Widescreen & side borders problems: stretched BG's & no side borders [SOLVED]

[arj0n]

Running a game in 640x480 16 bit and higher results in stretched backgrounds and objects and no side border.
System1:
Graphic card: nvidia Geforce GT 220
Maximum resolution: 1920x1080
Monitor: LG 20"

While running the same game using the following hardware works fine:
System2:
Graphic card: nvidia Geforce GT 430
Maximum resolution: 1600x900
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster BX2231 (22")

So checking for system 1:
This works fine:
Game in 320x200 & 320x240 8-bit fullscreen in combination with desktop resolution 1600x900:
Game in 320x200 & 320x240 8-bit fullscreen in combination with desktop resolution 1280x1024:

These combi's goes wrong, stretched stuff and no side borders:
Game in 640x400 16 bit fullscreen in combination with desktop resolution 1600x900:
Game in 640x480 16 bit fullscreen in combination with desktop resolution 1600x900:
Game in 640x480 16 bit fullscreen in combination with desktop resolution 1280x1024:
Game in 640x400 16 bit in fullscreen combination with desktop resolution 1280x1024:

So the problem is only in 640x480 and higher (640x480, 800x600 & 1280-1024) in 16-bit & 32-bit.

Partial DebugView logfile info:

Game: 640X480 16bit -  desktop : 1600X900  full-screen:

[4000] AGS: Init gfx filters
[4000] AGS: Init gfx driver
[4000] AGS: Switching to graphics mode
[4000] AGS: Widescreen side borders: game resolution: 640 x 480; desktop resolution: 1600 x 900
[4000] AGS: Widescreen side borders: gfx card does not support suitable resolution. will attempt 853 x 480 anyway
[4000] AGS: Attempt to switch gfx mode to 853 x 480 (16-bit)
[4000] AGS: Failed, resolution not supported
[4000] AGS: Attempt to switch gfx mode to 640 x 480 (16-bit)
[4000] AGS -- InitializeD3DState()
[4000] AGS: Succeeded. Using gfx mode 640 x 480 (16-bit)
[4000] AGS: Preparing graphics mode screen
[4000] AGS: Screen resolution: 640 x 480; game resolution 640 x 400


Game: 640X480 16bit -  desktop : 1280 x 1024  fullscreen:

[2168] AGS: Init gfx filters
[2168] AGS: Init gfx driver
[2168] AGS: Switching to graphics mode
[2168] AGS: Widescreen side borders: game resolution: 640 x 480; desktop resolution: 1280 x 1024
[2168] AGS: Widescreen side borders: disabled (not necessary, game and desktop aspect ratios match)
[2168] AGS: Attempt to switch gfx mode to 640 x 480 (16-bit)
[2168] AGS -- InitializeD3DState()
[2168] AGS: Succeeded. Using gfx mode 640 x 480 (16-bit)
[2168] AGS: Preparing graphics mode screen
[2168] AGS: Screen resolution: 640 x 480; game resolution 640 x 400

Both ways results in a stretched screen with no side-borders...

Now I'm left with one question: (for system1) is the problem the graphic card or the monitor?

(if someone wants to see the 2 log files completely I can post them too.)

[Ghost]

Can't say if it'll work for you, but I had the same problem when I bought my first widescreen monitor- until I found an "auto-stretch" option in its On-Scren Display.
I turned it off, and things were as they used to be. My PC at my OTHER place hasn't got that option, and resizes fullscreen mode just as you describe it- could really be the monitor that's causing the troubles. (I only ever tried 320x240 though)

[arj0n]

Thanx for the tip, I'll try it out!

[Daniel Thomas]

Maybe not helpful, but I had a similar problem.
For me it was in the nvidia control panel, somewhere in there you can choose how the scaling should behave - Either it was to let the screen do it or let the graphics card do it. When I changed it everything worked fine.

[arj0n]

Driver update form the Nvidia did the trick.
Now the NVIDIA panel has different/more settings then the older driver had.

Therefor I now can add different resolution to my display in the NVIDIA setting panel and use the setting "full-screen" resulting in having side border in 640X480 16bit within AGS games. 

[Ghost]

Cheers!

[Calin Leafshade]

The problem here is that running a 640x480 games full screen on a widescreen monitor can result in resolutions that the graphics card doesnt support (853 x 480 in this case)

I'm not sure how this could be resolved.

[arj0n]

Correct.

853 x 480 is one of the resolutions that now has been added to the NVIDIA setting panel thanx to the driver update. After that the game ran properly. So this graphic card (nvidia Geforce GT 220), which is from November 2009, did support this resolution.

If all fails, I guess the only solution is buying a new-enough card (like => 2010)...

[Hogofogo]

Here is my problem and how I solved it, for Nvidia users only, but I guess there is something similar for AMD.
I created game 640x480. I have wide screen monitor 1920x1080 (Nvidia 560Ti, monitor ASUS VE278).
Problem was that in fullscreen mode game was stretched to the sides, which means it's distorted. That is bad as circles are not circles anymore and all characters looks fat.
I wanted to have black bars on left and right side. I read all related forums and nothing helped, finally after many attempts when I almost got crazy I solved it by settings in NVidia drivers.
Display NVidia control panel -> Display -> Adjust desktop size and position -> Scaling ->
set
Select a scaling mode: -> Aspect ratio
AND
Perform scaling on -> GPU


Additional info:
You can try use instead setting in game setup (winsetup.exe) and check option "side borders on widescreen monitors". It didn't work for me. When I checked it, signal from graphics card came as 1024x768 and game was distorted AND with black bars all around This is probably because game tries to switch to same crazy resolution like 843x480 which is not supported by my monitor so it will negotiate next higher resolution - just my guess.

[Khris]

Did you try the side borders setting together with the 2x filter?