do/can you see more stuff on 2/4k screens?

xiorell · 2 May 2017 at 18:03

ok so I brought a 21:9, 2560x1080 monitor and of course, in games that support it, I see more on the horizontal than I did on my old 16:9 1920x1080

So then would I not see the same extended horizontal area on a 2560x1440 as I do on my Ultrawide, but now with also more in the vertical plane? Ya know, coz it has the same horizontal pixels but more vertical.... Am I making sense?

talking gaming here, I know the desktop area is bigger

Nexus18 · 2 May 2017 at 18:21

For gaming, no.

Resolution has no play in extra FOV/screen real estate in games, only the aspect ratio plays a part in this so a 16.9 4k will look the exact same as a 16.9 1080 monitor.

The only thing that higher res. might impact for games is the HUD/UI i.e. some games don't have proper scaling with 4k so the UI/HUD will be very small and hard to read.

xiorell · 2 May 2017 at 19:05

ok, that's what I thought, but had a mad minute.

but doesn't it seem like it "should" give you more on screen stuff?

Rroff · 2 May 2017 at 19:13

Depends a bit game to game - ostensibly for a given FOV you should see the same scene just more pixels making it up but some games handle different aspect ratios and resolutions in strange ways and you might see less or more depending on how they work.

More and more games handle it properly though and extra resolution at a given aspect ratio wouldn't give you extra field of view.

EDIT: Regarding the 21:9 thing more specifically again depends on the game - some take the same scene as 2560x1440 but chop some of the top and bottom off and others render a wider fov but keep the same vertical as 1440p just more or less pixel detail depending on your 21:9 resolution and the exact implementation.

eddiew · 2 May 2017 at 23:30

Technically you may see extra texture detail... but as others have said, pixels do not expand the field of view. If you've got a 90 degree angle, then it stays 90 degrees.

Changing aspect ratio, e.g. going 21:9 might force some additional "stuff" to render at the sides, but my experience of UW gaming was that the edges are distorted and fish-eyed and not really worth looking at directly.