How can I get black bars back on my display?

[chctulc]

This is going to sound a bit stupid, but I have a retro build that I'd like to play older games on at the available resolutions of their era. But all lowering the resolution does is stretch the chosen lower rez display to the monitor's screen size (1080p). Is there any way I can bring back the black bars so the reduced resolution is correct and centered in the higher rez display?

MSI P6n SLI Platinum
Pentium 4 640, QX6850
4x2GB DDR2 800Mhz
8800GTS 320
Win XP x86
32" 1080p Monitor

The latest available video driver for 32bit WinXP is ver. 340.52. I haven't been able to find anywhere in the Nvidia control panel to center the lo-rez display on the screen with bars. Anyone know how to do this?

 

[Princess Garnet]

Check and see if your monitor has scaling options. Mine (much older) calls it "wide mode" and the options are "fill", "aspect", and "1:1". Yours is currently doing the equivalent of fill, and what you want is the equivalent of aspect (or 1:1).

You may be able to do this with GPU scaling on the graphics card side through the nVidia control panel if the monitor lacks such options.

 

[damric]

There's a $5 program on Steam, well it's free to try but it unlocks more if you buy it. It might work.

Lossless Scaling on Steam

All-in-one gaming utility for scaling and frame generation

store.steampowered.com

 

[chctulc]

Check and see if your monitor has scaling options. Mine (much older) calls it "wide mode" and the options are "fill", "aspect", and "1:1". Yours is currently doing the equivalent of fill, and what you want is the equivalent of aspect (or 1:1).

You may be able to do this with GPU scaling on the graphics card side through the nVidia control panel if the monitor lacks such options.

The monitor's OSD shows 'image' scaling, but it is greyed out. I can't find any way to use it. (I must have bought the cheaper model ;-)
One thing I forgot to mention... I am using a DVI-D to HDMI adapter at the graphic card because my monitor doesn't have a DVI port and the old card doen't have an HDMI header. Maybe that is why 'image scaling is greyed out?

 

[Princess Garnet]

I'm not sure on that.

If the monitor won't let you adjust the scaling, I'd try and do it with the graphics card drivers to see if that can prevent it.

 

[Ruru]

The monitor's OSD shows 'image' scaling, but it is greyed out. I can't find any way to use it. (I must have bought the cheaper model ;-)
One thing I forgot to mention... I am using a DVI-D to HDMI adapter at the graphic card because my monitor doesn't have a DVI port and the old card doen't have an HDMI header. Maybe that is why 'image scaling is greyed out?

DVI and HDMI are practically the same thing so I'm not sure that is that HDMI's fault.

 

[Marcus L]

The monitor's OSD shows 'image' scaling, but it is greyed out. I can't find any way to use it. (I must have bought the cheaper model ;-)
One thing I forgot to mention... I am using a DVI-D to HDMI adapter at the graphic card because my monitor doesn't have a DVI port and the old card doen't have an HDMI header. Maybe that is why 'image scaling is greyed out?

Should be GPU scaling options in the driver although with a 8800 GTS and old drivers not sure if they would have that option back then ( had an 320MB 8800 GTS myself back in the day as couldn't afford the full fat one )

Also saying that, some monitor options will not be available to you (greyed out) if you have other options enabled that affect those, disable things like VRR/G-Synch, HDR, etc you might find a better explanation if you download your monitors manual, I have a lot of greyed out options in my OSD when other settings are enabled etc so worthwhile exploring which settings affect others as I can enable those "missing features" when I disable others

 

[stahlhart]

dgVoodoo might work for that -- there is a setting for "stretched, maintain aspect ratio" where it will max out the display vertically but still keep it at 4:3 if the game's resolution setting is that aspect ratio.

I have, however, run into an older game engine that stretches horizontally and vertically regardless of display settings, and dgVoodoo will not override it. I was not aware (up until now) of the utility on Steam that @damric mentioned, so I will give that a shot.

There is also a video override tool called Special K that might work, but I have not yet tried it and am not sure if it addresses resolution settings.

 

[adilazimdegilx]

I vaguely remember options in Nvidia control panel, display settings. Something alongside gpu scaling. In this case you don't want any scaling.