LCD Widescreen monitors

I've just installed a Shiny New LG Flatron 22" LCD monitor. Everything is bright and sharp - except Trainz, which is now frightful - the colours are quite unsubtle, and sometimes there is a "Pop Art" style to the picture.

I have tried all the settings I can find without any worthwhile improvement. The LG Manual and Web Site are not very helpful. Anyone else had the same problem? And solved it? :confused:
 
Sorry, I, Bernie have not had this problem. But neither have I solved it you see. So to solve this problem, I need to create it for myself first. But I am not willing to create this problem for myself. Perhaps you may reinstall trainz, try seperate resolutions, adjust your graphics options, for example in the US Fall Guy nvidia control panel. Maybe ask Euphod, or try TrainzDiag. Possibly adjust the config.txt.

Bernie.
 
Trainz does not (so far as I'm aware) have a native widescreen resolution. By default, the Nvidia drivers will try to stretch or "scale" the 4:3 picture across the wider screen which can certainly distort the image. If you go into the Nvidia Control Panel and find the scaling options, select the bottom action (which ISTR says "No Scaling") that will allow older programmes such as Trainz to run at the actual resolution selected e.g. 1024 x 768 but will leave blank areas either side of the image on your monitor.

LCD's can be a bit of a bear to set up, I normally have to turn the brightness and contrast quite far down to get an acceptable display.
 
LCD Monitor

Thanks, Vern. I'll try turning everything down. I'm not worried about the aspect matter (4:3) for the moment, just the colour.
 
I have an AWA (Phillips) 26 inch (66cm) LCD screen for the last 12 months, a TV screen actually with PC input and everything looks teriffic with TRS. I can also switch to different screen settings like stretched and 4:3 and some others. It runs a trifle darker than my older 19 inch CRT monitor but hey, video settings are easy to adjust and keep it at the right display settings. :)

When I bought my LDC TV I made sure about screen resolutions (as high as possible), brightness etc. supported and I can choose up to 1600 x whatever resolution. I am normally running in 1024x765 when playing TRS and get a crisp and clear picture with it. With other games I might switch to a higher resolution if wanted or required.

Plasma screens are I guess not as good as I tried one before I bought the above unit, I could not switch to a higher resolution I wanted to get a good picture. On the other hand, there are now plenty of 22 inch LCD monitors on the market, the trick is to see them in a computer shop and to check their picture with different games and resolutions to see which one suits the best.

Cheers

VinnyBarb
 
Sharpness: Really this is what makes a nice image or not. What kind of video card do you use? Have you played witht he settings? On some there is a sharpness control. You should have to play with everything you can to get the best image. Later cards, such as the 8800 and up don't have this sharpness adjustment and I can't use them!
 
Trainz does not (so far as I'm aware) have a native widescreen resolution.

Yes, it does. Set Trainz to run in the native resolution of the panel, and it'll run in whatever the panels aspect ratio is (normally 16:10 on widescreen computer monitors). This will ensure everything remains square (and doesn't appear stretched or squashed). TRS2006 and above should have this option in the settings - for TRS2004 you'd need to go editing the trainzoptions.txt to get this resolution.

To get that "widescreen feeling" (seeing more width, rather than seeing less height), you also have to increase the field of view. Adding 10 to the default numbers in the trainzoptions.txt (or trainzclassicsoptions.txt for TC) seems to be about right for 16:10 widescreen. (This may have a negative impact on performance, as you'll be bringing more objects into view).
 
Bloodnok, you suggest setting Trainz to run in the native resolution of the panel. How/Where do you do this? I will be buying a 19" flat screen shortly so I guess I'll need to know this. Thankz.
 
stouthm,

I am running Trainz on a widescreen Acer LCD and it looks and performs great. I run the monitor at 1680x1050 all the time so I simply set trains to this resolution on the drop down box in the options menues that you get into at trainz start-up time.

Cheers,
Geoff
 
LCD Monitors

Thank you all for the tips.

Bloodnok (are you a Goons fan, then?), I shall have to look up the trainzoptions.txt settings. Is there a handy reference somewhere?

Cheers
 
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