Does Burnout 3 run any worse in Widescreen mode? Plus other 16:9 questions/analysis

N

Naked Snake

Member
Seeing how some people are saying that San Andreas has more framerate problems when running in widescreen mode, I'm wondering what other PS2 games suffer a perfomance hit with the option, anyone know if there's ANY negative consequence to running Burnout 3 in 16:9?

And I don't understand why would San Andreas have a performance hit in widescreen, since the mode isn't even "true widescreen", which can be easily verified by standing still in the game, preferably with a view where you can easily remember the details on all four sides of the screen (example: stairs on your side - count how many you can see, and a tall building infront - count how many floors/windows you can see), now pause the game and switch to widescreen mode, you'll notice that you don't see any more "stuff" on the sides, and you actually see LESS from the top (and bottom?) of the screen, so in effect the game is only changing the aspect ratio of the objects on screen, and zooming in the top and bottom, thus having less things to draw... If anything, I'd expect the widescreen mode to improve performance in GTA games, but it seems to do the opposite, can someone explain why?
 
I think I'm the source of the SA widescreen impressions. Either way, I went back to widescreen after a few hours in standard and I honestly don't notice any difference. I think it's the fact that things generally look worse (ie. jaggier) in widescreen and I hadn't upgraded my driving skills that made me come to that conclusion in the first place. Even so, I'm now playing in widescreen permanently.
 
It's funny that you say things looks jaggier in widescreen mode, because I think the game looks far less jaggie in widescreen! :\

I did some quick on/off comparisons with widescreen in San Andreas trying to determine if the framerate gets any worse, and I kind of deduced that it does, although I wasn't 100% sure if it was really the case or if it's just my imagination/eyes playing tricks on me... I still stand that I think the game looks better in widescreen though, but I think I might keep playing it in standard mode mainly because you get to see MORE (no cropping), and the illusionary smoother framerate :P
 
Are you guys serious? Maybe it's all the filters playing tricks with my eyes but it seems rough-as-hell in widescreen to me. It's not quite as bad in San Fiero but in Los Santos, around the train tracks in particular, it looks like a jaggy mess.
 
Widescreen for GTA:SA just crops the screen enough to make it look widescreen. It is the same for the other two GTAs. *(as you have elegantly stated)

As for Burnout3... no, it should not make a difference gamewise. I run B3 in widescreen 480p (xboxen) and it has no framerate problems. (I cannot speak for PS2 version of B3, but Burnout2 PS2 ran flawless in 16:9 and 480p to boot.)

I think you are looking into this a bit too close. The performance issues are being created in your head. :p
 
dacoca said:
It looks less jaggy in wide screen. I agree.
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I presume you mean on the same TV? Either way, the actual screen resolution doesn't change, only the aspect ratio of the camera - so 'technically' it's the same jagginess.
But I suppose it's possible that it looks perceptually different due to the nature of texture aliasing in particular...
 
Speaking of Burnout 3...I recently got the game and I kept reading on this boards that the PS2 version had awesome image quality. WTF were you people smoking. This game has jaggies and shimmering up the ass.
 
jett said:
Speaking of Burnout 3...I recently got the game and I kept reading on this boards that the PS2 version had awesome image quality. WTF were you people smoking. This game has jaggies and shimmering up the ass.
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The 480i only demo was pretty shimmery, but when running in 480p, I thought it looked absolutely beautiful. The XBOX version is a little clearer, but the difference isn't too terribly large...
 
maybe it looks worse on a 16:9 screen, as you have to zoom to fill the screen, therefore blowing up any potential jagginess.
 
Fafalada said:
I presume you mean on the same TV? Either way, the actual screen resolution doesn't change, only the aspect ratio of the camera - so 'technically' it's the same jagginess.
But I suppose it's possible that it looks perceptually different due to the nature of texture aliasing in particular...
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I am (and I presume at least some others) talking about using widescreen in the game and activating the "anamorphic squeeze" option on our 4:3 TV sets, in which all the TV's "resolution lines" are squeezed into a much smaller area, thus reducing the distance between every two lines and making scan lines much thinner (it looks almost progressive-like on some TVs, especially small ones), that's what makes the image less jaggie, it's the TV not the game. All games look less jaggie when using the anamorphic squeeze option on the TV, of course there's no good reason to use it unless the game offers a 16:9 aspect ratio as an option.
 
lambchop said:
BUMP.

having recently brought a widescreen tv ..how do u set PAL burnout3 to widescreen mode?!?
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For the NTSC version, you have change the console display setting to 16:9 (you know when you turn on the PS2/XBox without a disc in the tray)... I assume it'll be the same for PAL.
 
oh ok ..weird.

i'd rather have the option ingame thanks.

also from some looking around, and adding to my confusion ..the menus and stuff are streached in widescreen mode ..but gameplay is true widescreen.
 
It says on the box that PS2 BO3 has a progressive scan option, but I've searched every option screen I can find and can not locate that option. In settings/video/ it does not give you the 480p option... Any help?
 
MetalAlien said:
It says on the box that PS2 BO3 has a progressive scan option, but I've searched every option screen I can find and can not locate that option. In settings/video/ it does not give you the 480p option... Any help?
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You have to hold a button or two on the controller during bootup to activate progressive scan on PS2 games, I forgot which buttons (Triangle and X?)... Read the instructions manual for the game.
 
Naked Snake said:
You have to hold a button or two on the controller during bootup to activate progressive scan on PS2 games, I forgot which buttons (Triangle and X?)... Read the instructions manual for the game.
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Well, that was the first place I looked. I just checked again, it must be some fine print somewhere because I don't see it. I'll try reloading and holding some buttons down.... I don't even see the 16.9 option!

EDIT: Holding the buttons down worked, I still don't see that in the manual..... Thanks!

EDIT: EDIT: Well now that I've tried it I can see it goes to 16.9 automatically when in 480p mode...interesting. It certainly looks better, jaggies are greatly reduced, the menus run slower for some reason. The game runs fine though.....looks great.... I've had that game since it came out and didn't notice it had a 480p mode until tonight, I just couldn't figure out how to turn it on....
 
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