Halo 2 Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Stretching issue on 40" LCD
  • Subject: Stretching issue on 40" LCD
Subject: Stretching issue on 40" LCD

I recently popped Halo 2 into my flat panel HDTV, and expected the sides to be cut off like they are when I play CE. While I was delighted to find that it took up the entire panel, I noticed a slight stretch in the main menu. I initiated the opening cutscene (ridiculously gorgeous in HD, BTW) and didn't notice it during the initial stages of Cairo Station, until I picked up the shotgun from the armory and noticed that instead of the perfect circle that it should be, the reticule was stretched into a chubby oval.

My TV is set to Dot-by-Dot, and isn't on any stretched setting. I was wondering if there's any way to fix this that doesn't involve setting my 360 to a lower resolution, and IDK if even that would work.

  • 05.17.2011 5:51 PM PDT

Yeah, the HUD, and, in fact, everything except the in-game rendering gets stretched.

Composite cable standard is to output 4:3 video. oXbox's typically use composite cable. To get the widescreen effect, oXbox games just render using a wider horizontal field of view in the 4:3 image, and then send a "squished" (well, "anamorphic") 4:3 image that becomes natural widescreen when the TV stretches the image across a 16:9 area.

The thing is, when they made Halo 2's widescreen capabilities, Bungie only accounted for the 16:9 in the form of in-game object rendering. Even while rendering such a "squished" 4:3 image, the game just slaps the regular 4:3 HUD on top. As for the menu interfaces, they were never made for 16:9 in any respect, and so you just wind up with stretched 4:3.

Seriously, go to your TV options while viewing the stretched 16:9 image in-game, and set the TV to display 4:3. THAT is effectively what the oXbox naturally renders. You'll find that the HUD is its natural, unstretched, fullscreen self when you do that, even though the image behind it is mushed.

//=====

As a result, setting your xbox to a lower resolution wouldn't help; it's an issue with how the game decides to render in widescreen, not a resolution problem. To fix stretching problems, you'd have to tell the xbox to render in 4:3 instead of widescreen, since then the HUD would render to the same assumed ratio as the in-game modelling stuff.

[Edited on 05.17.2011 7:40 PM PDT]

  • 05.17.2011 7:37 PM PDT

This is the average H2 Fanboy.
Xfire: JacobGRocks.
50 in H2/H3? Great, but you still fail at this.

This was fixed in h2v, but 40000 other things were broken.

  • 05.17.2011 8:01 PM PDT

"No Mission Too Difficult, No Sacrifice Too Great—Duty First!" - The fighting first's motto.

Losing internet 9/7/2012 until i don't know when. See you starside folks.


Fada beo Halo 2!

Posted by: JacobGRocks
This was fixed in h2v, but 40000 other things were broken.

  • 05.19.2011 6:32 PM PDT


Posted by: Tupolev
Yeah, the HUD, and, in fact, everything except the in-game rendering gets stretched.

Composite cable standard is to output 4:3 video. oXbox's typically use composite cable. To get the widescreen effect, oXbox games just render using a wider horizontal field of view in the 4:3 image, and then send a "squished" (well, "anamorphic") 4:3 image that becomes natural widescreen when the TV stretches the image across a 16:9 area.

The thing is, when they made Halo 2's widescreen capabilities, Bungie only accounted for the 16:9 in the form of in-game object rendering. Even while rendering such a "squished" 4:3 image, the game just slaps the regular 4:3 HUD on top. As for the menu interfaces, they were never made for 16:9 in any respect, and so you just wind up with stretched 4:3.

Seriously, go to your TV options while viewing the stretched 16:9 image in-game, and set the TV to display 4:3. THAT is effectively what the oXbox naturally renders. You'll find that the HUD is its natural, unstretched, fullscreen self when you do that, even though the image behind it is mushed.

//=====

As a result, setting your xbox to a lower resolution wouldn't help; it's an issue with how the game decides to render in widescreen, not a resolution problem. To fix stretching problems, you'd have to tell the xbox to render in 4:3 instead of widescreen, since then the HUD would render to the same assumed ratio as the in-game modelling stuff.
I'll try it. It's a shame the problem exists; the game looks so gorgeous on the flat panel. The opening cutscene was unbelievable; I prefer the way it looks to Halo 3 and Reach, even without the HD resolution. It just seems to be a more artful looking game.

  • 05.20.2011 7:29 PM PDT