Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi, I just got into multi-monitor gaming via SoftTH. I'm using 2.0, and have it running in Half-Life 2, but have a couple concerns.

1) Is there a way to center the HUD in Half-Life 2? I see that we can do it in L4D, L4D2, TF2, but I haven't been able to find anything on HL2, nor apply the info from L4D guides to it.

2) If I select the new resolution from the dropdown list, 5296x1050, it seems like the FoV isn't quite right. Specifically, objects on the side screens appear much closer than they do on the center screen. I understand they're going to be stretched, and that's normal, but shouldn't they still appear to be the same distance away?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi

The distorted images in the side panels is called Edge Distortion. It is common in nearly all triscreen games. Some are less than others though.
There is a FOV setting in the Advance Settings in the HL-2 menus, somewhere. Though HL-2 isn't a really good game for triscreen. It was never designed for it. It is good it works in it, but it will probably never do it really good. Still, it is better than some games are. Some are what is called Vertical Negative (Vert-). Now those are a real mess. Thankfully HL-2 isn't Vert- (or at least not real bad).
No idea about the HUD. For me, it is fine on the ends of the side panels. I actually like it better like that. You too may find after a bit of use that you too will prefer them to be off to the sides. It really increases immersion, since it isn't constantly in the center of your view.
Just play a while and see what you think.

The distorted images in the side panels is called Edge Distortion. It is common in nearly all triscreen games. Some are less than others though.

I thought edge distortion just caused stretched characters. Does it cause objects to appear closer than they are as well?

There is a FOV setting in the Advance Settings in the HL-2 menus, somewhere.

I found the setting, however I can only adjust it from the default main menu screen, and toggling the setting only seems to affect the default menu screen. In-game doesn't seem to be affected either way. I'm not even sure which way I should set it, if I could.

Edge distortion is what causes the images to look closer. It is common and you will see it in most any game, at least to some degree.

The FOV does change in my game, but backing it out too far causes a lot of clipping on the ends of the side panels.
Not sure why it isn't working for you.
Anyway, I am just thankful the game works at all in triscreen. Many games from the same era do not. Had HL-2 not of been (and still is) so popular, it probably would never have been updated to work.