Glossary:Ultra-widescreen
From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Size comparison between an ultra-widescreen (21:9) monitor and a standard widescreen (16:9) monitor.
Graphics and video
Resolutions
Video settings
- Field of view (FOV)
- Windowed / borderless fullscreen
- Anisotropic filtering (AF)
- Anti-aliasing (AA)
- High-fidelity upscaling
- Vertical sync (Vsync)
- Frame rate (FPS)
- High dynamic range (HDR)
- Ray tracing (RT)
- Color blind mode
Hardware
For a list of games, see List of games that support ultra-widescreen.
Key points
- Ultra-widescreen is a term that refers to widescreen resolutions with an aspect ratio roughly wider than 2:1, and is often marketed as "21:9". The term is most commonly applied to a 2.37:1 (64:27) aspect ratio,[1] but refers also to nearby aspect ratios such as 2.4:1 (ex. 1920x800) and 2.13:1 (ex. 1920x900); in contrast to the more widely supported 1.78:1 (16:9).
- The most commonly used ultra-widescreen resolution is 2560x1080.[2]
More information
- Aspect ratio (Wikipedia)
- Philips Cinema 21:9 TV (Wikipedia)
- 21:9 & Ultra-Wide Gaming (WSGF)
- List of ultra-widescreen monitors (WSGF)
Properties
Advantages
- Allows to see more of the game world at once.
- Multimonitor support often makes a game compatible with ultrawide monitors.
- Removes letterboxing from the top and bottom of the screen while watching cutscenes in certain games.
- For games that give a zoomed in (Vert-) image, if FOV is adjustable it can be adjusted to compensate and give a proper Hor+ true ultrawide image. The Wide Screen Gaming Forum FOV Calculator can be used to calculate the proper FOV increase to achieve a proper 1:1 Hor+ image (in general, when going from a 16:9 to 21:9 image, a horizontal FOV increase of 17 will convert a Vert- image to a proper Hor+ image).
- If a game does not properly support ultra-widescreen resolutions, on most ultra-widescreen monitors the game can often still be played in a pillarboxed 16:9 or 4:3 resolution. This may involve using GPU scaling in the GPU driver settings to prevent stretching to fit the screen, and in some cases using a custom resolution.
Disadvantages
- Many games, especially older or lower budget titles, either do not support ultrawide resolutions, use Vert- to zoom in on a standard 4:3 or 16:9 image to fill the screen, or simply stretch a 4:3 or 16:9 image to fit the screen instead of giving a true ultrawide image.
- Available community solutions to implement Hor+ ultrawide support often involve file modifications and memory hacking.
- Unlike Vert- games, if the game simply stretches a non-ultrawide image, FOV can be adjusted to create a wider image and approximate Hor+ but the proportions will still be somewhat off.
- For Vert- games in which FOV cannot be adjusted, at ultra-widescreen resolutions the FOV may be so zoomed in that it seriously impacts gameplay.
Game support and fixes
Widescreen Gaming Forum (WSGF)
- The WSGF have recently introduced a new set of medals relating to a game's support for the ultra-widescreen 21:9 aspect ratio.
- Similarly, the site also contains information on how to force individual games to support the ratio.
- This information has now been implemented into the PCGamingWiki video settings table.
- The vast majority of games have yet to be rated by the WSGF for their ultra-widescreen support.
PCGamingWiki icons
- PCGamingWiki uses icons in the video settings table to illustrate the level of ultra-widescreen support awarded to a game by the WSGF.
Gold | Silver | Limited | Unsupported | Incomplete/Unknown | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Icon |
|||||
Description |
Equivalent to an A-grade from the WSGF. The game has received a perfect score from the WSGF for its UW support, and is 'Ultra-Widescreen Certified'. | Equivalent to a B-grade from the WSGF. The game is without major flaws in its UW support, but has at least one blemish that prevents a perfect score. | Equivalent to a C-grade from the WSGF. The game has some level of UW support but has significant practical issues. | Equivalent to an unsupported grade from the WSGF. The game may be unplayable in UW, or the image may be stretched to fit the window. | Equivalent to an incomplete or unknown grade from the WSGF. Analysis of the game's UW support has not yet been completed. |
References
- ↑ Wikipedia:21:9 aspect ratio
- ↑ Steam Hardware & Software Survey: July 2018 - last accessed on 2018-08-11
- "2560 x 1080, 0.84%"
- ↑ http://www.wsgf.org/dr/crysis-3/en