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Re: Lack of widescreen, outdated course interface, and other concerns...

• ApexPC 3,164 Posts

  Sat, Mar 14 2015 8:22 AM

  Two words - Aspect Ratio

  WGT has edited the photos that we see as the golf courses we play in a consistent 1:1.33 (4:3)  aspect ratio, considered a standard computer display aspect ratio. 1600 x 1200 px is 1:1.33 (1600 / 1200 = 1.33).

  If your display is configured for some other aspect ratio you will have the black bars or the scene will be cropped with part of the scene top/bottom/sides, missing. 

   

• G0LD 358 Posts

  Sat, Mar 14 2015 9:31 AM

  4.3 aspect ratio was good for standard computer display years ago, when monitors were big, heavy tube boxes. But now we have flat screens that are all widescreen, so WGT should take that into account and get up to speed, instead of the outdated status quo.

  I also very much believe that it is high time the course interface be modernized with an extensive use of transparencies. The current blue and white menu and info boxes have been in our faces since the dawn of WGT. Honestly, how about changing from reverse to forward thinking?

• ApexPC 3,164 Posts

  Sat, Mar 14 2015 11:31 AM

  And how would WGT make the image pixels of the real world that would be needed to provide a wider aspect ratio?

  Honestly, how about thinking your suggestion all the way through.

   

• andyson 6,415 Posts

  Sat, Mar 14 2015 12:28 PM

  ApexPC:

  WGT has edited the photos that we see as the golf courses we play in a consistent 1:1.33 (4:3)  aspect ratio

  Honestly?, check your "facts"......I don't find a single WGT course photo in my cache that is edited to the 4:3 aspect ratio as you state.  I find 1012px x 828px (1.22:1) photos and 1012px x 678px (1.49:1) all the way from Kiawah through Chambers Bay.  They didn't follow the old standard (4:3) aspect ratio or the newer (16:9) HD aspect ratio.

  And for a company that brags on its HD course representation, they don't follow the standard 16:9 HD aspect ratio.

  ApexPC:

  And how would WGT make the image pixels of the real world that would be needed to provide a wider aspect ratio?

  ?

  They say the game is HD.  How do you know they didn't shoot the course in the wider aspect ratio and edited those pixels out of the original photo?

• G0LD 358 Posts

  Sat, Mar 14 2015 2:10 PM

  Apex, honestly, you're going to tell me that making the courses truly full-screen/ widescreen is impossible? I don't believe that for a second. It may not be easy, but with all the modern, graphical tools at our disposal, it is just a matter of willingness, versus lazy complacency. Again, why do the courses adapt full-screen various display formats in the mobile devices, and not on the PC side of things? When there is a means, there's a way.

• ScottHope 10,443 Posts

  Sat, Mar 14 2015 3:12 PM

  I'd like to see a widescreen picture from a mobile device, just out of curiosity ........... anyone?

• ScottHope 10,443 Posts

  Sun, Mar 15 2015 6:33 AM

  Mobile and desktop images compared.

• G0LD 358 Posts

  Sun, Mar 15 2015 8:44 AM

  Those pictures are for me conclusive evidence that WGT has the resources to make the PC game a true full-screen/widescreen experience. As for the claim that the courses were shot in HD, I've always had a hard time believing it, given that on any big screen monitor, the courses do not look all that sharp, but a little blurry. I mean, don't take me wrong, I still think they are nice, and a joy to play on, but to me, they have never been HD.

  Anyway, I maintain very strongly that it is high time for WGT to update this game to match current computer monitors with the widescreen ratio. And this update should also include a renewed course interface that makes full use of transparencies to obstruct the courses the least possible with relevant menus and infos.

• ScottHope 10,443 Posts

  Sun, Mar 15 2015 9:19 AM

  It would be interesting to know how many of us here are still using the older 4:3 aspect ratio screens to play on. Widescreen (16:10) for me.

  andyson:

  Thanks for the comparison photo Scott! Nice work!

  ↓↓  Thank you Andyson. : )  ↓↓

• andyson 6,415 Posts

  Sun, Mar 15 2015 4:32 PM

  Thanks for the comparison photo Scott!  Nice work!

  G0LD:

  Those pictures are for me conclusive evidence that WGT has the resources to make the PC game a true full-screen/widescreen experience.

  Yep, they absolutely have the photo resources to provide a widescreen game!  Clearly the extra pixels Apex was going on about are in the original photo and were cropped out for the PC version.

  

  Human resources could be another matter.  It could be tons of work to re-do the 100,000 photos on each course into a wide screen 16:9 format.  If they can use the mobile versions it would save a lot of work.  It depends on when files were saved before resizing them to smaller files to send to the mobile. Or the reformatting could be automated and done by a program perhaps.  There's more work repositioning all the other assets on the new screen size.  Other assets being the avatar, ball, club,tee marker, hole map,menu,chat box, etc.. Not a big effort IMO assuming they did it right.  (Maybe a big assumption?)

  Then there's the issue of file size.  Which affects loading time.  A wider photo of the same height is a bigger file at the same resolution.  Making the existing photo wider at the same height doubled the file size in my experiment.

  G0LD:

  As for the claim that the courses were shot in HD, I've always had a hard time believing it, given that on any big screen monitor, the courses do not look all that sharp, but a little blurry.

  I give WGT the benefit of the doubt and say they did shoot the courses in HD.  But by the time they get to our PC they've been photoshopped, cropped, color adjusted, and then to reduce the file size, they resized the image from say 1920x1080 to 1012x828 and the resolution of the photos was reduced to 72px/inch from 100? 200? 300? px/inch to reduce the file size.  The above Pebble image is 1012x828 and 72 px/inch and uses 215Kb on my hard drive.

  Certainly clarity is affected by all of the above, and in addition the size of the game client (GC) window will further affect the clarity.  My GC opens to 1536 wide and is already stretching the 1012 wide image.  Full screen stretches it further.  Surprising it still looks good. 
  
  As a comparison, here's some HD photos.  They look great on my HD laptop screen at 1920 x 1080 resolutionI have 128px/inch.  These both use about 800K on my hard drive.

  1920x1080 Image at 100px/in

  1920x1080 Image at 200px/in

  If only WGT could find a way to do wide screen and HD on Pebble Beach, it deserves it!