On this, a day that many of you have been looking forward to for so long, we hate to squelch any of your
BioShock joy, but we figured that this was something you'd want to know about. Some fans on the
game's forums have been upset by the way the game handles widescreen. Or rather, how it doesn't. Apparently, the widescreen image is generated by just lopping off the top and bottom of the fullscreen image. Typically, a widescreen image is created by giving the player a larger horizontal field of view. You can see the part of the screen that widescreen gamers are missing out on in the red boxes above in a picture we took on our home setup.
There was extra frustration from fans as Chris Kline, Lead Programmer on BioShock, had previously
said in the forums, "You will see more in widescreen. We use a different projection matrix; there is no squashing or stretching of the image involved." A
2K staffer has said that they are looking into the issue and we hope to hear more soon.
[Thanks, Scott]
{ Aug 21st 2007 at 11:28AM } 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Michael Goldsberry @ Aug 21st 2007 11:35AM
I thought I noticed that the up/down on widescreen seemed weird. I just thought it was me. It doesn't turn this from a good game into a bad game, it's just kinda sad that developers would overlook something like this.
Strike Man @ Aug 21st 2007 11:41AM
Exactly. Bioshock is still a fantastic game (Why, oh why must I work tonight!), but this is a little disappointing, especially when you look at Mr. Kline's comments.
I'll still enjoy it, but hopefully a patch will be on XBL soon.
bak8807 @ Aug 21st 2007 1:31PM
Hey, maybe it's not such a bad thing that my 360 bricked the other day. By the time I get it back (October) there might even be a patch for this. Here's hoping for some good to come out of this, as Bioshock was my most anticipated game and I can't play it for a month!
deslock @ Aug 21st 2007 2:55PM
@Bak8807
What the hell. Seriously. Where do these ridiculous comments come from and what do they have to do with BioShock, widescreen or anything else?
I wish we could vote to sort comments into a "fanboy" section at the bottom of the page so that anyone who wants to read that crap can do so.
Now all we need is some retard to say "Too bad PS3 only has the 'no screen' option, harhar" and we can have the perfect fanboy pair.
hvnlysoldr @ Aug 21st 2007 3:43PM
Did somebody say eye patch?
This is a bloody mess and someone should clean it up with their blood. OK realistically they should fix this up right away since their targets are likely to have widescreen to enjoy this game.
cos @ Aug 21st 2007 4:37PM
I wonder how much Sony pays guys like bak8807...
that's all.
severian00 @ Aug 21st 2007 9:24PM
I don't even notice it what with trying to stay alive against the big daddies and all.
TRUTH @ Aug 21st 2007 11:36AM
**Patch out Next Week**
Shagittarius @ Aug 21st 2007 11:36AM
Certainly not a deal breaker but it would be nice to get a patch for true widescreen on the quick.
Intentless @ Aug 21st 2007 11:36AM
Please say its a settings error... Not that I won't play it and enjoy it as much... but its still dissapointing...
T-bone and Razor @ Aug 21st 2007 6:27PM
Perhaps "different" projection matrix really means "new" projection matrix, and they didn't iron out all the flaws in it
Either way, people are taking this too seriously, and its also probably something easily patched
ThisGuy @ Aug 21st 2007 11:38AM
Wow, and thats all they did, crop and stretch. Thats a shame too, he could of just said instead of making it widescreen we decided to go full and just stretch out wide to make it fit. Now what about on the computer side?
Justin McElroy @ Aug 21st 2007 11:42AM
As I understand it this is both sides.
Kye @ Aug 21st 2007 11:40AM
I noticed this happening with tv shows back when widescreen was just getting popular.
People just seemed to get fatter and loose the top of their heads.
That's mainly why I've always stuch with 4:3
Watership @ Aug 21st 2007 11:44AM
You're partly right. It's not a squishing issue as in, its not a 4x3 image stretched to 16x9. It's a crop. And you stuck with 4x3? You're missing out my friend.
nonamo @ Aug 21st 2007 5:40PM
Yeah, i hated it when you walked into a TV shop, and then all the salemen are like 'widescreen is the best thing since sliced bread'. Then you look at all the tellies and there were some very fat Homers :P
Yeah cos im really going to pay $2000 for that haha
jadenguy @ Aug 21st 2007 12:16PM
some 4:3 tvs offer 16:9 enhancement, ie letterboxing but a nice picture at least.
