GZDoom with ultrawide curved monitor

[illYay1337]

So I finally got an ultrawide curved monitor.  It looks great in most games.

 

Doom, on the other hand, has a lot of flat lines, as we all know.  Everything looks super warped and wonky.  Is there some method to playing Doom well on a curved monitor without things looking so weird?  Maybe there's some kind of warp deprojection that can happen.

Here's a screenshot with me warping things just to give an idea of what the world looks like to me.  The bottom stairs for example is so noticeable LOL.  This is probably just the stupid thing I have to deal with due to splurging on an ultra wide curved monitor, but maybe there's a good fix?  Maybe there can be a setting to warp the image to compensate for curved monitors.

[dpJudas]

Ah yes the "lovely" curved monitor effect. I actually notice that even in normal applications. The good news is that at least for me I stopped noticing it after a while, but the funny thing is then I started seeing straight lines on normal monitors as curved instead (my brain had started to compensate). It is one of the reasons I sold my ultrawide monitor and don't intend on buying one again.

 

There's no setting to compensate for this I'm afraid - the closest you can get is the Lens Distortion Effect post process filter. It bends things so maybe it will help on the effect (or make it worse?).

[illYay1337]

I'm slowly starting to get used to it more and more as I use the monitor in all sorts of applications.  Maybe such a setting will only make it harder to get used to and it's better to immerse myself in this curvedness.

 

It would potentially be trivial to add such a warping setting into a 3D accelerated game, especially like GZDoom, but it might still look off in other ways.

[Devalaous]

Ah yes, the 'Doomguy is a hammerhead shark' gameplay mod

[illYay1337]

I swear guys, it's totally worth it!

 

But yeah it seems to not be great for old school 90's low poly games on first impression until you adjust to it.  Modern games all look amazing.  I don't notice a curve what so ever.  I tried Halflife even, and barely noticed any curves.  Doom is literally a bunch of flat planes with no slopes, so that effect is exacerbated a bit.

 

Checker patterns on the floor or ceiling also aren't great at first.  Once you start moving a lot and get into the action it's better

 

[dpJudas]

I think ultra widescreen monitors is one of those things that people either love or hate.

 

Most games don't take them into account, so the HUD is spread out to the sides to such an extreme you can't really use it properly anymore. When I was playing Apex Legends on mine I would have to change the resolution of the entire monitor to get it letter boxed (16:9 in the game), otherwise I couldn't see the health of my squad members properly, which is a crucial component in decision making on what to do next in that game. On the other hand if you're more into relaxed single player gaming and graphical fidelity, then there's certainly more of an immersion effect if you use ultra widescreen.

 

For desktop usage the story is the same. For some usages like video editing the extra space becomes very handy. For software development I find that it is very difficult to really take advantage of the form factor. For software development a 32" 16:9 retina monitor is so much nicer to use.

Edited December 20, 2023 by dpJudas

[illYay1337]

Before I bought an ultrawide monitor, I read Apex Legends is one of the games that does support it well.  Maybe it's updated recently.

I just played a bunch of Halo MCC and it was great. The score board in Halo Reach was off for some reason but otherwise halo 3 worked great.

I then played a bunch of Quake 2 remastered and that worked really well too. It has the same low poly aesthetic as doom and somehow I didn't really get bothered by the warping.  I never noticed it, I just beat half the Quake 64 campaign in 1 sitting and it was all great.  In fact Quake 2 remastered seemed to 100% support ultrawide because it gave nice clean fades on the sides instead of a harsh transition to black on some screens where it wasn't meant for ultrawide.  I might be getting used to it.  I need to go and play Sigil 2 soon so I'll see how well that goes.

Also for software development.  Not bad.


At work I have a slightly different setup where I have VS Code in a random smaller window and a bunch of other stuff open and it all works great.  I can fit a ton on screen at once and it's very comfortable.  My experience with my work monitor was what actually convinced me I like Ultrawide after all.

Edited December 20, 2023 by illYay1337

[dpJudas]

I didn't read about how good Apex Legends works on such a monitor. I personally played it on one. Unless you can show me a screenshot of Apex Legends on a ultra widescreen where the HUD isn't placed all out to the sides I still think my argument holds for why it isn't ideal.

 

As for software development, what I'm seeing on your screenshot is exactly what I don't like about it. Most of the monitor is going unused and its generally difficult to make much use of it. In any case, I'm happy you're enjoying your new monitor - I just wanted to add a bit of context to readers of the thread considering buy a new monitor that there are pros and cons to the form factor. :)