DeusEx and widescreen monitors

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DeusEx and widescreen monitors

Postby al'be:do » Thu Feb 16, 06 4:45 am

Hi!

I bought an Eizo 21" Widescreen monitor some weeks ago and wanted to play several of "ye olde games", especially DX with the new experience (look at my sig).
For all of you who also share this ultimate gaming experience but had problems with setting up the right values, here's my help:

In the DeusEx.ini change the following values to your widescreen monitor settings:


[WinDrv.WindowsClient]
WindowedViewportX=1680
WindowedViewportY=1050
WindowedColorBits=32
FullscreenViewportX=1680
FullscreenViewportY=1050
FullscreenColorBits=32


Simply put you screen resolution there.

This leads to a horizontally wider picture.

If you want to adjust the FOV according to widescreen proportions (some degrees more than normal) you have to change two settings in the file user.ini:



DesiredFOV=85.28127
DefaultFOV=85.28127



These are the appropriate values for 16:10 monitors.
The strange values are the result of the unusual DeusEx default values of 75° for the FOV. If you leave the FOV then the top and bottom portions of the view are simply cut off to fit the 16:10 ratio. The hud is not cut off but fit into the view.

The HUD is rendered in low resolution, but the whole 3D stuff is high-res :)

Here are screenshots for direct comparison:

Standard:

........Image
Full Res 4:3 is here (1400x1050)


Widescreen:

Image
Full Res 16:10 is here (1680x1050)

Quite a difference :)

See you,

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Postby Dae » Thu Feb 16, 06 9:44 am

Thanks for information, the topic is sticky now.
I've got Apple widescreen monitor, i think it is 23" but the resolution is the same as yours - 1680 x 1050. And I've got this big HUD problem. Me with my mates have been trying to find out how to fix it lately, but probably it lies somewhere in game libraries which we cannot access. Odd, but in UT GOTY which uses quite the same engine, i don't have such problem.
Guys on BeyondUnreal said nothing about it.
Also in my case, resolution 1680 x 1050 is stated in standard screen settings menu, so i don't have to edit .ini files.
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Postby al'be:do » Thu Feb 16, 06 2:16 pm

The PC version only goes up to 1400 pixels width or so. If you want higher resolutions you have to edit the ini-files.

What HUD problem do you mean?
Does the HUD stretch? Or do you mean that it is resized so much you can see every pixel as a square?

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Postby Allan » Fri Mar 03, 06 7:00 pm

Just intrested, but what happens if you set the FOV value to 180?
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Postby al'be:do » Fri Mar 03, 06 11:58 pm

As plane mapping and not spherical mapping is used for the view you can't identify anything, because everything in front of you is almost completely in the center.
So it's totally useless.

I'll try the value and post a screenshot.
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Postby Tsukasa Nishino » Sat Mar 04, 06 6:12 am

Is that for Deus Ex only? Or can it be applied to Deus Ex IW as well?
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Postby Dae » Sat Mar 04, 06 2:53 pm

Tsukasa Nishino wrote:Is that for Deus Ex only? Or can it be applied to Deus Ex IW as well?

Deus Ex IW has absolutely different engine, therefore no.
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Postby al'be:do » Sat Mar 04, 06 8:44 pm

You can play DX IW in widescreen.

Actually the game engine is just a newer version of the Unreal engine.
If you take a look at the settings files you can clearly see that.
But the WS solution for DX-IW is more complicated that the solution for the old DX.

open the [/b]Default.ini[/b] and change the following:

;dx2
AmbientColor_R__d=32
AmbientColor_G__d=32
AmbientColor_B__d=32
;AmbientColor_R__d=0
;AmbientColor_G__d=255
;AmbientColor_B__d=0
FOV__d=50
AssumedUIScreenWidth__d=1680
AssumedUIScreenHeight__d=1050


This is for my 1680x1050 solution.

Play around with the FOV__d=50 value to adjust the HUD to the screen resolution. A value around 55 to 60 should work fine without cutting off the HUD.

Now comes the part that is necessary to make the game run in widescreen:

Open the user.ini file in your personal folder C:documents and settingsYourNameYourFilesDeus Ex - Invisible War or whatever drive you are using.

in the block
[WinDrv.WindowsClient]

Add the line:

StartupFullscreen=False

and change the following to your screen resolution values:

FullscreenViewportX=1680
FullscreenViewportY=1050

after this add the following completetly new block:

[Blockloading]
LoadFromResourceBlockFiles=True


This is no perfect solution because the game runs in windowed mode, so you'll see the system task bar. If you set the taskbar to autohide there's only a narrow stripe that's not very annoying.
During loading a game the game screen maybe vanishes and you can see your normal desktop but be patient, the game loading screen will return!
The videos will be stretched to WS. You can't have everything.
I don't know why this doesn't work in Fullscreen, but it's better than nothing.

