07. January 2013, 17:51:04

#0

JDoranQuote

**  Warning - solution 1 might not work any more, and solution 2 might only work partially. This seems to be down to an automatic update for Windows that has altered (hidden, more like) the stretch flag in the registry. For details see my later post, three posts down in this thread.  **


Since Kolya posted about a graphical problem with his laptop (https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?wap2;topic=4075.0) I thought I'd post about a similar(ish) problem I've had, in case the solution helps anyone else. Last year I bought a HP G6 1331 with running Windows 7, and when I tried to run some games, they were wrongly stretched (aspect wise) or left black borders when the image could have been stretched whilst still keeping in the correct aspect ration. Obviously the aspect ratio setting of the GFX card (AMD Radeon HD 6620G + 7450M Dual GPU) needed adjusting, but, er, the setting was greyed out. Don't you just love it when software treats you like an idiot and won't let you set things up as you like?

Anyway, Google showed this was a common problem when Windows 7 was run with an AMD/ATI GFX card, as for some reason unimaginable to every disgruntled user who complained of the problem, the writers of the AMD/ATI driver software had decided to not allow the user to set the GPU Scaling options, as long as THE CURRENT GRAPHICAL RESOLUTION WAS THE SAME AS THE NATIVE GRAPHICAL RESOLUTION OF THE MONITOR (be it a laptop monitor or an external monitor connected to a desktop). Seriously, for some reason that would baffle Sherlock Holmes, they restricted you from altering the GPU Scaling options if your current resolution was set at the optimal resolution as dictated by the hardware!!!

I've found two working solutions, both from the same forum thread (  http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=312794  ).


Solution 1

Use the program that is linked to in that thread, although the link itself is dead, but I found it at http://media.mymtw.com/downloads/ATIGPUScalingFix-Win7/  (to find other links, google "ATIGPUScalingFix"). You have to keep this program running in the background, but it does stop the G6 1331 from setting everything to full widescreen.


Solution 2

[Quoted from that web page]

"ATI's solution as far as I've read about it was to have it grayed out unless a resolution lower than native was used, later on the ability to enable and disable scaling was added back but the modes remain locked, lowering resolution, altering the options and then setting it back should work although it'll gray out again, main issue with this for me is for older titles using lower resolutions, no way to set scaling mode with that method although ATI's solution is fine for desktop usage and similar.

 (I can't remember where I read this but I think it was a post on ATI's forum from a moderator, fairly certain I've seen it explained on that Catalystmaker tweet as well.)"

I've just done this, and it worked. For some reason, the first time didn't take, so I did it again, and it worked. What I did was


a) Take the laptop's screen resolution down from 1366 x 768 to the next lowest (1360 x 768, I don't know why they bothered adding a resolution that was so extremely slightly lower than the next one up, but still...).

b) Go to the AMD Vision Engine Control Center > My Built in Displays > Properties (Built in Display). The scaling options are no linger greyed out (as they are when the laptop is at it's normal, maximum , resolution), and in fact there's a new option, Centered. I selected Centered, and of course applied the setting.

c) Then I changed the screen resolution back to 1366 x 768. The scaling options in the AMD Vision Engine Control Center are now greyed out again (and wrongly show full screen mode as being set, strangely), but the laptop no longer streches everything to full screen, and so far, every game I've tried has kept to it's native aspect ratio.


So thanks to king-dubs for the first solution, and JonasBeckman for the second. And I hope that helps anyone else who comes across this strange and seemingly ridiculous problem.

06. February 2013, 08:34:00

#1

Keith MQuote

Thank you so much for this!

Somewhere along the way my laptop developed this problem, maybe a driver update or something. I couldnt play any of my games and after going through every setting short of the registry, I was about to give up. I knew it was a scaling issue but there were no settings available to change. Its pretty much a welfare level ATI card. A couple of clicks and it was sorted. 

09. June 2013, 15:26:34

#2

Shahid NoorQuote

Thanks a ton. I was looking for the solution from a longer time. Now It is working very correctly. Thanks again.

10. October 2013, 20:47:40

#3

JDoranQuote

Awful, awful news regarding this problem.

Yesterday I heard a work colleague describing a problem like  this one (his laptop was stretching games out of aspct ratio), and it turns out his laptop (which is a Hewlett Packard with an ATI Radeon GFX card, too) had the same problem as I had. So I said no problem, installed the ATIGPUScalingFix program, and, er, it didn't fix the problem. I tried again, nothing, so I got my laptop out (which has the problem fixed, it's the laptop I wrote about in the first post in this thread) to compare hardware/Windows settings/etc, but the program no longer worked on my laptop either. I mean the program that was already on the laptop, of course, the install that had fixed the problem and not been altered since.

Anyway, a mate of mine had had the same problem (and what do you know, it's also a Hewlett Packard laptop, with a Radeon card...) which I'd fixed with the ATIGPUScalingFix program. So I went round his house to check and sure enough, his laptop had reverted to having the problem again. He'd not altered anything, and in fact he'd not run any games on it in weeks. And I've not run any games on mine in a few months (I don't like gaming on a laptop), and I haven't altered any settings that would have effected ATIGPUScalingFix, and I haven't upgraded or altered the graphics driver, but it turns out that the Windows registry key that ATIGPUScalingFix alters no longer exists in Windows (and my creating it achieves nothing). All three machines (all three are Hewlett Packard laptops, with Radeon cards) now fail to respond to ATIGPUScalingFix, which isn't surprising given that Microsoft have apparently renamed or split up the registry entry for whatever reason I can't imagine.

So solution 1 (the ATIGPUScalingFix program) is now useless. Solution 2 does sort of work, but of the three options it gives you to choose from, only the bottom two (stretch to full wide-screen regardless of how badly it messes up the aspect ration, and show with the proper aspect ratio but with no stretching as all so it's a strict 1:1 pixel to screen ratio) work, the top option, the one we want (stretch everything but keep the aspec ratio) can be selected, but when you Apply or OK it, it reverts back to whatever it was set to before. The quick mess about I had with the registry before I gave up in the "I hate PCs/Windows/Microsoft" mood that so often bogs down us Windows users did nothing to help.

I might format my laptop and reinstall Windows 7 (with no updates) to see if ATIGPUScalingFix works OK again, which if so would 99% confirm it's a Windows update problem (I'm sure nothing else could have altered things, but with Windows you can never be 100% sure), but I'm not that bothered as I don't like gaming on a laptop anyway.

One thing I do know is that I'm not at all likely to buy another laptop from HP, or one that has a Radeon card in it.

21. September 2014, 05:51:06

#4

NdrakeQuote

Quote by JDoran:

Awful, awful news regarding this problem.
Solution 2 does sort of work, but of the three options it gives you to choose from, only the bottom two (stretch to full wide-screen regardless of how badly it messes up the aspect ration, and show with the proper aspect ratio but with no stretching as all so it's a strict 1:1 pixel to screen ratio) work, the top option, the one we want (stretch everything but keep the aspec ratio) can be selected, but when you Apply or OK it, it reverts back to whatever it was set to before.

What are the odds? I was researching the exact problem and this thread was on top off the search results of startpage.com. (did not mention any games in my search).
This topic is really old so surely there must be a solution now?

All I want to do is play old games (like System Shock) in 640x480 but that's impossible with either stretching or tiny squint sized 1:1 ratio. 


(On second thought its not that surprising that System Shock fans are the only ones that really suffer from this mess.)


Edit: Ok. There is the workaround solution to set windows to approx. 860x484, hide the task bar, remove the title bar, clean up the desktop and play System Shock in window mode. Worth it.