Its hillarious that a lot of indie games support Ultra wide better than AAA industry

this reminds me of that funny Among Us meme where there was a person with an ultrawide screen that could see across the entire map

for 2d games I like the approach where camera stops at fixed point when you move to a "definitive" wall, and your characters move to the side of the screen instead of being anchored to the center

Halo Infinite has a HUD setting that lets you choose how widely spread your HUD elements are from the center. It's really nice for ultra wide monitors.

There was a good interview at Digital Foundry recently where they talked to the developers of the Spider-Man PC port and they mentioned that a lot of the cutscenes were specifically composed for 16:9 and expanding to ultrawide ratios made a lot of things visible that shouldn't have been, like characters t-posing, so they had to go through every cutscene and make sure there was nothing out of place at any aspect ratio.

This is a huge issue that is taken into account with web development as well since there are so many screen sizes and pixel count that access the same content (phones, tablets, laptops and monitors). From our side this is usually done by validating what the screen size is before specyfing which part of the code to look at the construct the UI. Definitely the worst part about programming interfaces in my opinion :P

as a ultra wide user, I can see the end of every 16:9 overlay as it is too small for my screen vignette, black screens, flash bangs, transitions... it always too small to fill the entire screen sometimes, I even see sneaky trickery that the games do.. for example, on the skyrim menu perk list, I can see that all the item names are just stores on the sides of the screen there is a software that always help me a lot called flawless widescreen it fixes a lot of games (not overlays tho) but it actually fixes rendering and scaling problems

One extra fun thing with 2D games is that you might wanna activate enemies and other gameplay elements as they come into the camera's view. Ultrawide ratio naturally messes this up

Valve recently introduced a feature to Half-Life 2 where you can set a separate aspect ratio for the HUD. This means you can set the 3D graphics to make use of your entire 16:9 display, but the edges of the HUD will be anchored to fit in a 4:3 area, allowing you to see the HUD as it was originally intended while still making full use of your modern widescreen display. One thing I like about this is how it means for video editing, I can crop footage of my gameplay to 4:3 if I wanted to for artistic reasons, and it would still look totally normal as if I was actually playing with that aspect ratio.

My friend was always like "Ultra wide is so good! You NEED to get one" and I always would say that the performance hit wasn't worth it and I don't like the incompatibility of the majority of games and he'd always say that "It is fine, most games work" and then every few days he'd complain about X game not working properly and having to try and find work arounds that never worked properly lol.

For 2D games, I know at least in Godot that the project settings menu lets you lock the aspect ratio but allow window resizing, so the sides of the window that don't match the aspect ratio are just black bars, and the game itself scales linearly depending on the window size

in 2d games the dev could maximize the vision to a certain distance so wider aspect ratios will give a more zoomed in view/less height

Would’ve loved to hear you mention the differences between projection types and how that ties into this and FOV. Most games use Rectilinear projection, while others might use Fisheye projection. Ultrawides naturally have a higher field of view and rectilinear project looks really weird when using them Probably better for it’s own video but definitely an interesting topic worth discussing!

I feel like they hate square monitors more tho. I've seen quite a lot of games that don't even have 5:4 as an option.

I've always wondered why devs don't let users put the HUD where they want. Feels like the problem spoken about in this video would stop being a problem. But having a movable HUD probably comes with its own set of issues I remember downloading addons in wow just to move bars around, it's been a thing for years and players prefer being able to customize their stuff

I love these videos bro. Short, to the point, and always an interesting perspective that I’ve never thought of before. Appreciate your work, my bro.

It’s nice seeing garbaj get better at cs:go in the background footage.

I think for 2D games you could look on what side of the wall the character is and just infinitely expand the wall texture over the other side

That’s actually pretty interesting. Also really like that you kept it short and sweet and to the point. Very well put together and very informative. Well done

I've recently come across your videos and as a dev havebenjoyed your insight into these topics. Hearing another perspectivebgives me more food for thought. Thsnks much!

As an ultra-wide user it has been nice to see more and more games support 21:9 aspect ratios, but I can tell you from a web and game development standpoint that it truly is a pain in the ass to deal with, so any games that don't support it I do give slack to. I am just so used to 21:9 though because my School, Work, and Home computers all use it, it is just handier to have several applications on one view.

Well another complication is with the developer recommended system specs. Maybe an RTX 2070 would run the game fine at 1920x1080, the games intended native resolution, but it would run quite poorly at 3440x1440. Some customers may not fully understand that their system is requiring the poor graphics card to render more than double the number of pixels per frame and it just can't keep a stable framerate at that workload.

hey, thank you so much for this video! I have been trying to find a solution for the ultrawide hud for quite some time and you just explained the problem and gave a solution better than any other video that was dedicated to do exactly that. Thank you so so much and have a good one!

