Kotaku
And the saga of the BioShock widescreen outrage comes to a close, though not in a way that's going to make the angered gamers across the country any happier. In a post on the Cult of Rapture website it is revealed that widescreen isn't cropped at all. 4:3 is just bigger.
Instead of cropping the FOV for 4:3 displays and making all 4:3 owners mad in doing so, we slightly extended the vertical FOV for standard def mode: we never wanted to have black bars on people's displays. (This way, everybody is happy...) This does mean that people playing on a standard def display see slightly more vertical space, but, this does not significantly affect the game-play experience and, we felt that it best served our goal of keeping the game experience as close as possible to the original design and art vision on both types of displays.So widescreen isn't a crop of fullscreen after all! Haha, we are so silly. Fullscreen is just an extension of widescreen! Oh yeah, I feel a headache coming on.
So basically, instead of widescreen users getting to see more of the gameplay as 2K's Chris Kline promised originally, 4:3 users get a more expansive view at the price of having everything a little smaller. So did Kline lie, or did he, like the rest of us, assume the definition and advantages inherit to a widescreen format were just common sense? In a day when more and more people are opting to get widescreen displays and televisions, is catering to the standard size screen owner really an excuse for this?
The post does state that they are looking into ways to allow users to change their FOV settings manually, so they are attempting to fix that which they claim is not broken at least. Hit the link for the full explanation. I would not want to be a 2K forum mod today, that's for sure.
THE TRUTH ABOUT WIDESCREEN [The Cult of Rapture]
Comments
Freaking gay!! All next-gen games should be spec for wide screen...16:9
How anal would you really have to be to notice a difference?
That answer is pretty much the weakest sauce ever.
So I have nothing to complain about anymore? Damn. I guess I have to get back to work again.
@Kokuryukai: Could not agree more. If you buy a system that lists its HD capabilities as major feature, you should expect to get screwed over if you don't have an HD TV. Not the other way round.
Yeah, I gotta agree ... ALL games should be widescreen these days. Hell, even Gears of War and Rainbow Six : Vegas are widescreen ... so WTF?
@شاه: Oh, forgot to add, that I personally don't give a damn about this issue in particular :p just wanted to point that out..
The arm in the comparison screenshot keeps going in the 4:3 version. This would only make sense of the widescreen was cropped down from the full image.
What a freakin liar. Way to mess up a great game with arbitrary nonsense including the Starforce-esque security, 2k.
Although this has to be one of the stupidest widescreen implementations in a game, I have to say it has in no way ruined my BioShock experience.
The game rocks, even on my 46" widescreen.
Unfortunate.
Excuse me while me and my 4:3 display get in on some full sized Bioshock playin' and viewin'.
Very strange. Usually it's the 16:9 view that gets the extra viewing area. What next? Bonus features like being able to play the game in SD in 4:3 on your 1080p monitor? I can't wait!
I'm really impressive about how 2k is handling this.
They explained their reasoning and then leveled with the fans, Patches don't come over night and they just went through crunch time hell on a killer app game.
The fact that they have responded within 24 hours of release and are willing to look at solutions to this problem speaks volumes of maturity. If this was EA or some other megacorp, you'd get a response in a month and it would be a firm no.
Oy. It's not THAT big of a deal. The game still looking unbelievable. Is this really that big of an issue?
Okay. So how about letting me return my broken Big Daddy? Maybe this was purposely done to divert attention away from the poor soundtrack included, as well as the numerous broken Big Daddy figures. Nefarious plot? Perhaps...
On another note, the game is SUPERIOR!
Sloppy presentation. This issue, along with the subtitles, and the 'pop-in' textures really take you out of the atmosphere they are trying so hard to immerse you in.
I wasn't expecting perfection, but this is just sloppy.
...Why is everyone so pissy about this? Damn, guys, get over it already. It's not the end of the world.
"Boohoo, I can't see a couple of inches vertically in my HD-TV!"
The whole widescreen thing always seemed silly to me. Nobody knew what the FOV was, they only knew what it appeared to be relative to other display modes. What does it truly matter if 4:3 gets more vertical vision than 16:9?
why don't they just release it on the Wii.........haha...........my PC should be done in 3 weeks, that includes my widescreen monitor.......
Personally this whole (painfully slow) transition from a 4:3 world to a 16:9 world is annoying the hell out of me. You buy a widescreen TV and half of your channels are either stretched or stay where they were. You gotta inspect every DVD you buy to see what dumbass modes it supports. In the PC world, you need to see if your game supports widescreen, and now on the console world, turns out 4:3 is better in this case.
