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Optimal monitor for factorio?

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 1:56 pm
by Mendel
My desktop monitor is about to reach the end of it´s lifetime at the age of 10 years. It seems now images are starting to get burned in.

So I´m on the lookout for a new monitor and of course it would have to be optimal for Factorio :)

So what I am wondering is if any of you guys have experiences on how Factorio handles monitors with weird aspect ratios and very high resolutions such as 21:9 3440 x 1440

Also, how does the game work with monitors that display higher than 60Hz refresh rate? (such as 100 or 144Hz)

Re: Optimal monitor for factorio?

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 2:18 pm
by Klonan
Factorio supports pretty much any resolution, 1080p, 1440p, 4k, etc. at any aspect ratio

However people have said before that the game looks awkward or weird on a +60hz monitor, since the game only runs at 60fps max

Re: Optimal monitor for factorio?

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:49 pm
by posila
People with very wide setups are also not happy about low zoom out level they get. Original purpose of this limit was to not give advantage to people with wider screens in possible future PvP, but currently we keep it as constraint that could utilized in texture streaming in future.

Re: Optimal monitor for factorio?

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 4:57 pm
by Mendel
ok, so possibly not being able to zoom out enough (relatively) could be a legitimate issue with a 21:9 screen.

Is this moddable or is there a mod that would enable zooming out more?

Re: Optimal monitor for factorio?

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:13 pm
by Zeblote
posila wrote:Original purpose of this limit was to not give advantage to people with wider screens in possible future PvP
So instead you give the advantage to people with taller screens? How does that make sense?

If you need a limit, please use a vertical one...

Re: Optimal monitor for factorio?

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:20 pm
by daniel34
Zeblote wrote:
posila wrote:Original purpose of this limit was to not give advantage to people with wider screens in possible future PvP
So instead you give the advantage to people with taller screens? How does that make sense?

If you need a limit, please use a vertical one...
The advantage is not for taller screens. The screen you'd see the most information on would be square (1:1). If you played on a 21:9 screen in portrait mode you'd lose the same amount of information as a player using a 21:9 screen in landscape mode.

I do know a player that runs the game using 3x 1080p monitors, so the effective area is 5760x1080 and he rarely has issues with the zoom, because when playing you'll be zoomed in most of the time, only when viewing the surrounding regions it is an issue (not counting the map, that can be zoomed out pretty far).
Mendel wrote:ok, so possibly not being able to zoom out enough (relatively) could be a legitimate issue with a 21:9 screen.

Is this moddable or is there a mod that would enable zooming out more?
Mod: https://mods.factorio.com/mods/binbinhfr/Zoom

Re: Optimal monitor for factorio?

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:26 pm
by Zeblote
daniel34 wrote:The advantage is not for taller screens. The screen you'd see the most information on would be square (1:1). If you played on a 21:9 screen in portrait mode you'd lose the same amount of information as a player using a 21:9 screen in landscape mode.
That's irrelevant though. Nobody has a 1:1 screen.

You're giving players with a 16:9 aspect ratio an advantage over players who go with the times and have a better monitor. Tell me again how that is supposed to be fair?

Re: Optimal monitor for factorio?

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:04 pm
by daniel34
Zeblote wrote:That's irrelevant though. Nobody has a 1:1 screen.

You're giving players with a 16:9 aspect ratio an advantage over players who go with the times and have a better monitor. Tell me again how that is supposed to be fair?
I'm not trying to justify that decision, I'm only trying to explain it. True, nobody has a 1:1 screen, but when zoomed out you'd be able to see more on a 4:3 screen (which is closer to 1:1) than a 16:9 screen, regardless of the resolution.
Zeblote wrote:You're giving players with a 16:9 aspect ratio an advantage over players who go with the times
There is no way to code the game so that 16:9 and 21:9 users see the same things, it's physically impossible. Some games will give you extra side view if you run 21:9, other games will zoom in and cut off the top/bottom. Factorio does the latter.

"players who go with the times" - according to the last Steam survey - January 2017 - only <1% (0.7% IIRC) use a 21:9 resolution, with over 5% using a 4:3 resolution still. I don't think the trend is going towards 21:9 and I don't plan on buying any equipment that displays that ratio, but in my opinion it's personal preference. If you like 21:9 then use it, but I'll continue using 16:9 displays.

For all the others: please don't make this thread a 21:9 vs. 16:9 war, I've had enough of that on the Steam forums and Factorio runs equally well on them and (in my opinion) the zoom level is sufficient for both, even on vanilla.

Re: Optimal monitor for factorio?

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 7:24 pm
by Zeblote
daniel34 wrote:the zoom level is sufficient for both, even on vanilla.
But it's not, that's the point :D

My 21:9 monitor has exactly the same (physical) height as the 16:9 one I had before, so naturally I'm expecting it to display the world at the same size.

Besides... I usually play singleplayer or co-op, so there actually isn't any competitive advantage to be had. It's purely about convenience - why should someone with an older, smaller monitor be able to see more of the world?