Wade said:
1. Do people generally use the highest resolution available of the monitor for desktop, internet, and games?...Icons and print get quite smaller. There is an option in settings to keep the resolution but add larger icons. I haven't tried it, I'm not sure if it only affects the desktop.
This is an issue with large screens generally. There is little real point in running them at lower resolution unless you have a full-screen application that cannot cope (e.g. a 3D game that needs a beefier graphics card). As for general application usage, just resize the window to a more convenient setting.
WinSplit Revolution may be of help here as it allows you to split your screen in two.
Wade said:
2. I'm trynig to finish a single player game of Space Empires IV. The game now appears as a window in the wide screen with all sides around it black, even the top and bottom. This window the game is playing in is even SMALLER then when it filled my regular 19" flat panel monitor! What can I do?
Review the
*windowed* SE4, running on windows! thread.
Wade said:
This slight distortion was also the case for Civilization IV, and a graphic ugliness, until I changed the in game resolution to the 1680 x 1050. But now with Civilization IV also everything is much smaller and most sub SCREENS are now smaller sub WINDOWS with the main map in the background.
Mmff...I found Civ IV a disappointment. Alpha Centauri (with the Alien Crossfire expansion) is IMHO a better game which Firaxis developed back in 1999
and it runs quite well in widescreen (I'm using 2560x1600) provided you make
this adjustment.
Wade said:
I suppose that it's just whether the individual games and sites are programed for wide screen.
Games can (and should) have a UI that adjusts for any supported resolution. There is little excuse for releasing one now that does not, given that some games from 7 or more years ago can work. Some
do require persuasion though and the
Widescreen Confirmed Solutions forum is a good place to check for any required modifications.
Wade said:
4. (Edit) Also, I could of gotten the same size monitor with 5ms speed and 1000:1 contrast for much cheaper. How desirable is 2ms speed/ 3000:1 contrast compared to 5ms/ 1000:1? Is there much difference noticed?
The only way to tell is to eyeball the two monitors yourself. Response time (which covers grey-to-grey) will actually vary depending on the colours involved so a single figure is subject to "optimistic evaluation" by manufacturers, and people have differing sensitivity to it - anything under 8ms is unlikely to be a problem for most. Contrast ratio is more obvious, but a more important factor for large screens is the extent to which it drops off when viewed from an angle (which becomes important with the edges of larger monitors). See
DansData: Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC LCD monitor for more details on such matters.