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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: ZeeRuX on January 17, 2012, 10:10:52 AM

Title: Screen resolution on games
Post by: ZeeRuX on January 17, 2012, 10:10:52 AM
Hi there.. Got a question.. Im running Classic WB 3 on my Amiga 1200 with 64 extra ram on a 28" swedish fat tv. Dunno if its 60 or 50hz in Sweden but the Classic WB is running its resolution on the whole tv. .. BUT.. When I try a game, like Bubble Bobble, it changes the resolution so the pictures is very small... Its just like its pressed 5 inches from each side and 10 inches from the bottom so the picutes is centered at the top.. Is there any way to get the game-resolution to get over the whole screen? I can get a new tv if thats the problem.. I use the yellow connector to my tv with red and white to the audio. A bit annoing to have a 28" tv but only get like 17" when playing a game :hammer:
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: Daedalus on January 17, 2012, 11:06:49 AM
It sounds like the game is running at a different resolution to your Workbench. There should be a "stretch" or "scale" setting on the TV which will make the TV fill the screen, and it's possible that it stores a separate set of settings for a few different resolutions. I'm pretty sure Sweden is 50Hz like the rest of Europe...
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: ZeeRuX on January 17, 2012, 11:28:52 AM
Ok.. But my 28" fat screen tv doesnt have any stretch mode lol. Any way I can fix it without this stretching? Cause I have tried several resolutions on my WB but it doesnt matter, the game will be the same small picture.. :afro:
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: paul1981 on January 17, 2012, 11:52:37 AM
Quote from: ZeeRuX;676292
Ok.. But my 28" fat screen tv doesnt have any stretch mode lol. Any way I can fix it without this stretching? Cause I have tried several resolutions on my WB but it doesnt matter, the game will be the same small picture.. :afro:

Check on the tv settings menu than the tv is set to '4:3' mode, and not on 'AUTO' or '16:9 WIDE' ...if it's on AUTO then there's a chance it's switching to '16:9 WIDE' mode which would squeeze the picture (vertically).

On a seperate note, you should also connect up to your tv using a SCART cable if possible, as the picture quality will be excellent. Connecting through the Composite Video (the yellow wire) works, but it's no where near as good as through the SCART.
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: paul1981 on January 17, 2012, 11:55:14 AM
Quote from: ZeeRuX;676292
Ok.. But my 28" fat screen tv doesnt have any stretch mode lol. Any way I can fix it without this stretching? Cause I have tried several resolutions on my WB but it doesnt matter, the game will be the same small picture.. :afro:

My 28" 4:3 TV does have a 16:9 mode, there's a chance yours does as well, so it's worth checking through the menus.
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: ZeeRuX on January 17, 2012, 12:01:41 PM
Ok. Thx. But no.. My tv is ooooold .. No 16:9 mode.. And the yellow wire goes into a scartadapter to my tv.. But I can try with different connections but doubt that it will help. I had a 20" before and then there was a bigger picture cause then the picture didnt get smaller on the side.. Just on the hight.. I think it will have to be something with NTSC/PAL that makes the game change the resolution.. I shall try connect the Amiga to a flat screen and see what happens..
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: paul1981 on January 17, 2012, 12:09:31 PM
Quote from: ZeeRuX;676297
Ok. Thx. But no.. My tv is ooooold .. No 16:9 mode.. And the yellow wire goes into a scartadapter to my tv.. But I can try with different connections but doubt that it will help. I had a 20" before and then there was a bigger picture cause then the picture didnt get smaller on the side.. Just on the hight.. I think it will have to be something with NTSC/PAL that makes the game change the resolution.. I shall try connect the Amiga to a flat screen and see what happens..

Depends on how they're set up at the factory, but the border shouldn't be huge.  NTSC/PAL is to to with the height, not the width, so that wouldn't explain your width problem.
So you say Workbench looks okay... what screen resolution are you running it on?  Did you have to alter the overscan settings to get it to fill the screen?  Does your Workbench look squashed?
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: ZeeRuX on January 17, 2012, 12:37:30 PM
Dont know the resolution.. Can check it when I get home. But no, the WB looks just fine.. Really fine.
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: ZeeRuX on January 19, 2012, 05:37:42 PM
(http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/4339/img2824hu.jpg)

Here is how I ment.. It was only Dynablaster that was ****ed up in the resolution.. Every other game looses the bottom as the picture shows. I have tried both with the big fat 28" tv above and a brand new Philips 47" flatscreen.. Both tvs gets the same picture.. Its a bit shame that I cant get the game to go over the whole screen... :confused:
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: dougal on January 19, 2012, 06:14:44 PM
A big number of Amiga games do not fill in the bottom part of the screen unfortunately. I dont know why, maybe bad programming. The same will happen even if you use a Commodore 1084S or any other display.
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: zipper on January 19, 2012, 06:22:25 PM
At least when NTSC on PAL screen.
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: Khephren on January 19, 2012, 06:26:27 PM
Yep, early games (and ST/DOS ports) run at 320x200, so you don't get the full resolution.
I'd try a game that was for a later euro release, they often feature 320x256 and sometimes overscan as well.
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: Darrin on January 19, 2012, 06:43:21 PM
Quote from: ZeeRuX;676571
(http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/4339/img2824hu.jpg)