I'm just ready to get to that point when its finally done. Sadly I can't see that being any time soon.
Man people need to shut up about this issue and just play the damn game. If you did not know about this would you even care? Game is amazing so stop whining.
Full screen (still) rules.
What a fucking non-story. I've been playing the game on my widescreen LCD and nothing looks croped to me. In fact it's one of the best looking games I've played since Gears of War; another game that isn't "true" widescreen.
This makes me want to quit the interwebs altogether.
This is what happens when a game gets insanely hyped up and then delivers... people delve into the minutae to find something to bitch about.
Although, I like the doublespeak "Widescreen isn't cropped full screen is just bigger..."
And I've gone crosseyed.
Well thats not only confusing but basically really strange...widescreen is the basic set up for the majority of gamers. I'm not personally that bothered by the whole affair but it must have been a strange development meeting when they decided that 4:3 was a main focus.
dammit, I hit tab then return, anyways, I was gonna say it doesn't matter because I'm still going to try this game out. a few inches missing, BFD. It will probably be fixed soon anyways.
Game Rocks in Widescreen, STFU all you 16 year old MF's complaining about a game that is top 50 of all time... Go make a game yourself you ishits....
2K's response time and handling of the situation is very impressive.
Especially when compared to other companies, such as, oh I don't know, EA. EA has glitched achievements in Need for Speed: Carbon. It took them months to respond and said, "We have begun work on our next project."
This is actually the way many movies work. That's the difference between "pan and scan" and "full frame." In P&S, the sides of the image (or one side of the image) is cropped to fit the image on a 4x3 display. In FF, footage is shown at the top and bottom of a 4x3 display that would otherwise be missing on a widescreen display. Sounds like the developers intended Bioshock to be FF but somebody accidentally put Widescreen on the box.
JET
Those sneaky bastards.
cocks cocks cocks
@MJDeviant:
A few extra inches... oh just insert your phallus joke here....
ha ha ha... insert.
What a bunch of whiney children wanting entitlement for owning a wide screen monitor.
it is a game design choice on how to both support wide screen and standard aspect in the same game, and I think it is a smart one. When you design a game, especially one that deal with the visual experience, you have to think about framing your "shots". Some part of the screen needs to be "dead" or useless... either the sides in wide or the top and bottom in normal aspect.
It is not like it is a movie where the camera angel can't be changed after it is shot. This is dynamically generated images. Look up and down, you can see the pretty stuff.
It is a valid design choice, and I can't understand why you are complaining. They are not reducing the game play experience. You just want "more" and are crying like a petulant child that someone else got what looks like to you a bigger piece of chocolate cake.
The fact is, this way they can satisfy all TV owners by not adding black bars anywhere. As long as they truly extended the FOV and not cropped off the intended video (cropping off part of the hand holding the weapons for example), it's all good.
AV nerds are some of the most sensitive nerds out there. If that sound is compressed they can't listen to it. If that black isn't black enough they cant watch the movie.
Sad conclusion? Not really. Actually, I'm just happy to have a definitive answer on this, as now I can play the game without feeling like the widescreen FOV was wrong.
...
Just put an option for the black bars...
I wanna see mah wrist!
@raskol: They are not cropping
the image is dynamically generated... there is no cropping
instead of the widescreen folks getting "more" by seeing more to the left and right... the standard aspect ratio folks get to see more by the additional rendering up and down
the scene is generated dynamically... unlike a movie... you can look up and down and see what was "cropped"
Maybe they will release a Gold Edition that fixes this problem and they can get another $29.99 from us. Gay.
So basically, the FOV on the 4:3 displays is fish-eyed because they're using too high of a horizontal FOV for the aspect ratio to avoid everyone with a 4:3 screen bitching that they don't get to see as much. Then, as a result, everyone with a widescreen is bitching because theirs ISN'T fucked up, because the 4:3 version shows more.
To everyone that still thinks the widescreen version of this game is somehow broken: The widescreen version is what it's SUPPOSED to look like, it's the 4:3 version that is screwed. Just because it shows more, doesn't mean it's "correct".
This is exactly how it works in the film world people.
Shots are composed for 1.85 or 2.40 aspect ratios (widescreen) but the whole 1.316 frame can be used when transferred for standard video display. Directors usually prefer it to pan & scan or cropping, and I assume bioshock's director made the same decision.
Rewording the issue does not make it go away. This is quite possibly the lamest explanation ever. I'm glad the issues doesn't bother me much.
It really is that big of an issue. Because if we as a gamer don't speak out, who will?
Most of us stood out in line over night and hand over alot of cash to jump in to the next generation of gaming, they sold it as a HD gaming experience, if so they should deliver that exact promise.
