It seems that there is a bit of trouble in Rapture today. Eagle-eyed gamers from the 2K Games forums have noticed that BioShock crops the video output to simulate widescreen, which cuts off part of the top and bottom view. This "tall view" affects both the PC and Xbox 360 versions.
The forum thread "Widescreen messed up" has been buzzing with this issue. One forum member named greylantern offers an example to the less technically inclined, saying that this type of cropping is "like looking through the slot of a knight's helmet."
Hit the jump to read the statement by Ken Levine, BioShock's Creative Director, on the 2K forums.
Hey guys-
Sorry about all the conflict. IG development people (specifically Chris and Rowan who are both on vacation) were trying to take a day off today (we've been working about six months 6-7 days a week). I'm trying to see what everybody's concerns are and consult with the staff.
I know people are frustrated, but we are dealing with internet time here. It wasn't until 7 pm EST that I was able to even talk to anybody in our Australian studio, which is open today (9 AM their time).
I hear you that not everybody was thrilled with the PC launch. And I'm trying to collect information and see what the facts are. PC game development does not function in a matter of seconds or hours, especially when most of the team is on vacation. But I hear you, and we're looking into the issue. I'll only ask you have a bit of understanding as to the time scale that software development issues must occur in.
If you're anything like me, you are probably too busy kicking splicer ass and knocking back Old Tom Whiskey to care about some cropping, but it's totally understandable how some would be a bit concerned.
[Via 2K Forums -- thanks to Fuzzy for the picture]
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
10:10 AM on 08.22.2007
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Who cares anyway, THE GAME IS FREAKING AMAZING!!!!!!!
Why am I not busy? Becuse I dont even have my damn copy of Bioshock yet (thanks a lot Best Buy). But hopefully this prob will be fixed by the time I get it (hurry the hell up best buy).
The only thing that I noticed before being made aware of this was that I had to move my view around more than usual to see everything (a good example of this is the slicer scene just before you get out of the bathysphere at the beginning of the game). The view just felt too close up.
It sucks, but it isn't a dealbreaker. If they fix it (and I hope they do), then great. If not, I'm still going to be playing this game all the way through and then some.
I still want it!
but damn that is one shitty way to make widescreen.
Have you ever used digital zoom on a camera? It doesn't actually provide a higher magnification (as optical zoom would), it simply zooms in on the existing frame with a static resolution, getting blurrier and muddier the farther you zoom in.
This situation is somewhat like that. Think of the fullscreen view as the base picture. For BioShock, widescreen is basically a digital zoom of the fullscreen picture, which crops out about 10% of the viewing area at the top of the screen and 10% at the bottom to fit it in a widescreen view.
This results in an odd field of view, and depending on the size/resolution of your tv/monitor, textures get a little muddy.
Normally widscreen and fullscreen offer the same central viewing area, widescreen just receives a wider horizontal view. The image is cropped on the left and right to fit fullscreen, but neither view loses any visual fidelity. In this case, widescreen actually suffers a slight loss of fidelity due to the digital zoom effect. Damn, I type too much.
http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5927
Wide screen SHOULD mean that you add MORE viewable area to the sides of what you'd see on a normal screen. It feels more natural and makes a big difference in first person perspective. Instead we lose 15% of the screen and an akward field of view.
Bioshock (and most Unreal based games) actually removes what you should see above and below you and then zooms in to fill the screen making it kind of like walking around your apartment looking through really weak binoculars.
Cropping in a 3d space isn't the same as cropping a photo. Trust me.
Long time no see, fella. I'm pretty sure that if you're running it in widescreen, then this is happening to you. Equip the wrench and stand still. If you can't see the bottom of the wrench, the wrist tattoo, and the shirt sleeve while standing still, then this is happening to you. In the .gif that is posted above, the first picture is the 4:3 viewable area, and the pic it morphs to is the 16:9 viewable area.
This is happening to everyone who is playing in widescreen. I'll say again, this is not a dealbreaker, and hasn't diminished my enjoyment of the game one bit.
I'm actually blown away at how well it runs on my low end pc. I've got everything maxxed, but i'm running it at 800x600 to get extremely smooth frames.
4:3 ftw.
Glad to hear that. Because I tried GRAW on my PC and omg, did it run bad. I would not even try Gears of wars.
As long as games are single player i buy it on xbox. The this is, i don't want to play TF2 on a controller. So i hope it will run correctly on my comp.
Although I hope this is fixable via patch before my second pacifist playthough on hard mode. im playing on medium right now, these lil bitches are DEAD
People are complaining way too much newayz, IMO.
Not really. Apparently they developed for widescreen and added out for fullscreen. Levine's comment earlier seemed a little less definite (ie. he didn't say anything like this) but maybe he was referring to giving peoples more FOV choices.
Either way, I'll be busy. *begins eating some much deserved crow*
Here's the proof,
scene from Jaws 3. Does the water tunnel look familar? hmm
This game surprised the crap outa me, I have it cranked on the above resolution and I have not once seen an ounce of slow down. And I have an 8800gts 320mb sc, and 2.4ghz 4600+ dual AMD.....not the recommended settings at all.
FEAR made my machine drop to around 20fps once in a while but this has yet to stutter and Im about 45mins in or so.......
@Orionsaint
LOL.
Don't feel bad about the GRAW thing, it looked like shit on my computer too, and I have a gig video card. I think it's just that particular game. Bioshock, on the other hand, runs at full settings in 1280x1024 perfectly, so...