Feature Request: 5:4 aspect ratio support

My desktop monitor's native resolution is 1280x1024. The aspect ratio for this resolution is 5:4. FFXI has native support for widescreen aspect ratios, which is fairly impressive considering its age, but, surprisingly, there is no aspect ratio option for 5:4.

Those of us with 1280x1024 monitors (which was a very standard size for a long time) have to choose between playing the game windowed, or having our graphics distorted in full screen. Would it be a huge challenge for the dev team to add a 5:4 option to the aspect ratio slider?

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by Callidor

My desktop monitor's native resolution is 1280x1024. The aspect ratio for this resolution is 5:4. FFXI has native support for widescreen aspect ratios, which is fairly impressive considering its age, but, surprisingly, there is no aspect ratio option for 5:4.

Those of us with 1280x1024 monitors (which was a very standard size for a long time) have to choose between playing the game windowed, or having our graphics distorted in full screen. Would it be a huge challenge for the dev team to add a 5:4 option to the aspect ratio slider?

Thanks.

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I swear to you, I am not trolling. But if your computer's resolution only goes up to 1280 x 1024, you would greatly benefit from getting a more modern monitor. And as luck would have it, you can get a 'good' monitor(compared to what you got) for under a hundred bucks, an awesome monitor for just over two hundred, or anywhere in between.

Reminds me of when people use to play Quake III with ridiculous $5,000.00 rigs but play them on these horrible displays. If you ask me, your display is 80% of your gaming experience, it's not something you should skimp out on.

Until recently I had a gaming laptop with a resolution of 1920x1200. Unfortunately that died, and for the time being I'm stuck with my old desktop. I know it's a crappy monitor, and hopefully I'll have a new rig within the next couple months. Nevertheless, I still think it's a pretty basic feature that the game is lacking.

He/She is correct, the monitor and your gpu are your two most important computer aspects. Rather than spend 32423423$ on a new one, just get a decent graphics card, a powersupply to support it overclocking, and a decent monitor. Makes life way easier :P

That's a pretty common resolution for non-widescreen 19" monitors. It's kinda funny how people always say "buy new" as a solution to problems, instead of actually coming with suggestions on how to fix it with currently available hardware.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

instead of actually coming with suggestions on how to fix it with currently available hardware.

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Use 4:3, it's close enough.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

[...] It's kinda funny how people always say "buy new" as a solution to problems, instead of actually coming with suggestions on how to fix it with currently available hardware.

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He's not asking for "suggestions on how to fix it with currently available hardware".

He is proposing legacy support for a dead or dying standard. It would be akin to asking NetFlix to carry all their titles in VHS... Sure, it never hurts to ask.

But why is it "funny"? Sometimes that advice is warranted. Particularly when it comes to tech.
Do you use Black & White TVs? Green-Screen monitors? Cassette tapes? A rotary phone?
Technology gets better, and cheaper.

It's less than 100 bucks to solve his problem, and that solution would benefit him in ways other than FFXI. I just offered an option that was cost effective for all parties, and mutually beneficial.

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Originally Posted by Frost

He's not asking for "suggestions on how to fix it with currently available hardware".

He is proposing legacy support for a dead or dying standard. It would be akin to asking NetFlix to carry all their titles in VHS... Sure, it never hurts to ask.

But why is it "funny"? Sometimes that advice is warranted. Particularly when it comes to tech.
Do you use Black & White TVs? Green-Screen monitors? Cassette tapes? A rotary phone?
Technology gets better, and cheaper.

It's less than 100 bucks to solve his problem, and that solution would benefit him in ways other than FFXI. I just offered an option that was cost effective for all parties, and mutually beneficial.

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I am sure if he could buy a new monitor he would. Telling someone to no be cheap and go buy something is just wrong. No different then everyone telling people with PS2's to go buy a 360 or play on PC. That is not a solution to anything.

5:4 is no a bad idea, but 4:3 should work just as well. I am sure a lot of people are playing with older rigs & have never thought to ask if SE will support there hardware.

Good question & I hope you get a response.

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5:4 is no a bad idea, but 4:3 should work just as well.

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Yeah, i played on 1280x1024 at the default 4:3 for years without realizing the aspect ratio was off. It's good enough.

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Originally Posted by Frost

He's not asking for "suggestions on how to fix it with currently available hardware".

He is proposing legacy support for a dead or dying standard. It would be akin to asking NetFlix to carry all their titles in VHS... Sure, it never hurts to ask.

But why is it "funny"? Sometimes that advice is warranted. Particularly when it comes to tech.
Do you use Black & White TVs? Green-Screen monitors? Cassette tapes? A rotary phone?
Technology gets better, and cheaper.

It's less than 100 bucks to solve his problem, and that solution would benefit him in ways other than FFXI. I just offered an option that was cost effective for all parties, and mutually beneficial.

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That's a pretty poor analogy. The amount of work required for netflix to offer VHS copies of every movie they've got is no where near the amount of work that would be required to add a 5:4 display option. Also, the old 19" monitor i bought in 2005 had a better image quality than most of the cheap-ass 22"-24" monitors these days (and if you're gonna pay 100 bucks like you suggested, cheap-ass is exactly what you'll get). I was really sad when the backlight on it died a few months ago :(.

Besides, he also asked if it would be a huge challenge for the dev team to do it. If it is, i'm sure he would understand why they didn't add it. I would, at least. If it however would take one coder half an hour to do it, I don't see why not :p.

A second option could of course be to find a workaround for it that didn't require SEs involvement. I don't know of one, but maybe someone else in here does.


Oh, 4:3 on a 5:4 displays annoys the hell out of me too. Not as much as 4:3 on widescreen, but it's still there. Maybe some people don't notice, but I do.

Let me reiterate that I do intend not only to get a new, widescreen monitor, but indeed an entirely new desktop (as the one I am using now, given that my previously mentioned gaming laptop died recently, is antiquated in several respects).

Whether I can/should get a new monitor is not at issue here. I am not a die-hard fan of 5:4 or anything, and I hate its narrow field of view as much as anyone else. I just think, if it's an easy enough fix, it may be worth it to implement, given the number of people who probably still have monitors of this resolution.

As for those of you suggesting that rendering in 4:3 at 1280 x 1024 doesn't make a noticeable difference, I frankly disagree, but perhaps I'm just more sensitive to these things than some others. In my opinion, the graphics are visibly distorted. For now, I run it in 4:3 windowed at 1200 x 900.

Have you tried editing the registry to manually set the resolution to match your monitor?

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Originally Posted by cidbahamut

Have you tried editing the registry to manually set the resolution to match your monitor?

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resolution =/= aspect ratio

Well then I'm out of ideas.

You could try playing in a 1280x960 (4:3) windowed mode or if you're using lolCRT try changing desktop res to 1280x960 otherwise suck it up and use 4:3 on 1280x1024 since you stated it's going to be temporary until you get a completely new rig anyway.