Please, make S2 support 1360x768 (HDTV) resolution!

[OMA]

I just finished playing S2E1 and I think it's a really brilliant episode. The only thing I didn't like was that even though it now has widescreen support, it still doesn't have an option for 1360x768 resolution, which is the native resolution used by most modern "HD Ready" LCD HDTVs.

Since I couldn't choose 1360x768, the only other resolution supported by my TV I could choose in the resolution list was 1280x720, but it's cumbersome, because my TV only accepts that resolution over HDMI cable, not VGA cable, so I had to use a DVI to HDMI cable (which I already had around, fortunately) and configure the graphics card to output through that, but using HDMI makes the image overscan (i.e: the image is slightly bigger than the actual screen), so you lose some of the image when using HDMI and the subtitles are at the very bottom, almost outside of the screen.

All of that can be avoided by just adding 1360x768 in the resolutions list. I don't think there is a technical reason for not having an option for that resolution. In fact, available resolutions should be retrieved from the user's system (there are games that do that), instead of having a fixed list of arbitrarily chosen resolutions, as you have now, which leaves out some users with "weird" resolutions (well, LCD TV are being more and more ubiquitous, so that resolution is not so weird now).

In case available resolutions detection is not possible, I hope you can at least add that 1360x768 resolution for future episodes, and it'd be cool if you released a patch for Episode 1 so that resolution is supported in this episode as well (or at least fix this for the Episode 1 in the future DVD version).

BTW, I noticed that the screenshots for saved games are deformed when playing in widescreen (the wide image is squeezed to fit the 4:3 thumbnail spaces). It's a small non-important issue, but maybe that could be fixed either by simply adding black stripes at the upper and bottom part of the screenshot, or remaking the saved games interface to hold widescreen screenshots, but I imagine this latter solution would involve a little more work, so the black stripes solution would be fine.

I hope you can address these issues.

Keep on making great games!!

[tabacco]

It should support any resolution that DirectX reports as supported. That's where the list of resolutions comes from

[Jake]

I'm pretty sure Season Two gets its list of resolutions straight from Windows, so nearly every resolution that shows up as "safe" for your display will show up in the game settings as an available resolution. I can ask someone to take a look at getting support for 1360x768, but generally I think we're just reading stuff straight from Windows. I'll check it out for you.

[Flo]

1280x768 also doesn't show up in the in-game resolution list.

Is there a way to force a custom resolution? The registry entries for the resolution are just indexes. Even converted to decimal these values don't make any sense.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Telltale Games\Sam & Max Season 2]
"Screen Resolution First"=hex:00,00,a0,40
"Screen Resolution Index"=hex:00,00,00,41

Also, I don't suppose there are any plans to back-port this new renderer to Season 1 so that we're not stuck with 4:3 resolutions there?

[Laserschwert]

Originally Posted by Flo

Also, I don't suppose there are any plans to back-port this new renderer to Season 1 so that we're not stuck with 4:3 resolutions there?

Regarding the fact that the camera positions and moves in S1 weren't made with widescreen in mind, they probably would have to be done all over again, which I assume is a no-go.

By the way, I noticed that the end credits of S2E1 were designed for 16:9 (I've tested in on my LCD-TV) as the credits were stuck exactly on the right edge of the 4:3 screen I've played it on. Not the nicest text placement

[OMA]

Ok, since I didn't get the 1360x768 resolution in the game I assumed that it was a list of arbitrarily chosen resolutions, but from what you're saying, it seems I was wrong, and the game really gets the resolutions from the system.

Anyway, for some reason, that resolution doesn't show up in the resolution list, but it's a valid resolution and does show up in other recent games. I don't know what can be wrong. I can select that resolution in the control panel with no problem, so it's a supported resolution by both my graphics card (nVidia TI4200) and my screen (Samsung).

Also, Flo (two posts above this) says that 1280x768 is another resolution that doesn't appear, so maybe there something wrong with the detection routine.

For now, I can only play in 1280x720 through overscanned HDMI, which is far from ideal. I hope you can find out what the problem is.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Laserschwert

By the way, I noticed that the end credits of S2E1 were designed for 16:9 (I've tested in on my LCD-TV) as the credits were stuck exactly on the right edge of the 4:3 screen I've played it on. Not the nicest text placement

I imagine that might be the case if you're playing at 1280x1024 but they should look ok at 4:3 since I didn't actually move the position of the credits relative to the middle of the screen from where they were last season. I'll look into it, though.

