Halo 3 split-screen wastes 16:9 HDTV edges

by Zack Stern { Sep 25th 2007 at 9:04PM }

Gamers with HDTVs are often aspect ratio nerds. And a few Halo 3 co-op HDTV players have begun complaining about wasted space in the left and right margins of 16:9 (A.K.A. 1.77:1) screens. The issue is about dividing screen space in single-console games with less than four players. As-is, Halo 3 leaves black margins on the sides of the screen.

With two players, by our measurements, the game runs each perspective at a CinemaScope-busting 2.7:1. While that view makes better use of the space than two stacked 1.77:1 frames, why not let gamers choose to run across the entire width? If it's a competitive advantage in multiplayer games, gamers should be able to use it in the co-op mode.

With three players, the top window fills the same 2.7:1 frame, while the bottom two stay at the original 1.77:1 ratio. In four-player games, everyone gets the 1.77:1 view.

We're too far into the HDTV transition for games to be wasting screen space or having other perspective issues. We understand that designers want total control over the gaming experience. But we players want to use every pixel for which we paid.

[Thanks, Dustin]

Tags: aspectratio, co-op, coop, fieldofview, halo, halo3, hdtv, multiplayer, online, splitscreen

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Nathan @ Sep 25th 2007 9:28PM

Wow, you are the biggest whiner I've ever com across. Hell, we've got a war for oil going on, and you're biggest concern is a little black space on your TV. For shame on you, little girl!

Dave @ Sep 25th 2007 9:35PM

Right. Nobody play any video games until after the war for oil is over.

Rubang B (NDF - Heart) @ Sep 25th 2007 10:34PM

Don't bother replying to Nathan. He created his account today and this was his first post!

In other words... he's not human and he'll never be back. He's been Halo'd.

hermetics @ Sep 26th 2007 8:13AM

Halo 3 is one of the biggest let downs in gaming history. GOW is heads and tails above and beyond anything Halo 3 has to offer.

Jack @ Sep 26th 2007 3:05PM

What war for oil? Pull your head out of your Liberal ass.

Jdigital @ Sep 25th 2007 9:28PM

It's a little frustrating that the whole screen isn't used...doesn't really that much away from the game tho

sp @ Sep 25th 2007 11:43PM

you took away the word "take". what are the odds?

Pip @ Sep 26th 2007 12:32AM

Can you play split screen on one end of multiplayer? If you add more "view", this would give an advantage to those who ran it like this over normal 16:9 players.

james @ Sep 26th 2007 12:56AM

Wow this makes me wonder how in depth some of those reviews were of this game.

wicko @ Sep 26th 2007 1:18AM

It's crazy isn't it? Bioshock had something similar, even though it didn't actually waste any space, yet everyone freaked out and cancelled their pre-order. But not for Halo 3, no way!

Wes @ Sep 27th 2007 1:23AM

Wicko, Bioshock was pretty different.

With Bioshock, people with 4:3 TVs were seeing more picture than those with 16:9. 16;9 versions where the same as 4:3 but with a black bar covering the top/bottom. So you literately saw less stretched out further.

In this case, Halo 3 being played on a widescreen or non-widescreen tv, multiplayer or single player, you stil see the same amount. There just 'may' be black bars on the left or right but it doesn't detract or increase the amount you see.

Stevo @ Sep 26th 2007 6:58AM

I understand why people want a larger viewing canvas here...but the last sentence of the original post left a bad taste in my mouth: Anyone who claims (or even hints) that Halo 3 isn't worth the money, especially because of an aspect ratio problem w/ one part of the game, needs to reevaluate what Halo 3 offers compared to a typical $60 game.

t_m @ Sep 26th 2007 8:20AM

wtf! Some people (not you original poster) just need to get a life. Who in the name of god cares even the tiniest bit about something like this??

Anyway, to make the view angle any wider they'd have to mess everything up... then all these petty losers with too much time on their hands would be whining about that instead. "oohh.. the mutiplayer has more peripheral vision than the single player... I want a patch to increase the view angle of my singleplayer!!!"

