Widescreen option?

[Hammertime]

On the Xbox when you have set it to 720p or 1080i it's possible to force widescreen for all games (go to Options -->  Video options and enable Video Modes). This way menus, title screen and cut-scenes of 4:3 games will become stretched but in-game everything will be fine, non-stretched , just a wider visible area. Now is it possible to enable this on the PC/other versions as well? Or could such an option be added?

It works already if you unpak a mod and change the video.txt manually, e.g. from 0 (320x240) to 1 (480x272). Contrary to the Xbox the menus, title screen and cut-scenes won't even be stretched and you still get a wider visible are in-game. The problem of this method is (besides the fact that you have to unpak and pak every single game) is the missing 32 lines at the bottom which will just stay black since most mods don't scroll vertical. A videomode like 420 or 430x240 is needed to just fill the blank screen horizontally. Has there been such a mode before in OpenBOR2 or how has the Xbox done it otherwise?

I know forcing a 4:3 game to play in widescreen has a downside; some enemies and objects like trash cans may just pop up out of nowhere in the area in front of you which wasn't supposed to be visible in a 4:3 game. However I'd still prefer having full-screen and more free space for walking and dodging. No real drawback as long as it's optional.

[Plombo]

I know forcing a 4:3 game to play in widescreen has a downside; some enemies and objects like trash cans may just pop up out of nowhere in the area in front of you which wasn't supposed to be visible in a 4:3 game. However I'd still prefer having full-screen and more free space for walking and dodging. No real drawback as long as it's optional.

Actually, there is a drawback, even if it's optional.  We shouldn't have options that break mods.  It's the responsibility of the engine to play each game the way that the modder intended for it to be played.

And if we did have that option, there would always be reports about games not working properly with it - both to us and to individual modders.  When players change an engine setting and it breaks the gameplay of a mod, telling them "that feature is broken by design" and not changing anything in the engine just isn't the right response.

[Damon Caskey]

...

+1

DC

[Hammertime]

Ok, thx for your answer. I understand your point however since I have no problems with it (and of course I know it's neither the engine's nor the mod's fault in case something doesn't work) I guess I'll just run those older 4:3 mods on the Xbox - most or at least many of the newer mods which don't run on the Xbox anymore support widescreen anyway.