There have been a few unhappy mutterings around the place regarding widescreen support in BioShock. 2K Games have just made an official announcement. Here's a couple of bits, but read the full thing for true enlightenment:

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: artists, programmers and designers.
...
One thing we can assure you that all these decisions were made with the best interests of the game in mind. We didn’t save any money or development time by choosing this set of parameters. We did what we thought was the best thing for the game: developing and optimizing it for widescreen displays, and making the decision not to do the usual crop for 4:3 displays. As a consumer, you certainly have the right to disagree.

No problems with their decision how their product is designed here!

I've got widescreen everything, so I'm happy enough, but it is strange to see 4:3 simply unsupported. For this, I'm very surprised. 2K saying they didnt save any money by taking this mode in the game cant be true IMO. They would have had to supply resources toward developing a 4:3 format, and that would have cost money.

lol
Bioshock TiT on Widescreen ( . ) ( . )
Bioshock TiT on 4:3 |.||.|

lol, you've been drinking already, haven't you :)

I think basically 2k is saying "Cry more noobs"

there is an exe hack fix on widescreengamingforum.com too if anyone wants

I don't actually get what the problem is and why theres hacks for widescreen, that press release gives me the impression it works fine in widescreen and the complaints were about how it displays stuff in 4:3 standard? So what do the hacks actually do, whats the point?

i assume hack mods the fov so that instead of seeing less of the environment in widescreen than 4:3 does (same horizontal, less vertical), you'd see the same vertical + extra horizontal

yeah i could understand the problem if it were a multiplayer game, but for a sp only game i say play it how the developer intended and quit whinging.

I don't actually get what the problem is and why theres hacks for widescreen, that press release gives me the impression it works fine in widescreen and the complaints were about how it displays stuff in 4:3 standard? So what do the hacks actually do, whats the point?

Normally when widescreen support is added for a game they take the 4:3 (squar'ISH) field of view and add a rectangle to the left and right sides to bring it in line with the 16:10/16:9 ratio. That method is called hor+ (horizontal plus) This is the method HL2 uses and it in no way disadvantages 4:3 because they do not lose part of the picture.

Bioshock, instead of 'proper' widescreen support, takes the 4:3 image and lops off the top and the bottom and then stretches the image (keeping the correct ratio for 16:10 or 16:9) This method is called vert- (vertical minus) The problem for widescreen users is that this results in seeing LESS than 4:3 users. When the widescreen hack is used, its like zooming out of a full screen scope. If you have ever played CS its like on the steyr zooming in and out. Imagine always playing zoomed in... This is because you are putting the lost top and bottom sections back, as well as adding the proper horizontal additions.

Now, many misinformed 4:3 users will say that there is no reason that a widescreen user should see more than them. This makes little sense as the widescreen monitor is designed to show more on the horizontal and the same on the vertical. The whole point is to push emmersion by attempting to mimick (in some way) peripheral vision - it is NOT just a different shape of the same thing they have. Proper widescreen implementation, like valve includes it, does not disadvantage 4:3 users and properly supports widescreen. Bioshock incorrectly supports widescreen and disadvantages widescreen users.

Money is not an issue since widescreens are just as cheap as 4:3 these days. The fact that a third party was able to create a fix within days of the release shows that it is not a hard thing to fix which makes the decision by irrational all the more mystifying. There is no disadvantage to properly supporting it, however, there is a disadvantage when it has been done as it has.

Since 386's theres been those that complain that the latest game doesnt work on their old pc hardware. PC gaming pushes the limits and thats why pc games should be converted over to consoles and not the other way round.

To be totally fair, consoles are now the far greater market for gaming, unlike 386 days and the disparity of hardware is now far far less. There is no reason why console development should now effect PC development unless the dev team chooses to make design decisions based on console demographics. Technologically, there shouldnt be a difference beyond control interface and the PC controls for bioshock are fine.

