Wide Screen

Usually the screen can switch to standard resolutions and you end up with black bars on the sides. This has only happened to me once, however, with an old game.

Most of the times games support standard widescreen resolutions, or at least the bigger more popular games like UT2k3 do.

Other than that widescreen is great for doing regular work becuase you can be working on two things at once because the screen is so wide.

Thats why I liked the idea of a widescreen (for the extended workspace). I was just wondering on the effects it would have on games. It wouldnt be my primary machine anyway so if it was detrimental it would be alright I guess. If anyone else has experience with a wide screen I'd like to hear it :)

Usually there are 3 modes -- full wide screen (most games are capable of this), stretched wide screen (usually looks weird) and not wide screen (black bars).

The worst that can happen is you'll play at a non wide resolution with black bars. Big deal.

Cool I think ill get the widescreen then. Thanks ElCrazon and Promit.

I've got an hp pavilion zt3000 with the widescreen. I absolutely will never have a laptop without widescreen again. It defaults to 1280x800. For games where the programmers were too lazy to enumerate all available resolutions, games can look stretched out (i.e. anything at 1024x768 or 800x600). I haven't checked so I'm not sure if mine supports the black bar things. However, for games (like Deus Ex I just found) that support any resolution, widescreen is mega sweet!!! Plus, with DVD's, the widescreen is also...mega sweet!!!

Now, for programming or graphic arts stuff, the widescreen is...guess...mega sweet!!! In Visual studio, I can have class view, file view, and source code view all open in front of me and there's plenty of room. On my regular monitor on my other computer, the screen just isn't wide enough to fit everything.

In short, if you can spare the little bit of extra $$$, I say you won't regret it!

Now, If I could find a widscreen CRT for my desktop....
Seriously, does anyone know where I could find one?

Quote:

Original post by Cold_Steel For games where the programmers were too lazy to enumerate all available resolutions, games can look stretched out (i.e. anything at 1024x768 or 800x600).

It's not about being lazy.
We don't support wide screen because it is physically impossible in our game. We have an isometric (ortho) projection, and the entities drawing range is limited by the server to 7.5 meters around you (to conserve bandwidth). A wide screen version would require scene rendered past the entities update range, so there would be all kind of weird artefacts.

Quote:

Original post by Raduprv It's not about being lazy. We don't support wide screen because it is physically impossible in our game. We have an isometric (ortho) projection, and the entities drawing range is limited by the server to 7.5 meters around you (to conserve bandwidth). A wide screen version would require scene rendered past the entities update range, so there would be all kind of weird artefacts.

Yeah, I can understand if for that type of situiation. But with games like Call of Duty or KOTOR, there is no reason why widescreen can't be used. They simply said that the available resolutions will be fixed to 800x600, 1024x768, etc...
If Deus Ex from 4ish years ago supports wide screen, I'd think the latest FPS games could do it as well.

Quote:

Original post by Cold_Steel I've got an hp pavilion zt3000 with the widescreen. I absolutely will never have a laptop without widescreen again. It defaults to 1280x800. For games where the programmers were too lazy to enumerate all available resolutions, games can look stretched out (i.e. anything at 1024x768 or 800x600). I haven't checked so I'm not sure if mine supports the black bar things. However, for games (like Deus Ex I just found) that support any resolution, widescreen is mega sweet!!! Plus, with DVD's, the widescreen is also...mega sweet!!! Now, for programming or graphic arts stuff, the widescreen is...guess...mega sweet!!! In Visual studio, I can have class view, file view, and source code view all open in front of me and there's plenty of room. On my regular monitor on my other computer, the screen just isn't wide enough to fit everything. In short, if you can spare the little bit of extra $$$, I say you won't regret it! Now, If I could find a widscreen CRT for my desktop.... Seriously, does anyone know where I could find one?

Oooh nice to hear that. My zt3000 is somewhere between Anchorage and Seattle right now, and I should be getting it on Monday :) In case you're wondering what the laptop's like, here's a review.