Halo 3 aspect ratio problem

**hiphopcr** · 09-26-2007, 12:01 PM

Ok, so we've got Halo 3 hooked up to a 50" LCD through HDMI at 1080p. The game looks great, single player, and cinematics are all presented in perfect widescreen.

But we played 2-player co-op split screen in both multiplayer and campaign and the image gets cropped on the sides!

To make things stranger, we played 3-player split-screen multi-player and the two bottom sceens (which were split down the middle) went all the way to the edges of the tv, but 1st player (who had the top half of the screen to himself) was still cropped, with big black bars on the sides!

Halo 3 split-screen wastes 16:9 HDTV edges

I've already posted this at the xbox forums and one poster said that if you switch the settings to 480p the problem is fixed. Another person said it's to make the game run smoother (less processing).

I maybe could understand that campaign mode has a lot going on, but not in multiplayer!

Any other Halo 3 players having this problem? Solutions? Or hope that it will get patched?

**Womp** · 09-26-2007, 12:23 PM

Its been said that the frame rate can differ for some games depending on the resolution that a particular 360 game is run in, 720p/1080p for instance. Switching between the two can give you difference performances for certain titles. 1080p introduces more tearing for instance, not sure if this is a similar thing going on but I have a feeling its a technical issue based on what the 360 can handle at that res.

**lion2** · 09-26-2007, 01:51 PM

Yeah I've heard of this. I dont know if this is the case but when your screen is split in half like that you will get an even wider field of view, so that will give you an advantage when playing online because you can see some enemies that can't see you. If that's the case, then bungie should've at least given an option to stretch the screen. Or only put the borders in ranked matches(where it would really matter).

**hiphopcr** · 09-26-2007, 02:11 PM

Originally Posted by lion2

I dont know if this is the case but when your screen is split in half like that you will get an even wider field of view, so that will give you an advantage when playing online because you can see some enemies that can't see you.

Even so, does this happen on any other Xbox 360 game or any other console? Split screen FPS has been done for years, and for years in HD, so what's the problem?

**sci** · 09-26-2007, 03:16 PM

a patch is probably in the work.

**arne** · 09-27-2007, 01:06 AM

ehm, maybe OT, weird, but that 3 ply. screenshot looks kinda unfair. The top player can see way more than the other players... is that intended?

**ArcadeNut** · 09-27-2007, 06:25 AM

Originally Posted by hiphopcr

Ok, so we've got Halo 3 hooked up to a 50" LCD through HDMI at 1080p. The game looks great, single player, and cinematics are all presented in perfect widescreen.

But we played 2-player co-op split screen in both multiplayer and campaign and the image gets cropped on the sides!

If they didn't do that, the images would look like crap.

They cut the Height in half (so they can fit two players on the same screen), so when you cut the height in half, you have to cut the width down proportionally.

You take a 1080p screen (1920 x 1080) and you shrink the height by 50%, and the width proportionally the same and you get an image that should be 960 x 540.

I'm actually surprised that the black bars were not bigger.

**hiphopcr** · 09-27-2007, 10:12 AM

^^ But why don't other games do this? Or do they?

**telengard** · 09-30-2007, 10:32 PM

Originally Posted by arne

ehm, maybe OT, weird, but that 3 ply. screenshot looks kinda unfair. The top player can see way more than the other players... is that intended?

It's always been like that w/ Halo. This actually seems a little more even. In Halo 1 for example one player out of three would get half of the screen and the other two would split the other half.

~telengard

**dobyblue** · 10-03-2007, 07:09 AM

Halo 3 has more than aspect ratio problems - it is not even in HD.

HD starts at 720p. Halo 3 is running at 640p and being upscaled by the 360.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread...=43330&page=12

Originally Posted by Quaz51

one exemple of halo3 edge (i tested several edge with the same result) on my 1080p TV with 1:1 mapping (Samsung "just scan" mode)

http://upsilandre.free.fr/images/Halo3nativereso.jpg

it's the same result that Perfect dark (ratio 16/27 for 1080 display or 8/9 ratio for 720 display)
i tested approximately sixty X360 games (and lot of PS3 games too ), all are 720p except two 1080p (VT3 and NBA street), two 600p (PGR3 and Tomb Raider) and Two 640p (Perfect Dark and Halo3)

EDIT: the context of the preceding Halo3 edge photo
http://upsilandre.free.fr/images/Hal...esocontext.jpg
it's an edge of the sniper rifle