how can I maintain aspect ratio playing fullscreen?

[Sexy Mallard]

Hello, I'm posting because I am currently having a problem playing 4:3 game with no widescreen support on my 1440x900 (16:10) monitor. What I mean is that when I play it fullscreened, the game is stretched.

This was funny because It used to add the black bars for me on the sides to keep the 4:3 (800x600) ratio. But then disappeared after I decided to update my graphics card's drivers (Nvidia 9600 GT). I searched everywhere constantly over the net and this forums using the search for a solution but it only seems like people want to remove the black bars, I WANT them.

There are some solutions saying that I should check the "Maintain aspect ratio" selection in the Nvidia control panel, but because I don't have the "Flat Panel Display Monitor" option in my control panel (seen below), I cannot access it.

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/7288/nvidia.jpg

If anyone knows a solution to this problem, please let me know!

thanks!

 

[Coolness]

try selecting 1280 x 1024 and then play. See how that works out. Its weird you have a 16:10 in a laptop =/

 

[Sexy Mallard]

try selecting 1280 x 1024 and then play. See how that works out. Its weird you have a 16:10 in a laptop =/

I never said im on a Laptop, but I did forget to mention that im on a desktop

 

[Coolness]

Oh, well did you do as i said? If that didnt help, go and right click the desktop -> screen resolution -> press detect. Then choose the resolution it recommends. Now go to the game, go to the settings tab, and choose a resolution it recommends.

 

[Sexy Mallard]

Oh, well did you do as i said? If that didnt help, go and right click the desktop -> screen resolution -> press detect. Then choose the resolution it recommends. Now go to the game, go to the settings tab, and choose a resolution it recommends.

yeaaaaaaaa, it didn't work. Thanks anyways though!

 

[stormy13]

What game? Also be worth having a look here,

Essential Games List - WSGFWiki

and see if it is on the list. If it is, see what they have to say about it.

 

[Diosoth]

I found the solution to this problem was in my monitor's menu settings, not Windows display options.

That is, pressing the menu button on the monitor itself and working in its little BIOS settings screen.

 

[Kari]

try selecting 1280 x 1024 and then play. See how that works out. Its weird you have a 16:10 in a laptop =/

A lot of todays laptop displays, as well as other LCD displays are 16:10 (1920:1200, 1680:1050, 1440:900 etc. are all 16:10).

Kari

 

[Sexy Mallard]

What game? Also be worth having a look here,

Essential Games List - WSGFWiki

and see if it is on the list. If it is, see what they have to say about it.

It not on the lsit, they are 2 fighting games that worked though (before I updated my graphics and motherboard card).

'Melty Blood Act Cadenza' and 'Vanguard Princess' (a kinda perverted fighter lol). Neither had widescreen support, but played with correct aspect ratio nevertheless.

 

[GatoSoft]

Keeping aspect ratio sometimes is related with your monitor. Some VGA monitors adjusts automatically the aspect ratio, others let you choose if you want to stretch or keep the aspect ratio and lots of others (really, LOTS) just stretch the image to cover all the screen.
DVI monitor are different. When I switch my old VGA 19" 5:4 AOC to my actual VGA/DVI/HDMI 25.5" 16:10 Samsung using DVI connector, my nVIDIA driver now decides which aspect ratio I want to use. But, even in VGA mode, that monitor keeps the correct aspect ratio.
Right now, I'm at work installing Windows on a client's PC using an 17" 5:4 LG that uses native resolution of 1280x1024, but using 800x600 stretchs Windows making things looks taller. Funny, huh?

 

[Goldendice]

I had a very similar problem. Here's how I solved it:

1. Go to: control panel-->appearance and personalization-->display-->adjust resolution
2. Change the resolution to the desired ratio (in this case likely 1200x800). This should make the screen look stretched/deformed.
3. Click on advanced settings
4. Open the tab for your graphics card and click on the button to open its control panel
5. For NVIDIA (this may be different since I have a different NVIDIA card on a laptop), under display, select "change flat panel scaling"
6. Select "use NVIDIA scaling with fixed aspect ratio" and apply

This worked for me. To revert back to wide screen, you only need to do steps 1 & 2 (but you'll have to repeat all 6 steps again if you want to change it again). I find it a bit tedious to switch back and forth, but I couldn't find any other way that worked.