New to Widescreen

[Nightfang]

So, I now have this wonderful BenQ 20.1" Widescreen LCD on my desk, but I have a few older games that want 1024x768. Since I am at 16:10, and the game wants 4:3, the screen is stretched across the entire display, distorting the image. How can I get it to compact it into a 1024x768 box in the middle of my screen?

My video card, BTW, is a GeForce 6800

 

[nitromullet]

You can usually set this in your video card settings. I think with NVIDIA it is called display scaling.

You have 3 options IIRC:
1) stretch to fill full screen - what you have now and is usually the default
2) black bars top/bottom while displaying only actual pixels - a 1024x768 image in the middle of your 1680x1050 screen surrounded by borders
3) stretch to fit while still maintaining correct aspect ratio - the longest edge will be stretched to fit and borders will be used to compensate on the other edge

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com is a useful resource for all things related to widescreen gaming, and you might even find out how to run your games at your screen's native rez which is always the best.

 

[Nightfang]

Thanks! I had lost the URL for that site, so thanks for that as well.