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]
Reader Comments (97)
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 11:35AM (Unverified) said
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.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 1:31PM (Unverified) said
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!
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 2:55PM (Unverified) said
@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.
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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.
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 3:43PM hvnlysoldr said
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.
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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.
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 4:37PM (Unverified) said
I wonder how much Sony pays guys like bak8807...
that's all.
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that's all.
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 9:24PM severian00 said
I don't even notice it what with trying to stay alive against the big daddies and all.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 11:36AM Shagittarius said
Certainly not a deal breaker but it would be nice to get a patch for true widescreen on the quick.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 11:36AM (Unverified) said
Please say its a settings error... Not that I won't play it and enjoy it as much... but its still dissapointing...
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 11:38AM (Unverified) said
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?
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 11:40AM (Unverified) said
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
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People just seemed to get fatter and loose the top of their heads.
That's mainly why I've always stuch with 4:3
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 5:40PM NoNaMo said
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
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Yeah cos im really going to pay $2000 for that haha
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:16PM (Unverified) said
some 4:3 tvs offer 16:9 enhancement, ie letterboxing but a nice picture at least.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 11:44AM kenjimeadu said
Here it is - the flaw that's going to stop me from playing this game. Cancel the pre-order!
Pffft. No.
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Pffft. No.
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 11:49AM (Unverified) said
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.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 11:50AM (Unverified) said
This means absolutely nothing in a game where you're looking all around constantly for fear of being jumped by a Splicer!
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 11:54AM Chappy said
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.
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It does silly that the Bioshock developers chose to crop on the platform that is leading the way for HD wide screen gaming.
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 11:56AM (Unverified) said
Well, *technically* it's not stretched, just cropped. Also I don't see what the deal with widescreen is for anything other than films.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:20PM SSUK said
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.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 2:21PM (Unverified) said
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??
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 3:48PM HoopyHobo said
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.
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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.
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 11:57AM (Unverified) said
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.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:00PM (Unverified) said
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?
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know what I'm saying?
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:08PM (Unverified) said
to me it looks like the exact same TV, they just changed the settings from wide to full screen
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:00PM (Unverified) said
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.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:00PM (Unverified) said
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.
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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.
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:06PM (Unverified) said
MEH! Nothing can deter me or my rock-hard manhood from acquiring this game.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:07PM (Unverified) said
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.
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Posted: Aug 22nd 2007 9:14AM baby sea tuna said
I didn't notice any problems either. I wonder if this is just for certain TVs or something...
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:08PM (Unverified) said
Bah, not a problem,my PC monitor is 4:3, i have a VGA cable, its all good.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:09PM (Unverified) said
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
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If it's actually on both versions then it seems like it might even be worse on the PC.
-Jeff
http://alinktothefuture.com
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:17PM Professor Chaos said
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.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:24PM clogger said
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.
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Shotty work all around.
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:31PM (Unverified) said
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.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:40PM (Unverified) said
I know right?
Is it THAT serious?
This game is probably gonna be the best game of the year...regardless of this widescreen "drama".
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Is it THAT serious?
This game is probably gonna be the best game of the year...regardless of this widescreen "drama".
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:33PM (Unverified) said
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.
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Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:40PM madmaxmedia said
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.
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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.
Posted: Aug 21st 2007 12:48PM (Unverified) said
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.
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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.
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