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Author Topic: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions? SOLVED  (Read 4214 times)
The Orz are creepy
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Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions? SOLVED
« on: May 11, 2010, 03:41:23 am »

I have a 1440x900 widescreen and I can either use a custom res to match the screen or use some 4:3 res provided by the game and set the graphics card to scale up to match the monitor height and keep the aspect ratio (it keeps the black bars on the sides) .

The problem is with the GPU scaling is that if I use scanlines when the image gets scaled, they look weird, like instead of alternating like one line of content and one scanline, its show this weird pattern of three lines of content and one scanline, which just makes it look ugly. Definitely worse than normal scanlines.

If I use a custom resolution the scanlines appear just as normal, but the image gets horizontally stretched.

So , how can I do it?

I read somewhere in the forum that the current "SVN" version already supports this, but what is this SVN version and where can I get it?
« Last Edit: May 13, 2010, 11:42:41 pm by The Orz are creepy » Logged
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions?
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2010, 08:00:20 am »

I have a 1440x900 widescreen and I can either use a custom res to match the screen or use some 4:3 res provided by the game and set the graphics card to scale up to match the monitor height and keep the aspect ratio (it keeps the black bars on the sides) .

The problem is with the GPU scaling is that if I use scanlines when the image gets scaled, they look weird, like instead of alternating like one line of content and one scanline, its show this weird pattern of three lines of content and one scanline, which just makes it look ugly. Definitely worse than normal scanlines.

If I use a custom resolution the scanlines appear just as normal, but the image gets horizontally stretched.

So , how can I do it?
Use a custom resolution of 1200x900. UQM should automatically use the smallest available screen resolution that the requested resolution fits inside. If this doesn't work, try defining this resolution in your video driver, X server or whatever settings and forcing GPU scaling with aspect ratio maintained.

Quote
I read somewhere in the forum that the current "SVN" version already supports this, but what is this SVN version and where can I get it?
"SVN" refers to the Subversion revision control system. UQM uses SVN to maintain the version of UQM in development. Compiled snapshots of the SVN tree as available for convenience; use these at your own risk, since they have not been tested properly.
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions?
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2010, 07:45:54 pm »

I already tried setting 1200x900. I had to create this custom resolution with the use of Powerstrip and the resolution itself works fine, BUT the ATI driver apparently ignores the centered timings setting with custom resolutions, so instead of getting a 1200x900 rectangle with black bars to fill the 1440x900 screen the video card outputs the actual 1200x900 video signal, and the damned monitor stretches it and fills the whole screen, killing the purpose of using a 4:3 resolution. More of an video driver issue seems like.
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions?
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2010, 09:21:10 pm »

Try using windowed mode for that, rather than full screen.
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions?
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2010, 08:38:05 am »

I already tried setting 1200x900. I had to create this custom resolution with the use of Powerstrip and the resolution itself works fine, BUT the ATI driver apparently ignores the centered timings setting with custom resolutions, so instead of getting a 1200x900 rectangle with black bars to fill the 1440x900 screen the video card outputs the actual 1200x900 video signal, and the damned monitor stretches it and fills the whole screen, killing the purpose of using a 4:3 resolution. More of an video driver issue seems like.
Have you tried using UQM in 1200x900 without the custom resolution being defined? That should work irrespective of the video driver.
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions?
« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2010, 07:13:48 pm »

I already tried setting 1200x900. I had to create this custom resolution with the use of Powerstrip and the resolution itself works fine, BUT the ATI driver apparently ignores the centered timings setting with custom resolutions, so instead of getting a 1200x900 rectangle with black bars to fill the 1440x900 screen the video card outputs the actual 1200x900 video signal, and the damned monitor stretches it and fills the whole screen, killing the purpose of using a 4:3 resolution. More of an video driver issue seems like.
Have you tried using UQM in 1200x900 without the custom resolution being defined? That should work irrespective of the video driver.

Yes, I already tried it. With that, another issue arised. When the 1200x900 custom res is not defined on Windows, the video driver still ignores the centered timings setting, and whatever video signal the video card outputs the monitor switches to 1280x960 (which is defined in the EDID and exceeds the number of horizontal lines available, so it apparently squeezes the image to make it fit 900 lines). And again the monitor horizontally stretches the image to make it fill the whole screen.
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions?
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2010, 07:23:55 pm »

Try using windowed mode for that, rather than full screen.

