Why Widescreen

[fish99]

Have you watched any movies by James Cameron?

I've got Aliens and Terminator 1 on DVD and both are anamorphic widescreen and you definitely see more than on the 4:3 VHS release. I can only imagine you are thinking of Abyss which I know isn't anamorphic (which is why I don't own it) but AFAIK it's still the full frame as filmed rather than cropped, or I've never heard it wasn't. And I'm sure James Cameron doesn't personally decide the format of the DVDs. You rather missed the point of what I was saying, namely that 99% of widescreen releases are not cropped 4:3 versions. I wasn't at all talking about anamorphic vs letterbox.

Yeah but who wants their games stretched or letterboxed?

If I bought a widescreen monitor it would be because I wanted to enjoy my games in widescreen. Hence the point of WSGF - to get games working using the full space and aspect of the monitor.

I didn't find many of them worked though. Apart from WoW, having a widescreen was a total pain in the bum.

I'll say it again, I haven't had a problem with widescreen in any recent games, and pretty much everything I've played that was released in the last 3-4 years has been able to be simply modified to work in widescreen. The only exception was System Shock 2, which I played with side borders. I can only imagine you play lots of old games. I could post a list of games I've played in the last few years that worked fine with widescreen if it'd help.

 

[whitecrook]

You rather missed the point of what I was saying, namely that 99% of widescreen releases are not cropped 4:3 versions. I wasn't at all talking about anamorphic vs letterbox.

Sorry think I did miss that a bit there was no need for OT about anamorphic or matting processes.

For the OP, Widescreens are nice, but just be sure you have the vertical res you require.

Personally I spent so long at 1600x1200 on a CRT, that anything less than a 1920x1200 would have not been worth the upgrade. YMMV.

 

[bfar]

I think a lot of games & media are designed with widescreen in mind these days. If you play in 4:3, it's not really as the designers intended.