Sof on Widescreen

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Joined: 21 Nov 2011, 18:55

Sof on Widescreen

Post by Persian »

An unpatched SoF only supports a screen aspect ratio of 4:3. The table below shows the supported resolutions (you can list them in SoF with the ‘vid_modes’ command):
gl_modeX-resolutionY-resolution
0(disabled)320240
1 (disabled) 400300
2 (disabled) 512384
3640480
4800600
5960720
61024768
71152864
81280960
916001200
Some players are using widescreen displays with other aspect ratios, like 16:10. When they play SoF in fullscreen mode, the image is distorted (squeezed vertically/stretched horizontally), but the amount of information that is displayed, is the same.

ImageUnmodified SoF on 4:3 display

ImageUnmodified SoF on 16:10 display (distorted)

SoF.exe resolution patch
Warning: You can’t use a patched SoF.exe with WaX. It works with UAC3.

Download this patch to change the hardcoded resolutions of SoF.exe. This will allow you to play SoF in fullscreen mode on widesceen displays without getting image distortion.

Note that the horizontal FOV isn’t changed, so you will actually see less instead of more. Since the missing information is at the top and the bottom, I don’t consider this a big problem. The example 16:10 image below shows this. The red box indicates what area would have been visible with an aspect ratio of 4:3.
ImagePatched SoF on 16:10 display


SoFplus resolution and FOV changes
I’m still working on this. This will be in the next relase of SoFplus. Feel free to inform me about your opinion on the FOV subject…

I’ve put a new command (sp_cl_set_video_mode) in the unreleased SoFplus client that lets you set any resolution you want.

I’m thinking about changing FOV, but it’s not easy to come up with something that’s fair for players with 4:3 and 16:10 displays. Using a FOV of 100 for 16:10 displays results in the same amount of information on the screen as a FOV of 95 on a 4:3 display, but it probably gives the players with the 16:10 display an advantage, because information on the left/right is more important than on the top/bottom.

Almost every other game with widescreen support keeps the vertical FOV locked, which means that the horizontal FOV changes with different aspect ratios. For SoF this would mean that players on 16:10 displays would get a horizontal FOV of 105.

The images below show how FOV affects the amount of information that’s on the screen. The red box indicates what information is on the screen on a 4:3 display with FOV 95 (the current SoF default).

Image
Aspect ratio: 4:3
FOV: 95
Gain: 0%
Notes: SoF default

Image
Aspect ratio: 4:3
FOV: 100
Gain: +20%
Notes: Seems unfair to me

Image
Aspect ratio: 4:3
FOV: 105
Gain: +44%
Notes: Seems unfair to me

Image
Aspect ratio: 16:10
FOV: 95
Gain: -17%
Notes: Patched for widescreen, with SoF default horizontal FOV
A little disadvantage, but the top and bottom don’t contain much information

Image
Aspect ratio: 16:10
FOV: 100
Gain: 0%
Notes: Patched for widescreen, with FOV adjusted to show the same amount of display surface as the 4:3 case with FOV 95
Players on 4:3 displays may complain, because the left and right contain more information than top and bottom

Image
Aspect ratio: 16:10
FOV: 105
Gain: +20%
Notes: Patched for widescreen, with SoF default vertical FOV
Seems unfair to me, but this is what other games do


The images below show how FOV settings affect the displayed image. Note that a changed FOV also affects gameplay: Small FOV makes the game feel slow and large FOV makes it feel fast (your real speed is always the same). You can try this yourself by walking around with the sniper rifle. When it’s zoomed in, your FOV is very small and the game will feel slow.
ImageFOV 20

ImageFOV 50

ImageFOV 95, SoF default

ImageFOV 110

ImageFOV 155

WRITTEN BY: Ctrl
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