Could "Retain aspect ratio" be an option?

Thu, 05/27/2010 - 14:33 — gwent

I may have mentioned this before, I don't remember for sure, but I have a suggestion that I feel could be very valuable for users. I believe it's safe to say now that most of us here are using widescreen monitors. I do have an older non-widescreen crt, but realistically, you can't even buy a monitor retail anymore that isn't widescreen. Yet, when you run ES as a screensaver, you have no choice but to have the aspect ratio "stretched" to fill the entire screen, thus distorting the image, and making the image that much more pixellated. A standard resolution for a 22" monitor is 1680x1050, which is what I run mine at, which is native. Since the sheep aren't in HD to begin with, to fill the screen, the image has to be enlarged to fill the screen, and by stretching it out to fill the left/right edges of the screen, it just makes the image worse. When I allow ES to play in a window, the aspect ratio is correct, and looks great. I think it would be a fantastic option if you could select to have the sheep retain their correct aspect ratio in fullscreen mode, creating whatever "pillarboxing" would be required to retain that aspect ratio. I don't need it to stretch and fill the screen, I just want to enjoy the sheep the way they were originally rendered. I think having an option in the settings to "retain aspect ratio or stretch to fill widescreen monitors" would be an excellent feature. It can't be that difficult to make that happen, and then everybody would be happy because they would have the option to do so. When I run older screensavers that were made before widescreen was popular, that's what happens, and when I play older games that don't support widescreen, they play in their correct aspect ratio. They don't get stretched and distorted. I don't watch older tv shows stretched either. I think it just makes sense. I love ES, but seeing them stretched kills the enjoyment for me, and I don't usually run it regularly for that reason. Seeing circles that are stretched to ovals just ruins it for me. If it would retain the aspect ratio, it would definitely be my default screensaver. What do others think about this?

Thu, 07/01/2010 - 15:20 — Parasytic

+1 from me. I would like an

+1 from me.

I would like an option to retain the original aspect ratio, as well as another optional 'zoom to fill screen'. The only difference is, the first option will add black bars [to the sides of a wide screen monitor] and the second sub-option will cut off the top/bottom of the frame to fill the screen while retaining the original AR.

Overall, I'm really happy with Electric Sheep.

Fri, 07/02/2010 - 14:56 — spot

what if i just made

what if i just made widescreen the default?

i don't like letter/pillar boxing, i think it might burn in.

Fri, 07/02/2010 - 16:18 — tesselode

Would that mean widescreen

Would that mean widescreen sheep? And how can black space burn in?

Fri, 07/02/2010 - 18:25 — spot

yes i mean widescreen

yes i mean widescreen sheep.

it's not the black that burns in, it's the difference between the part of the screen that's always black and one that's rarely black. i've seen it.

Sat, 07/03/2010 - 21:45 — tesselode

Ah, I see. Well, the

Ah, I see. Well, the screensaver could periodically fade everything out for a bit and then fade everything back in. As an option. And I must agree with QTS2 that widescreen sheep would be really nice. Plus, technically, if you made the resolution of the sheep 800x500 or 800x450 instead of 800x592, it would be better for the server in its current state. And it would look just as good!

Sat, 07/03/2010 - 13:24 — QTS2

BIG thumbs up to this! Sheep

BIG thumbs up to this! Sheep rendered in a native aspect ratio of 16:9 or 16:10 would really be awesome. I think most monitors on the market nowadays is 16:10, and I myself have ES playing (almost constantly) on my 56" tv.