Any ultrawide users?

[MushroomCake28]

As title says.

I know we aren't many, but it is annoying to play games and have black bars on the sides all the time. Support is getting better, but it's mostly AAA games that support it. Even my own project doesn't support 21:9 monitor resolutions. I was wondering if there are any other ultrawide users, and if there are a lot I might modify my screen resolution plugin to support ultrawide on the map (would still be the default resolution in menu and battle since the UI isn't designed to stretch out too much).

 

[Natelus Densier]

I have an ultrawide as my primary monitor. I plan on getting another, to use portrait mode to help me keep track of programming in a needlessly specific fashion.

 

[MushroomCake28]

Wow I didn't expect how unpopular ultrawide is lol.

 

[Marquise*]

I wish not only games but also videos had some sort of side animated patterns or just slowly move from side to side more squarish works.

 

[bgillisp]

It's honestly terrible for reading. 21:9 is terribly stretched and misproportioned too, as we are actually taller than we are wider, but that monitor does it the other way. Plus, when you get into huge monitor sizes, you have to sit really far back for safety reasons for your eyes, as there IS a minimum distance you should ever sit to a monitor based on the size (though few follow it until they develop eye problems 10/20 years later due to not following it).

Also, black bars are not that annoying. I remember when movies first added the black bars to your DVD's and everyone liked it (or at least everyone who said something about it)!

 

[MushroomCake28]

@bgillisp We might be taller than wider, but our eyes' field of vision is wider than it is larger. Honestly ultrawide are just 16:9 but with extra room on the sides. A 34-35 inch ultrawide is effectively the same height as a 27 inch 16:9 monitor, but just wider.

It's not so much that black bars are annoying (although I personally find them annoying), it's more that I consider them wasted space and potential. Playing a beautiful RPG with the extra details on the side is actually pretty amazing and immersive. I think a lot of people would get into 21:9 if it becomes more affordable.

 

[bgillisp]

Except, you do know that for 34 - 35 inches you should not be sitting at a desktop playing that. The minimum safe distance for that size is in feet, and our arms are not that long. I think last time I looked it up it was 2.5 feet minimum. So honestly you shouldn't be using a monitor that big unless you are using it across the room.

Also, one of the first things to go as we get older is the side vision. So older games can't see it. Mine's already weakened to the point that I fail the side vision test in driving now and have to have mirrors to drive legally, and I was 33 when I failed that test. So it doesn't take much in age for the really long monitors to be more a headache than a benefit.

 

[MushroomCake28]

Hmm, I'm still 21 so maybe I still appreciate that side vision. Might change when I get older.

As for distance from the screen, I agree. But the rule applies to all aspect ratio, not only 21:9. Bigger screen = you need to sit far from it. The inconvenience for ultrawide is probably more that you need a large desk with a lot of depth.

 

[bgillisp]

True, I just imagine few realize how far they need to sit though. And it is based on how wide the monitor is. I do know for most of those 80 inch Tv's they sell most people's living rooms isn't big enough for them to sit the distance they should be sitting.

BTW, I speak all of this as someone who had to get a $26,000 eye surgery due to eye damage over time. The suspected cause is CPU monitors and being too close to it over time (though as far as I know, no study has proven this yet, but oddly enough it seems to only occur in those 40 and under, aka those of us who grew up in the Nintendo era onwards, which is why the screen distance is suspected). What happened was my corona went and inverted itself, so I was legally blind due to that. Had to do a full corona transplant to fix it, as there is nothing that can be done with glasses, and contacts only sometimes fix it.

 

[MushroomCake28]

@bgillisp Wow, that is some story. I might think twice now each time I open my computer.

 

[bgillisp]

Just take breaks and you should be fine. All research I just googled says as long as you take a 5 minute break minimum every hour and don't try to shift your field of vision too much you will be fine. Most recommend a break every 20 minutes though.

BTW, the safe viewing distance I found via google says 20 - 40 inches. I found nothing on width and how it factored in, all I found was for best distance to see the screen well (not whether it was safe). Research is still pending on this though I imagine, as it takes forever for academics to catch up with tech.

As for my case, mine might have been caught sooner but it took a while to find an eye doctor who even knew what was going on. Also I went 5 years between eye doctor visits (insurance issues), which didn't help either.

Back to your question now: If you do add the support you will at least quiet the complaints of it doesn't have it on Steam. I just find those gamers are probably not going to play an RPGMaker game anyways, so I am not bothering with it for my game. Not sure if it is worth all the items you'll have to resize to make it work. As for how come it is in AAA games, that is because they usually design the game for multiple popular resolutions, and have art for all of those cases on file. If a new resolution comes out though while being developed, it is usually not supported (look at all the games that don't have 16:9 support as they were developed when that first came out).

 

[Andar]

Eye distance is one thing, but there is another technical problem with large widescreen monitors.

ONLY a 3D-based program can scale easily due to the fact that the display content is calculated inside the GPU.
With 2D-graphics that is basically impossible.

With Zooming in 2D you can only increase the size of an output - it is a lot more problematic (and mostly impossible) to reduce the output size.
So if you make a game for a large widescreen display, then it is effectively impossible to get that game working on a smaller regular monitor.

So if a game company targets large widescreen, they either need toprogram in multiple screen sizes into their engine, or they need to use a 3D engine.
And the RMs do not support multiple screen sizes by default...

 

[MushroomCake28]

@Andar Well you can change the aspect ratio in MV for maps pretty easily. It just draws more of the map in the display box. So technically, I could enable wide screen for maps and return to 16:9 with black bars for the menu and battles.

 

[Andar]

@MushroomCake28 that is exactly what I meant with programming for different screen sizes, because you need to change the screen size to change the aspect ratio.

 

[MushroomCake28]

@Andar Yes well, that isn't really an issue for me since I'm a programmer. My point is more that you can design everything for a mainstream resolution like a 16:9 aspect ratio, and simply add 21:9 for the Scene Map (which would simply add horizontal field of vision without changing the height).

 

[Venima]

I heard that since monitors switched to LCD they are less harmful for your eyes, and I never buy cheap monitors. Still, I do a number of things to maintain my eye health:

1. I keep the display dim, and I make sure I turn the lights on when it gets dark. You really don't want the monitor to be any brighter than your environment.
2. Sometimes I wear gunnar glasses (which are glasses specifically designed to protect your eyes while on a computer).
3. I drink lots of water and I eat my carrots. Everyone knows about carrots, but personally I found that after drinking less water my eyes are more fuzzy in the morning. I don't actually know what impact it has if any, but I have always drunk more water than most.
4. I switch apps to dark mode whenever they have the option, again to reduce the brightness of the display.

I'm 27 and my eyesight is still 20/20, and I've been sitting at computers for 8 hours a day since I was 16. Both my parents have had poor eyesight since they were young, and Dad's gets progressively worse, so I don't get it from them.

 

[Wavelength]

I probably sound super old-fashioned, but I really miss the 4:3 aspect ratio! I know it's deader than disco, but I really liked being able to see a lot of the vertical dimension for both environments and close-ups, and while I get that usually more "important" information would be on the horizontal periphery, I really do feel like something is missing without that verticality.