Is the game 4:3 ?

[Racerprose]

The new launch video and screenshots are showing 4:3. Option for both 4:3 & 16:9 even if the 16:9 is not perfect, I'd rather have that.

[tomimt]

Considering the games graphics were originally presented in 640x480 and the original resource files don't exist anymore, there's really no genuine way presenting the game in 16:9 aspect ratio. It would be either stretched or cropped and both would be a bad presentation.

In an ideal world, they would have been able to re-render the scenes from the original resources, or remade all of it from scratch, but hey, you can always dream.

[THE_OBSERVER]

Well, it's an old game originally made in 4:3. So all backgrounds are 4:3, you can't just stretch them to fullscreen without messing up the aspect ratio. They added a very subtle background at both sides of the screen if you look closely. That's the best you can get.

Getting the game to true 16:9 would mean to remade all the scenes in the game.

[Racerprose]

Originally posted by tomimt:

Considering the games graphics were originally presented in 640x480 and the original resource files don't exist anymore, there's really no genuine way presenting the game in 16:9 aspect ratio. It would be either stretched or cropped and both would be a bad presentation.

In an ideal world, they would have been able to re-render the scenes from the original resources, or remade all of it from scratch, but hey, you can always dream.

Sure, I imagine its the source material, but there are ways to upscale to a wider ratio and it still look decent. I've done it with some old 4:3 DVDs. It isn't perfect, but I prefer it. And 4:3 is not good for OLED displays. I mean they are already doing a bunch of AI upscaling anyway. It would be a nice option to have, even with its limits and default to 4:3 would make sense.

[tomimt]

Well, the best you are going to get are some additional bars on the side.

[Shadari]

If you run the enhanced version of the game at a 4x3 resolution (e.g. 1024x768 or 1152x864) and your TV scales it to fit, you'll get a full screen image, albeit one where the image is warped just a bit. I prefer to play like this over having bars on the sides or top/bottom.

[cryocore]

Originally posted by Racerprose:

Originally posted by tomimt:

Considering the games graphics were originally presented in 640x480 and the original resource files don't exist anymore, there's really no genuine way presenting the game in 16:9 aspect ratio. It would be either stretched or cropped and both would be a bad presentation.

In an ideal world, they would have been able to re-render the scenes from the original resources, or remade all of it from scratch, but hey, you can always dream.

Sure, I imagine its the source material, but there are ways to upscale to a wider ratio and it still look decent. I've done it with some old 4:3 DVDs. It isn't perfect, but I prefer it. And 4:3 is not good for OLED displays. I mean they are already doing a bunch of AI upscaling anyway. It would be a nice option to have, even with its limits and default to 4:3 would make sense.

That would look even worse. Not only would the image be distorted due to it needing to be stretched horizontally to fill the screen, but the scaling would cause additional image degradation due to scaling pixels at an uneven ratio.

You cant make a square into a rectangle without either cutting parts off (really not feasible when dealing with such a low resolution original image) or stretching it which ruins the image, and again due to being such a low resolution image looks far worse as a result. The game is old. Its 4:3. Don't like it, I get it, but that's how it is and unless someone REMAKES it, that wont change. Maybe just move on to something not 25 years old and stop wanting the impossible.

[JefferyNothing]

Originally posted by Racerprose:

Originally posted by tomimt:

Considering the games graphics were originally presented in 640x480 and the original resource files don't exist anymore, there's really no genuine way presenting the game in 16:9 aspect ratio. It would be either stretched or cropped and both would be a bad presentation.

In an ideal world, they would have been able to re-render the scenes from the original resources, or remade all of it from scratch, but hey, you can always dream.

Sure, I imagine its the source material, but there are ways to upscale to a wider ratio and it still look decent. I've done it with some old 4:3 DVDs. It isn't perfect, but I prefer it. And 4:3 is not good for OLED displays. I mean they are already doing a bunch of AI upscaling anyway. It would be a nice option to have, even with its limits and default to 4:3 would make sense.

The enhanced version already runs at your native screens res because Nightdive implemented it in to their engine. Regardless, you cant just stretch a 4:3 image to fit a 16:9 ratio without it ruining the gameplay. Since this is an adventure game you'll need to click on objects that will most likely be out of the frame if you enlarge the screen to fit in a 16:9 ratio.

The bottom line is, there is no more information on the left and right hand sides of the screen to be displayed. The source code was lost, theres nothing you can really do about how the game looks. It is what it is.

[NewRaven]

Originally posted by rH:

The enhanced version already runs at your native screens res because Nightdive implemented it in to their engine. Regardless, you cant just stretch a 4:3 image to fit a 16:9 ratio without it ruining the gameplay. Since this is an adventure game you'll need to click on objects that will most likely be out of the frame if you enlarge the screen to fit in a 16:9 ratio.

The bottom line is, there is no more information on the left and right hand sides of the screen to be displayed. The source code was lost, theres nothing you can really do about how the game looks. It is what it is.

True. However, I remember a point-and-click adventure "remaster" which solved this with a bit of scrolling as soon as the mouse cursor went to the "cut-off" area on the top or the bottom, the screen moved smoothly a bit in that direction. I can't remember which game it was, however, I remember that back then I found that solution fairly smart. And yes, it should be doable even without the source material. If it's better than the bars left and right or if it's worth the effort... well, that's probably highly subjective.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally posted by cryocore:

That would look even worse. Not only would the image be distorted due to it needing to be stretched horizontally to fill the screen, but the scaling would cause additional image degradation due to scaling pixels at an uneven ratio.

Some people are always going to "fill their screen" no matter how ugly it looks. They did it with 4:3 TVs and DVDs, now they do it with widescreen TVs and 4:3 content. It'll go on forever, there's no convincing them that more isn't better.