Here is how I ment.. It was only Dynablaster that was ****ed up in the resolution.. Every other game looses the bottom as the picture shows. I have tried both with the big fat 28" tv above and a brand new Philips 47" flatscreen.. Both tvs gets the same picture.. Its a bit shame that I cant get the game to go over the whole screen... :confused:


That is a definate case of a NTSC game running on a PAL machine (NTSC games have less display lines as explained above, so there's nothing to display).  You can get the reverse when you run a PAL game on an NTSC machine and you lose the bottom part of the display (for example, Rodland).

Some modern monitors save different setting for different screen modes so you can customise each display setting to fill the screen and they'll automatically adjust as you swtich between them (like my Viewsonic monitors).  Others you have to adjust each time manually.
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: runequester on January 19, 2012, 07:54:33 PM
Try something like Alien Breed (which to my knowledge only exists in a PAL version) and compare.
 
Your game there might either be NTSC, or made to fit an NTSC format in any event to be more compatible
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: itix on January 19, 2012, 08:05:44 PM
Most Amiga games are just using 320x200 so on PAL displays you often get empty space on PAL Amigas. It is normal. Some games are designed to 320x256 display but they are quite rare. Best Amiga games were ports from other systems (ST/PC/C64) where 320x200 was standard or from the USA...

IIRC some later Amiga 500 models could boot to NTSC mode. Dunno if it would help.

In my opinion empty space is not problem because you get square pixels... stretched display looks awful.
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: takemehomegrandma on January 19, 2012, 08:24:50 PM
Quote from: itix;676586
IIRC some later Amiga 500 models could boot to NTSC mode. Dunno if it would help.


I think his question was about the A1200? But as far as I can remember, you could change this from the early boot menu (holding down both mouse buttons when powering up IIRC) in the A1200 as well? I might be wrong, never used that feature, and it was a decade or more since I last fired up my A1200...

Quote
In my opinion empty space is not problem because you get square pixels... stretched display looks awful.


Completely agree, I'm allergic to that! :)
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: runequester on January 19, 2012, 11:39:53 PM
The boot up menu requires ECS I believe. It should handle NTSC/PAL issues better, though not perfectly. Worth checking out, though most 500's weren't upgraded to ECS (since it broke a few games compatibility)
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: Daedalus on January 19, 2012, 11:56:41 PM
Quote from: runequester;676614
The boot up menu requires ECS I believe. It should handle NTSC/PAL issues better, though not perfectly. Worth checking out, though most 500's weren't upgraded to ECS (since it broke a few games compatibility)


Well, the boot-up menu really only requires Kickstart 2 or above, but switching between PAL and NTSC could well require ECS - I don't know.

Yep, it does look like your standard NTSC game alright. By programming for only 200 lines, programmers could be sure that the game at least worked on both PAL and NTSC Amigas, even if you got a black band across the bottom of the screen. The other way around resulted in the bottom of the screen being missing when PAL games were played on NTSC Amigas, which is a less desirable result I guess...
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: Thorham on January 20, 2012, 12:35:43 AM
When you use WHDLoad you can just add NTSC to the game icon's tool types. Problem solved (may not work for all games...).
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: ZeeRuX on January 20, 2012, 03:11:32 PM
Thx for all answers... Then I know.. I can live with it =) Will try that with WHDLoad..
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: ChaosLord on January 20, 2012, 04:47:06 PM
Or you can just stick to playing the Amiga games that naturally run in 256p or 512p
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: Thorham on January 20, 2012, 07:24:57 PM
Quote from: ChaosLord;676707
Or you can just stick to playing the Amiga games that naturally run in 256p or 512p
Why would you when WHDLoad can handle both PAL and NTSC? The only thing to take in account is that a CRT based PAL TV must be able to handle NTSC as well. If it does, then NTSC games can be shown in their correct aspect ratio.
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: ChaosLord on January 20, 2012, 07:57:03 PM
WHDload is kewl but many games have no WHDLoad version.  Others have only a buggy WHDLoad version.

I personally just use a dual CRT monitor setup on my Amiga.  My 1084S and  17" NEC MultiSync75 are both NTSC/PAL compatible so I never have any problems, ever.  WHDload not required.
Title: Re: Screen resolution on games
Post by: Thorham on January 20, 2012, 08:40:15 PM
Quote from: ChaosLord;676731
I personally just use a dual CRT monitor setup on my Amiga.  My 1084S and  17" NEC MultiSync75 are both NTSC/PAL compatible so I never have any problems, ever.  WHDload not required.
That's not an option if you don't want to use floppies (I'm done with them, as are many, I assume).