Screen resolution for SL

I have this new 22" flat panel LCD monitor, and am trying to find a screen resolution I like. Beyond the regular 1024x768 with the 4:3 Aspect Ratio I used on my old monitor, most of the other combinations seem either to thins and stretched upwards or squat and fatish. Maybe I'm not used to looking at an LCD, and that can be part of it. For regular non SL usage, I have it set at 1280x720 which seems ok. Suggestions are welcome.

if it's good for you its good for me.

Specs? (I mean of the monitor, not whether you wear them. )

An LCD panel has a native resolution, and everything will just look better if you use that resolution, so the pixels map directly to the monitor's pixels instead of smearing to fit a different resolution. So then, those "of a certain age" or "other visioned" for whatever reason, will want to fiddle with various Windows and SL settings to make the icons and fonts readably sized.

Also, do you run SL windowed or full-screen?

Well it's black, and it says LG on it.............


It recommends 1680x1050, which is a bit small for me actually, that's why I set it to 1280x720. But that doesn't look so good in SL, it is somewhat distorted. I use full screen mode.

If you turn it round you may see the screen

at 22" its more then likey 1680 x 1050 resolution. That seems to be the standard for that size.

he he.....actually I can't hook it up. The instructions are on a CD, but without a monitor, I can't read what's on the CD that will tell me how to hook up the monitor....

You may actually get used to everything looking tiny. It's a lot more comfortable to snuggle up close to an LCD than to a CRT, if "up close" works for whatever combination of lenses one wants to interpose between one's retina and the screen.

If "tiny and close" isn't good, because you run SL in full-screen mode you could set that resolution just for SL and then bump up the UI Size slider. (You'd probably want to do that in windowed mode, too, if you decide to let Windows itself run at that resolution, and tinker with Windows' own fonts and icon sizes--which is easy in *nix but possible in Windows, too).

[ETA: Right, the 1280x720 is an HDTV resolution, and HDTV is a 16:9 aspect ratio, but your monitor is 8:5. The ideal at that width would be 1280x800, but 1280x768 seems to be the one SL knows about and might be slightly better--*if* your graphics adapter/control panel/monitor all agree that such a resolution is possible. I still prefer starting with the full native resolution and sliding that UI Size for a comfortable fit.]

You could use that resolution and make the icons larger, possibly.

I'm about to get a 22" widescreen and I intend to use a larger resolution for content creation. I have to wonder how tiny is tiny! Guess I'll find out...

Your monitor has an 8:5 aspect ratio, but 1280x720 is 16:9 which would stretch everything slightly along the vertical.

Try 1280x800 and set the aspect ratio to 8:5 as well and see if that doesn't help.

(SL isn't particularly great with figuring out the aspect ratio on its own in full-screen, especially if the SL resolution differs from your desktop and if its idea and your idea differ, you have to reset it upon every login even though it insists it's using the one you want)

I don't have an 8:5. All I have on the SL prferences screen is 4:3, 5:4, and 16:9

When using LCD, it is essential to select a resolution which is natively supported by the screen. If it, say, supports only 1680, and you attempt to run 1024, each pixel delivered by your computer has to be stretched to fit 1.640625 pixels on the monitor (horizontally). If it was just say, stretching to double size, each pixel could easily be duplicated, but due to the weird ratio, each pixel has to be smeared almost randomly across several pixels on your screen, which is likely to produce a very sub-par image. The difference is *very* striking.
Always use a signal which matches what your monitor natively supports, and then adjust the interface size in software. (Windows icons, SL font size etc). -And more pixels to draw (bigger) things with means less jagged edges and an overall smoother look, so just go as wild as your graphics card and your monitor can handle in tandem without a performance loss.

If you're running full screen on an LCD, you should use the monitor's native resolution for your screen size. LCD's aren't like CRT's. A CRT shoots a beam of energy and particles onto a solid piece of glass and phosphorous, so the number of pixels is limited only by the precision of the gun. You can therefore increase or decrease the amount of pixels at any time to all manner of arbitrary numbers. An LCD, on the other hand, has it pixels physically built right into the screen, as tiny liquid-filled cells. There's no way to increase or decrease their amount.

When you try to use a resolution setting on an LCD that is different than the monitor's actual physical resolution, things get out of whack. Unless you lower it to an even fraction, like 1/2 or 1/4, you end up with distortion, as the monitor tries its best to figure out what to do with the pixels that don't quite fit. On inexpensive panels, typically what happens is the image becomes blocky looking. On more sophisticated ones, there's some AI built in which serves to combine the colors of the missing pixels with the existing ones so things look as smooth as they can. Either way, you're not getting a true representation of your image. For that, you must use the monitor's native resolution at all times.