Nice video. Short, quick and to the point.

i just want to mention that 21:9s are amazing for 2D map-based games, like Hearts of Iron or Crusader Kings. The extra screen space is fantastic at giving the player a more comfortable playspace where a 16:9 might end up feeling cramped when servicing menus

32:9 user here, always disappointed when companies don't add a center HUD elements option to their game. Somehow older games did this by default like Borderlands 2 where the HUD elements are locked to a 16:9 aspect ratio while you can still see more of the world in the edges. Borderlands 3 and Wonderlands on the other hand are terrible forcing the elements to the very edges without a horizontal HUD element slider or center HUD option. Modern Warfare, Halo MCC, Halo Infinite, Battlefield games(2042 only has the HUD scale in the .ini file since they did not even bother to make a UI tool for it lol) all have the option to change the HUD positioning to your liking. Games would be better off if they just had a setting to at the very least center the HUD elements to a 16:9 aspect ratio.

I subscribed because I finally found some good and well structured videos that aren't 29 fckin minutes... Thank you, Garbaj

thanks to you garbaj, I'm learning how to use UE5 and planning to make my own game :) you're awesome at explaining stuff and make it really easy to follow

I feel like you should have mentioned the competitive advantages in FPS, where you might see a little bit more than your average enemy.

I tried to make a 2D animation, and I hate even 16:9 now

I legit thought this was moist critical because of the thumbnail. Outstanding work right there champ

amazing glimpse into the dev world as always!

It's not that hard.. For 3D: Anchor your hud elements to at a 16:9 ratio, ignoring extra horizontal space. For 2D: use a forground image to obscure elements outside the map or even aspect ratio.

In FPS games ultra-wide can give certain advantages, the most noticeable one is that you can have a wider view of the map and surroundings and spot some enemies before they can even notice you.

i swear everytime im thinking of something you come out with a video of it or something related to it

I am obsessed with your videos

When 2D games include borders with art for 21:9 i love it.

I use a 32:9 monitor, and I have this program called powertoys, and in it there's a feature called fancyzones. This allows me to have a 16:9 display in the middle where I play all my games and still have room on either side of the game, where I can have discord or youtube up next to it. That's how I play my games.

you brought up the hud thing, and i think one of my favorites looks when it comes to gaming at a larger aspect ratio, is the same type of thing N64 emulators do with the Zelda games when rendered in 16:9, where all of the hud elements stay where they are and everything else gets expanded. i think that look specifically would look really nice for something like apex legends.

This was really well stated, thanks for the video :)

The game that made me truly fall in love with having an ultrawide screen was surprisingly World of Warcraft. The extra space meant that I could open up my inventory and character panel and still have a regular 16:9 sized view into the game world in the middle of the screen. It's great for other games too, but using it in WoW felt so freeing, and using a standard monitor in it now feels claustrophobic.

The solution is pretty simple actually, for UI elements give the player a configurable safe area and for areas that are supposed to be hidden offscreen actually hide them with fog of war or a foreground overlay. This really doesn't have to be hard to solve, it's a tiny issue compared to developing a complete game.

The strategy i was going for was to cover undiscovered areas with invisible walls that disappear when the player enters them. Worked pretty well

I think it's totally fair when some games force a 16:9 ratio, mainly PvP games but also 2D games for the reason you mentioned. The black bars aren’t as bad as some people make it out to be, imo As for the HUD thing, I feel like that's just your problem if you play on a 21:9 screen. They should have thought about that before, and I don't think game devs should have to deal with it. Maybe they can give an option to toggle between the two kinds of HUD you talked about, but I don’t think they should have to do more than that

I'm currently using a 32:9 monitor (helpful for work) and the struggle is real with a lot of games, even brand-new AAA games. While the novelty can be fun and enhance the experience, most of the time it's an inconvenience. Hats off to Subnautica though, definitely the best super-ultrawide experience I've had, next to Portal

This is the main reason I switched back from ultrawide to 16:9. I love the idea of ultrawide, but the support is very lacking and for office work I find two 16:9 screen much more productive.

On GTA V when you open the internet on your phone you can still see the normal outside world on the edges of your screen, your character also wiggles around while you are browsing the sites.

crazy this was thrown in my feed a day after getting an ultrawide monitor

Another problem about ultrawide screen is if your FOV is too high, the camera could clip to the wall or objects if you stand too closed to it and it's gave you a legal X-ray hack

Funny enough, this just opens new possibilities for my games, I can use this instead of haveing to fear it, like, in my 2d games, I just might create lore on the other side of walls, or just mess with them and put a door there that quits the game if they try to hack and try to see where that takes, a little prank. Horror games I might make could use this too, they might regret seeing on the otherside because it might be scary and uncanny to look at.

