VOGONS


Fantavision aspect ratio

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First post, by 7F20

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So I'm seeing this weird thing with the DOS version of Fantavision where the aspect ratio is stretched out vertically in the console window, but it seems totally fine when I use the player disk to play the demo movies, or when the introduction plays.

I went to find other people's screenshots of the program, but all I can find is this youtube video that seems to show the same issue. Pay attention to how the circle icon in the menu on the left is a vertically biased oval instead of a circle, but the into movie looks like circles and it's correct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdR-wz_MKtE

Is there anyone here that has any insight as to what's going on? I'm running this program in EGA mode on a CRT VGA monitor. If it was always wrong, then I would understand it (and then I could just stretch the image), but it's sometimes wrong, so I'm frustrated 🤣.

thanks

Reply 1 of 4, by ripsaw8080

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What you are noticing is the effect of pixel aspect ratios. The developer of the software in question created the circle as if pixels have a 1.0 aspect ratio (as high as they are wide), but when viewed at a resolution that does not have a 1.0 aspect ratio the circle appears more oval than circle. This "distortion" of the aspect is probably more noticeable at the software's default 640x350 resolution (1.37 pixel aspect ratio), and less noticeable when switched to 320x200 (1.2 pixel aspect ratio); however, neither of the resolutions is 1.0 so you get an oval either way.

You can, of course, disable aspect correction in DOSBox by setting aspect=false, and then the circle on the menu should appear circular. Uncorrected aspect is not the way the software would typically appear on a real monitor, though.

Reply 2 of 4, by 7F20

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ripsaw8080 wrote on 2022-10-11, 03:29:

Uncorrected aspect is not the way the software would typically appear on a real monitor, though.

Thanks

Ok. So if I'm reading you correctly, the way I'm seeing the "ovals" is perfectly normal, and it would look like that on a CRT in 1988 the same way it looks to me now?

I suppose then, it would be the same way that I have to adjust the vert and horiz controls of my monitor to make it look correct, and the opening sequence is saved as 320x200 low-res EGA, and I'm using the program in 640x350 hi-res EGA.

Reply 3 of 4, by _Rob

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Fantavision is being played during this LGR video, if you want to see what it looks like on real vintage hardware:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhBkx9Z1JQw

However, even on vintage hardware you typically had horizontal and vertical adjustments, as such you could stretch the image one way or another.

Reply 4 of 4, by 7F20

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_Rob wrote on 2022-10-11, 11:17:

Fantavision is being played during this LGR video, if you want to see what it looks like on real vintage hardware:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhBkx9Z1JQw

LGR only uses the Fantavision Player program which is a slide show player and not the same as the console window, which you use to create and preview videos in. The Player works just fine on my machine, as there is only one aspect ratio to observe. The reason I was having issues, as ripsaw pointed out, is that the Fantavision console is opening in a different resolution than the opening sequence is playing in, and my VGA monitor is just centering the hi-res EGA mode.