Center options. I have my monitor itself set to "Aspect" scaling, which is what I normally have it set to. The monitor can do Aspect, 1:1, and Full.

Can someone explain to me what is going on? I'm confused. Do I have something set weirdly? Ideally, I'd like to play in 16:10 with no 2D stretching. Currently that is impossible for anyone - Bioshock 2 stretches the HUD and you can't do anything about it. The next best option would be to play at 1920x1080 in fullscreen mode where EVERYTHING scales correctly. However, I don't want to play the game framed in black borders.

I have a feeling something is screwed up in my settings, though, that's causing that framing. I just cannot comprehend what. If my desktop is set to 1920x1200, why would the 1920x1080 image NOT come all the way to the left and right side of my display?

Thanks in advance. I'm so confused.

Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
Drez on

Posts

  • elliotw2elliotw2 Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I think that's because you're rendering a 16:9 image on a 16:10 monitor. Fraps of course won't show this, since it's only on your hardware end. Set your monitor to Full scaling, and it'll fix this problem, but it will stretch a little

    elliotw2 on
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  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    elliotw2 wrote: »
    I think that's because you're rendering a 16:9 image on a 16:10 monitor. Fraps of course won't show this, since it's only on your hardware end. Set your monitor to Full scaling, and it'll fix this problem, but it will stretch a little

    Setting it to "Full" in game stretches the image out in all directions but it is still incorrect.

    And I understand what you mean but I'm pretty sure if I load up Half-Life 2 and run it in 16:9, the image won't be centered.

    Which would actually be a pretty good test. I should go do that.

    Drez on
    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • tsmvengytsmvengy Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    As for centering vs. stretching on 16:9, that's probably a monitor setting, not a video card thing.

    tsmvengy on
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  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I've generally never had aspect scaling problems with my monitor.

    However, before upgrading to the Radeon HD 5870, had an Nvidia card. And I did have some problems where Windows 7/Nvidia overrode my monitor's aspect scaling. It would stretch and lock the display in a very odd way.

    Drez on
    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
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