Widescreen mode (Valve?? anyone?)

[AbRASiON]

After watching the movies again I quite like the widescreen look to be honest.
Would you guys like to see it included in Half life 2?
I actually don't notice the black bars at the top or bottom and on my 21" it still seems more than big enough to play to be honest.

The reason movies (cinema / dvd) are in widescreen is apparently because of our eyes being sideways, rather than up / down configuration.
We see a certain FOV as humans - close to 180 or something like that - and this widescreen look in half life 2 movies is actually more realistic (akin?) to the real world.

Also it might slowly start paving the way for widescreen monitors (one day, I assure you, when all media is widescreen our monitors will follow - maybe 10 years maybe 5 but it will happen)

Anyone else like / dislike it?

I hope they at least include it as an option.
Can someone else mail this to Gabe, perhaps someone who he already recognises - I've mailed him once with no reply so I'd rather not waste his time to be honest.
Thank you all.

 

[SirMcNugget]

I like it and luckilly they will have it included as an option. There was a whole big debate thread about this, you might want to look it up for peoples opinions.

 

[Gordon'sFreeman]

erm... i heard somewhere that it is optional to have them...
dont know.

 

[AbRASiON]

I just thought more about it and the extra FOV would be equivelant to cheating in multiplayer though wouldn't it?

so ......... maybe they won't?

GABE? - answer

 

[Xtasy0]

Originally posted by AbRASiON
I just thought more about it and the extra FOV would be equivelant to cheating in multiplayer though wouldn't it?

so ......... maybe they won't?

GABE? - answer

well, with CS1.6 you can use a widescreen mode, so i think they would take care of that if it was an issue.

and yes its been confirmed HL2 will have widescreen.

 

[Apos]

People were worried that widescreen would be mandatory. But as of now, it seems only for widescreen displays. We don't know if, when switched to a widescreen res, it will scale properly to a normal monitor with black bars. I actually sort of doubt it. Though it would be pathetically easy to add black bars to the top and bottom of the screen and then render content only in the middle. I mean, even DOOM1 had that technology in the game!

 

[Nuclear_Gerber]

You will be able to play it in wide screen mode and in 4:3 mode.
Gabe got an apple 22" wide monitor...so..
Anyway someone asked him, and he said it will support both modes.

 

[AbRASiON]

Ok guys let me re-phrase this.

WILL half life 2 have a mode for widescreen for 4:3 monitor owners AND have black bars so it still looks "normal"

that's what I _really_ want

(I've got a fairly big screen and watching the movies I don't notice the black bars at all)