What do people think of 4:3 resolution with black borders?

[KurayamiBlackheart]

View attachment 213020

This is from Steam's hardware survey. As you can see, the 16:9 ratio is extremely dominant in this day and age. I would say that responses of "I don't mind" actually reveal that it is indeed a problem, but that that user looks past it. If you want your game to feel like it has more professional presentation, just grab that Yanfly mod and move to 16:9. Why RPGM defaults to a setting that's two decades old is incomprehensible.

Welp... it's a matter of opinion. As a gamedev, I don't like using a 16:9 ratio for RPG Maker games because it makes it look like the player is a goat or something, he can see waaaaay further on the left and right than up & down, which looks really... weird...

it stays a matter of opinion, and I think if they didn't made a 16:9 switch to begin with, there's probably some technical issue doing so. I do know that, for my own project and for the "old rpgs" (like the 2D pokemons, etc) I do like the fact that it's not horizontally-wide and keep a somewhat square view. the 16:9 render well when you're in a first person point of view tho, but not the case for a RPG Maker game, at least 99.9% of the time.

EDIT : also during sideview battles, 16:9 makes it so large it's definitely gonna have alot of empty space. so having your RPG being 16:9 instead of 4:3 is okay I guess but if it's just for all of it to be mostly empty/unused, there's not really a point...

EDIT2 : and you can make the numbers/statistics pretty much say anything you want, this survey doesn't mean alot. Steam's hardware survey isn't telling that people rather play only 16:9 ratio games. neither do this shows that players rather play 16:9 2D RPG games (third person). and doesn't support seeing 4:3. It just says that "players" have mostly 16:9 which is pretty much the best resolution for our eyes (as a screen dimension).

TLDR; 4:3 RPG are fine, 16:9 RPG can be fine too, but that won't make them better. in fact, if using sideview etc, it could actually make them worse because of the emptyness (too much space of view).

Anyway anyone that actually mind can as you said, just grab Yanfly's plugins and change the parameters.

 

[rpgLord69]

This is from Steam's hardware survey. As you can see, the 16:9 ratio is extremely dominant in this day and age. I would say that responses of "I don't mind" actually reveal that it is indeed a problem, but that that user looks past it. If you want your game to feel like it has more professional presentation, just grab that Yanfly mod and move to 16:9. Why RPGM defaults to a setting that's two decades old is incomprehensible.

The thing is, I don't like the black borders myself. But that 16:9 just looks weird to me with these graphics/view/whatever. I'd like if the computer screens could go transformers and switch between 16:9 and 4:3. Also, while I'm not denying that most people (particularly outside these forums) might want even their jrpgs in 16:9, you can't really use that Steam survey to make your point, since 99% of the games made these days aren't done with rpg maker graphics and/or style.

 

[woootbm]

Welp... it's a matter of opinion. As a gamedev, I don't like using a 16:9 ratio for RPG Maker games because it makes it look like the player is a goat or something, he can see waaaaay further on the left and right than up & down, which looks really... weird...

EDIT : also during sideview battles, 16:9 makes it so large it's definitely gonna have alot of empty space. so having your RPG being 16:9 instead of 4:3 is okay I guess but if it's just for all of it to be mostly empty/unused, there's not really a point...

The thing is, I don't like the black borders myself. But that 16:9 just looks weird to me with these graphics/view/whatever.

A little bit of research. I had to use Yanfly's core engine plugin because RPGM's default plugin SUCKS:



Above is 16:9. I set it to 800x450 to mimic the tiny default resolution of RPGM.



Now we have the default 4:3 view using the default 816x624.

If anything, the 16:9 view is too cramped, and does NOT have too much wasted space. This is because you guys are confusing the difference between resolution and aspect ratio.



One last image, using 16:9 again. But now it's 1024x576. Just to show something slightly bigger, but still sticking to a lower resolution for that "old school" feel you are craving. I think this looks pretty good; the best of both worlds.

I'm just saying. When I was a kid playing games on a CRT TV using the then-standard 4:3, there weren't black bars. The image filled the screen. Black bars are garbage. Using a 16:9 ratio means your users can have your game run in an actual fullscreen mode if they choose. It's really nice.

 

[rpgLord69]

@woootbm

I admit playing around with the resolutions helped. However, if I want to keep the correct feel, then the "vertical resolution" is maybe even too small. I don't know. Also that 4:3 just gives me more of a "scene-focused" feel. But in a way 16:9 looks nicer and "more professional" (and yeah, fills the screen). This would be easy if the black borders didn't bother me at all, but they do to a certain extent. Maybe I'll just release a wide screen version some time later LMAO