Gaming on dual monitors and proper resolution scaling.

[Eckoshy]

My current monitor displays in 1360 x 768, which is a 16:9 ratio. I play a lot of older games from the early days of Windows DOS, 95, etc. These older games all run in 4:3 resolutions, and when I play them the image ends up getting stretched out to fill my screen. Up to now I've just put up with it, but recently I've been wanting to play them in their proper scale so the image quality will look the best.

After several hours of research and messing with all sorts of settings I figured out more or less how to get the results I wanted, but there were two little problems. One, even though I got my computer to display in 1024 x 768, a 4:3 resolution, the actual image goes just a little above and below the borders of my physical monitor. Even though the vertical number of pixels has stayed the same (768) it doesn't fit my screen quite right. The second problem I've got is that it's quite frankly a lot of hassle to switch around all those settings just to get a mostly correct image.

So now I think the best option is to get a second monitor. One which naturally displays in a 4:3 resolution, probably 1024 x 768, and play my older games on that by running dual displays. I already did the necessary research to figure out how to do that, but I'm still a little worried. I don't want to drop money on a second monitor just to find out that it has the same problems with the resolution not scaling to fit the screen properly.

Can anyone explain what might have gone wrong to make the image not display correctly on my current monitor when I got it running at 1024 x 768? Or at least can someone who knows better than me confirm that as long as I get a monitor that natively runs in a 4:3 resolution then I should have no problems with getting those older games to scale properly? And the exact size of the screen shouldn't make much difference, should it (meaning if it's 8" or 12" or 19" etc)?

Also as a small side question, I know that if I run dual monitors than I'll have to select one as my "primary display" in the control panel so that my computer knows which monitor to display the game on. But since I also play newer games which work better with my 16:9 screen, will I have to switch the primary display back and forth every time before I launch those games? Or is there a way to customize each game to automatically switch that perhaps?

 

[k1114]

What option did you change? It should only have been a simple switch in the graphics control panel. But you can adjust the overscan from there as well so it's not cutting off. Size does not make a difference.

There is no easy way to switch monitors. You have to change primary every time.

 

[Eckoshy]

I went to "Screen resolution" by right clicking my desktop. No matter what setting I choose it stretches the image to fit my screen, never any black bars. I'm looking at it again now and there does not seem to be any way to adjust the overscan either.

After that didn't work I figured out that I needed to go into the NVidia control panel and change the resolution there as well. While both are set to a different resolution then it scales correctly and uses black bars on the side. But that's when I got the problem with the vertical overscan. By the time I found any clue as to how to fix the overscan I realized this probably won't be worth the effort of switching back and forth every time I want to play an older game.

Though I suppose now I have to decide if this is more or less work than switching the primary display, since either way I'm gonna have to do one or the other each time.

 

[k1114]

Set the resolution to the correct 16:9 from windows screen res. In nvidia control panel, under adjust desktop size and position, scaling should be set to aspect ratio. It should default to this. Your monitor can override these settings. In the monitor settings, set the aspect ratio scaling and overscan on there. If it won't let you set it. You have to open the game and it should now be settable.

You're playing dos and 95 games on such on windows 7? What program are you using since those won't work natively.

 

[Eckoshy]

Yup, that's all stuff I've tried. Regular Windows control panel does not seem to have any options to affect overscan.

And I don't use a program per se. I buy all of my older PC games from a website called GOG.com. They modify all of the old games they sell to work on modern operating systems. Sometimes this involves simply wrapping the game in an emulator launcher like DOSBox.

 

[k1114]

Because the emulator would have it's own settings, you have to assume it's that then.

 

[Eckoshy]

Yeah, that seems like the only possibility left. And after all this and doing a bit more research, I think adding on a second monitor and switching my primary one before launching any old games should be the simpler and more effective option. As long as I get a monitor that natively runs in 4:3 I shouldn't have any problems right?

 

[k1114]

If you play it windowed, it shouldn't scale.