Playing on Widescreen 16:9

[NJspeed]

Has anyone played HL2 in widescreen mode yet? I am attempting to, however I cannot get it to display properly on my 32" flat screen. It works fine in normal mode, but when I set it in the game to 16:9, it cuts off the right side and bottom of the screen.. really wierd.. I imagine if I had a real wide screen it would fit fine.. its just not resizing it to fit on my screen.. but it should work with my TV.. it has a mode called 16:9 enhanced and works fine with DVDs and .avi movies. I cant figure it out. I can set my TV to 16:9 enhanced, which resizes the normal aspect ratio output to widescreen, but only by compressing it vertically and stretching it horizontally.. which is not real widescreen..

Any help/input is appreciated from those of you who successfully are playing in 16:9.

 

[Angel of Loss]

You have to need a monitor that supports widescreen--> I have a notebook that has widescreen and the resolution is 1280x800.

You can compare it to widescreen tvs, you can't go widescreen on a normal waidescreen tv

 

[NJspeed]

Cmon man I just said my TV is clearly designed for widescreen.

 

[Drizzt]

You should be able to do that with your widescreen tv (granted it has the proper connections). I was reading the review of HL2 on gamespy, or some other article on gamespy. And i think the dude had a widescreen DLP and he could play it on widescreen?

Maybe your TV is to old?

 

[Angel of Loss]

Sorry, I didn't have my glasses on.

The problem could be that it doesn't work for tv's--> HL2 is the first game that I have seen or read that has a widescreen option.
So they could have only designed it for monitors, maybe some specs like what kind of tv you're using and what kind of graphics card you're using may help you with a answer

Edit:
@Drizzt, we replied at the same time--> So i didn't saw your post when I was posting my post

 

[Drizzt]

^
|
|
|
|

read my post. Look around in gamespy and you will see the pics of his TV playing HL2 on a widescreen TV.

 

[dogboy73]

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/half-life-2/567433p1.html

 

[Ultimape]

For my monitor, i set it to widescreen mode and manuallly "squish" the picture so it is more like how a widescreen monitor would be like.

 

[NJspeed]

I finally got it to work on my own but I couldn't really play with it in widescreen. It gave me too much of a headache.. I don't know.. I guess I'm not used to playing games like that.. it seemed like there was too much on screen to pay attention to at once... or something.. made me dizzy too..

 

[f0rked]

Heh, just played through HL2SP in widescreen on my 50 inch HDTV. It was beautiful. Now to play some DM and CS:S. Gotta love that extra view area at the sides.

 

[Dirk Pitt]

Heh, just played through HL2SP in widescreen on my 50 inch HDTV. It was beautiful. Now to play some DM and CS:S. Gotta love that extra view area at the sides.

If you don't mind taking the time, could you give a few details on your setup? I have a 6800GT. Do you use composite cables, svid, dvi out to the tv? is it possible to output 1080i format to the monitor?

Oh, and what kind of setup do ou use for your keyboard and mouse away from the desk? Coffee tables don't seem to work well, and ive though about a couple of tv trays, but that's alot of junk to play games.

 

[`unreal]

I got it to work on 16:9 on my mates (B-MAn) widescreen 32" trinitron TV thing. We had a mini LAN party and I got to use the TV as well as my overgrown CRT. Mes gotta replace that.

The way i set it up, was to set the TV as primary monitor, on 800x600 on the windows desktop (didnt seem to like the way ATI attempted widescreen). Then on HL2, kept it on the lowest res 16:9 mode, anything above that made the game grow out of the visible area of the TV.

 

[NJspeed]

Then on HL2, kept it on the lowest res 16:9 mode, anything above that made the game grow out of the visible area of the TV.

This is what I had to do as well. Just set my TV to 16:9 enhanced, and switched the in game options and everything worked great. The problem I was initially having is I was trying to run it in the higher 16:9 resolution, but like you said, it moves off the visible area, can't figure out why.. The best thing about my setup is I have all sound pumping out through my home theater system, which is great when your playing this game...

For keyboard and mouse I got a wireless set from Logitech for like 80 bucks... It's a lot sweeter than my old standard Dell keyboard/mouse. I set these up on my cofee table, take a couple of pillows and make a little place to sit, with my back up against the couch but sitting on the floor. Pull the coffee table toward you, and your good to go. Yeah it's not as comfy as a computer chair but what else can you do..

 

[f0rked]

If you don't mind taking the time, could you give a few details on your setup? I have a 6800GT. Do you use composite cables, svid, dvi out to the tv? is it possible to output 1080i format to the monitor?

Oh, and what kind of setup do ou use for your keyboard and mouse away from the desk? Coffee tables don't seem to work well, and ive though about a couple of tv trays, but that's alot of junk to play games.

Well I'm away from home ATM, so I can't remember the exact make/model of the TV, but it has a VGA input connector on the front, and a sound jack for sound input. That way there's no fussing around with special adaptors or video settings, I just hook a monitor cable into the tv. I'm using a 9800 pro for my video card.

I can also get windows to display in widescreen which is cool for browsing the web. I currently use a fairly high coffee table for my keyboard and mouse, but im looking at getting wireless peripherals, so I can sit on the sofa and use them from across the room. I'll post pics later if anyone wants. (They'll probably be quite low quality though, I'd need to use my phone camera..)