Bioshock, instead of 'proper' widescreen support, takes the 4:3 image and lops off the top and the bottom and then stretches the image

From what I've read on the issue since I last posted, that is absolute bulls***. You're looking at it all back to front, which seems to be why everyone's convinced its such a problem. Nothing is ever lost or lopped off. The game supports 'proper' widescreen more than a lot of other games, being that it was developed completely for play in widescreen. When it came time to fit it on a 4:3 screen, they realised since it was designed to be played in widescreen, they'd have to shrink it and put black bars at the top and bottom. This was deemed an unacceptable solution, so instead they shrunk it, and where the black bars would normally be, you get a bit more of the top and bottom of the screen. Now I don't know why people would be so up in arms over this, apparently its like some kind of crime against people with widescreens. Its not good enough that the game was designed to be played, from the ground up, to give the most optimal experience on their hardware, they just want to make sure nobody else gets something (even something completely worthless and useless) that they don't have.

I would go so far as to say the increased vertical viewing space on 4:3 is bad for the game, since its so cinematic and it was designed so specifically to fit on a 16:9 widescreen, seeing those extra bits at the top and the bottom could potentially destroy some of the cinematic sequences which are framed to look best on 16:9 widescreen. So really, why would you want to hack it in? It completely and utterly boggles my mind. Everyone is so convinced they're missing out on something in widescreen, when really, they're potentially spoiling the game if they don't play it in 16:9 widescreen resolution, which it was designed to be played in.

last edited by Khel at 21:03:44 27/Aug/07

There was a guy from widescreen gaming who posted comparitive screenshots that clearly showed widescreen was lobbing off the top and bottom of the image. but I don't care enough to bother looking into it myself.

But widescreen isn't lopping off the top and bottom, 4:3 is adding the top and bottom. The way the game appears in widescreen is the way it was designed to look, its then modified for the 4:3 screen. People are assuming the 4:3 version is taken and cut up to fit on widescreen, but the case is the complete opposite, widescreen is it's native format and its hacked up to fit on 4:3, with extra vertical viewing space added to fill what would normally be black borders.

I haven't been following the Bioshock escapade closely at all, cause I know that atm my pc would s*** itself if it even saw the Bioshock DVD.
But from what I have heard on this, I'm under the impression that both 4:3 and 16:9 modes both work fine, and that 4:3 is just 16:9 with extra visible area added to the vertical.
If this is the case and that the whole "widescreen" debacle is simple a matter of who gets more, then I believe that the community is being very selfish.
What do you actually gain from seeing more vertical dimension? Just more ceiling and more floor. I'd say you'd actually loose some of the horizontal detail and accuracy.

Some people need to grow up and/or take a chill pill. No doubt these will be the same people that troll the wow forums complaining about class balance day in day out for years.

trog didn't post the whole press release in his summary. they are creating an official patch for people who want it, and also looking into a patch for the 360 version.

There was a guy from widescreen gaming who posted comparitive screenshots that clearly showed widescreen was lobbing off the top and bottom of the image. but I don't care enough to bother looking into it myself.

Yeah, it's not really cutting off the top and bottom...its just that they wanted the same FOV across both AR's so they added the top and bottom for the 4:3 users so they wouldn't have black bars..I guess that's just another way of saying it, but that was their reasoning.

They can't win, I mean if they'd released the game so that it had a narrowed field of view and messed with the framing of the shots and the feel of the game in 4:3 people would be up in arms complaining, and if they made it so you played it letterboxed with black borders in 4:3 people would be up in arms complaining. I guess people just like to complain.

Yep, Khel is right and anybody whining about it is retarded.

It reallly doesnt matter since the third party patch fixes it for people who prefer proper widescreen implementation and maintain a good experiance for 4:3 users... thats really all that matters.

I guess the debate begins because many games have avoided this issue by doing what valve does which is historically the 'correct' implementation of widescreen.

Maybe it was like Terminator 2 where the 4x3 version shows stuff the 16x9 doesn't, and the 16x9 shows stuff the 4x3 doesn't, because there was a lot of overhanging crap in the origination format that gave them a lot of freedom to crop in on.

the third party patch fixes it for people who prefer proper widescreen implementation

I think these mysterious people who prefer proper widescreen implementation don't actually prefer proper widescreen implementation, because when Bioshock gave them a game designed from the ground up to be played in widescreen they just cried.

I think the problem was that they assumed that because the 4:3 image had extra footage at the top and bottom that the picture had been chopped for 16:9/10 like is often done.

but 4:3 users got to seem more than me! how dare they!

widescreen displays are oldschool.... 4:3 is the new rage!