GOW VGA fix makes VGA worse

by Richard Mitchell { Jan 10th 2007 at 1:00PM }

Reports are coming in from several 360 Fanboy readers that the VGA fix implemented by the recent Gears of War patch has actually made things worse. It seems the aspect ratio fix was to downgrade the resolution to the lowest possible setting (640 X 480). The result is an ugly, pixelated image. Not only that, but other strange errors have been introduced. In some cases, the field of view is reduced, others report that the score display at the end of a round has errors (note the overlapping numbers and letters in the image above). Of course, the worst part about all this is that the patch was automatic, so there is no way to change it back. Many readers have already told us they preferred a squished high definition picture to a jaggy, washed out mess.

How many of our readers suffer from this "fix?" Leave a comment and let your voice be heard. Don't forget to make your thoughts known at the official Gears forums, too.

Tags: epic, epic games, epic studios, EpicGames, EpicStudios, gears, gears of war, GearsOfWar, gow, microsoft game studios, MicrosoftGameStudios

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ExpandedFlame @ Jan 10th 2007 1:15PM

I use vga cables on a 19" widescreen monitor, i still am able to play the game at 1280x1024 resolution w/ not messed up aspect ratio...

SlyEcho @ Jan 10th 2007 1:31PM

Mine looks great.

Akiba Decker @ Jan 10th 2007 1:32PM

I updated the 360 dash and then proceeded to update the GoW update with this "fix".

I am suffering from this problem. Now I am experiencing full screen, 4:3 aspect ratio on 1280 x 1024 on my Hyundai LD90+ 19" LCD monitor.

Before, I was able to see in letterboxed widescreen on my monitor, which gave me a greater playing view. Now I feel restricted :( At least I finished the game (on all three difficulties) in a widescreen/squished state!

Games like Rainbow Six: Vegas put me in widescreen, and so does PGR3 (but I have to go down to 1024 x 768, game bug they never fixed).

I want my widescreen views back :(

ExpandedFlame @ Jan 10th 2007 1:40PM

yea, i just checked again, 1280x1024 and NO PIXELATION.. yes i am connected to Xbox Live my gamertag is ExpandedFlame and i did get the update... sorry for those who have a problem..

JDuB @ Jan 10th 2007 1:40PM

-I want my widescreen views back :(

Get with the times and buy a widescreen monitor.
People like you are the reason i have to watch my HDTV in pillarbox.

voghan @ Jan 10th 2007 1:56PM

I use the VGA connection on a 37" Vizio LCD and the game looks great. I don't have any of the problems you are describing and am running at 1280 x 720 resolution.

Akiba Decker @ Jan 10th 2007 2:00PM

JDub @ No 5: Well, I don't have as much money as you do. We work with what we have and in the bigger scheme of things, a new widescreen monitor (no matter how cheap) is the last thing we need to afford at the moment.

That and this is something that should not have passed certification (or they should offer an option).

"Getting with the times" is not that easy.

rinks @ Jan 10th 2007 2:31PM

Patch broke matchmaking last night, so that was cool.

impressme @ Jan 10th 2007 2:36PM

The dashboard update (not the GOW update) included changes for VGA. I'm using the VGA cable connected to a Dell 2405FPW and am experiencing no problems at the LCD's highest resolution.

KingOfGods @ Jan 10th 2007 3:06PM

No Problems here. I'm running on a 37" at 1920x1080. It looks like the people who have a prob have 4:3 displays.

Binford04 @ Jan 10th 2007 4:06PM

Wasn't there supposed to be a new Achievement with this patch/maps? Has anyone found it?

Gideon Valor @ Jan 10th 2007 4:28PM

Yea, I thought I was the only one with this issue until a bunch of freinds of mine signed on and noticed the same thing. I thought I was going crazy cause I hadn't played my Xbox in several days. This sucks....

ForensicScene @ Jan 10th 2007 4:56PM

I certainly prefer "a squished high definition picture to a jaggy, washed out mess."

It's ugly, plain ugly. The impressive graphic put down to original box niveau. :(

Chris @ Jan 10th 2007 5:35PM

I updated the game 30 min. ago only to find that I had full screen... but at a horrible resolution. I definitely would of rather stuck with the stretch (which wasn't a big problem) then have to play it this way. Epic better hurry and get a fix for this fix, ASAP.

RedSack @ Jan 10th 2007 6:28PM

I never had a problem with it being letter boxed, i prefer that, playing on a 720p projector, it looks awesome, the screen size is massive, i dont need fullscreen uglyness.

