From WSGFWiki

Contents 1 Introduction 2 How Do I Do It? 2.1 Monitor Settings 2.2 Video Card Settings 3 Disclaimer, Author & Feedback

Introduction

What are we talking about? We're talking about playing a non-widescreen game, on a widescreen monitor, without it stretching. For example: Sid Meier's Pirates! does not support widescreen. It will support a resolution of 1600x1200. How do you play it on a 1920x1200, at a 1600x1200 resolution, without stretching? The same thing goes for Warcraft III, or any other game that doesn't suppor widescreen.

How Do I Do It?

What you're looking for is "Aspect Scaling." This tutorial can't cover every particular option found in every driver set, or monitor firmware, but what you are looking for is an option that mentions "aspect scaling."

Monitor Settings

• Scaling within the monitor is often your failsafe. It can produce the desired effect, if your video card does not.
• Many monitors offer three scaling options: Full Scaling (stretch, zoom, or some such), Aspect Scaling, and 1:1
  • Full scaling will stretch the image to fill the panel
  • Aspect Scaling will stretch the image to fill the vertical, while maintaining the proper horizontal aspect. This would allow a 1400x1050 or 1280x1024 image to scale to a "square" image and fill at 1920x1200 panel.
  • 1:1 will only utilize the pixels specificed. A 1400x1050 or 1280x1024 panel would produce an image in the middle of a 1920x1200 panel, with black bars on all four sides.

Video Card Settings

Video card options are found the "Panel Properties" (inside the advanced portion of the display settings). Rather than step through the different mouse clicks, screenshots are included.

* ATI - Fixed Aspect Scaling is now available in the Catalyst driver set, as of version 8.3. Additional info and screenshots can be found in this thread about the option in the x1000 series.

Note: These setting may not be available in in an OEM/Laptop implementation.

* Nvidia - Fixed Aspect Scaling has been available since at least the FX5200/5600 series. It has been seen in both the Detonator driver set, and OEM implementations. Some drivers has broken the Aspect Scaling Completely

Note:These settings have always been seen in OEM/Laptop implementations (from multiple vendors).

Disclaimer, Author & Feedback

The WSGF makes no warranty on the usage of this information/tutorial. Use this information at your own risk, and use common sense. This tutorial has a long and checkered past. It happens to be one of the longest running questions on the forum.If you have any questions or comments about this tutorial, please post into the original forum thread.