Higher Custom Resolutions vs LCD Screens

So you know that everytime we set our resolutions to a lower one on our LCD, the display card may enlarge the picture so that it fits the entire screen...

Now, i have an 15'4 WXGA (1280x800 native max)LCD Screen, but i was thinking in setting a even higher resolution.

I have installed Powerstrip and it reads that i have an AUO2174 LCD and that Maximum resolution is 1600x1200 on this WXGA. So, can it be possible to kind of convert a WXGA to WXGA+ (for example) by creating a higher custom resolution that would fit the screen?

Technically, if a Nvidia Forceware Adapter can resize or enlarge a lower resolution to fit the entire screen, wouldn't it be doable for it also to shrink a higher resolution to fit the screen?

 

Why would you want to downscale a resolution to fit a screen with a fixed pixel width? All that would do is work the video card and CPU harder and produce an uglier image...

 

Even if it stresses the video card, the only purpose would to have a larger workspace, for instance when programming, it is useful to have a larger workspace, don't you agree?

I think this is an important thread...im sure there is a way to simulate higher resolutions

 

you cannot simulate higher resolutions on an LCD. the maximum resolution (i.e., native resolution) is a function of the physical limitations of the LCD. it has little to do with the graphics card (even the most bottom line video card you get today can effortlessly output super high resolution). you cannot produce more points of light than physically exist; therefore, if you have a WXGA LCD, the highest resolution you can view is 1280x768/800. if you do force a higher resolution than the LCD can physically handle, you will have to scroll.

if you want a higher resolution desktop, you have to have a high resolution LCD which is what i guess wxga+, wsxga+, and wuxga are considered.

caveat emptor.

 

Do a Print Screen of a larger resolution and change to a lower one later....open the image and view it in fullscreen...you have a larger worksapce..the principal is similar...

Actually, there is a technique called Subpixel rendering that does help on this matter, and despite everyone saying that it isn't possible it is very possible..

By using virtualization methods, i installed VMWare Workstation 6, and hacked the video memory available from 16MB to 128MB, then, editing the registry on the guest machine i can setup a custom resolution right on:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vmx_svga\Device0]

and creating a String Value
"Resolution.11"="1920x1200" (where 11 is in this case the 11th resolution appearing on display settings)


After this im good to go, the last thing i had to do was enabling "Strech Screen" option in VMWARE below Autofit...this was the magic key and the performance is great, it's not super crisp, but it really looks you have a higher resolution set! And the subpixel rendering is very usefull in these cases because the principal applied with Cleartype screen fonts helps to clearly view every text on the screen, even in very high resolutions giving the "Vista fonts effect".

So, im sorry to dissapoint you all, on this, and on other forums that said the same thing..just found out this today, try it

Cheers from Portugal

 

I'm not sure I understand that, but if you have a 1280x800 display, then that's it. It means that you have 1280 dots horizontal, and 800 dots vertical. No software is going to change that, and there's no way to show something "crisper" than that. All you're doing when you set a "custom resolution" is either shrinking a 1680x1050 - which would have the effect of a 1280x800, but with smaller icons and text, or you're zoomed in and have to scroll around.

This isn't software we're talking about - the screen was built that way, and no amount of software can change that.

 

I tried it it in VMWare. I wouldn't just say that it's not super crisp, I'd say it looks like crap. I want my pixels to be whole pixels. My eyes are already bad. I don't need a blurry monitor fooling me into thinking my eyes are worse than they are.

 

did you run a virtual machine using with windows vista? it uses sub pixel rendering overall better then XP..

To me this is great and it is the only alternative, and personally i think it's not a bad one as you can try different resolutions, like 1440x900 for instance and you get a good performance

no one told me this i had to find out, so you now know, use it if you need to, don't use it if you don't want to

 

what you're doing isn't changing the resolution, it's just making everything more blocky and blurry.

To achieve the same effect, but without as many artifacts, just lower the font size.......

 

That's what I made my decision getting WSXGA+ screen over WXGA screen. I can live with slighly blurry game screen downsize to 1280x800 resolution for few hours but I can't live with blurry fonts for 1 min.

 

Yes. If I get bored, I may attempt to take a macro picture of the blurriness.

** edit ** I wasn't thinking right, no Vista, XP inside and outside VMMare. I was thinking Office 2007.

Sub pixel rendering doesn't make sense. Just use different and smaller fonts and then tweak the rest of the settings in Windows to minimize toolbars, scrollbars, etc. Once something is a pixel thin, nothing you do to your lcd will make it smaller.

 

All this to compensate for the fact that you did not spend a bit more for 1680x1050.

 

But it does make some of us look less like we know all! You think? It can be done and if it transfers to the programing he wants to do which by the way my brother codes I doubt he cares about the fine representation on the screen! How about he asked a question with an answer and most missed it! You guys beat up on him and you where wrong! By the way I followed this from the start and knew it should be able to be done I just did not know how to do.