ShermDidIt @ Jan 10th 2007 7:06PM

I have a 23" 1920X1200 monitor that connected perfectly through VGA when I bought it a week ago. A live update 2 days later broke 1080i output on my box and now only allows 1360X768 max. Now you're telling me this new GOW update could potentially make my picture look even worse? I've been using 1280X720 for the most part because it looks much better than 1360 on my monitor with less levels of upscaling, but I'm getting more and more annoyed with each passing day. The fact that the VGA cable is $40 on top of all this just angers me. Why tout an output format only to serve up a buggy mess. It's a problem they are well aware off yet seem to be dragging their feet on. The tech support rep told me the fix would be here "in a couple of months". NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

Matt @ Jan 10th 2007 8:21PM

err you can uninstall the patch, just clear your cache, but that means you wont be able to play online untill you have installed the new patch

ACK DMan @ Jan 10th 2007 9:00PM

I am also having the same issues as many others and prefer "a squished high definition picture to a jaggy, washed out mess."

My field of view is horrible now and the definition is awful. I have a Sony 19" and run my 360 at 1280x1024. I tried several different settings, but all of them had bad results.

Waffles @ Jan 11th 2007 12:48AM

I just set my 4:3 monitor to 1280x720 and then manually squish the height so its proper 16:9.

Just find a circular graphic in a game and measure its height and width and adjust your screen dimensions accordingly :)

OTAM @ Jan 11th 2007 2:16AM

Why don't we play on the goddamn television set like consoles intended..mmkay?

NuAngel @ Jan 11th 2007 3:00AM

Updated the game, looks fine using normal AV cable. Will try to check component cable via S-Video tomorrow. VGA Cable is in the mail, can't wait to see how that is!

Nu

The Mad Blimper @ Jan 11th 2007 3:23AM

GoW runs just fine for me on VGA. I set the resolution on the dashboard to 1280x768 and it runs beautifully at 1024x768. Might not be true widescreen, but its far better than pixelated death

Adam @ Jan 11th 2007 3:38AM

I use VGA.. never had any issues before and after the patch

Keef @ Jan 11th 2007 5:33AM

My projector can do 4:3 and 16:9, i tested it on 4:3 and it looks horrible, then i tryed it set to 16:9, and it looks MUCH better.

pepbizmo @ Jan 11th 2007 10:48AM

Nothing wrong with the patch, on the contrary it made my day...i was hoping they would fix the ratio and they did now the resolution is better, it's looking better and marcus is complete in the picture...Thanx Epic you are amazing!!!! Please don't listen to these suckers and leave it the way you patch it now...

sidspappy @ Jan 11th 2007 1:52PM

Yeah, I have it too. I'm running a Dell 1704FPT 17" 5:4 LCD monitor. The jaggies are HORRIBLE! There's obviously no AA being applied to the image, which almost certainly is a 640x480 upsampled image (judging by the size of the jaggies). Funny thing is, if I set the 360 dashboard to 1280x1024 WIDESCREEN, the image on my monitor is vertically stretched (due to my auto-adjust only), but the anti-aliasing magically appears!

Mark Rein at Epic won't even acknowledge that a problem even exists, as far as the missing AA. This is very disturbing.

sidspappy @ Jan 11th 2007 2:01PM

HEY! I'm just reading thru some of the previous posts, and I want to comment:

For those who have LCD WIDESCREEN monitors, please stop commenting! This problem only affects NON-WIDESCREEN LCDs (majority of them running 1280x1024 5:4 ratio). You're making the problem seem LESS worse than it really is, simply because you're not understanding the real problem!!!

FourJoint @ Jan 11th 2007 2:26PM

Yeah, I was force fed this update and it messed me up.

I use a 6ms viewsonic gaming monitor at 1280x1024 for my 360. The squished view didnt even look bad at all. If you didnt know any better you couldnt even tell it was squished.

Now everything is stretched tall! the locust look like people with a godzilla costume on.

Its also taking a 800x600 (im guessing, could be lower) image and stretching it to fit on 1280x1024 pixels.

so that means for every 1.6 pixels wide on my screen they are stretching 1 pixel out and for roughly every 1.7 pixels high they are stretching 1 rendered pixel.

This is jaggy city baby. gears of war looks more like "Spokes of War".

Now I finally have a reason to go grab tony hawk or something.

maybe they should get back to designing games instead of going out and partying like rockstars. If they dont they are going to end up a one-hit-wonder. (that ruined their hit by re-releasing it recorded on betamax)