I have a triple monitor set up. When it comes to UI the games I appreciate most either give me a slider to control the UI size or control size and position based solely on height. IMO FFXIV is amazing for UI as they let you control what is on your UI and where it is

This was great and very accurate. One of the biggest issues specifically with godot I've seen is the way the anchor system works sometimes means you have to switch the stretch modes of the TextureRects depending on if your X scale ratio is bigger than your Y scale ratio. So in one case, STRETCH_KEEP_ASPECT_CENTERED is better, in the other STRETCH_KEEP_ASPECT_COVERED is better. Although once you build this system to handle everything, it's no problem.

But i remember some games with the UI can add margins to the UI. so you can make the edge or corner UI get closer to the center. and the player can change that in the settings

imagine if you are the art director and you overwork your team to make sure every scene looks perfect, but then some players use ultra wide and some scenes look bad

The only informative video under 10 minutes with timestamps

I love the widejoy thumbnail

Ultrawide is a game changer. Once you've tried it going back to 16:9 will feel like looking through a window instead of being immersed in the game.

This is something I've been thinking about quite a few times. What do ultrawide users expect? To see more of the gameworld in a single screen? But that would give an advantage in PvP games. In my opinion black bars are the appropriate response, there needs to be a standardized ratio, and currently that is 16:9

Have a nice day Garbaj!

super tangential point on the issue with huds being pulled into the far corners: some people prefer a pulled out hud, while they have to look further away firm the center of their screen to see important hud information, some of the visual clutter is out of the way, and they can see more of the game is they prefer that. I don't have an ultra wide display and I'm not looking to buy one, but as an apex player that apex gameplay looks really nice. I wish I could play a version of the game with its hud elements taking up less visual space. I think the optimal solution to this is customizable huds. being able to move hud elements to a specific point on the screen would be really helpful for many players, not just people playing on an atypical aspect ratio. for people playing on a wider aspect ratio monitor, they could move hud elements to the typical spot, the center of their display, or far in the corner if they prefer that. this is also useful for all players who want to move a hud element to be more central, or out of the way, or even put elements like helath, ammo, ability cooldowns, or killfeed in a different area of the screen (ie. both health and ammo in the bottom left, health in the bottom left, and ammo in the middle). I also think allowing players to customize the color or opacity of assits, or swapping assits like the heath bar shape, or crosshair out for new hud elements can be a good thing, allowing players to use a further tweeked hud. This can be done either through developed customization options in game, or through modding (if developers allow these types of mods in their games). This can be an issue if a more custom hud provides significant advantages, but that's also only a big problem if a default hud isn't designed well, and this is more of an issue concerned with providing various options for players to set their preferences, and not creating disadvantages for players who don't know these options exist

I played on a 21:9 display for years, I was awesome for fps or simulators, but there we a lot of games where ultrawide was not working at all, and it was a constant issue. Usually I had to play with a stretched resolution, which looked wierd, if I wanted to avoid the black bars on the sides. I got tired of it, and now I'm using a 16:9 1440p monitor. I miss the ultrawide on fps games, but it does look better with the resolution and 144 framerate now.

I really like what Hades did with ultra wide, Instead of black bars they added in theme columns that are really aesthetic. Hades as a game is overall really good, if you, whoever may be reading this, haven't played it, you should try it out.

everytime i start a new game for the first time and see it doesnt support 21:9 i always try to find a fix for the resolution online. dealing with black bars on the left and right that overall take 1/3 of the entire screen is a no-go for me especially because most games (including indie games and even games from the 2000s like morrowind, the witcher etc) do have ultrawide support and its usually just some super simple change in the game files

hey garbaj i have little interest in game development but i greatly enjoy and find very interesting every single video you post

There's also an issue of balancing too, since ultra wide gives FOV advantages where they can see what normal 16:9 cant.

The main concern for me is actually gameplay. On an ultrawide you can see more of your environment at once than a regular ratio which can create unfair advantages in a PVP game.

for me this is a Joy to deal with as I love doing this type of stuff, all my website designs accomodate for the most absurd like of the resolutions

It's actually funny playing Pentiment in ultrawide. It's like a theater play but without the curtains so when actors are leaving the stage they just walk past the 16:9 area and then just stand on the edge of the 21:9 and just awkwardly stand there.

I've actually helped developers support ultrawide up to 32:9. I get that UW is niche but having developed a game and added proper support for it myself, it's not hard and all devs should do it.

Once you go 3440x1440, you can’t go back. It just feels so cinematic and immersive.