[Laserschwert]

You're right, I'm at 1280x1024 and not 4:3, my mistake. Still, I think it's more common than 1280x960, especially on TFT-displays. Their position in S1 was different though.

[Jake]

I'll take a look Season one didn't actually support 1280x1024 - it supported 1280x960, a true 4:3 resolution, so the credits would definitely have appeared to be indented a bit more on your 1280 screen in season one... still, I'll give it a look, because I don't want them to look lame.

[Laserschwert]

Originally Posted by Jake

I'll take a look Season one didn't actually support 1280x1024 - it supported 1280x960...

Daaamn, you're right... I really forgot that. So, now you know

[Derrick]

Season 2 does limit the video mode list. It would be nice if it did allow you to select from all of your video modes.

I use an HDTV, which has overscan. Meaning when I pick 1280x720 parts of the game are hidden by the mask on the TV. Nvidia has an overscan mode that makes an 1176x664 video mode that fits fully on my screen. It would be nice to pick that or even the high video mode based on full HD 1920x1080 of 1768x992.

I'm am not sure the reasoning behind limiting the video modes you can select. Probably just to make the setup screen less overwhelming. So maybe if you don't want to show all the video modes, then just add a selection to play at the current desktop resolution. You could grey out that option if the desktop is not set to 32bit. Or check if there is a 32bit mode at the desktop resolution available and use that.

Allowing all the video modes would also let LCD users more acurately match the native resolution of their screen, so they get the best picture.

Thanks for any help looking into this. And I must say S&M looks great in 1280x720 Widescreen even if parts of the screen are cut off on my HDTV.

D.

[DjNDB]

Overscan sure is a bitch. Why would you play on a TV anyway, as they are known to do weird "image enhancing" stuff?

I am really satisfied with the new resolutions. I played 201 at 1920x1200, my native resolution. It sure was impressive.

[Derrick]

Originally Posted by DjNDB

Overscan sure is a bitch. Why would you play on a TV anyway, as they are known to do weird "image enhancing" stuff?

Yeah, the TV does not allow you to use it's native resolution. But sitting 8 feet away, the "image enhancing" stuff is not too noticeable.

I use the TV because I can sit across the room reclined on the couch, playing with friends on the 42" screen (I'll upgrade to 60" when reasonably $$,) drinking a beer with the surround sound pumping out.

I run all my games on the TV, using Meedio as the front end. Looks and works great. You Don't Know Jack rules when played on the couch. Gonna patch in some Sony Buzz controllers or those XBOX Scene-it wireless controllers, but now I'm straying way off topic.

Originally Posted by DjNDB

I am really satisfied with the new resolutions. I played 201 at 1920x1200, my native resolution. It sure was impressive.

Strange, I only get 4 modes. 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 4x3 modes and 1280x720 widescreen. I would love to try 1920x1080 or better yet the underscanned modes of 1768x992 or 1176x664, but they do not show up.

D.

[Jake]

I'll ask around the office to see if anyone has solutions to your guys' HDTV issues. We'll see what turns up.

[Thaurin]

I can confirm that the game did not offer me my native resolution of 1280x768 on my 36" Samsumg wide-screen LCD TV. This is the resolution I run my desktop on, and I was disappointed that I had to use a lower resolution (but the game still looked really nice).

I was also a bit surprised that after I selected an unsupported resolution in the setup, that my screen went blank and didn't revert back after a set amount of time. It wasn't until I figured out that I could use alt-enter to toggle full-screen that I was able to remedy this. Maybe a warning before switching resolutions would help.

[Will]

My understanding is that the game pulls compatible resolutions from DirectX. Maybe updating your DX or video card drivers would help?

[taumel]

I got all the resolutions the gfx card is able to, not taking into account what the display actually can handle - analog connection via hub. Normally you do get more cleaned up list if your display is connected digitally.

[Derrick]

Originally Posted by Will

My understanding is that the game pulls compatible resolutions from DirectX. Maybe updating your DX or video card drivers would help?

