***WARNING*** Do not buy this game unless you run 4:3 only

[tommo123]

steam still sell this game in spite of a blatant fault with it displaying a vertically stretched image in widescreen. i bought it on sale and it's not worth the pittance i paid. I've asked steam for a refund

should have read the forums 1st but, i assumed that valve wouldn't sell a defective product.

[brod]

It's fine, L2P*






* P being Pillarbox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillarbox)

[ticocarepicha]

works fine for me

[MADDOGGE]

Well isn't it lucky for me thats all I run!:p

Geeze OP grow up. It is not a Valve game. Specs come from the publisher, not from Valve/Steam. Steam puts up on the Store page only what it gets given. Stop trying to hold Steam to a higher standard than brick and mortar stores.

[jeffreydean1]

Well I for one appreciate the warning. +rep to the OP. I almost bought this. As for you MADDOGGE, at a retail store in most countries I could return a defective product, and failing that issue a chargeback. With Steam I cannot do that. Stop holding Steam to LOWER standards than retail stores.

[Sami69]

I didn't have A SINGLE ISSUE. Ran 60fps with no drops, played it 16:10 1440x900 and looked good. I did read though that there was supposed to be some easy fix to do if theres problem with widescreen. Have op googled the problem?

[arizonachris]

There are several posts here about this issue. I can run the game just fine at 1920x1080.

[copsofhalo]

There are several posts here about this issue. I can run the game just fine at 1920x1080.

I do not have any problems either.

Operating System
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit
CPU
Intel Core i5 750 @ 2.67GHz
Lynnfield 45nm Technology
RAM
4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 663MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
MSI P55-CD53 (MS-7586)
Graphics
ASUS VG236 @ 1920x1080
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570
Hard Drives
293GB Western Digital WDC WD3000HLFS-01G6U3 ATA Device (SATA)
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS40 ATA Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

[Sweetz]

You can run the game at widescreen resolutions "fine", but the image is distorted due to a bad widescreen implementation.

If you've never seen the game running properly, it may not be obvious to you that it's distorted. When you compare to 4:3 screens though, it is obvious that widescreen is messed up. See the following for more info: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=15794

---

Regarding the OP: "Defective" is a somewhat subjective term in this case. There are work arounds to playing the game without distortion - either playing pillarboxed at 4:3 or playing it windowed (which for whatever reason doesn't suffer from the distortion even when running in a widescreen window). Some people may be willing to put up with that in order to enjoy the game. They will have appreciated the fact that they had the opportunity to buy it, even though others like yourself think it shouldn't be sold in the first place.

I don't want Steam deciding what games I can and can not buy based on whether they have problems for some people. Fallout 3 is a buggy game for a lot of people, but I can run it mostly ok and it's one of my favorite games. I would be pretty mad if Steam didn't sell it on the basis of it being buggy for others, and took that purchasing decision away from me. Better that Steam is just an open store like any other and leave it in the consumers' hands to decide whether or not they should buy a game. In this case you made the mistake of failing to research the game before buying it as you admitted yourself.

[Alienware Gamer]

The fixes are fake all they do is alter the resolution. This game has hard coded FOV which cannot be changed no matter what res you choose unless its a 4:3 aspect ratio your missing certain parts of the screen.

Look on youtube @ 360 ingame footage then look at the PC it becomes obvious how big the problem is as certain parts of the game you cannot even see something in the GUI unless you switch to a windowed 4:3 aspect ratio.

This game should not even be sold here or they should say its 4:3 windows mode only. It was supposed to be patched but the publisher lied about that as the russian developers never patched it.

[groundbeefega]

Last time I checked the game ran fine and the gameplay wasn't affected by the resolution. I guess to each their own.

To me it is a minor issue that is akin to a football team winning a game and then whining about a player who misses a tackle.

"Damn this team sucks cause #45 can't tackle"

translated to:

"This game sucks cause it only supports 4:3 viewpoints"

or better yet:

"I can't believe I paid a whole 2.50 for this game when I don't have true Widescreen..."

but I give the author of the topic credit as it is an old topic and he did admit to not reading about the game.