NYSTOFMIND23 @ Sep 26th 2007 8:37AM

This is one of the best features of Halo 3. In halo 2 on a TV with an aspect ratio of 16:9 the screen would split vertically and it was borderline unplayable. Halo CE does the same thing Halo 3 is doing except it does it all the time. My friends and i were just talking about how we're going to do system link campaign and i wanted to make sure i was on a 4:3 tv and not a 16:9 tv so that the screen wouldn't split vertically, and now it doesn't matter which i play on. Bungie kicks ass!!!

Joe Schmoe @ Sep 26th 2007 10:39AM

HAVE YOU EVER TRIED PLAYING GEARS OR HALO 2 SPLIT SCREEN ON AN HDTV? If you play side by side, you lose your peripheral vision. If you play top and bottom, you lose your vertical vision. This truly is the best way to balance the aspect ratio. They are genious for coming up with the idea, and this article is nonsense. It isn't wasted space, it is an improvement in gameplay. Bungie wrote a weekly update about it a while back.

Samson @ Sep 26th 2007 2:51PM

It would have been nicer, yes.
.
.
.
.
But, does it really detract that much?
.
.
.
.
Who's field of view is that big anyway?

Jim Halpert DM @ Sep 25th 2007 9:32PM

I like it. It's better then that crappy vertical splitscreen I have to deal with in Halo 2.

TehSilentOne @ Sep 25th 2007 9:38PM

you could just change the aspect-ratio being shown.. sure it won't be as large a surface, but it's not vertical. :P

btw.. does anyone play Phantom Dust splitscreen? vertical split by default.. it's horrible..-ly fun

Ironhide @ Sep 25th 2007 9:32PM

I suspect Bungie didn't want the screen width to completely eliminate the up and down peripheral vision. Make the screen too wide and while the player can see right and left with ease, up and down becomes frustrating because you simply don't see as much as 16x9 in the 4 player mode...

Matthew @ Sep 25th 2007 9:40PM

Nathan, what did you expect? An in depth discussion of early Prussian economics? I get your point - and agree - but it's a video game website.

Omega2k3 @ Sep 26th 2007 7:41AM

Side by side splitscreen on a widescreen HDTV is almost like using two TV's right next to each other, so that reason isn't logical. It's stupid not to even be able to choose horizontal or vertical split when the option has been in pretty much every local multiplayer game, and a horizontal split default on a widescreen is just bad design.

I figured I might as well try the co-op (because I hate the series normally) to see how it was, and that really annoyed me, and we spent like 20 minutes navigating the [horrible] menus to try to find a nonexistent option. I was having fun doing the co-op, but the moment my friend went away for the night, it instantly started being boring. Luckily, it was only a rental.

Omega2k3 @ Sep 26th 2007 7:42AM

Crazybros.com @ Sep 25th 2007 9:33PM

I've had no problems with the extra black space.

The game TOTALLY makes up for it in what is going on between those black spaces. ;)

NATO_Duke @ Sep 26th 2007 11:28AM

We found it to be a minor annoyance, but in coop I am not looking to be blown away by graphics. I more or less accept it wont be the same visual experience, so I just hit the stretch option on the tv to make it fill the space. In the end you lose part of the field of vision by it being chopped, but at least things dont feel as far away as they do when the normal split screen is active.

ben @ Sep 25th 2007 9:35PM

I don't see much of a problem. If they expanded the view the aspect ratio would be screwed up, leading the game to look a bit stretched. If they just added stuff, it wouldn't look like you're looking out of MC's helmet, and more like..a game. Which we know it shouldn't look like.

modified @ Sep 25th 2007 11:45PM

On top of that Bungie mentioned they were doing this long ago for that reason.

Mark A. Hill @ Sep 25th 2007 9:37PM

Dustin, I fully agree. There is no reason to have that much wasted space. It actually makes the game feel a little cheap.

Renagade242 @ Sep 25th 2007 9:37PM

Good news is, it's an easy fix via a DL patch (if M$ sees this as a problem that needs fixing)

flameofdoom666 @ Sep 25th 2007 9:38PM

Damn, people always gotta find something wrong with anything these days!

