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General discussion (archive)Playing games on laptop - resolution and scaling down(12 posts)solved(12 posts)solved
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Posted December 18, 2011
I'm wondering how would a random GOG game (pre-2005) look on a 15" or 17" laptop which either has a full HD (1920x1080) or the "normal" HD 1366x728 screen Would it look bad if I had to scale down from the native FHD or HD resolution? And would it fit the 16:9?

What about modern games which have to be scaled down from FHD to HD because of the graphics card? I heard that supposedly it makes the image blurry or worse when a game is not played in the (laptop's) screen's native resolution.
This question / problem has been solved by Psyringeimage
Posted December 18, 2011
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Fel1: I'm wondering how would a random GOG game (pre-2005) look on a 15" or 17" laptop which either has a full HD (1920x1080) or the "normal" HD 1366x728 screen Would it look bad if I had to scale down from the native FHD or HD resolution? And would it fit the 16:9?

What about modern games which have to be scaled down from FHD to HD because of the graphics card? I heard that supposedly it makes the image blurry or worse when a game is not played in the (laptop's) screen's native resolution.
I'm slightly confused... are you talking about scaling an old game up to the resolution of the screen or are you talking about scaling something that's higher resolution down to the res of the screen?

EDIT: I might be able to help, but I'm not sure what you're asking about yet.
Post edited December 18, 2011 by SirPrimalform
Posted December 18, 2011
It depends on the game, I don't think there s an easy answer. Playing on a LCD screen in a different than the native solution _does_ impair image quality, but depending on the game, it might be very apparent or barely noticeable. It also depends on the pixel size of the screen, on the amount of scaling that needs to be done, and the scaling algorithm used. But there isn't any way around it either. There are no laptops with LCD screens whose native resolution is that of old DOS games. Personally,it doesn't bother me much, in most cases I can tweak the settings until I'm satisfied.

Regarding widescreen support: Again, that depends on the game. Some stretch the image, some show black bars left and right, some use the full screen. You can check the Widescreen Gaming Forum for info and tips on specific games.
Post edited December 18, 2011 by Psyringe
Posted December 18, 2011
I'm playing Planescape : Torment on a 1366 x 728 screen laptop.

It looked great with black sidebars on the native resolution (640x480 I guess) and it looks even better now that I installed the widescreen mod. This way it uses the 1366 x 728 without scaling, just expending what you can see of the game.

The two ways looked pretty good if you ask me.
Posted December 18, 2011
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SirPrimalform: snip
I meant what if I scaled down the screen's resolution down to the max res the game can have (and some do it automatically) but I just realised sometimes it's the other way round, and the game gets upscaled to fit the screen, not the other way round.

Psyringe: Thanks! Hmm, it's a tough choice then, 15" HD or FHD laptop. Especially since I'd like to play modern games on it too, though not that many. I know I will decide when I see how both the screens look, which one is more crisp, bright, colorful and all, but I was thinking that this could help me decide.

EDIT: RighInPot - But don't you see with the mod things that you weren't mean to see? At least I think there were some surprises that awaited you.
Post edited December 18, 2011 by Fel1
Posted December 19, 2011
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SirPrimalform: snip
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Fel1: I meant what if I scaled down the screen's resolution down to the max res the game can have (and some do it automatically) but I just realised sometimes it's the other way round, and the game gets upscaled to fit the screen, not the other way round.

Psyringe: Thanks! Hmm, it's a tough choice then, 15" HD or FHD laptop. Especially since I'd like to play modern games on it too, though not that many. I know I will decide when I see how both the screens look, which one is more crisp, bright, colorful and all, but I was thinking that this could help me decide.

EDIT: RighInPot - But don't you see with the mod things that you weren't mean to see? At least I think there were some surprises that awaited you.
The gameplay is not affected in a wrong way because there is the same distance view, what is a too far from the character is grey so you can't see if there are ennemies or other characters. If you have never been to a place it is plain black so you don't even see the place until you got there. Overall it just feels more natural because your character is supposed to bee able to see more than the 640x480 resolution allows you to, or at least to remember the places he has wandered to.
Posted December 19, 2011
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Fel1: And would it fit the 16:9?
My laptop has a 16:9 HD display, and most gogs look fine using the standard nvidia scaling options, though very few games actually have a native 16:9 option in their settings.
Post edited December 19, 2011 by MonstaMunch
Posted December 19, 2011
Like everyone said, it depends. I highly advise for old games with no widescreen method that you use black bars on the sides so the image doesn't stretch. That's up to you though.
Posted December 19, 2011
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Fel1: it's a tough choice then, 15" HD or FHD laptop. Especially since I'd like to play modern games on it too, though not that many. I know I will decide when I see how both the screens look, which one is more crisp, bright, colorful and all, but I was thinking that this could help me decide.
Note that gaming capability is also something to consider, e.g. laptops with Intel HD Graphics tend to struggle with the more demanding recent games while an equivalent laptop with AMD or Nvidia graphics would have no problems. Laptops with proper graphics tend to cost more, of course, but if you're considering a larger screen size you're likely to see it on many of those anyway.

As far as configuring GOGs goes you can find a sticky regarding widescreen setup in almost every forum here, so check there for the details. Some games work right away but many involve downloading a fix of some sort to make the game support widescreen resolutions.
Post edited December 19, 2011 by Arkose
Posted December 21, 2011
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RightInPot: The gameplay is not affected in a wrong way because there is the same distance view, what is a too far from the character is grey so you can't see if there are ennemies or other characters. If you have never been to a place it is plain black so you don't even see the place until you got there. Overall it just feels more natural because your character is supposed to bee able to see more than the 640x480 resolution allows you to, or at least to remember the places he has wandered to.
That's great then, I like that it still plays as the original in that respect.

Alright, thanks everyone for the input! :) I'll see how it'll work.
Posted December 21, 2011
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Psyringe: It depends on the game, I don't think there s an easy answer. Playing on a LCD screen in a different than the native solution _does_ impair image quality, but depending on the game, it might be very apparent or barely noticeable. It also depends on the pixel size of the screen, on the amount of scaling that needs to be done, and the scaling algorithm used. But there isn't any way around it either. There are no laptops with LCD screens whose native resolution is that of old DOS games. Personally,it doesn't bother me much, in most cases I can tweak the settings until I'm satisfied.

Regarding widescreen support: Again, that depends on the game. Some stretch the image, some show black bars left and right, some use the full screen. You can check the Widescreen Gaming Forum for info and tips on specific games.
You pretty much nailed it with this reply. The good news is that the new screens and GPUs handle the interpolation (not-native resolution) much better than they did when these older games were new. It's to the point where, on my 17" 1920x1080 laptop, I really don't notice any oddness when playing a 1024x768 title at that resolution, using the whole screen. Even the old DOS titles at 640x480 look pretty decent.

The stretching issue doesn't bother me, though we've been using stretch mode for 4:3 content on our HDTV for many years now and thus I may just be used to it by now.
Posted December 21, 2011
My 11 inch netbook has a 1024*600 resolution so I play pretty much all older games on 800*600. I never really noticed the stretching. Works perfectly fine.
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General discussion (archive)Playing games on laptop - resolution and scaling down(12 posts)solved(12 posts)solved
(12 posts)solved