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Official responce for Widescreen fiasco

2kgames.com — We understand there has been some concern about the implementation of widescreen mode in BioShock. Hopefully, we can clarify how we’ve chosen to do this.The first thing we want to make clear is the mode we developed the game on and the optimal mode for playing the game is the widescreen mode. 90% of our development stations were widescreen displays

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 23, 2007

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44 Comments

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  • totorototoro, on 10/10/2007, -2/+19So, in short, 4:3 users view MORE visual information (vertically) than 16:9 users.
    Its not a bug, it is a feature :p
  • ffejrey, on 10/10/2007, -11/+25Buried because you can't spell "response."
  • wageslaven, on 10/10/2007, -7/+20"Instead of cropping the FOV for 4:3 displays and making all 4:3 owners mad in doing so, we slightly extended the vertical FOV for standard def mode:"

    Which is exactly what dozens of people were saying during yesterdays "Omg Bioshocks is the suxors!!1!" FUD festival yesterday.
  • TheJas, on 10/10/2007, -2/+11This pisses me off, but I am still buying it. BUT BARELY!!!! HEAR THAT 2K??? BARELY!!!!! You're lucky... this time.
  • KMartSheriff, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Good. 16:9 > 4:3
  • TheBean, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4This really isn't a big deal to me as this is a 1 player game. However if it was multiplayer I would be pissed for the widescreen to have less viewing area.
  • korbink, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3He's saying nobody would force you to buy that car.
  • Phirenzic, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2O, get over urself.
  • alaren, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2On PCs, equivalent resolution 4:3 has MORE PIXELS than widescreen.

    On TVs, all hi-def is widescreen, so it makes sense to optimize for 16:9. But a 19" PC LCD running at 1280x1024 has 1,310,720 pixels, while a 19" PC LCD running at 1440x900 has 1,296,000 pixels. If you strictly optimize for BOTH, then each aspect ratio would show things that the other aspect ratio does not show.

    Choosing to just "crop" the top and bottom is NOT optimizing for widescreen, just like choosing to "crop" the sides is unnecessarily limiting the 4:3 monitors. Why not calculate what a 1440x1024 image would look like and crop it from there? Then *everyone* can be pissed about "missing" something together!
  • 35263526, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Look, I don't like SecuROM, but having to connect to the internet to register the game is hardly going to kill anyone. It's not as if an internet connection isn't listed as a requirement.
  • ChzPlz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1so, dozens of people (out of the 500+ that commented) got it right?

    The original poster certainly believed that it was designed for 4:3, then zoomed and cropped for 16:9. "to create the 16:9 image, it's rendering a 4:3 image, zooming in and chopping off the bottom and the top."
  • plizard, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3lol you sound like oracle support staff.
  • Ub3rg33k, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1With the FOV hack out there, does it really matter?
  • Elranzer, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Pixar did the same thing with the fullscreen DVD release of Finding Nemo.
  • ToastPop, on 04/17/2009, -4/+5Buried your comment because you need a life and need to come here for the content and not to judge how well people can spell.
  • commiecat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"we will be looking into options for allowing users to adjust FOV settings manually. But as we mentioned earlier, changes to video game code do not happen in minutes or hours. We appreciate your understanding."

    Why on earth wouldn't they do this to begin with like most shooters? I've never seen a game designed for WS that would letterbox a standard 4:3 display. You give both resolutions the same vertical view and you add horizontal views to the WS displays, you don't just code it for widescreen and then shrink it on 4:3 to keep the aspect ratio.