The 4:3 should have been letterboxed, (as in GOW) Because they assume it's how the game is played, as WIDE SCREEN. HD is the standard. You don't cater to everything and then in turn gimp the
"superior" definition.
Yes yes ... quite fascinating.
So people with more toys do cry more.
:D
So which version is the true perspective, and which version is the slightly skewed perspective?
Why does everything have to be so complicated these days? :*( I just wanna play games...
HA! the joke's on you! my pc can't even run this game! oohhhh, ignorance is bliss.
(athlon 64 2.3ghz, geforce fx 5500, 1gb ram)
Nice. Glad I didn't pay full price for this. I'll wait and pick it up used. I have plenty of other games to play, shockingly most are wide screen! Who would have thunk? The game looks great, but no need to pay full price for a hackneyed view.
its to bad that my widescreen wont have is purpose with this game. they are so stupid lol. if some people buy widescreen tv its to have widscreen image ! isnt it obvious ?
@Latefee: you are right... they have stolen the HD experience from you
I am shocked... and I think you should start up a class action lawsuit...
get over yourself...
all of you people who complain that the "4:3 see more than me... so not fair"
is this grade school. The wide screen display is in HD resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio... how is this not HD?
so what that the 4:3 aspect can "see more"
most 4:3 TVs are not HD... so you get more pixels... there... are all of you complaining people happy... wide screen HD has more pixels than 4:3 standard definition!
So just play it in fullscreen. It's not that big of a deal people. Sure it is a little annoying but the game is still worth it.
@Latefee: Ummm... HD isn't the standard. More people have 4:3 displays than widescreen.
as long as it was designed with the widescreen view in mind (which is what is being said) it is 100% from a gameplay and narrative point of view, if it wasn't then they're lying to us and are trying to pull a fast one on gamers
oh noes, i can't see a bit of sleeve! this game sucks!
please. hell, i wouldn't even have noticed anything if the whiners hadn't made a big friggin deal out of it. point of the matter is, most people still have 4:3 televisions and non widescreen monitors on their PCs, not hd. they did right not to make the majority not have to look at black bars. it's a little bit off the top and bottom. quit fucking whining.
although this and the security issue blows, I'm still loving the game itself. Its an absolute blast to play. I can only hope that 2K decides to address these issues as they seem to be pretty awful oversights. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the game. Get those little sisters I must.
This whole topic is so yesterday. There is already a PC workaround out there.
I hope we can refer to this as "sleevegate" and that the controversy doesn't end for a good, long time.
2K never should have made the game. what a disgrace.
/sarcasm
Methinks they should make it so on widescreen, a small amount is cropped on the top and bottom, and a small amount is added on the right and left... make it a bit in between, so everyone will be happy.
Their response has been pretty much debunked on various forums already.
There is already a fan made patch out for the PC version of this, and it makes it look proper now.
They will need to get a patch out for the 360 asap as well. Why they let anyone go on vacation with a broken game at launch is beyond me. You would think they would hang around for a week or so to do damage control for such a huge launch. I understand they probably worked their butts off, but their work is not yet done. They need to fix the 360 version stat.
Ahahahahah awesome!
Stop bitching, if you want more vertical FOV, your widescreen can play in 4:3. Just go to the graphic card options.
I have no problem with it. It's not like a Splicer is going to sneak up on me from the missing area that's not part of the widescreen image.
if you have a widescren 16:9 tv you do get more horizontal than 4:3 users in bioshock. the ctahc is your tv need to do 1:1 pixel mapping cause lcd tvs overscan images as much as 10 percent. this overscan is more horzizontal that vertical so when you do 1:1 pixel mapping you get the image the way it was intended to be seen.
i am not going to explain it. goggle overscan and 1:1 mapping. but when your tv, if its a decent tv, is set to 1:1 pixel mapping you get to see the full 16:9.
on my 40 inch sammy i lose 2 percent or 2 inches. most users have no lcue thye are missing part of the image. everone is concerned over refresh rate and contrast ratios. if your going widescreen tv you need to make sure you have 1:1 pixel mapping justa s much as refresh rate and contrast ratio.
16:9 montiors do not have this issue. tvs have this issue cause tv brodcasts are sent with clutter on the outside of the frame, cc info as well as channel info, and the tv overscans it to hide this. anyone with a bad or old lcd knows this effect casue some logos of tv would be cut off if the tv was poor at overscanning like alot fo early 16:9 hdtv's. so if your playing on a widescreen tv your losing 2-10 percent of the image with out 1:1 mapping.
ok i am done
@Tull: EXACTLY!