Widescreen Gaming Forum

I currently purchased a 22" widescreen monitor with a native resolutive of 1680 X 1050. I am not wanting a hack to make either game play and look ok in widescreen...in other words I don't care about getting their resolutions up to my native resolution. I am simply looking for a means to play each game in their normal aspect ratio 4:3. So, this would result in bars being on either side of the game, which I am fine with. This would eliminate the stretching. Thanks in advance. Essentially I am wanting what is in this picture.

I am running Windows XP SP2 with an 8800GTS 512MB video card.

Do you have an nvidia or Ati card?

on my ATI card i have a Scaling option in the settings in the control center somewhere called scaling and I selected "Maintain Original Aspect Ratio" and it seems to work for most games, i never tried it with star craft, but it works with other 4:3 games for me. I should really get around to installing that game again sometime...

I have an Nvidia card. For whatever reason I used my DVI cable for a couple hours and it worked fine, but once I restarted my computer the monitor looks all messed up, so I switched back to VGA. However, I tried to "use fixed aspect ratio" and nothing changed. I am wondering if there is another way to do this. Thanks.

VGA is the problem I think. Nvidia's Flat Panel Scaling only works on DVI. :?

I guess I didn't clarify...when the DVI was working I tried using the "fixed aspect ratio" and nothing changed on either game. I just want those bars on the sides so that it isn't stretched. In all honesty, however, age of empires on 1280 X 1024 doesn't look too bad, but would look better with the two bars on either side.

Then maybe you should visit this thread.
A good trick to fix the Flat Panel Scaling is to set it while using a desktop res lower than your native res ;)

Go into your nvidia control panel, select "Change flat panel scaling" under "Display" from the menu on the left and select "Do not scale". This option will not be available unless you are using a DVI cable.

Then set your resolution to 1280x1024 in game.

IMPORTANT: Be sure you hit the Apply button before closing the control panel or switching to a different area of the control panel. I forget to do this all the time.

Go into your nvidia control panel, select "Change flat panel scaling" under "Display" from the menu on the left and select "Do not scale". This option will not be available unless you are using a DVI cable.

Then set your resolution to 1280x1024 in game.

IMPORTANT: Be sure you hit the Apply button before closing the control panel or switching to a different area of the control panel. I forget to do this all the time.

StarCraft is an old game and has a fixed-resolution of 640x480. Not scaling wouldn't be a very good solution.

"Do not scale" in nvidia cp means the game will be displayed in the central 640x480 area of your screen, with black bars on all sides. That's the original, untouched scale. The only issue is the size, a 640x480 area is not much on a 1280x1024 panel already, it's ridiculous when the native res is above 1680x1050.

just a quick thought. I have a 22" Samsung Syncmaster 2253 BW. It has a built in 4:3 mode that works when I used to use VGA cables. Perhaps you have something similar?