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[borghe]

So just for the hell of it (computer was already connected to the TV) I decided to run World of Warcraft in HD. Note that we just got done watching a DVD (upscaled to 1080i courtesy of Media Player Classic), and I have played BF 2 on this TV before which was just breathtaking. The TV itself is a Mitsubishi 55" set calibrated by the reknowned CraigM from The Spot.

So anyway, getting WoW up and running was easy enough. My custom resolution (1727x928) worked just fine and everything looked right. I had to raise my interface size a bit and raise the font size so I could read stuff, but it was minimal work.

The game just looked blah. Textures were muddy, my character (NE Druid) would almost get lost among the background textures in the forest.. just not a great looking experience. Just to make sure I wasn't going crazy, I loaded up Dawn of War in HD which was just freaking gorgeous. Almost as gorgeous as BF2 (well, nowehere near, but still gorgeous).

Moral of the story... not all games look great on an HD set I guess.

 

[sangreal]

On your set, perhaps. But that is not the same as "Not all games look great in HD". I play WoW at 1600x1200 and it looks damn good to me.

 

[shuri]

Especially if the game was never planned to be run in hd!

 

[TheDuce22]

All the 720 xbox games look amazing. Xmen Legends almost pops out of the screen.

 

[newsguy]

All the 720 xbox games look amazing. Xmen Legends almost pops out of the screen.

Yep, even the ugly games like MX vs. ATV unleashed (bland color pallette) are very sharp and are an obvious improvement over 480p.

 

[borghe]

On your set, perhaps. But that is not the same as "Not all games look great in HD". I play WoW at 1600x1200 and it looks damn good to me.

"In HD" refers to on an HD set. As for MY set, it looks fucking amazing. I paid $750 to have it look amazing (above and beyond what I piad for the TV), and it hasn't let me down yet on previous PC games (BF2 and DoW) or pre-recorded content. But WoW looks awful. There, I said it. Awful.

I think there is something about the graphics that do translate over to the TV. Like I said, BF2 in HD blows away my 21" Sony monitor. I mean we are talking damn near photorealistic with everything cranked up on the TV (same 1727x928 rez). Dawn of War popped off the screen. But Warcraft just looked muddy and dull. And I am one of the big supporters saying the game looks gorgeous despite it's low poly graphics. There is just something lost when you move it to a large display. Maybe the technical limitations start to become more apparent at that point....

 

[123rl]

Just curious because I've never heard of it before, but why do you use that resolution? It seems like a very specific resolution but it's not a widescreen ratio

 

[DopeyFish]

yeah that's like 16.75:9

 

[borghe]

the resolution is to compensate for overscan on the set. I might be off on the exact numbers. It is actually probably 1728x972 because I have the "Keep Aspect Ratio" checked in the drivers (just used the calculator to figure that out). that eliminates all overscan on the picture.

 

[Warm Machine]

What is the native resolution of your TV, or is it a CRT? Ideally the settings in game should match it.

 

[borghe]

the native rez of the TV is 1920x1080. ATI sends the signal out at 1920x1080. Effectively what you do is claim a smaller desktop/screen area than the actual 1920x1080 to compensate for overscan. You select 1920x1080, then select Add Custom Mode, then bring the screen in (opting to Keep Aspect Ratio) so that it fills up as much of the screen as possible. For me that results in the above resolution. So the card is really sending out a 1920x1080 signal (obviously it has to) but the screen is only rendering a 1728x972 signal.

That resolution then shows up in all games that support custom resolutions (re: everything but BF 2 so far**). 1728x972 shows up right there as a resolution option in both WoW and DoW. I select it and get the display on my screen with nothing cut off by overscan.

** BF2 sucks as far as resolutions go. there isn't even a native 1280x1024 resolution in the game. You can force a custom resolution, which I do. It works, the only problem is certain aspects/bitmaps of the game, like the mini map, are squished flat. Most of the game is fine though and looks great.

 

[sangreal]

"In HD" refers to on an HD set.

No, it refers to on your HD set. I play the game "In HD" and it looks great. That doesn't mean the problem lies with your TV, but the game looks just fine in HD. Does it look good on a large screen television? Maybe not, I have no idea. That, however, is a completely different statement.

I think there is something about the graphics that do translate over to the TV.

Probably, but what does that have to do with it being HD?

What you're saying is not all HD games look great on a [large screen] television.

 

[borghe]

wow at 1600x1200, while high res, is not "HD". A multisync CRT computer monitor or even a fine pixel pitch LCD panel is COMPLETELY different than an HD set, fixed pixel or CRT. Playing games in HD, and I don't think practically anyone else would disagree, is playing a game at 1280x720 or 1920x1080 on a HDTV. HD isn't just about the resolution but also the size of the display.

What you're saying is not all HD games look great on a [large screen] television.

this is the problem with that translation. in theory anything in "HD" should look great. at least not muddy and blurred. Like I said, I think it relates to WoW's low texture rez and poly counts.

For the record though, I don't think WoW looks good on the computer either though. Not since getting my x800XL and playing some other games in 4xAA/16xAF.

 

[EekTheKat]

Do you run WoW at it's maximum (or near max) eyecandy settings? Or do you have it tuned more towards being able to move around + such?

WoW is much more sensitive to display settings than a game like BF2 (I can't say too much about Dawn of War though). BF2 still looks pretty decent with some settings cranked down but WoW can look downright awful if you turn the wrong eyecandy setting off.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Sure, not all games will look great on any format ever. But they'll look better in HDTV than 480i.