La li lu le lo @ Sep 25th 2007 10:11PM

are you kidding me flameofdoom666!?, how about Bungie totally filling up the 16:9 screen with graphics and be done with it so they don't have to hear complaints and dissapointments about it. I know the Bungie team has their reasons for having black bars on the sides of a widescreen display. But, WHAT WAS IT THIS TIME BUNGIE!!?

Paul @ Sep 25th 2007 11:51PM

Probably because having your viewing area be four times as wide as your height would get irritating...

Long Bow @ Sep 25th 2007 9:49PM

It's nice to see that people will bitch about absolutely anything. There's no such thing as perfection, quit yer bitchin' So what if it's not true widescreen during co-op.

I swear, this game could have come with Elisha Cuthbert clones ready to be a personal sex slave and people would still complain. "Ohhh she doesn't swallow. Oh she won't watch while I do it with my dog." blah blah

Ska Oreo @ Sep 25th 2007 9:56PM

Disgusting, but oddly funny.

1up for you my good man!!!

colin @ Sep 25th 2007 10:19PM

*checks legendary box again for elisha cuthbert clone

damn!

captainawesome @ Sep 25th 2007 10:36PM

Women and gay men would complain until they include a male version, and then all the homophobes would complain.

Eric @ Sep 25th 2007 10:42PM

Dude, she's gotta swallow - that's a dealbreaker. Unless she takes it on her face.

jorojoserojas @ Sep 26th 2007 1:50AM

It's a good thing I'm a pacifist. I'm easily satisfied by having Elisha Cuthbert pleasure me.

Justin B @ Sep 25th 2007 9:39PM

This was present in the beta, not exactly "new" news - it's just to preserve the aspect ratio and field of view, a wise choice by bungie. For those that recall most games do not handle widescreen splitscreen very well at all, they do vertical split - I like bungie's alternative to this, so stop bashing it please, these kind of news articles make my spine cringe

fulci zombi @ Sep 25th 2007 11:00PM

vert split is ok since its on a widescreen tv, horizontal PLUS CROPPING IS DOGSHIT

hotnutz @ Sep 26th 2007 12:16AM

yeah but for a game that is supposed to be the game of all games and will forever be better than any other game out there.... You expect to get everything right. I mean with all the 10/10 and 100% scores the game is getting, you suspect they would have done EVERYTHING right.. Perfect story, perfect controls, perfect graphics, perfect audio, perfect music... Did I miss anything?

I mean, no other game will EVER compare to this game and there is without a doubt that this innovative game will garner EVERY game of the year award that there is to grab. Heck, it's so perfect that this console game will even take PC gaming awards this year. Yup, it's just that perfect of a game. Hopefully it will cure my hepatitis C at the same time. I think 3 or 4 reviews said it can do that for me. ;)

Hashbrown_Hunter @ Sep 25th 2007 9:39PM

...who cares? You're playing Halo 3!!!!

KiraXD @ Sep 25th 2007 11:09PM

does it really matter when youre playing on a 72" Plasma?

Hashbrown_Hunter @ Sep 26th 2007 2:42AM

exactly

Hito @ Sep 26th 2007 2:56AM

No, but it does when your playing on a 40" LCD, screen is just that much smaller when split

Rususeruru @ Sep 25th 2007 9:42PM

Well if they're gonna fix that I DEMAND that they get rid of the borders on the Live games when you're on a 4:3 set!

Exo @ Sep 25th 2007 9:42PM

The only problem here is the idiots complaining about it.

The aspect ratio of a splitscreen widescreen is horrible seeing that wide in a first person view just ruins it all

miyagi @ Sep 25th 2007 9:45PM

It's nice that this type of "issue" is the only thing people can complain about (ala Bioshock).

I have halo 3 and am running it on a 42" 1080p tv. It looks fine with the black bars during coop. For whatever reason they didn't include a screenshot of the above with just a single player. Then you'd see this was a non issue. If it filled the black bars it would

A) Stretch the screen horribly
or
B) Increase the FOV which is another bad idea.

This is the best way to handle the situation IMO

Grant @ Sep 25th 2007 10:09PM

"For whatever reason they didn't include a screenshot of the above with just a single player"
you have halo 3 and you ask that question?
the answer is simply single player does not suffer from this issue because the game is in native 16:9 format and fills the screen.