    And changes not happening in minutes or hours is kinda funny. They get paid for this stuff -- meanwhile some dude on a forum writes the EXACT type of code they need within 24 hours of the demo being released. I'm not sure about the 360 coding, but adding a FOV tweak to the PC settings should be relatively easy for them.
  • rolosworld, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1hmnnn.. so instead of a crop is the opposite?
    is this some type of chewbacca defense?
    ***** ALERT!
  • dMinor04, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1so they would rather keep the twelve 4:3 users happy instead of the rest of the of the gaming population?
  • reed311, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The vast majority of TV owners have SD televisions, so this makes sense from an economic standpoint. It's better to please the vast majority than the fringe. Though, it's best to please both I guess.
  • mohamedmansour, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2Hmm, so Full Screen LCDs > Widescreen LCDs Nice ... Many gamers complained, yet they didn't care, but the people at widescreengaming did a fix to fix the fov
  • KMartSheriff, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2That'll show them!
  • ChzPlz, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1why does it piss you off? Do you deserve more content than 4:3 users? Are you paying more?

    Seriously - big fat hairy deal. Instead of being padded with black bars, it's padded with irrelevant filler that matches the background. They've already said the relevant content is in the 16:9 FOV.
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1 I'm satisfied with the explanation, after all it looks just fine in widescreen. Actually they are being penalized by the WS community for making WS a priority, they designed the whole experience around it. If anything 4:3 people should be mad because displaying the entire widescreen width on standard monitors shrinks the size of game objects on the screen.
  • reed311, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3Oh, big deal. This isn't a spelling bee. People make spelling mistakes all the time, as long as you can understand what he meant then there is no difference.
  • stronglikedan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Hell, I bought the game and I'll still get my patch to play my legal backup (read "crack") just for this issue. Way to punish the people that actually bought the game 2k.
  • betasp, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Your logic is flawed. They are not designing the game for "the consumer." They are designing for "a consumer." If you concerned about their screen ratio FOV, then obviously you are not the target market.
  • Linkin4, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3Seriously, go ***** yourself.
  • AllYourBase3, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3If I were a PC player of bioshock, I'd be more concerned about all the anti-piracy procedures and ***** you have to go through.
  • grastard, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Are you kidding me? are there really people that don't spell check before they post?
  • Salgat, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3Oh I dunno, maybe because entertainment products are supposed to be about finding the best way to please the consumer?(In order to make the moneys)
  • stronglikedan, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0The point is that if I spend the extra money on a widescreen monitor, then I think I deserve to see more of the horizontal FOV. The way the developers chose to f*ck the game up makes me feel like I have tunnel vision and it is very hard on the eyes. This is proven by the use off the FOV patch.
  • musters, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1what a complete load of crap
  • zomgz, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2lucky you... have fun with ur 2 installs ;p
  • aresef, on 10/10/2007, -5/+4I'm cool with that. I have a 4:3 TV and nothing pisses me off more than black bars on my games. Movies, fine. But when I need to squint to read game text, no thank you. And if I did have a widescreen TV, I'd still be cool with it. Not like I'm missing anything.
  • RobbieF, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1I'd just like to play the thing. It crashes every time, right after my first trip in the capsule. No matter what graphics settings I choose. Every. Time.

    Yes, I have the latest nvidia drivers.

    xp/sp2
    Athlon 64 3200+
    1.5 GB RAM
  • B1ooDshOt, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0They should have designed with widescreen benefits. I mean this is the 360 not the original Xbox...
  • HomeNucleonics, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0Buried your comment for the hell of it
  • chazuk, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1If you bought a car and it was pink and covered in flowers, would you be happy?
    Why should you get what you pay for?
  • stronglikedan, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0*****!
    I call shenaningans. Thank God for Racer_S!
    The game is clearly better with the proper widescreen FOV provided by the Racer_S patch.
  • Glottis, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0http://www.pcgamer.com/

    Read the blog
  • uptown, on 10/10/2007, -9/+5It's a company ... selling a product ... which they designed ... which you can choose to buy or not buy based on what the features that the product offers. Why do so many people feel some sense of entitlement about everything these days?
  • lyg82, on 10/10/2007, -9/+4who gives a *****
  • toxicityj, on 10/10/2007, -14/+8no one cares why you buried. just stfu and bury him for being a retard.
  • jimic79, on 10/10/2007, -6/+0translation: "we gave that job to the intern and he ***** it up... our bad..."

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