Happy gaming!
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Postby Dae » Sat Mar 04, 06 9:22 pm

Actually the game engine is just a newer version of the Unreal engine.

Formally it is, actually it's different. And I thought DX:IW allows setting widescreen resolutions in settings window without editing .ini's... In my case it does.
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Postby al'be:do » Sat Mar 04, 06 10:55 pm

I tried to find a solution at Widescreengamingforum.com, the number one place for WS gaming but they say the PC version doesn't support WS without ini/cfg hacking. I tried to set up the resolution in the game settings, but it doesn't work.
What version do you use?
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Postby Ol'Timer » Tue Feb 05, 08 1:39 am

hello all ,i just got a 24 inch W/S monitor for my PC.

i followed the instructions on the first post and changed my dx ini. settings to my monitors max res.1920:1200 ...
but when i load the game its always back at the my previous res. 1280:1024..and when i check my dx ini. it resets its self back to 1280:1024

what am i doing wrong? is 1280:1024 the max res for pc version ? do i need to make more changes in my ini. file?...

any help would be great ,thx
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Postby Dae » Tue Feb 05, 08 2:04 am

There is no max resolution for the game, and it works with every size, even if your monitor was 6000 x 6000 :P

Considering your problem — try changing these values in Default.ini. Default.ini is a copy of DeusEx.ini kept by the game just in case.
If that still doesn't work, press "T", erase 'Say' and type
Code: Select all
setres 1920x1200


Also if you're not going to play the multiplayer, there is a wonderful patch by OTP that fixes the user interface scaling problem. It's not compatible with the multiplayer because of anticheating precautions.
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Postby Ol'Timer » Tue Feb 05, 08 2:47 am

well i tried that Dae ,and its still resetting its self to 1280x1024.even when i do the setres comand.

im useing the updated 3d38 renderer,could that have anything to do with it?
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Postby ~[R2K]D-BLOCK~ » Tue Feb 05, 08 7:06 am

Ol'Timer wrote:well i tried that Dae ,and its still resetting its self to 1280x1024.even when i do the setres comand.

im useing the updated 3d38 renderer,could that have anything to do with it?
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Postby Dae » Tue Feb 05, 08 12:19 pm

Ol'Timer wrote:im useing the updated 3d38 renderer,could that have anything to do with it?

Chris Dohnal wrote somewhere on his page that the new Direct3D8 renderer is an experimental release. I don't know if it is what causes your problem, but I'd recommend you to use the enhanced OpenGL.

I'm still on a 22" widescreen with the resolution 1680x1050, and the game works well with it on OpenGL.
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Postby Ol'Timer » Tue Feb 05, 08 3:35 pm

i cant seam to get openGL to work on my new computer,

the default renderer leaves my game play all choppy and the OpenGL renderer just opens dx for a second then goes to my desktop,its like dx is open but all i see is my desktop at a very low res.
the 3d38 renderer is the only one that seams to run dx smoothly for me....

im having nothing but problems running dx on my new puter but everything els runs great on it,any advice would be great ,thx again
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Postby Dae » Tue Feb 05, 08 3:54 pm

Ol'Timer wrote:i cant seam to get openGL to work on my new computer,

the default renderer leaves my game play all choppy and the OpenGL renderer just opens dx for a second then goes to my desktop,its like dx is open but all i see is my desktop at a very low res.

Are you sure you downloaded and installed OpenGL for Deus Ex, and not the one intended for Unreal Tournament?

Try again and if it fails, attach your DeusEx.log and DeusEx.ini (use the "Post Reply" button).
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Postby Kaiden » Tue Feb 05, 08 3:59 pm

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Postby Ol'Timer » Tue Feb 05, 08 9:07 pm

i definately used the right opengl ,i tried both the 16 and 18 versions.here are my dx ini. and log..i hope the log is the right one ..

Files were removed by admin to keep the topic clean.
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Postby Dae » Tue Feb 05, 08 10:29 pm

Ol'Timer
Next time attach as files, because now the topic is unreadable =/

There is another "problem" — it works only with a CD — I suppose it's a SoldOut.

Unpack this to DeusEx/System:
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Postby Ol'Timer » Thu Feb 07, 08 12:21 am

sry about the post :(

i put those in my system folder but alas ,the problem continues..

thx a bunch for the effort Dae ,and if u can think of anything els ,ill be checking in
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Postby Dae » Thu Feb 07, 08 12:27 am

Have you tried updating the video card drivers?
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Postby Ol'Timer » Thu Feb 07, 08 12:35 am

yes
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Postby [FTF]Freedom » Thu Feb 07, 08 1:04 am

I don't see the problem? I have a 19" Widescreen monitor, and everything looks fine...