I tried it. It works at 1200x900, but I can´t manage to properly make the window match the top and the bottom of the screen because WindowsXP won´t let me drag the window as to make the title bar  disappear, so the very bottom of the game window will be hidden under the screen, right under the taskbar.
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions?
« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2010, 09:40:27 pm »

Yes, I already tried it. With that, another issue arised. When the 1200x900 custom res is not defined on Windows, the video driver still ignores the centered timings setting, and whatever video signal the video card outputs the monitor switches to 1280x960 (which is defined in the EDID and exceeds the number of horizontal lines available, so it apparently squeezes the image to make it fit 900 lines). And again the monitor horizontally stretches the image to make it fill the whole screen.
Whose bright idea was it to have the monitor report support for a resolution larger than its own? Does your video driver let you disable this mode?

In any case, I'd use an SVN build in this situation.
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions?
« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2010, 11:41:35 pm »

Quote
Whose bright idea was it to have the monitor report support for a resolution larger than its own? Does your video driver let you disable this mode?

In any case, I'd use an SVN build in this situation.

It even supports 1280x1024 (and squeezes it to make it fit 900 lines). The image obviously don´t look good, but you if you must have this res it will work.


PROBLEM SOLVED: To make an ATI video card support centered timings with custom resolutions you have to edit a specific registry key and add your custom resolution so the Catalyst driver treats the resolution properly . After that I could get 1200x900 letterboxed.
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions?
« Reply #9 on: May 14, 2010, 11:10:22 am »

PROBLEM SOLVED: To make an ATI video card support centered timings with custom resolutions you have to edit a specific registry key and add your custom resolution so the Catalyst driver treats the resolution properly .
That's nice. Would you mind telling us which registry key that is, for future reference?
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions? SOLVED
« Reply #10 on: May 15, 2010, 07:59:40 pm »

 Note that I´m using WindowsXP and from what I´ve seen at  other forums some Windows 7 users are having another issue besides this one, so they might need this fix and some other stuff to get custom resolutions properly centered and/or scaled up.

There are two ways to do this. You can alter a .inf file that comes in the Catalyst driver package or you can change a registry setting. In my experience both will achieve the same result since the changes you´re supposed to make in the .inf file in the driver package will result in altered values in the registry keys you are supposed to edit, meaning that if you change the .inf file you don´t have to change the registry values afterwards.

So either extracting the driver package and changing the .inf file and installing the driver or  installing the driver and only then changing the registry key should both give you the same result.

I think changing the registry value is easier than modifying and reinstalling the video driver so I´ll focus on changing the registry value. If you would rather change the .inf file

visit the link http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33952960

Run Catalyst Control Center.  Choose the "Information Center" field and then "Graphics Software". There should be a field called "2D Driver File Path". The value in this filed gives you the registry path you should look for.



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Inside this path look for the Value "DALNonStandardModesBCDX" where X could go from 1 to 4 from what I can see here. There you´ll notice that patterns in the values look like resolution settings.


What you have to do is replace one of those values for the resolution you want to add. (I´m not sure whether you have to replace or perhaps you could just add them, I´ll try this later).

For example, if you want to add 848x480 you should replace  a resolution you don´t care about for 08 48 04 80 00 00 00 00. The last two 00 seem to be related with the refresh rate, and as it appears 00 means whatever refresh rate you want to work with. You can specify the same resolution with several refresh rates as far as I can tell. You need to respect the pattern or it will probably not work.

OBS: In my experience, with WindowsXP, you have to restart the operating system for the changes to work. That may or may not be true for Vista or Seven.



« Last Edit: May 16, 2010, 01:07:26 am by The Orz are creepy » Logged
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions? SOLVED
« Reply #11 on: May 17, 2010, 04:34:53 pm »

so the very bottom of the game window will be hidden under the screen, right under the taskbar.
Um. You can hide the taskbar, you know.
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Re: Is there a way to use a keep aspect ratio option with custom resolutions? SOLVED
« Reply #12 on: May 20, 2010, 03:15:38 am »

When i said under the taskbar I actually meant below it.

But even hiding it doesn´t work perfectly because  you still can´t properly fit the game window within the visible area.
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