SoF on Widescreen

An unpatched SoF only supports a screen aspect ratio of 4:3. The table below shows the supported resolutions (you can list them in SoF with the ‘vid_modes’ command):

gl_mode X-resolution Y-resolution
0 (disabled) 320 240
1 (disabled) 400 300
2 (disabled) 512 384
3 640 480
4 800 600
5 960 720
6 1024 768
7 1152 864
8 1280 960
9 1600 1200

Some players are using widescreen displays with other aspect ratios, like 16:10. When they play SoF in fullscreen mode, the image is distorted (squeezed vertically/stretched horizontally), but the amount of information that is displayed, is the same.

SoF 4:3 Unmodified SoF on 4:3 display
SoF 4:3 on 16:10 display Unmodified SoF on 16:10 display (distorted)

SoF.exe resolution patch

Warning: You can’t use a patched SoF.exe with WaX. It works with UAC3.

Download this patch to change the hardcoded resolutions of SoF.exe. This will allow you to play SoF in fullscreen mode on widesceen displays without getting image distortion.

Note that the horizontal FOV isn’t changed, so you will actually see less instead of more. Since the missing information is at the top and the bottom, I don’t consider this a big problem. The example 16:10 image below shows this. The red box indicates what area would have been visible with an aspect ratio of 4:3.

16:10 95 Patched SoF on 16:10 display

SoFplus resolution and FOV changes

I’m still working on this. This will be in the next relase of SoFplus. Feel free to inform me about your opinion on the FOV subject…

I’ve put a new command (sp_cl_set_video_mode) in the unreleased SoFplus client that lets you set any resolution you want.

I’m thinking about changing FOV, but it’s not easy to come up with something that’s fair for players with 4:3 and 16:10 displays. Using a FOV of 100 for 16:10 displays results in the same amount of information on the screen as a FOV of 95 on a 4:3 display, but it probably gives the players with the 16:10 display an advantage, because information on the left/right is more important than on the top/bottom.

Almost every other game with widescreen support keeps the vertical FOV locked, which means that the horizontal FOV changes with different aspect ratios. For SoF this would mean that players on 16:10 displays would get a horizontal FOV of 105.

The images below show how FOV affects the amount of information that’s on the screen. The red box indicates what information is on the screen on a 4:3 display with FOV 95 (the current SoF default).

4:3 95
Aspect ratio: 4:3
FOV: 95
Gain: 0%
Notes: SoF default
4:3 100
Aspect ratio: 4:3
FOV: 100
Gain: +20%
Notes: Seems unfair to me
4:3 105
Aspect ratio: 4:3
FOV: 105
Gain: +44%
Notes: Seems unfair to me
16:10 95
Aspect ratio: 16:10
FOV: 95
Gain: -17%
Notes: Patched for widescreen, with SoF default horizontal FOV
A little disadvantage, but the top and bottom don’t contain much information
16:10 100
Aspect ratio: 16:10
FOV: 100
Gain: 0%
Notes: Patched for widescreen, with FOV adjusted to show the same amount of display surface as the 4:3 case with FOV 95
Players on 4:3 displays may complain, because the left and right contain more information than top and bottom
16:10 105
Aspect ratio: 16:10
FOV: 105
Gain: +20%
Notes: Patched for widescreen, with SoF default vertical FOV
Seems unfair to me, but this is what other games do

The images below show how FOV settings affect the displayed image. Note that a changed FOV also affects gameplay: Small FOV makes the game feel slow and large FOV makes it feel fast (your real speed is always the same). You can try this yourself by walking around with the sniper rifle. When it’s zoomed in, your FOV is very small and the game will feel slow.

FOV 20 FOV 20
FOV 35 FOV 35
FOV 50 FOV 50
FOV 65 FOV 65
FOV 80 FOV 80
FOV 95 FOV 95
SoF default
FOV 110 FOV 110
FOV 125 FOV 125
FOV 140 FOV 140
FOV 155 FOV 155