Intentless @ Aug 21st 2007 11:44AM
Is it just PC or is it 360 too?
Matthew @ Aug 21st 2007 11:44AM
Here it is - the flaw that's going to stop me from playing this game. Cancel the pre-order!
Pffft. No.
konajinx @ Aug 21st 2007 11:49AM
Ah, as someone who still plays on a good old SDTV, this won't matter at all to me. Still, it is odd if they did the widescreen simply by cutting the top and bottom out.
ssuk @ Aug 21st 2007 11:57AM
I'm on a SDTV 16:9 TV, and this effects everyone, HDTV and SDTV. 4:3 is nice, especially on smaller screens... But Widescreen and big TV... It just feels right.
JJ Rooster @ Aug 21st 2007 11:50AM
This means absolutely nothing in a game where you're looking all around constantly for fear of being jumped by a Splicer!
Neebs @ Aug 21st 2007 11:52AM
I knew there was something odd in the demo...
Oh well...4 hours 8 minutes until Steam unlocks!
Chappy @ Aug 21st 2007 11:54AM
I've got other games to play and this bugs the hell out of me, so I won't contribute to their "opening weekend" sales numbers tonight. Still, I'm sure I'll buy it eventually... I just hope they release a patch before that happens. If not I'll have to configure the 360 and TV to display a 4:3 image so I can see the entire scene.
It does silly that the Bioshock developers chose to crop on the platform that is leading the way for HD wide screen gaming.
WiNG @ Aug 21st 2007 11:56AM
Well, *technically* it's not stretched, just cropped. Also I don't see what the deal with widescreen is for anything other than films.
ssuk @ Aug 21st 2007 12:20PM
Then you obviously haven't experianced widescreen gaming. I got a 32" Widescreen SDTV yesterday for my 360 (got a new HD TV in the main room) and I'm already loving playing Halo 2, Dead Rising and Gears of War on widescreen... Other games I haven't yet had time to play on yet, but just these examples alone justify why widescreen gaming is the future, you can see more of the picture, which for shooter games like BioShock will help aid you, you can see those annoying enemies who hide around corners, you don't have to turn your view so much just to see what's around you. This cropped crap they're flowing into BioShock does nothing but hinder you, I agree... I hope they impliment proper 16:9 support but it wont hold off my purchase this friday.
JeffM @ Aug 21st 2007 1:00PM
Yea... I mean... who would want more video information on screen?
WiNG @ Aug 21st 2007 2:21PM
what I meant was, what is the point of widescreen, instead of say, tallscreen? or juse wider and taller screen, so you can see more in EVERY direction??
Cephas @ Aug 21st 2007 3:48PM
The real reason why widescreen is more appealing is that it's more natural. Your personal field of vision is effectively in widescreen, caused by your two eyes being horizontal. A "tallscreen" would only be appropriate if our eyes were matched vertically on our heads.
And also from a gameplay standpoint, seeing the left and right is more important than the top and bottom, because you don't really need to see the rest of the sky or the ground to know that it's there, but that enemy hiding just on the left edge of your peripheral vision, that you probably want to see.
Kswift @ Aug 21st 2007 11:57AM
Dunno if these pics were taken from same screen or no but if you use the background objects (crates, bench, hose) as a reference point, the player in the top pic appears to be closer to the background objects than player in bottom pic. These shots weren't taken from exactly the same position so naturally the players' points of view will appear to be cut off. Haven't noticed any problems with my display.
Jacob P. @ Aug 21st 2007 12:00PM
The top pic isn't actually any closer. That's what the problem is...everything in the top pic is stretched, because all that's being done when you switch to wide-screen is they're cropping the top and bottom, and stretching it to fit the screen...so it looks like the top pic is closer, but really everything is just bigger...
know what I'm saying?
chenry @ Aug 21st 2007 12:08PM
to me it looks like the exact same TV, they just changed the settings from wide to full screen
Evan @ Aug 21st 2007 12:00PM
It doesn't look like the screenshots were taken from the same position - the widescreen photo shows more on the ground to the right, but not on the left. If you take a step back, then the widescreen would look to have the wider field of view. Unless you can assert that the screenshots were taken from the exact same coordinates, which those two are not, then you can't tell how the field of views compare.
Jerk Face @ Aug 21st 2007 12:00PM
Personally, I think the widescreen view looks fine. It has a nice close-up view that feels realistic to me..
