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[H] Black Bars on Widescreen

Blogs > Peter[Deuce]
Post a Reply
Peter[Deuce]
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States93 Posts
July 18 2010 20:10 GMT
#1
I'm trying to play Starcraft on my 19'' monitor without having Starcraft stretched. I'm using resolution 1440x900 for my desktop and my graphic card is an nVidia 9500 GT.

I read about some other fix that involved going into nvidia control panel -> Adjust desktop size and position -> Use Nvidia scaling with fixed-aspect ratio. After trying that though all I get are black bars on the top and bottom of my screen, making it even more widescreened. Basically, how do I get the black bars on the left and right? And please don't say stuff like "just get used to it".
Thank you!

jimminy_kriket
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Canada5546 Posts
July 18 2010 20:20 GMT
#2
Like I said, we need a sticky on this.
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
djcube
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States985 Posts
July 18 2010 20:22 GMT
#3
Hm, I'm using the same card as you, but I never saw that nvidia-specific setting. However, I do have a "fill to aspect ratio" setting on my monitor itself that I can toggle to, so try the monitor settings perhaps?
fabiano
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Brazil4644 Posts
July 18 2010 20:26 GMT
#4
I've had a different problem and posted here http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=128429

In the end I was unable to use the nVidia settings because I'm using HDMI. The solution I found was to change the resolution back to 4:3 when playing BW through my monitor's OSD.

If you have a Samsung, go to Menu->Picture->Image Options->Size and change to 4:3.
"When the geyser died, a probe came out" - SirJolt
semantics
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
10040 Posts
July 18 2010 20:28 GMT
#5
yeah some monitors have a 4:3 mode, else you have to adjust it though nvidia control panel. And if you're getting black bars on the top and bottom there is probably somethign wrong, update your drivers foo.
Peter[Deuce]
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States93 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-18 21:01:49
July 18 2010 20:32 GMT
#6
well I've reformatted a week ago so my drivers are definitely updated. My dell monitor doesn't look like it has a 4:3 mode. I've tried changing my resolution to 800x600 and then running SC but i still just get black bars at the top and bottom

Edit: Ah now I get the black bars on the sides after I think making a custom resolution 640x480 in my nvidia control panel. Too bad my CS still has the bars at the top and bottom =[
floor exercise
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
Canada5847 Posts
July 18 2010 21:24 GMT
#7
If it's a dell monitor it probably has internal scaling, mine does and it's quite old so yours probably does too. Make sure it it's set to aspect not 1:1

Hit the menu button on your monitor and go to image settings and then scaling
Peter[Deuce]
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States93 Posts
July 18 2010 22:41 GMT
#8
the image settings is grayed out for some reason
Peter[Deuce]
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States93 Posts
July 18 2010 23:12 GMT
#9
Ah I got both CS and SC to work.
djcube: "Hm, I'm using the same card as you, but I never saw that nvidia-specific setting. However, I do have a "fill to aspect ratio" setting on my monitor itself that I can toggle to, so try the monitor settings perhaps?"
If you don't see the scaling options, you're probably using a VGA cord instead of the DVI one.
I just followed these directions for CS and it worked for SC too. But for CS users, you need to put
-freq 75 in the launch options for it to work.
"to make cs have those black bars on the side you have to sort of trick your monitor into using that 4:3 ratio that cs supports, you do this by going into your video card options (right click desktop and clicking on nvidia)and clicking on change resolution, then click on the customize button, then custom resolution button, in the window that pops up where it says horizontal pixels and vertical lines you must change it to your widescreen equivalent of your cs resolution in other words
640x480 -> 768x480
800x600 -> 960x600
1024x768 -> 1232x768
so you would but 960 in the horizontal pixels and 600 in the vertical lines if you used 800x600, also were it says refresh rate make sure its set at 75 hertz, then click the timing button, then click the drop down arrow next to standard: and set it to manual this is so none of the settings get changed below, then go back up to the top were it said horizontal pixels and vertical lines and fill it in with your cs resolution (800x600 in this case) after that click test and then ok now that custom resolution is added, lastly this part is very important, go back to your video card options and click the adjust desktop size and position button and make sure Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio is selected. Also add -w 800 in your launch options so that it uses that resolution you've created. That should do it, it may seem like a lot but it goes by quick im so used to doing this since nvidia never fixed the bug of fixed aspect ratio not working for some people. Any trouble with it feel free to ask for help.

p.s. - I've got the latest nvidia drivers available and this fix works for it, I always update them and this fix always works with any version"
Aristurtle
Profile Joined June 2010
Australia23 Posts
July 18 2010 23:36 GMT
#10
Are you a bad enough dude to get your 1998 CRT from the garage?
The pen is mightier than the sword, especially if the pen is shot out of a gun.
Kaasflipje
Profile Joined May 2010
Netherlands198 Posts
July 19 2010 00:16 GMT
#11
Wish this worked on my ATI card.
3clipse
Profile Blog Joined September 2008
Canada2555 Posts
July 19 2010 00:59 GMT
#12
Does one actually view more of the map with widescreen? I changed mine from widescreen to a square by changing my resolution in-game because it's what I'm used to, but I'm wondering if it puts me at a significant disadvantage.
floor exercise
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
Canada5847 Posts
July 19 2010 01:20 GMT
#13
On July 19 2010 09:16 Kaasflipje wrote:
Wish this worked on my ATI card.

Good thing it does then. If you are windows 7 you might have to change your resolution if the scaling options are greyed out and then change it back (unless they fixed that)
Kaasflipje
Profile Joined May 2010
Netherlands198 Posts
July 19 2010 01:24 GMT
#14
On July 19 2010 10:20 floor exercise wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 19 2010 09:16 Kaasflipje wrote:
Wish this worked on my ATI card.

Good thing it does then. If you are windows 7 you might have to change your resolution if the scaling options are greyed out and then change it back (unless they fixed that)


When I start the game it just reverts back.
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