Widescreen Gaming Forum

>>unless my eyes decieve me, almost all computer monitors are 17 inch and 19 inch LCD's.
"Almost all" is a big overestimate. I would estimate that 60% of NEW monitors are 17" or 19" non-widescreen LCDs, about half and half of each. But the majority of monitors currently in use by gamers are old ones, most of which are CRTs, though LCDs are replacing them at a steady pace. Furthermore, most of the widescreen solutions which require manually adjusting the FOV are either based on the Unreal engine or Quake III engine, which debuted in 1998 and 1999, respectively. CRT use was even higher back then.

>>And even out of the extremely few CRT's still in mainstream use
There are LOTS of old CRTs still in mainstream use, just not so many still being sold.

>>most of them are 17 inch and set at 1280x1024 resolution (even though the screen is physically 4:3)
Every 17" CRT I've seen has a recommended resolution of 1024x768. A game running at 1280x1024 on a 4:3 screen will be distorted no matter what the FOV is.

Well maybe things are different where you live but I haven't seen anyone use a CRT monitor in years, except for this one guy I know who still uses a huge 20-something inch one that's really nice. And yeah, 17 inch CRT's have recommended resolution of 1024x768, but no one knows that or cares. Most people who had 17 inch CRT's had them set to 1280x1024 because that was the highest that Windows would let them go. I've never seen anyone use a 17 inch CRT at 1024x768. Sure, it's the best resolution for those monitors, the average person doesn't know stuff like that.

[quote][quote]OK in Jedi Academy, I believe the original FOV is 80. I have a 16:10 monitor and with 1920x1200 resolution I have my FOV set at 90.4. It looks fine to me. There's a slight fisheye on the left and right edges of the screen, but you can't do anything about it. It's just how the game is. However at 90.4 FOV most of the screen looks right, and the camera zoom is what it should be (if you keep it at 80 it's too close to the character).

what happens when you go to a resolution less than 1920x1200? does the screen become jumpy and blurry when moving around and hurt your eyes?

No... the only thing that happens if you go under 1920x1200 is the image is less detailed... the motion is unaffected. I don't know why low resolution would hurt your eyes....hmm so if you experience blurring when moving the camera around, this would probably be a response time issue?