It seems like this is more a matter of somantics and really doesn't affect game play, nor the enjoyment of said game at all. Who cares if they cropped it a bit?
Yes, I know they said they wouldn't. It's not like it's the first fib a developer has told before.
Meh. This game still looks awesome.
chenry @ Aug 21st 2007 12:06PM
MEH! Nothing can deter me or my rock-hard manhood from acquiring this game.
elmersglue @ Aug 21st 2007 12:07PM
Is it the same problem when the screen itself is a widescreen? Cuz i haven't noticed anything. Never once did i wonder what was wrong with the screen while playing.
baby sea tuna @ Aug 22nd 2007 9:14AM
I didn't notice any problems either. I wonder if this is just for certain TVs or something...
ALH @ Aug 21st 2007 12:08PM
Bah, not a problem,my PC monitor is 4:3, i have a VGA cable, its all good.
Jeff @ Aug 21st 2007 12:09PM
I noticed this too when I played the PC demo, but not the 360 demo. In the scene when you pick up the first plasmid on the PC demo I couldn't see most of the Little Sister's face, while on the 360 I could see it.
If it's actually on both versions then it seems like it might even be worse on the PC.
-Jeff
http://alinktothefuture.com
Jojo @ Aug 21st 2007 12:10PM
Cripes, its a FPS, LOOK UP if you can't see the top of the thing on the wall!!!
aka Prof Chaos @ Aug 21st 2007 12:17PM
Well, this isn't a deal breaker for me by any means, but everybody in here saying that this isn't a big deal is crazy. If this were a PS3 game, it would be ripped to shreds for something like this. I'm still picking up my copy today and can't wait to play it, but it just won't be the same now that I know about this. Sure, I probably would have never even noticed, but it'll be at the back of my mind now that this has come out. This is going to be an awesome game, but it's sad that something like this will tarnish its image.
dru @ Aug 21st 2007 12:24PM
Anyone who doesn't think this is a problem is kidding themselves. This is not the way to go about making games and I don't want to have change the settings on my xbox just so Bioshock looks correct on my $1,500 television. What's even more insane is all the 100/100 reviews this game got without anyone checking the 4:3 vs 16:9 aspect ratios.
Shotty work all around.
Heckbender @ Aug 21st 2007 1:37PM
ShoDDy spelling, too. You f*ktard.
Jerk Face @ Aug 21st 2007 2:41PM
Ha ha ha!! That's a plus for you Heckbender!
Antwan @ Aug 21st 2007 12:31PM
are you fucking kidding me? seriously. you see what you see. if you want to see more back up or look up. you guys kill me.
BioshockWarrior @ Aug 21st 2007 12:40PM
I know right?
Is it THAT serious?
This game is probably gonna be the best game of the year...regardless of this widescreen "drama".
Vidikron @ Aug 21st 2007 1:17PM
Yeah, we're all simply crazy for wanting proper widescreen support. It's madness.
Jason @ Aug 21st 2007 12:33PM
The image is NOT stretch, so everyone saying "I knew something was weird" are wrong. You would not have ever noticed anything unless you played both ways 16:9 and 4:3. The gaming experience will be fine. 2K knew what they were doing.
Stephen Lang @ Aug 21st 2007 12:40PM
What Antwan said. If you're playing in widescreen, you'll approach an object and stop before it gets too close. It's not like people will typically switch between widescreen and normal viewpoints, and suddenly get disoriented because they can't see everything on screen now.
The only way you could technically see more in widescreen is if the angle of view changed (think fisheye lens at the extreme), but that's a totally different issue than aspect ratio.
Ashraam @ Aug 21st 2007 12:48PM
I'm not saying that there isn't an issue, because I don't have the game yet to check for myself. But if those two images are what this story is based on, then I call shennanigans.
The player in the top picture is clearly closer to the subject matter than in the lower picture. It's not that it just looks that way because the wall is "stretched". It looks wider because he's closer. You can tell by looking at objects at the edges of the image.
The coil of rope: In the top image, the coil is much larger than in the lower one. And not just wider, as stretching would imply. It's also taller, which is indicative of a closer position.
Bits of Debris to the right: In the bottom image there are a few pieces of debris on the floor at the extreme right that are not visible in the top image. Again, this seems to me that it is because the player is further forward.
Again, I'm not saying there isn't an issue. Especially since 2K is supposedly looking into it. But I'd have to see something more conclusive than these two images before I'd even begin to worry about it.