I just think that to completely dismiss a game over such an issue is sort of like a rich guy not eating a meal because it was cooked by a man that makes less than 40K a year. "This steak is not good enough because peasant hands have touched it."

[kabtq9s]

deleted

[tommo123]

Last time I checked the game ran fine and the gameplay wasn't affected by the resolution. I guess to each their own.

To me it is a minor issue that is akin to a football team winning a game and then whining about a player who misses a tackle.

"Damn this team sucks cause #45 can't tackle"

translated to:

"This game sucks cause it only supports 4:3 viewpoints"

or better yet:

"I can't believe I paid a whole 2.50 for this game when I don't have true Widescreen..."

but I give the author of the topic credit as it is an old topic and he did admit to not reading about the game.

I just think that to completely dismiss a game over such an issue is sort of like a rich guy not eating a meal because it was cooked by a man that makes less than 40K a year. "This steak is not good enough because peasant hands have touched it."

wow, forgot about this game/thread.

anyhoo, the AR is off. to me it's unplayable. same as a movie that's 4:3 but stretched to 16:9. i can't watch it. annoys me too much.

don't trust lazy sub par russian devs i suppose. you live, you learn

[jaaanie]

Just thought I would drop in and post my experiences with the "Windowed Borderless" application.

Result: borderless window + proper aspect ratio/FOV = fullscreen 1920*1080!!

Here is the link to the aforementioned application: Windowed Borderless (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=30525996)

Instructions to play Dark Sector in a window:

1) Enabe hidden windowed mode

C:\Program Files\ND Games\Dark Sector\Configs\DS.cfg (replace with own install dir ofcourse)
[Windows_Config,/Types/Config]
Add this line:
Graphics.FullScreen=0

2) Set resolution

C:\Program Files\ND Games\Dark Sector\Configs\Editor.cfg (replace with own install dir ofcourse)
[MainGameWindowed,/Editor/WinRect]
SizeX= <desired display width>
SizeY= <desired display height>

The game fails to run at any resolution wider than 2048 pixels (all you get is a black screen with piled up menu items even during gameplay).

Enjoy Dark Sector now as it's meant to be enjoyed!!

[Alienware Gamer]

Just thought I would drop in and post my experiences with the "Windowed Borderless" application.

Result: borderless window + proper aspect ratio/FOV = fullscreen 1920*1080!!

Here is the link to the aforementioned application: Windowed Borderless (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=30525996)

Instructions to play Dark Sector in a window:

1) Enabe hidden windowed mode

C:\Program Files\ND Games\Dark Sector\Configs\DS.cfg (replace with own install dir ofcourse)
[Windows_Config,/Types/Config]
Add this line:
Graphics.FullScreen=0

2) Set resolution

C:\Program Files\ND Games\Dark Sector\Configs\Editor.cfg (replace with own install dir ofcourse)
[MainGameWindowed,/Editor/WinRect]
SizeX= <desired display width>
SizeY= <desired display height>

The game fails to run at any resolution wider than 2048 pixels (all you get is a black screen with piled up menu items even during gameplay).

Enjoy Dark Sector now as it's meant to be enjoyed!! FOV is permanently broken its hard coded also unless your using a 4:3 Aspect Ratio parts of the HUD will be missing in critical parts of the game all you did was stretch to fit which is not a fix any modern GPU can do that if you select GPU scaling!

[bradleypariah]

FOV is permanently broken its hard coded also unless your using a 4:3 Aspect Ratio parts of the HUD will be missing in critical parts of the game all you did was stretch to fit which is not a fix any modern GPU can do that if you select GPU scaling!

Listen, I don't know you, so I won't insult you, but you're flat out wrong. The post above yours WORKS. I've been using this fix for several months. The aspect ratio and FOV of Dark Sector is correct in when in windowed mode.
This is pivotal.
All fullscreen resolutions for 16x9 are either stretched or the GUI is off screen.
So, force windowed mode.
If you don't want to play in windowed mode, the program called "Windowed Borderless Gaming" makes a windowed game appear fullscreen.

Set your desktop to your desired 16x9 resolution, launch WBG, launch Dark Sector, choose "Add Window" in WBG, click the Dark Sector window, and press F3. The game will not be stretched.