Please give me the option to remove the Letterbox effect

[Null]

Straight up hate it, why on Earth is this a thing that can't be disabled? Honestly I may have to refund the game for now because its so distracting.

I can totally understand it being there to make it more 'cinematic' or whatever, but it should be optional, it makes the screen smaller and more claustrophobic, please put an option in to disable it and I will happily re-buy the game.

[kgkong]

AFAIK it's there for a cinematic atmospheric experience.

[Null]

Originally posted by KingGorillaKong:

AFAIK it's there for a cinematic atmospheric experience.

Makes sense yes, but as I said I don't really care what the reason for it is, it should be a toggle option.

[kgkong]

I feel like the game wouldn't be as immersive though without it. Like when you're playing a game and you enter into a cinematic moment and those bars come in, it causes your eyes to focus more intently on the content you're being shown in the cinematic sequence. The game is presented as a cinematic presentation. I get it if it's not your cup of tea, but it does seem to be a part of the whole narrative presentation.

Even going back rewatching shows or movies that were originally 4:3 aspect ratio and stretched out to or fitted for 16:9 and 16:10 ratios, there's more immersion into the experience. And when you turn on side letterboxing in wide screen format shows and movies, even though in a lot of instances you aren't losing any visual queues that go with the story, you're taken out of the experience. Not so much because now you have black bars on the side, but your eyes have to widen and adjust to more y-axis. The way our eyes focus they focus better on more x-axis to y-axis ratio. Even try to squint to focus in on reading something at a distance and your actual focal point that is in focus is an oblique shape rather circle shape.

Now I do get it, it's unusual to have on all the time for a game and it can be off putting. I've gone and tried to apply this letterbox frame to a lot of games and play them with a more immersive experience that way but due to already having familiar with a true 16:9 ratio it was a bit of odd thing to do and play games with. (Probably the biggest challenge is that adding these letterboxes does so by hiding HUD and UI elements where as with season the effect is applied beneath the HUD and UI, so it feels a lot more natural with Season for me)

[Null]

Originally posted by KingGorillaKong:

I feel like the game wouldn't be as immersive though without it. Like when you're playing a game and you enter into a cinematic moment and those bars come in, it causes your eyes to focus more intently on the content you're being shown in the cinematic sequence. The game is presented as a cinematic presentation. I get it if it's not your cup of tea, but it does seem to be a part of the whole narrative presentation.

Even going back rewatching shows or movies that were originally 4:3 aspect ratio and stretched out to or fitted for 16:9 and 16:10 ratios, there's more immersion into the experience. And when you turn on side letterboxing in wide screen format shows and movies, even though in a lot of instances you aren't losing any visual queues that go with the story, you're taken out of the experience. Not so much because now you have black bars on the side, but your eyes have to widen and adjust to more y-axis. The way our eyes focus they focus better on more x-axis to y-axis ratio. Even try to squint to focus in on reading something at a distance and your actual focal point that is in focus is an oblique shape rather circle shape.

Now I do get it, it's unusual to have on all the time for a game and it can be off putting. I've gone and tried to apply this letterbox frame to a lot of games and play them with a more immersive experience that way but due to already having familiar with a true 16:9 ratio it was a bit of odd thing to do and play games with. (Probably the biggest challenge is that adding these letterboxes does so by hiding HUD and UI elements where as with season the effect is applied beneath the HUD and UI, so it feels a lot more natural with Season for me)

Thanks for the detailed explanation, perhaps I will just get over it and play the game, I loved what was there, I think I just hate any form of letterboxing in any game.

[Arrmeya]

Originally posted by Null:

Straight up hate it, why on Earth is this a thing that can't be disabled? Honestly I may have to refund the game for now because its so distracting.

I can totally understand it being there to make it more 'cinematic' or whatever, but it should be optional, it makes the screen smaller and more claustrophobic, please put an option in to disable it and I will happily re-buy the game.

I agree with you. I don't like "Black bars" either. This should be an option, not everybody loves black bars, it doesn't matter if its for the cinematic feeling. This is a game not a movie. At least for us to have the option to remove it. This option should be there in the first place, please consider the players who is NOT OK with this feature PLEASE.

[M. Doucet]

Nothing is lost by making letterboxing a player choice. If giving up 24% of your screen makes your gameplay more immersive, that's great. But that does not justify forcing it on all players.

[Null]

Just an update to this:

As of 2nd June 2023, there is still no option to remove the letterboxing black bars.

I will concede that this is a daft thing for me to moan about but I genuinely can't enjoy this game, it feels claustrophobic and is very distracting personally.

[Arrmeya]

I guess Dev don't care as much, not even to give us an option to turn it off.

[RhysCake]

I've also just had to refund the game after realising that the letterboxing wasn't optional.
Please give us the option to turn it off because I enjoyed what I played of it but in the end I just found it too distracting.

[Khatie]

Originally posted by RhysCake:

I've also just had to refund the game after realising that the letterboxing wasn't optional.
Please give us the option to turn it off because I enjoyed what I played of it but in the end I just found it too distracting.

We did take this feedback to heart and while we won't be removing it any time soon (if ever), we do respect your wish not to experience the game this way.

[Vasya Sovari]

We did take this feedback to heart and while we won't be removing it any time soon (if ever), we do respect your wish not to experience the game this way.

Just to be completely clear, the forced letterboxing is *the only* reason I have not yet bought this game. Your design choices are actively costing you sales and I strongly urge you to reconsider.

[EternalMiasma]

im aware its the devs artisitic vision but that only works on movies, if you have an options menu, put this in the options

[Arrmeya]

Originally posted by EternalMiasma:

im aware its the devs artisitic vision but that only works on movies, if you have an options menu, put this in the options

This has been a problem for such a long time, but they haven't done anything at all. I doubt they will remove the black bars. This is the main reason why I haven't put so much time in the game. It sucks cuz they didn't consider the people who wanted it full screen, to give us an option for that.