32:9 and DLC

[BoostBlitzen]

I haven't played this game much, and I think originally I didn't get into it because I have a SUW 5120x1440 (32:9) and couldn't get past how horrible it looked on my monitor, essentially taking up only a 3rd of the screen. With Monster Hunter, I could use flawless widescreen and enjoy the game with no issues, but with Elden Ring I see there is more of an online component with achievements associated in unlocking DLC content, not to mention having to disable EAC (I don't want to do this!) and going to offline mode to get the 32:9 fix working. So my question is - If you use flawless widescreen, does that essentially block you from accessing the DLC since you can't really "achieve" the boss kill required to get there?

Before some of you comment, understand that I don't care at all about PvP, nor online achievements for this game. To me this is a solo player game as the combat is not designed for competitive game play (it's too clunky and has iFrames) I want to sit back, and be immersed in the game world.

It makes no sense that games like this are made with the developers having this mindset of forcing people to pigeon-hole their device performance without any option other than modding, with the threat of banning you from participating in whatever, or losing access to the game entirely. They put all this effort into making a beautiful world, but make you look at it through a small lens because some players don't have the ability to do so past a resolution from 2005. Even games that ARE competitive allow for 32:9. Why?

[Soda Drink Shartblast]

LMAO are you serious? Do you really think anything more than the fewest of the few have a 32:9 monitor, let alone enough to justify development time to get everything rendering properly? They can barely get it to work on normal people's systems.

I'm sure there's a program that lets you use your little freak monitor, go download that or stop whining that developers don't cater to your niche setup.

[Triple]

Originally posted by Soda Drink Shartblast:

LMAO are you serious? Do you really think anything more than the fewest of the few have a 32:9 monitor, let alone enough to justify development time to get everything rendering properly? They can barely get it to work on normal people's systems.

I'm sure there's a program that lets you use your little freak monitor, go download that or stop whining that developers don't cater to your niche setup.

it is implemented in the game, the game renders it properly. All ultrawide mods actually just remove the black bars that the game adds post processing covering up all the game that is already being rendered. It actually also works for 30 seconds until the game detects that you're playing in ultrawide resolution and then adds black bars.

Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
All they really need to do is adjust UI and loading screen.
The Japanese are just too prideful to admit their mistake and fix it.

[BoostBlitzen]

Originally posted by Soda Drink Shartblast:

LMAO are you serious? Do you really think anything more than the fewest of the few have a 32:9 monitor, let alone enough to justify development time to get everything rendering properly? They can barely get it to work on normal people's systems.

I'm sure there's a program that lets you use your little freak monitor, go download that or stop whining that developers don't cater to your niche setup.

Did you read anything I typed or are you just trolling around with the inability to add anything of value to discussions?

Also - 21:9 is a thing. You know...like standard 2k monitors? By your logic, television content should have stayed 4:3 because not everyone had a flatscreen, rectangular display....

[BoostBlitzen]

Originally posted by Triple:

Originally posted by Soda Drink Shartblast:

LMAO are you serious? Do you really think anything more than the fewest of the few have a 32:9 monitor, let alone enough to justify development time to get everything rendering properly? They can barely get it to work on normal people's systems.

I'm sure there's a program that lets you use your little freak monitor, go download that or stop whining that developers don't cater to your niche setup.

it is implemented in the game, the game renders it properly. All ultrawide mods actually just remove the black bars that the game adds post processing covering up all the game that is already being rendered. It actually also works for 30 seconds until the game detects that you're playing in ultrawide resolution and then adds black bars.

Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
All they really need to do is adjust UI and loading screen.
The Japanese are just too prideful to admit their mistake and fix it.

Agreed. My gripe is that I can use flawless widescreen, but for me to have to disable EAC and potentially forgo access to the DLC (which is my main concern with this post) is ridiculous as the game looks amazing at 32:9.

[nfinite.recursion]

Omniwide support or gtfo.

[Navhkrin]

Originally posted by Soda Drink Shartblast:

LMAO are you serious? Do you really think anything more than the fewest of the few have a 32:9 monitor, let alone enough to justify development time to get everything rendering properly? They can barely get it to work on normal people's systems.

I'm sure there's a program that lets you use your little freak monitor, go download that or stop whining that developers don't cater to your niche setup.

There is no dev cost to "rendering in 32:9" my dude. I have master's in computer science with decent knowledge of 3D rendering (I develop games in my free time and have written professional open source renderer in the past).

Rendering is handled by graphics API's like DirectX, OpenGL, Vulkan etc. You literally tell to those API's, I want to render 3D scene with this camera parameters for this resolution and they will produce you the output. No matter what fancy resolution you tell it to.

For cutscenes and such you can rely to 16:9.

Furthermore, you can already force ER to render in 32:9 with some mods. Those mods essentially force rendering API to use 32:9 despite game code telling otherwise.

Development time needed to support any aspect ratio (21:9, 32:9 whatever) is no more than 1 day of 1 engineer. The thing is From Soft devs don't really care about PC audience (♥♥♥♥♥♥ keyboard controls, 60fps lock, forced 16:9 etc)

[Drakaris]

Originally posted by BoostBlitzen:

Originally posted by Triple:

it is implemented in the game, the game renders it properly. All ultrawide mods actually just remove the black bars that the game adds post processing covering up all the game that is already being rendered. It actually also works for 30 seconds until the game detects that you're playing in ultrawide resolution and then adds black bars.

Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
All they really need to do is adjust UI and loading screen.
The Japanese are just too prideful to admit their mistake and fix it.

Agreed. My gripe is that I can use flawless widescreen, but for me to have to disable EAC and potentially forgo access to the DLC (which is my main concern with this post) is ridiculous as the game looks amazing at 32:9.

Just turn off online mode from the game settings. Make the game start always in offline mode and you will have no issues with Flawless Widescreen and disabling EAC. Since you don't care about the online and PvP anyway, I see no problem here.

[Navhkrin]

Originally posted by Drakaris:

Originally posted by BoostBlitzen:

Agreed. My gripe is that I can use flawless widescreen, but for me to have to disable EAC and potentially forgo access to the DLC (which is my main concern with this post) is ridiculous as the game looks amazing at 32:9.

Just turn off online mode from the game settings. Make the game start always in offline mode and you will have no issues with Flawless Widescreen and disabling EAC. Since you don't care about the online and PvP anyway, I see no problem here.

Problem here is missing out all the messages and ghosts you see which imo make the game much more interesting and "alive"

[TheBigLebowski2000]

Originally posted by Navhkrin:

Originally posted by Drakaris:

Just turn off online mode from the game settings. Make the game start always in offline mode and you will have no issues with Flawless Widescreen and disabling EAC. Since you don't care about the online and PvP anyway, I see no problem here.

Problem here is missing out all the messages and ghosts you see which imo make the game much more interesting and "alive"

true, but in my modest opinion the game looks great widescreen. I play a lot of open world games in 21:9 and I never wanna go back to that small 16:9. I really recommend it.

[BoostBlitzen]

Originally posted by Drakaris:

Originally posted by BoostBlitzen:

Agreed. My gripe is that I can use flawless widescreen, but for me to have to disable EAC and potentially forgo access to the DLC (which is my main concern with this post) is ridiculous as the game looks amazing at 32:9.

Just turn off online mode from the game settings. Make the game start always in offline mode and you will have no issues with Flawless Widescreen and disabling EAC. Since you don't care about the online and PvP anyway, I see no problem here.

True but no one has been able to answer if playing like this stops me from accessing the DLC if/when I complete the content to get there.

[ClutchAnderson]

I feel you OP, I love playing on my G9 and have gotten used to playing in offline mode. When I do want to play w/ online features I just go into pip mode with the game at 1440p on my left screen and a guide or w/e on my right.

[BoostBlitzen]

Doing a bit of searching - It's not clear what happens when running in offline mode with EAC disabled:

"According to the search results, disabling EAC (Easy Anti-Cheat) in Elden Ring allows you to play the game in offline mode. However, the impact on achievements is not entirely clear.

Some sources suggest that achievements can still be earned while playing in offline mode with EAC disabled. For example, the StutterFix mod notes that “all achievements that don’t require you to do online stuff can be earned while using this tool.”

On the other hand, some users have reported that achievements may not work or may be affected by the EAC disablement. For instance, one user mentioned that “achievements won’t be earned” when playing with the anti-cheat disabled.

It’s also worth noting that some mods, such as the Anti-cheat toggler and offline launcher, explicitly state that achievements can be earned while playing offline with EAC disabled.

In summary, it appears that achievements may or may not be affected by playing Elden Ring in offline mode with EAC disabled. If you’re concerned about achievements, it’s recommended to test and verify the outcome in your specific situation."

So I guess it's a toss up unless we get an official response. It's a shame really. I can play like this but may not ever be able to access the DLC depending on how tied in it is to actual achievement flags built into the game.

Steam really needs to take a stand against stuff like this and force developers to either comply with modern PC gaming requirements and/or CLEARLY list the game requirements as such. Something like "This game does not support x resolutions & aspect ratios or higher". Or, simply prohibit COMPETITIVE online play, but unlock everything else so people can enjoy the game the way they want it. It's absurd I have to disable EAC and run a 3rd party mod to remove black bars from a monitor and game that I paid for, and risk getting some sort of a ban.

I'd even consider a lawsuit against the imposing party if I do get into trouble for running the widescreen mod. It's that aggravating at this point.

[BoostBlitzen]

Originally posted by ClutchAnderson:

I feel you OP, I love playing on my G9 and have gotten used to playing in offline mode. When I do want to play w/ online features I just go into pip mode with the game at 1440p on my left screen and a guide or w/e on my right.

G9 here as well. Playing games on it is something I can't go backwards from. Monster Hunter, Cyberpunk, RDR2, Jedi Survivor, Hunt Showdown/Tarkov/Greyzone (serious competitive shooters), Homeworld, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, Driving simulators, etc. There is no way I'm going to stop using what I invested in, just because a game developer decides they don't want to deal with it.

Also - Game developers have to create or port these games with 3000/4000/7000 series cards pushing 4k res, but then they say "You know what? You should use a 4090 for the best experience, but nah - You are stuck doing that on an ipad mini screen or else we ban you.". It's ridiculous.