For some reason I am seeing other resolutions today, but not all. Before the down arrow in the list did nothing, and even today I had to click it 4 or 5 times before it moved. Now it scrolls the list every time. FWIW I have the latest DX and NVIDIA drivers.

I do see why all of the modes are not showing up though. They have to be exactly 4:3 or 16:9.

16:9 = 1.777777...
My modes work out to ratios of:
1176 x 664 = 1.7710843...
1768 x 992 = 1.7822580...

So they do not show up in the list. They are filtered out as not being standard 4:3 or widescreen 16:9.

I can use 1152x648 because that is exactly 16:9. That does not quite fill up my screen. Leaves 1/4" border on the 42" screen. So it is not too bad.

If we do the math on the original poster's complaint, we get:
1360 x 768 = 1.7708333... which is filtered out for not being 16:9 exactly.

Now all of the modes mentioned here are very close to 16:9 and will not look noticably distorted if they are allowed to be used.

So what's the best solution from Telltale's point of view? My thoughts are:

1. Have a final option that says "Use Desktop Resolution" and lets you select standard or widescreen. That way you could select a 4:3 mode and tell it to behave as widescreen. That would allow users who hook up the output through 640x480 component/SVHS jack to a widescreen tv, to have a widescreen picture. This solution may be the most universal, but woould require a tad more coding.

2. Just allow some fuzzy logic in the mode matching. If the resolution in the DirectX list is within say +/- 0.05 or so of true 16x9, then allow the game to use it and treat it as real 16x9.

Thanks again guys. I have not been disappointed in purchasing Season 1 or 2 the day they came out. Well except for the lack of Max saying Weeee in season 1 episode 2 when he gets smacked.

D.

P.S. The NVIDIA control panel does not allow me to make a 1760x990 mode that is true 16:9. This is because 990 is 495 lines in interlace. And 495 does not divide by 8 evenly. I am going to modify the driver's INF file to create it. It should work fine that way.

[Flo]

If the game can calculate the aspect ratio (and thus field of view) correctly there shouldn't be a need to filter resolutions at all. If the filtering as intentional, please include a toggle (e.g. "show uncommon resolutions") to get the full list.

[OMA]

Originally Posted by Derrick

I do see why all of the modes are not showing up though. They have to be exactly 4:3 or 16:9.

16:9 = 1.777777...

Well, I don't think it's exactly like that, because I'm also getting resolutions with other aspect ratios (16:10 and 5:4). This is the complete list of resolutions I can select in my computer in the Season 2 setup screen:

640	x	480	-->	1,333333	(4:3)
800	x	600	-->	1,333333	(4:3)
960	x	600	-->	1,6		(16:10)
1024	x	768	-->	1,333333	(4:3)
1152	x	864	-->	1,333333	(4:3)
1280	x	720	-->	1,777777	(16:9)
1280	x	800	-->	1,6		(16:10)
1280	x	960	-->	1,333333	(4:3)
1280	x	1024	-->	1,25		(5:4)
1600	x	900	-->	1,777777	(16:9)
1600	x	1200	-->	1,333333	(4:3)
1920	x	1080	-->	1,777777	(16:9)
1920	x	1200	-->	1,6		(16:10)
1920	x	1440	-->	1,333333	(4:3)
2048	x	1536	-->	1,333333	(4:3)

Anyway, maybe it's something related to that, and that resolution is being filtered because of having a "non-standard" aspect ratio, since 1360x768 is an oddball resolution with an aspect ratio that is similar but not equal to to 16:9 (it's 1.770833, as Derrick said). Blame TV manufacturers, who started producing sets with a native 1366x768 resolution just because they could, so their HDTV sets would seem "better" than the early ones with 1280x720, even though this lower resolution gives more image quality for watching HD 720p content (with 720 lines) because scaling is avoided. I'm digressing, though, sorry

I hope Telltale can find a fix or workaround for this. There are other games that allow selecting a 1360x768 resolution so it's not impossible to do.

Another possibility is to add that "Use Desktop Resolution" option that Derrick mentioned, along with a selectable "Widescreen" and "4:3" option. That would make everyone happy, since virtually all resolutions/aspect ratios would be supported.

I hope I didn't bore you to death with this...