Poll - Minimum Screen Resolution

Panther Games' Highway to the Reich revolutionizes wargaming with its pausable, continuous time game play and advanced artificial intelligence. Command like a real General, under real time pressures to achieve real objectives on a real map all within the fog of war. Issue orders to your powerful AI controlled subordinates or take total control of every unit. Fight the world's most advanced AI opponent or match wits against your friends online or over a LAN. Highway to the Reich covers all four battles from Operation Market Garden, including Arnhem, Nijmegen, Eindhoven and the 30th Corps breakout from Neerpelt.

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MarkShot
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Post by MarkShot »

Golf33,

Standard resolution for a 15" LCD is 1024x768. You cannot go beyond native resolution for an LCD. You can go below native, but it looks poor.

The rule of thumb is that you can run an LCD 2" diagonal below a CRT due to the increased sharpness. I played CMBO and AA on a 15" LCD at 1024x768 while I was in the Far East and they were both fine. That would not have been true of a 15" LCD. (A 17" CRT would have been a minimum requirement.)

The best LCD image quality is produced by getting a DVI output port on your video card and an LCD that supports DVI as opposed to only analog VGA. Analog VGA will be pretty sharp (that's what I used in the Far East), but DVI will produce a crisper image. With DVI, there is no digital to analog to digital conversion; everything stays digital.

If you are thinking about games, then you must carefully think through what games you will play and how they will perform at the native resolution. With an LCD, you will pretty much be locked into one resolution. Another thing to consider is screen response time. The original LCDs were slow compared to CRTs. This would produce jerky images in simulations. Current quality LCDs do better.

Besides sharpness another big plus for LCDs is that they do much better in ambient light conditions. From night to bright day light comming directly through windows, they are brighter with much less glare.

Let me know, if I can help you with any other PC issues. (just email me direct)
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Kevinugly
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Post by Kevinugly »

Interesting and useful stuff there!! My preference would be to keep the 800x600 option open! Why? Because I have my two computers LAN-ed up and whilst my primary system 'kicks ***' so to speak (Unreal II looks absolutely stunning at high res and and 85 refresh rate) my older system is just that ... old! When I can afford my next upgrade then you can have my permission to up the basic res;) .
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sport
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Post by sport »

Please do drop it and add support for 1400x1050 1600x1200 ... otherwise the game will look grim on newer laptops and flatscreens that have these resolutions as 'native' - I have one of each, and AA doesn't look good on either.

Cheers.
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Marc von Martial
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Post by Marc von Martial »

Originally posted by sport
Please do drop it and add support for 1400x1050 1600x1200 ... otherwise the game will look grim on newer laptops and flatscreens that have these resolutions as 'native' - I have one of each, and AA doesn't look good on either.

Cheers.


He has a point there, especially 1400x1050 is pretty much standard with the more and more coming 15" laptops.
Well, whether this group of PC users (read 'potential customers') overlaps with the group of people who buy wargames, in large enough numbers to be a significant market segment, is something that your market research department needs to find out.


That was not my point ;). My point was that a whole lot of people just "don´t care" about their eyes, only when screen flicker and eyes strain is pretty obvious.
danielr_g
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Post by danielr_g »

I like 1024x768 for the game (everything else I run at 1280). I have pretty poor eyesight, but a 19 inch true flat Viewsonic.

Getting a Trueflat 19 inch monitor is fairl cheap these days. If you're willing to sacrifice a little quality in terms of how long a life the screen is going to last (I can't remember how many thoasands of hours I'm talking here) you can get a a good looking 19 trueflat for between 100-200 US dollars. One with a big power supply that is going to last you 5 or 10 years (like my viewsonic) might cost clower to 300.

And then there are the 17s. Easily find a good looking 17 for 100 bucks that runs 1024 bueatifully.

If you are getting by with a crappy old 15, it is TIME to get something new. Your monitor is your viewport into your computer. It is THE most important part of your computer purchase. If you get a 10 Ghz machine with oogles of extras but can't view your output, you've wasted a LOT of money. Computers are for producing output, and you need a device that allows you to view it comfortably. Period. Nothing more to say. Get a decent output device for crying out loud!
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kgsan
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Post by kgsan »

The higher resolution specs are fine with me. Personally it's what I use for all purposes anyway.
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Mr.Frag
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Post by Mr.Frag »

Sometimes you just have to call it like it is.

Monitors capable of running 1024x768x16k color at 72/75 Hz are pretty much down the less then the price of the game. Skip the next couple of cases of beer and buy one. ;)

For those who want higher refresh rates, yep, they have to pay more, but then again, people who complain about eye strain yet have a 15" monitor need to really evaluate their logic.

The eye strain comes from the fact it is a 15" monitor instead of a 19" monitor. The refresh rate is a secondary issue to such an extent that it is funny!

I just popped on Google and looked for monitors under $100 and I can pick up 17" .24 1600x1280 for that price. There is no excuse anymore, it's not like when I bought my 20" for $3500 in the old days.

Limiting a game design to older technology yet at the same time requiring DirectX8/9 and 64 Megs of ram on the Video card has gotten beyond being stupid.

While I feel for folks that have older laptops that can't cut it (I have one too sitting in the closet collecting dust), playing games on these old machines causes far more then just eyestrain :rolleyes:

Make sure you go all the way up into the 19k range for resolutions for us folks who have monitors as we have more money anyways and are more likely to buy your games :D
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Marc von Martial
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Post by Marc von Martial »

Just one example. Due to the fact that my "old" 19" went belly up and money was on short supply I had to look around for a priceworthy alternative.

Came up with a 19" CTX PR960F CRT, Trinition. The very same tube they put in the more expensive Sony Trinitions. The monitor is a killer for the price, you wan´t to take a guess?

Now since a color consitent monitor with a crystal sharp picture is my major aim you can of course still go down in the price.

A mid ranged 19" with a decent refresh rate is not costing a fortune anymore. Check Iiyama monitors for example, they have a good price value. If you want some more quality for just abit more money I can recommend CTX, they use Sony parts and still keep the price reasonable.
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Mr.Frag
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Post by Mr.Frag »

Yea, I was in the same spot Marc, my old monitor went boom, happened to be passing the Sony store on my way home. :(

I am poorer now but hey, you have to ask yourself what is the single part of your computer that you will not upgrade for 5+ years? I can sit in front of that monitor for 14 hours and not have a headache.

A good monitor will make even a crappy system look good.

I got from 1995 until last year on my 20", thats 7 years and about $3500 then. Thats $500 a year. It was worth it to me, computers are just so much better on a good monitor. It is the most critical item that will make or break your system.

( these are prices in my funny money, so divide by 2 if you are in a real country :D )
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