-Game Information-

Dark Sector is a single-player focused third-person shooter from Digital Extremes, who made the Unreal Tournament series through UT 2004, amongst other titles. The game has minor strategy elements and a boomerang-style bladed weapon which makes for some unique gameplay. Dark Sector was originally released only on consoles but has been ported to PC.

-Version-

Release version purchased through Steam.

- Method-

Native support for widescreen resolutions through menu.

-Supported Resolutions-

Dark Sector provides full and abundant support for most every resolution through its menu system. The following resolutions are all offered in-game and were tested for this report:

640x480, 720x480, 720x576, 800x600, 848x480, 960x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x768, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1360x768, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 1920x1200.

*Note: The IGN PC review for this title states that resolutions are not saved between games, meaning you have to change your resolution everytime you start the game. This was not the case with me, and the game loads in my chosen resolution everytime I play.

-Gameplay Screen Change-

Gameplay is Vert- in widescreen resolutions and stretched vertically. In the gameplay pictures below you may also notice that sometimes the screen is so Vert- certain HUD elements are almost partially cut-off from the screen. I have searched the config files (located in the main Dark Sector folder) for an FOV entry or something similar without success.

4:3 Gameplay:


16:10 Gameplay:


16:9 Gameplay:


-HUD Screen Change-

The game uses no clear HUD during normal gameplay, but when it appears it is stretched vertically, as can be seen in the above gameplay pictures. Below are examples of the targeting reticule stretched vertically during widesceen Vert- gameplay (as well as the gun, confirming stretched gameplay again).

4:3 Reticule:


16:10 Reticule:


16:9 Reticule:


-Menu Screen Change-

Menus are also stretched vertically in Vert- widescreen resolutions.

4:3 Menu:


16:10 Menu:


16:9 Menu:


-Cinema Screen Change-

Cinemas are made using the in-game engine and are also Vert- and stretched vertically.

4:3 Cinema:


16:10 Cinema:


16:10 Cinema:


-Multiplayer-

Multiplayer tested and seems to work exactly the same as single-player.

-Grading-

Widescreen Related Flaws:
Vert- gameplay.
Gameplay stetched vertically.
HUD and menus stretched vertically.
Vert- can result in poorly placed and possibly cut-off HUD elements.

Questions:
Is there an .ini or FOV hack which provides Hor+ gameplay?
Can the stretching be stopped?
Is triplehead supported?

Final Grade:
D+
Lack of correct widescreen aspect ratio support is a damaging flaw
CCE: 99.5%

This was a weird report to do.

First off, fraps would only take pictures when the game booted up before I changed resolutions. At first I had no idea why my pics were not all saving, until I realised I had to boot the game seperately for each resolution (even though it changes resolutions successfully in the game).

Secondly, this might not be new to you guys, but Vert- plus stretched vertically is a new one on me... At first I thought it was just the HUD, which is still weird, but no, it's the whole game. If someone could explain to me what causes this I would be grateful.

The config files for the game are some of the smallest I have ever seen. Each one is about a paragraph long and though they list common options, there is nothing there I can find that is not in the game menu. I scoured the Appdata and Documents folders as well and came across no additional files. If someone knows of another config file for the game outside its main directory, please let us know.

In the end, despite being on a widescreen 1920x1200 monitor, I am playing this one in 4:3, which is sad.

Phew.

I tried this and found the same thing. I'd call it a huge bug or design flaw. Everything is stretched vertically to beyond your resolution, so HUD elements are clipped off the screen. I also couldn't get any sound whatsoever, so enabled the subtitles, but then ofc they were also clipped off the bottom of the screen. It's almost as if they intended it.

For me it was stretched vertically off the screen in any resolution for any AR. I have a feeling it takes the AR from your desktop and then sticks with it no matter what you choose.

It's seriously

I was very close to buying this game; thankfully I came here first. You saved me $20 wasted on a broken game StingingVelvet, thank you very much.

Vertically stretched in widescreen resolutions is indeed a new one. One wonders if they're accidentally chaning the vertical FOV when they mean to change the horizontal one.

Interestingly enough, the existing template *does* handle this situation. Basically, the change is considered to be vert -, which in itself is a consequential flaw, but since everything is distorted in both 16:10 and 16:9, neither is considered to be correctly implemented, which is a damaging flaw.

Anyway, how about 1440x900 resolution? Did you test that?

Grade is D+
Lack of correct widescreen aspect ratio support is a damaging flaw
CCE: 99.5%

I tested 1440x900. Runs, but same results.

I seem to have found a fix.. sort of. It seems to work for me, at least better than the stretched crap.

I am running this on my 1080p LED DLP TV. Nvidia GTX260. Desktop at 1920x1080.

By using 1680x1050 for the game it seems to work.

Even though it is 1680x1050, my TV still shows 1920x1080. It may be possible that it is being scaled up to 1920x1080 by the video card, but it works and looks much better.

If someone can get REAL 1920x1080 with no stretch that would be great, but this is as close as i've seen. Menus, HUD, Gameplay all looks correct.

1920x1080 or 1280x720, are stretched for me.

Yeah this is a temp fix for everybody really, although I think the HUD will still be off. If you disable any option for maintaining the AR in your video card drivers, then run a 16:10 res , it will probably look fine on a 16:9 display as it will be stretched horizontally to fit, canceling out the vertical stretching.
I think the best bet is to wait for a patch on this one ....

I took some shots of the Xbox 360 version so you can compare how things should look.

Ignore the differences with the background; everything is always moving.


The game is designed around 16:9, with the Xbox 360 version of the game using the 16:9 view and downscaling it to 640x360 (still 16:9) for 4:3. Black bars are automatically added to expand it to 640x480.

Title Screen 1:


Title Screen 2:


In-game Cutscene:


Showing Off Reticule:


Inventory:

Wow, so the 360 version has proper widescreen support, even the 2D elements, but the PC is all screwed up? Crazy.

I would normally say wait for the patch, but this has been out for a while now in Russia and was ported over as-is, so who knows if we will get one.

Sad.

Updated the report to reflect 1440x900, which I did test, but forgot.

You have to run it at the resolution ths PS3 version runs at which is 1152x640

To do so go to the games folder, then find the folder titled CONFIG, in there open the file DS.cfg in notepad and change the resolution to 1152x640

It is the only resolution that I have found that does not look like crap on widescreen.

You are welcome.

Doing this makes the game load in 640x480 for me, even if I make the DS.cfg file read only.

While I was in there though I did notice this entry, which might be helpful in some way? It's the only thing I didn't recognize as not widescreen/FOV related:



(P.S. Please move his post and my reply to the discussion thread, if you please).

Crap I am wrong, I used the resolution from guitar hero which is 1040 x 585

So sorry for the confusion.

Use that resolution in the same way I said to above.

Still loads in 640x480.

Even if it somehow worked, it wouldn't be a solution, since I and everyone else would rather play it in 1600x1200 than such a low res.

Thanks anyway.