Saying that, I play at 640x480 due to performance issues. I noticed nothing wrong. When I upped the res to 1024x768 I notice my HUD didn't shrink! How peculiar! It looked all grainy and shite, tho.

My monitor's native resolution is 1440x900, but there's no way my pc will play dx at those resolutions. It works fine on UT, but not DX.

Hope ya guys get it sorted!
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Postby Mr. Tastix » Sat Feb 09, 08 10:59 am

Ah, wondering wtf you guys were on about, your widescreen monitors own mine lol. As DX works fine on my 1280x800 widescreen.
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Postby Destroyerzero » Thu May 15, 08 4:49 pm

I like having 16 : 10 in games and use such resolutions, but I realized the dark side of LCD monitors a long time ago. While the 16 : 10 is very nice in games.....its very bad in FPS Multiplayer games.

Here is why.

1) LCDs have a backlight which means that it becomes an impossibility to render dark colors perfectly and correctly. One can never render a true BLACK on an LCD. The low bandwith as well of an LCD causes colors to be washed out.

2) Refresh Rate and Response time...

The response time in an online game must be multiplied by the refresh rate. A lot of LCD monitors out there claim to have a 2 - 5ms response time, but that is really G2G (gray to gray) which is a small range. Everything else deals with 12 - 16ms response time. There are some monitors that can do 8ms response time, or so they claim. I own an LCD and know its only good for RPGs and RTS.

If your game is updating at 16ms, then 60hz x 16ms = 960ms...per refresh going...Enough for any player in an FPS game to be headshot or killed during the refresh by a good player.

3) Advanced Mouses and Keyboard

Due to the monitor being slow, any advantage you get from mice with extreme response times as well as keyboards with extreme response times...go down the drain. Any high precision timing is lost due to your LCD's slow response rate.

CRT response rate is 10 - 100 times faster than LCDs, so you can take advantage of all your equipment and have it rendered in realtime with actual color correction and 32 bit color instead of 24 bit LCDs that have problems rendering. LCDs are great for work monitors though.

There are 2 solutions to this problem

1) Run a CRT capable of very high resolution and play 16 : 10 in a window

or

2) Buy a Sony GDM-FW900 (Its a CRT monitor that is capable of 23xx x 1440 resolution which is a Widescreen monitor with ACS 4 : 3 scaling and support. The monitor was discontinued long ago, but this $2300 monitor can be found in Ebay for $250 + shipping. Its around 100 for shipping in the US, but well worth it. You get the widescreen resolution and have the advantage of a CRT Response times in a widescreen format.
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Postby Shinobi » Tue Sep 02, 08 2:39 pm

I don't see the disadvantage of square screens tbh... still have my old Taxan 17" CRT - a decent enough old lump (well it would be if it didn't go blue, forcing me to whack it).

My Shitty little Acer 19" doesn't come close. Heck, even my expensive Samsung LCD or the Dell ones i've tried come nowhere near CRT displays.

A nice, expensive CRT is what ya want lol. I'd have one now if I had enough space.
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Postby al'be:do » Sun Oct 05, 08 2:03 am

Destroyerzero wrote:I like having 16 : 10 in games and use such resolutions, but I realized the dark side of LCD monitors a long time ago. While the 16 : 10 is very nice in games.....its very bad in FPS Multiplayer games.

Here is why.

1) LCDs have a backlight which means that it becomes an impossibility to render dark colors perfectly and correctly. One can never render a true BLACK on an LCD. The low bandwith as well of an LCD causes colors to be washed out.


There's no thing like "low bandwidth" of LCDs. I think you're talking about saturation, which would be the correct term.
Or are you talking about Color primaries of LCDs that differ from the NTSC standard primaries used by CRTs?
High gamut LCDs use the AdobeRGB standard that is very similar to NTSC. NTSC has worse (less saturated or less colorful) blues and purples but slightly better (higher saturated) reds.

The color primaries of high quality LCDs are excellent and the color gamuts are comparable nowadays and even better in the greens, purples and blues. The perceived contrast of LCDs is higher than of CRTs, that's been investigated several times and there are several papers about color, contrast, black level/dynamics perception of LCDs compared to CRTs. CRTs don't produce real blacks either.

Destroyerzero wrote:2) Refresh Rate and Response time...

The response time in an online game must be multiplied by the refresh rate. A lot of LCD monitors out there claim to have a 2 - 5ms response time, but that is really G2G (gray to gray) which is a small range. Everything else deals with 12 - 16ms response time. There are some monitors that can do 8ms response time, or so they claim. I own an LCD and know its only good for RPGs and RTS.

