Please, make S2 support 1360x768 (HDTV) resolution!
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!!
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!!
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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?
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
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.
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.
Daaamn, you're right... I really forgot that. So, now you know
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.
I am really satisfied with the new resolutions. I played 201 at 1920x1200, my native resolution. It sure was impressive.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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...
Unless, I take the set out of automatic adjustment. Then it retains the shape and size of the signal sent, regardless of its matting.
So check the settings on your display and see if there's a change there that might help. The plasma's automatic setting is pretty simple to flick in an out with a command on the remote, so this might work for an acceptable stop gap.
Further, I tried playing around with the screen settings, just to see what happens. I must have picked the wrong one, because the tv blanked out and said "mode not supported". Switching back to the ol' computer monitor got the interface back. Here's a suggestion: when the user changes the screen res in-game, implement a check dialog, that automatically changes the res back to the previous known-good setting if the user doesn't click OK in 15 seconds, a la the Display control panel in Windows.
Of course, you can play in fullscreen using a 4:3 resolution with no problem, except that the 4:3 image will be deformed to fit your 16:9 screen and will look a bit bad. You can also change your TV mode so it's 4:3. Then the image won't be deformed, but you'll lose a good amount of screen with black bars at both sides of the image.
Your game is not really running at 1360x768, even if that's the resolution set in Windows' Control Panel. When you run the Sam&Max game, the resolution is automatically switched to the resolution you configured when you first ran the game (the COPS setup screen), and I suppose it was a 4:3 resolution, since you played with the game before you had this brand new HDTV. So I suppose you're using a stretched 4:3 resolution when playing Sam&Max instead of a real 16:9 resolution.
My problem is that the only 16:9 resolution available in the game resolutions list that is compatible with HDTV is 1280x720, which in some TVs like mine can only be used through HDMI, instead of the regular VGA cable, and using HDMI makes the image to be overscanned, so all four ends of the image are lost, and the subtitles are cut at the bottom edge of the screen, because the image is too big in HDMI mode.
This can be fixed by Telltale just by adding support for 1360x768, as that resolution is supported by all HDTVs when using VGA cable, so overscan can be avoided.
I suppose it's already too late to fix this for Episode 2, which will be released in a few days, but I've been talking about this issue since Episode 1 came out back in November! Surely adding one more resolution to the list can't be that hard...
It's a shame we can't play the game properly in HDTVs, in real 16:9 with no overscan, when the game already supports widescreen. It's just a minor technical issue (adding support for 1360x768). I hope this can be fixed for Episode 3 and subsequent releases, and it's fixed as well for all episodes in the forthcoming DVD version at the end of the season.
That's another issue that should be fixed. The resolutions list (either in the COPS setup screen or in the "gear icon" menu) shows some unsupported resolutions. If you choose one unsupported resolution, then you get a blank screen, and then you can't get back! The only way to get out of that blank screen is exiting the game with ALT+F4, and the worse part is that when you start the game again, you will get a blank screen again, since the "bad" resolution was saved when you selected it.
So the only way to get a working game from that point is either connecting a regular computer monitor, as Morlamweb did, which is extremely cumbersome (specially if you have to bring a CRT monitor from a different room), or just uninstalling and reinstalling the whole season! (which is quite annoying too, since as far as I know, the only way to completely delete the game configuration is uninstalling all of the episodes, one by one, since the configuration is kept when uninstalling an episode if other episodes are still installed).
All these annoyances could be avoided just by having the typical countdown after a resolution change, like Morlamweb suggests. If the user doesn't do anything after the countdown goes to zero (meaning the user can't see anything), then the game should go back to the previous working resolution (the countdown should also be stoppable by pressing ESC, which would also go back to the previous resolution).
I think both enhancements (1360x768 resolution support and countdown after resolution change) should be easy to implement, so I hope they can be implemented at least before the season ends and the DVD comes out!
Thanks for reading
OMA
I also have an nVidia card, and it even has an option in its drivers to avoid overscan with HDMI, but the game seems to ignore any of those settings. When it's started, it changes to regular overscanned 1280x720.
The best option is that they either add an option for 1360x768 (so there is no overscan) or an option to "use desktop resoluton", so the game can be run in fullscreen without changing resolutions, just using the same resolution the user chose in Windows' Control Panel. This latter option, coupled with an "aspect ratio" option (4:3/5:4/16:9/16:10), should be the best way to make everyone happy, since then virtually all resolutions could be used.
I hope there's someone from Telltale reading all this! (thanks for arriving this far in the thread!
OMA
Actually, no. My main monitor, before I got the HDTV, is a 19 inch widescreen LCD panel, with a native res of 1440x900. I'm not sure if the aspect ratio is 16:9 or 16:10, but it definitely is not 4:3.
Back in season 1, before widescreen support, I ran S&M in a window, with a 1024x768 in-game res, beacuse if I enabled widescreen everything was stretched. Now, in episode 201, the interface gear and the inventory box still look like they're framed for a 4:3 display (that is, a few inches in from the left side of the screen). That's the way it looks in fullscreen on both displays.
I still think the best solution is having an option to not change resolutions at all in fullscreen (just like the windowed mode) and just use the desktop resolution. Why do games in general ignore the system-wide setting anyway?
OMA
Today, I tried to run S&M on the HDTV again, but it failed with the "mode not supported" message again. Switching back to the smaller panel, which retained the same res, I loaded S&M and saw only 4 resolution settings in the options panel: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x720. The HDTV doesn't support 1280x720, which is why the game didn't work on the bigger panel. Still, the settings here don't at all reflect the resolutions available in the Windows display control panel. The only difference from last time is that I started the PC with the HDTV attached, whereas last time I had the smaller panel attached first. My suspicion is that this is a "default" list of resolutions, though why the game is using that than the list supported by my monitor, I have no idea.
Another option would be to add a Configuration screen or button to the game launcher. Already the launcher shows some web-enabled content like a few active forum threads. If the were a configuration tab, we could set the resolution before launching the game. If it was the wrong res, you could alt-F4 the game, go back in to the launcher, and switch to a safer res.
Nearly forgot: I'm using a standard VGA cable to connect my PC to the HDTV, not DVI/HDMI. And the video card is an ATI Radeon X1650 Pro.
In my case I get lots of resolutions (see previous page in this thread), but none of them is the one I need: 1360x768 (which is the "native" resolution, usable through VGA cable with no overscan).
That would be a lot better. As it is now, if you choose an unsupported resolution (which shouldn't appear in the list anyway), you get a blank screen, and if you reload the game you still get a blank screen (the game works but you can't see anything!), so the only way to escape from that problem is uninstalling one by one all installed episodes and reinstalling everything! (as I mentioned before). Well, you can also delete the registry entries created by the game, but most users won't figure that out...
Is someone from Telltale reading this? Please, I hope you do something about these issues!
Now that the season is over (thanks for this wonderful season!), is there any possibility that the DVD release is updated so the HDTV resolution 1360x768 can be finally chosen?
I think the problem lies in having a non-standard aspect ratio (For PC monitors)
Are SBG4AP episodes going to have this limitation, too?
But in this case, Season 2 is already widescreen (16:9/16:10) compatible! And 1360x768 is really, really close to 16:9 (it's in fact the resolution of all so-called 16:9 TVs, at least the HD-Ready ones). So in practical terms it's the same as 16:9. So there's no extra work involved in adding that resolution, other than just letting it be added to the resolutions list.
If it's more difficult than that, I'd be curious to know the technical explanation.