That said, if you have an nVidia video card, you can cheat a little. Go into your nVidia Control Panel, and under the Display section, click on "Change flat panel scaling". Right now it's probably set to "Use my display's built-in scaling", the default. Set it to "Use NVIDIA scaling" instead. This way, when the display is a different resolution than the monitor, the video card will do the work to interpolate the colors to fill in the missing pixels before anything gets sent to the monitor. Then, as far as the monitor knows, the resolution is correct, and it doesn't have to worry about it. You're still not seeing a true representation of your picture, but it should be significantly better than before, since this is the kind of thing that video cards are good at. Unless you have a REALLY good monitor (better than what LG has to offer), the video card will almost always do a better job of the scaling than the monitor will.

I don't know if ATI cards have similar functionality, but I'd imagine they do. If you're running ATI, hunt through the settings in your Catalyst Control Center. It will be in there somewhere if it exists.


In any case, I'd still recommend sticking with 1680x1050. You hit the nail on the head in your first post when you said you're just not used to it yet. Once you do get used to it, you won't want to go back. If text appears small to you, increase the font size in your preferences. If things in the world look small, just zoom in more. With your new monitor you're able to see a lot more at once than you ever could with your old one. Take advantage of that.

Which viewer are you using? 1.19.1.4 (Windlight viewer) should have a 8:5 from the drop-down, as well as 1.20 RC.

Even if you do pick your native 1680x1050, it would still end up looking distorted if the viewer gets the aspect ratio wrong.

One other thought: You may actually want to switch to running SL in windowed mode, now that you can have all that screen real-estate for other apps--and because if you run SL full screen at full resolution, it may be a lot of pixels for your graphics adapter to handle, depending on its vintage.

wow some good replies.........My 10 lindens worth........ it..much depends on the monitor.......I recently bought a 22" sams*ng and it has an auto feature, where i press a button and it automatically sets the resolution to the gfx card capabilities. In my case its a Nvidea 9600 GT. The monitor runs at 1400 x 900 default for everything.

So the simple answer is its more about your video card then it is the monitor. check the specs to see what maximum resolution it will operate.


Good luck

I'm using the Nicholaz BE-W. That's the non windlight 18.5.3 viewer. My video card can't handle a Windlight Viewer (ATI X300), even turned down it gives it fits.

I don't use any other programs wheb I run SL usually, I shut down everything, even Windows Explorer. But I'll try running windowed, see if it makes any difference. Thanks to all.

Ok. Here's what I done did. I set SL to run at 1280 by 1050 with a 16:9 aspect ratio. That
looks pretty good to me. I didn't like the window, so it will stay in fullscreen. For Windows itself, I set it to the same resolution and adjusted the display to 120dpi, which is ok I guess, but webpages are a bit small. Thanks for all the replies. All this tech talk has made my brain hurt, so I think I'll go lie down.

You can change the font size on most web sites, typically with the View menu. Then yell and scream loudly at the web sites that still use fixed HTML-defined font sizes (e.g. <font size="2">, or use images for text.

19" Dell CRT and I'm still happy with it after 4 years. Only paid $128 for it. Top that LCD Screen Folks!!

When it dies, and only then, shall I switch to an LCD.

Besides, I can view it at any angle, even use Windex to clean the screen.

When I DO switch... it'll be at least a 24" LCD.


*did I mention CRT uses less power than an LCD and doesnt suffer from 'dead pixels'?? Also allows many resolutions from 640x480 and up. No ghosting either.

Yes Tod. We all know you are the smartest boy in class.........

Go into "Windowed" mode. A squished aspect ratio is the problem and is not necessary, but the easiest fix is to go into windowed mode. I run at the non-standard aspect ration of 16:10 (2560x1600) and love it.

Don't forget "weighs 85 lbs.," too.

P2

Any data to support the claim that CRTs use less energy than LCDs?

I have the same question as the original poster. I have a Dell 3007, a thirty-inch monitor with two native resolutions: 2560x1600 and 1280x800. The former is probably too much for my nVidia 8800 Ultra; the latter is too low a resolution. So I usually end up at 1920 x 1200, the only intermediate resolution of the right aspect ratio. Native or not, that resolution looks better than 1280 x 800 to me. But I'm curious whether there are any other SLers who use a 30-inch monitor.