If your game is updating at 16ms, then 60hz x 16ms = 960ms...per refresh going...Enough for any player in an FPS game to be headshot or killed during the refresh by a good player.



If the refresh rate is 60 Hz then there's 1000/60 ms = 16.6667 ms per refresh going. :idea:
Hmm, that's exactly the response time. Believe me, that's not a coincidence #-o

If you had a refresh time of 960 ms then you couldn't see a thing on an LCD.
1. Either the signal from the video card would send 60 images/s to the monitor but the monitor would react awfully slow. The result would be some king of flat greyish or even almost white image.
2. Or you would have only 1000/960= 1.042 images per second . That's also unplayable.

Destroyerzero wrote:3) Advanced Mouses and Keyboard

Due to the monitor being slow, any advantage you get from mice with extreme response times as well as keyboards with extreme response times...go down the drain. Any high precision timing is lost due to your LCD's slow response rate.

CRT response rate is 10 - 100 times faster than LCDs, so you can take advantage of all your equipment and have it rendered in realtime with actual color correction and 32 bit color instead of 24 bit LCDs that have problems rendering. LCDs are great for work monitors though.


The normal and occasional gamer doesn't feel the difference. If you're one of these hardcore gamers then you shouldn't buy a high level LCD.

I've always beaten my friends on LAN-parties in UT2004, BF2 etc. although my monitor's response time is 16 ms and has a 1-frame mouse lag)
For gamers any kind of cheap and fast monitor does the job better. Color fidelity, color constancy, big gamuts etc. are absolutely unimportant for gaming. As 99.99 % of all gamers don't calibrate their monitors (most people don't even know what that is) it's nonsense to talk about good colors. An uncalibrated CRT isn't better than an uncalibrated LCD.
Color metrics wise a big gamut has nothing (not primarily) to do with high quality color reproduction, but a full color profile (like ICC) does.
People who need response times below 1 ms and 4000 dpi mouse resolution don't give a f**k about colorimetrically correct colors.

You're talking about 24 bit vs 32 bit. I hope you know that 32 bit actually means 24 bit RGB (8 bit for each color) plus 8 bit alpha channel (used to process transparency).

Don't mix the maximum amount of colors that can be rendered by a monitor with the number of colors that are used in the internal processing of the OS/game rendering engine/video card.

Let's take for example one of those LCDs that you find so bad:

EIZO CG222:

Internal color processing: 16 bit for each color channel, thus 48 bits.
Displayable colors: 12 bit look-up table per channel, thus 36 bit true color rendering.

This means that this LCD can display 16 times more colors than your 32 bit CRT.

Most consumer-level LCDs have lower color depths. The very cheap ones have even below standard color depths, a flaw that is circumvented by internal color dithering algorithms.

Destroyerzero wrote:
There are 2 solutions to this problem

1) Run a CRT capable of very high resolution and play 16 : 10 in a window

or

2) Buy a Sony GDM-FW900 (Its a CRT monitor that is capable of 23xx x 1440 resolution which is a Widescreen monitor with ACS 4 : 3 scaling and support. The monitor was discontinued long ago, but this $2300 monitor can be found in Ebay for $250 + shipping. Its around 100 for shipping in the US, but well worth it. You get the widescreen resolution and have the advantage of a CRT Response times in a widescreen format.



Solution 1: Learn mathematics.

Solution 2: Learn something about color theory and color metrics before talking about such a complex matter.

Solution 3: Don't think because the topic is active on Youtube the arguments are written by people who know their stuff. It's Youtube, man!

Solution 4: If you don't know what you're talking about - just don't talk.

Solution 6: You get the widescreen resolution and have the advantage of 40 kg pure CRT, which also degrades over time, can have convergence problem, geometric image inaccuracies, color shifts, mustn't stand near magnetic fields because that negatively influences the slit mask and uses much more electric energy (which is the best advantage - ecologically speaking).

And last but not least: Please don't feel too offended, but sometimes silence IS golden.

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Postby ~SaSQuAtCH~ » Tue Jul 14, 09 4:28 pm

Hi I have a 19" Hanns G and 1680*1050 is no good for me, the half of the HUD is missing from the right side but in the same time I have that missing space on the left side. Can anyone please help?
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Postby al'be:do » Tue Jul 14, 09 10:16 pm

Hi, ~SaSQuAtCH~ !

What is the natural resolution of your monitor?
Is it a wide screen (16:9 / 16:10) or 3:4 / 4:5 monitor?
What game are you talking about? DX or DX:IW?
Do you use the latest drivers for your graphics card?
Could you please post a screen shot?
Have you tried the ini-hacks? If you did, have you checked the files for typing errors?

More information would be useful. :D
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