Aspect Ratio

filipetolhuizen · Post by **filipetolhuizen** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 1:31 am

Hi,
I noticed that some games like Indy 3 FM Towns version runs too "squished" on widescreen monitors. Is there a way to force custom ratio or a possibility to add it as an option in the future?

Graxer · Post by **Graxer** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 8:55 am

This would be a good feature. My PC monitor automatically adjusts to 4:3 when I switch ScummVM to full screen which is great. However, with my laptop the picture stretches to the shape of my screen and there is nothing I can do about it as my laptop doesn't have built-in 4:3 correction. (As far as I know)

ancalimonungol · Post by **ancalimonungol** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 3:52 pm

As far as I know custom screen ratios are tied to you graphx card and Windows is inflexible about it.

Maybe ScummVM could make the picture narrower for wide screens?

Try PowerStrip to create custom resolutions.

l3l3l5l · Post by **l3l3l5l** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:42 pm

For nvidia users:

Collector · Post by **Collector** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:48 pm

This can often be handled by by the manual controls on the monitor itself, too.

Graxer · Post by **Graxer** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 7:01 pm

l3l3l5l wrote:For nvidia users:
*BIG PICTURE*

You are a genius, thank you!

I can finally play 4:3 games on my laptop without it looking stretced and ugly. This was even more of a problem due to the fact that I really only play classic games.

Are there seriously people who prefer their 4:3 stretched?

Collector wrote:This can often be handled by by the manual controls on the monitor itself, too.

That's how I originally did it with my PC.

filipetolhuizen · Post by **filipetolhuizen** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 7:47 pm

This applies to Vista/7 only, I have XP. Anyway, the thing is, I just wanted to stretch Indy3 FM-Towns image vertically to make it look like the DOS VGA version (I could simply play the VGA version, but FM-Towns sounds way better). With hq3x filter, EGA and VGA version run at 960x600(still looks fine on widescreen) and FM-Towns, 1024x768 (looks too squished).

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 8:28 pm

filipetolhuizen wrote:I just wanted to stretch Indy3 FM-Towns image vertically to make it look like the DOS VGA version

I don't have the FM-Towns games myself (too rare, and much too expensive these days) but from what I understand they are 320x240 pixels already, in which case aspect ratio correction does nothing. I don't know what the extra graphics space is used for though. Possibly just a larger inventory area.

filipetolhuizen · Post by **filipetolhuizen** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 8:33 pm

Yes, the Fm-Towns version is 320x240 (1024x768 in hq3x) and the other are 320x200 (960x600 in hq3x). If "Aspect Ratio Correction" box is checked, then all run in 1024x768 and look squished on widescreen. Is there any way that I could force 960x600?

LordHoto · Post by **LordHoto** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 8:44 pm

filipetolhuizen wrote:Yes, the Fm-Towns version is 320x240 (1024x768 in hq3x) and the other are 320x200 (960x600 in hq3x). If "Aspect Ratio Correction" box is checked, then all run in 1024x768 and look squished on widescreen. Is there any way that I could force 960x600?

First of all you can't force 960x600 for FM-Towns games, since they are 320x240, thus it would be 960x720 3x scaled. Next when your video hardware driver thinks it should use 1024x768 and not 960x720 there is no way ScummVM can force this resolution, since your video hardware would just reject it.

Anyway usually most video hardware drivers do feature the possibility to let the user decide on what to do with resolutions not fitting any supported ones. l3l3l5l did show such an option for the nVidia drivers on Vista/Win7, the drivers from nVidia for WinXP did feature that too, last time I tried them.

filipetolhuizen · Post by **filipetolhuizen** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 10:46 pm

960x720 worked by adding a custom resolution on nvidia control panel and Indy3 ran at it. However, it still looks kinda squished.

LordHoto · Post by **LordHoto** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 10:56 pm

filipetolhuizen wrote:960x720 worked by adding a custom resolution on nvidia control panel and Indy3 ran at it. However, it still looks kinda squished.

eriktorbjorn wrote: I don't have the FM-Towns games myself (too rare, and much too expensive these days) but from what I understand they are 320x240 pixels already, in which case aspect ratio correction does nothing. I don't know what the extra graphics space is used for though. Possibly just a larger inventory area.

Tobis87 · Post by **Tobis87** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 8:02 pm

I also don't own the fm-towns version, but wouldn't it be possible to implement a "reverse" aspect ratio correction?

By multiplying vertically with 5/6?
Especially as widescreen lcds (16:10) become more common with a resolution of 1680x1050 which is a direct multiplier (5,25) of 320x200, this would be nearer to the native resolution of the display and therefore look clearer.

Yes, this will also look stretched, but I think the whole propose of the aspect ratio correction is to get a resolution which the display supports. And as the 4:3 display owners have the right to scale the image vertically up by 1.2. The 16:10 owners should also have the right to scale the image down to a native resolution.

fingolfin · Post by **fingolfin** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 8:59 pm

If we did what you suggest, the image would become *even more squished*

.

What would be needed to get aspect ratio correction in FM-TOWNS games would be to upscale them from 240 to 6/5*240 = 288 vertical lines, i.e. 320x288. With 3x scaling, this would become 960x864; if one has arbitrary rate scaling, then 1166*1050 would be about the best one could get on a 1680x1050 screen. Any further vertical scaling would make everything look stretched.

Tobis87 · Post by **Tobis87** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:39 pm

fingolfin wrote:If we did what you suggest, the image would become *even more squished* .

Well it already looks squished, if you would play it on a screen which auto scales it. 320x240 * 2 = 640x480. 640x480 is a valid resolution on my 16:10 screen. But I don't get black borders, if I use that resolution. Therefore my screen auto scales it to the nearest wide resolution.

My point is that if ScummVM already scales it to 320x200 (240 * 0,8333 = 200). It would look better because the screen gets a resolution which is a multiplier of the native resolution: 320x200, 640x400, 1280x800 (<- if ever 4x is supported) to 1680x1050.

And I think arbitrary scaling will look much better in software than in hardware which is done by the screen.

fingolfin wrote:What would be needed to get aspect ratio correction in FM-TOWNS games would be to upscale them from 240 to 6/5*240 = 288 vertical lines

I thought FM-Towns game already have the right aspect ratio, why would you want to stretch them even more vertically?

I don't want to get the aspect ratio correct. Because this is not possible on wide screens with auto scaling without cutting. My idea was just to improve the quality of the scaled picture by software scaling instead of hardware scaling by the screen.

Edit:
Some might now throw up their hands in horror, but you could also do this with games which have a native resolution of 640x480 (480 * 0,8333 = 400). If you have a laptop which only supports 1280x800, this would give you at least the 2x scaler. And i can confirm that Woodruff looks terrible at 640x480 on the Samsung NC20 with openchrome drivers.