Re: The hidden flaw of widescreen monitors

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 23:41:35 +0930, FoolsGold <fg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Arthur wrote:
I gave up trying to get this point across a couple of years ago, when
everyone was going widescreen crazy and nobody would listen to what I
was saying about this. Even if your eyes can tolerate the delays, the
tearing, and all the other issues that come with LCD monitors on
certain games, the fact that you have to run the game at a specific
native resolution for best results really bites, and really limits you
in so many ways.

Yeah well, sometimes you have to experience these things yourself before
you can reach the same conclusion, you know? Tearing isn't really an
issue, that's what Vsync is for anyway, and even with CRTs I generally
enable Vsync regardless. Still, I understand what you're saying.

I didn't mean it to sound holier than thou or anything, it just seems
that more and more I see folks discussing the problems with LCDs that
let to me returning the first three I bought and running back to my
CRT.

The tearing issue only really bothers me in some games. It's weird,
certain games were playable on certain monitors, it's just that the
impact on my "gaming library" (whatever 5 or 6 games I really want to
play during any given time period) overall was too much to bear wth
LCDs, and the fact that I could not choose the resolution I wanted for
a given game without experiencing image quality loss on an LCD really
bothered me.

Regarding vsync -- I can't bear to use it. I feel noticable lack of
responsiveness when I do. Okay, I'm as picky as they get, but the
real problem is when playing an online shooter, and knowing you can't
quite aim at your foe as quickly as he might be aiming at you.

Also, there is an inherent lag time in LCDs themselves (ghosting
aside).. I don't have the link but a year or so there was a site
floating around that had the image cloned on CRT and LCD, with
screenshots showing how far behind the LCD was in displaying frames.




A lot of people don't realize how much damage LCDs have done to PC
gamng in general. I knew so many people who, after they upgraded to
LCDs, suddenly lost interest in FPS games and started playing only RTS
or RPG games (and yet they seem oblivious as to why).

That's a bit extreme. For one thing they're still playing PC games, just
maybe not FPS. Also, I don't really like many other game genres than
FPS, so I'm not gonna change just because it's getting more difficult.
I'm more inclined to simply not bother purchasing the newer games and
stick to the stuff I already have.

I don't think it's extreme -- if playing on LCDs turns some people off
to FPS, it means sales for FPS decline, and publishers see the numbers
and spend less on developing them.

Of course, LCDs are the best for doing work, reading etc., so going
back to reading text on a CRT is brutal if you're eyes are used to
text on an LCD.

Damn straight. I figure since gaming only comprises a chunk of what I
can do, the widescreen is still very nice for all other activities.

That's true, it just depends on how often you game, which games you
play, which LCD you use, etc.

The optimal solution is something like I have.. Both CRTs and LCD
attached to the same vid card (in clone signal mode).

Best of both worlds.

That's an idea. I still have my old 17' out in storage somewhere. It's
kinda a shock though, spending all my time with LCDs and going back to
CRTs just for a few games. I'm gonna need more space if I have two
monitors though.

You might also look for a used 21" CRT because the size of your 17"
would likely be a turn off. Also, depending on how serious you are
about your hobby, you can get a decent new 21" CRT for far less than
they used to go for, and if you're concerned about power consumption,
only power it on while gaming.

You learn a lot by running a cloned setup and seeing each monitor side
by side. You will wonder how you ever read text on a CRT and how you
ever tolerated games on an LCD. When I'm gaming, I typically glance
at my LCD to see if that particular game would be playable on it. For
my tastes, the answer is usually no, for some people it would be
tolerable but they wouldn't know what they are missing.

Another thing you notice is how much better video (even grainy stuff
from YouTube) looks on the CRT. You get much better color reproduction
on a CRT, and everything just looks much more natural , whereas
pixelation really stands out on the LCD and gives everything a
cartoony, less realistic feel to it.
.

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