Another problem is in the level design department. Composition has to be readjusted for different aspect ratios, meaning a designer has to go through a lot of places multiple times to check nothing looks out of whack

Garbaj: "Some people are using 21:9 displays, and it's hard for them." Sabaton: "Baptized in fire, 40:1 Spirit of Spartans, death and glory"

One big problem that also is quite annoying is that some games get cropped in, so you actually see less than a 16:9 and think you're on ultra wide, an example of this (although a niche one) is need for speed payback, it's awfully cropped in that I cannot see half the car.

I honestly thought the problem with ultrawide displays were being able to see more with it therefore giving advantage to the player.

realy nice watching this video while doing homework

i love how the thumbnail is widejoy

Holy bejesus u ok in csgo good sir cuz after seeing you deathmatch I gotta bleach my eyes

I play a 16:9 1366x768 and resolution is key on the point yo mentioned about the spacing of HUD elementes or other things. Like with a bigger screen, you could see more world than me, also giving an advantage in gameplay.

It took me so damn long to figure out the anchoring part

you can see the edge of the main menu map on age of mythology on an ultrawide.

As a 3D animator, I don’t care the resolution, I can just stretch it

Watching this on my 32/9 aspect ratio haha. Love those 8/9 blackbars on each side of the video in full screen

Not just 2D games, but any game with fixed cameras would also suffer from an ultra wide screen. Not only it would ruin the artistic aspect of the framing of the scene, it could reveal some surprise planned to be seen on the next camera or unfinished blocking/void since the player wasn't supposed to see more than what was originally planned.

I'm currently working on making my first video game (for a class project) and man, even the seemingly tiniest issues can be a nightmare to solve. I feel bad for game devs sometimes.

Me clicking on the video: *expecting something with wide memes from* Me watching the video: *stay and listen carefully because the topic is pretty cool*

I still have my old 5:4 display and I will never give it up. I can't even use it without a display adapter though, since it's got a VGA hookup.

A lot of older games (and modern games) didn't render things that would have been off screen to increase performance. If you look away from something than it isn't drawn and ceases to exist for the most part. So when you try to put it on a wider monitor you run into a lot of problems. If the game doesn't render something than it can't appear on your screen, so if the game is rendering things at a fixed resolution, you can't increase that or make it wider. Some people make mods for some games to create a wide screen mode, but unless a talented person who has the time, know how, and motivation to create a wide screen mod for an old game without wide screen support, than you will have to deal with black bars.

haha, interesting timing, just got my 2nd ultrawide today.

nothing turns me on more than "hey everyone Garbaj here"

Im currently playing vanilla wow in 21:9 on the 1.12 client(the one from 2006, not the classic client that blizz launched in 2019). It took some frustration but i finally got it working and it looks amazing!

I can't even afford a new monitor, but it's really interesting nonetheless. Thank you for making this kind of videos!!

if i was a game developer, i would pretend that i didnt know ultrawide gamers exist

This is why I like the odyssey g9 32:9 monitor, because for games that support it it’s awesome, but for games that don’t I can use pbp that essentially makes it two separate 27 inch monitors, so instead of black bars and a bunch of wasted space I get another monitor I can use

well a friend of mine has a ultra wide and we played unrailed! she could basically see the next trainstation in the beginning of the round while we the NORMIES couldnt even figure out where the next pond is

For 2D games, perhaps there is a way to have code guess/clone the margins of the intended aspect ratio and expand them, only allowing things to be seen if they are intended or would break immersion (ie paths opening up to rooms or enemies coming down the path). That'd at least partially treat the issue but still cause a lapse in balance that has to be accepted

I like valves approach to it where all bud elements are where they would be on a4:3 screen closer to the middle

If I could assemble all five infinity stones, I would wish that when I snapped all screens which may eventually access my websites went to the same dimensions.

You understate the challenge that different resolutions cause in UI heavy games - e.g. Strategy, some RPGs, where you'd want the entire screen filled but it is not clear how much space you'll have. This can lead to menus overlapping or font sizes being tiny which can both be very frustrating. I wished anything but 16:9 would be banned. And let's not forget, there are still some people on 4:3 out there as well...

as a 32:9 user there is a lot of challenges that come with using this monitor. desktop use, it's generally flawless and productivity shines, however games it's either going to be a massive hit or miss. some games require mods or hexediting if you want to force the game in native resolution, some games work out of the box, and some games refuse to work on these resolutions at all. i have ran into some issues where games i love actually completely break with my resolution, and playing windowed or bordered fullscreen isn't even a working option unless i change my desktop resolution to 16:9. i do hope developers start catering for ultrawide users more, as while yes having a monitor with an unconventional resolution is not the standard or extremely popular, it may be in the future. it offers an absolutely stunning and immersive experience in almost every game when it works right.

I've had an ultrawide for 6 years, it's WAY better supported now than it was then