Ultrawide monitors have served me well for years as a PC gamer, and I’ve used Dell’s Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED for a year and a half now, but I’m gradually growing sick and tired of them for one specific reason – some game developers still ignore 21:9 and 32:9 support. While the latter aspect ratio is still fairly niche for gaming, there should be little to no excuses for triple-A games to have 21:9 support excluded.
I must state that I’m very cognizant of the fact that some games are not built to support these widened perspectives. It’s also clear that most gamers are still using 1080p and 1440p displays (based on Steam’s hardware and software survey), with certain games designed for 16:9 – but when modders get the job done instead (often on launch day or shortly after too), it leaves me scratching my head wondering why developers can’t do this at launch or in some cases, at all.
Prime examples are popular titles like Elden Ring, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the recently released early access Path of Exile 2 (no 32:9), Street Fighter 6, and I can keep going on and on. Now all of these games I’ve mentioned have the capability of using both of these ultrawide aspect ratios, and you’d expect this to be done by developers, right?
Well, that isn’t the case – all of these games, partially except for Path of Exile 2 (which fortunately does have 21:9 support), require downloads from modders to access 21:9 or 32:9 aspect ratios. You might be thinking it’s an easy solution to simply download these fixes and apply them, but it’s not as simple as that.
The issue behind relying on mods for ultrawide compatibility
Due to integrations of anti-cheat software such as Easy Anti-Cheat, players will be unable to use these ultrawide fixes from modders in some games, as doing so could result in a ban from online play, ultimately being forced to play offline without access to multiplayer just to utilize the mod (notably in Elden Ring).
The same case applies to Street Fighter 6, as Capcom is against modding, since they view all mods as cheating. This is very relevant here as the mod that comes with the ultrawide fix for the game, is also used for cosmetic mods, known as ‘RE Framework’ found on GitHub from user ‘Praydog’.
Now, Street Fighter 6 and other titles like Resident Evil 4 (which has a FOV issue in 21:9 and 32:9) can currently only be fixed using this mod and both games have been out just over a year now. Capcom hasn’t chosen to make necessary FOV adjustments to the 2023 survival horror hit in 32:9, nor the popular fighting game by adding any form of ultrawide compatibility, which works perfectly fine during gameplay at both ultrawide aspect ratios.
PC gamers like myself, now have to deal with the potential threat of facing a ban while online (even though it’s unlikely now), or helpful mods as such potentially being eradicated one day by Capcom (hopefully not) – so what other choice will players have if devs aren’t bothered to offer support here?
While many may say that a game like Street Fighter isn’t meant to be used on an ultrawide display, I beg to differ – there are numerous videos online showcasing the game in the immersive 21:9 and 32:9 aspect ratios. The only aspects that could be considered drawbacks are the menu screens staying in 16:9 and the in-game UI incorrectly scaled (but this is a non-issue in the grand scheme of matters here).
Nixxes includes ultrawide support for PlayStation PC ports, so there’s no excuse for other devs
If there is any developer that deserves praise and recognition for its efforts in this region, it would be Nixxes. The developer is responsible for porting PlayStation-exclusive titles like God of War Ragnarok, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and the list goes on, over to PC – every single one of the titles has ultrawide support at both aspect ratios.
The option of viewing cutscenes with or without black bars is available, while you’re warned of potentially seeing portions of a scene that aren’t supposed to be seen normally at 16:9. If this is what is stopping other game devs from providing ultrawide support, then Nixxes should be the example to follow from now on.
Modders have provided support for ultrawide aspect ratios where necessary within just hours or days of a game’s release – this has just happened with the aforementioned Path of Exile 2, as a few days after its release ‘RoseTheFlower’ on GitHub released a mod to add 32:9 support for the 5120×1440 resolution. Bear in mind, that it’s still in early access, but there’s no guarantee this will be added at full release.
Now I don’t want to suggest that there aren’t many other games that support ultrawide displays, because there definitely are – the problem is both Nixxes and modding communities of games are now often the only two ways of guaranteeing this level of support for ultrawide displays in games. I’m hoping that more devs can at least adhere to this, even if it comes with seeing matters beyond the scene in-game.
So what’s the solution for now?
In the scenario that this trend continues, the best solution for me would be purchasing the Samsung Odyssey Ark 2nd Gen (if it wasn’t so expensive) – it’s a 55-inch monitor with ‘Flex Move Screen’ which allows you to use 16:9, 21:9, and 32:9 aspect ratios.
The ultrawide aspect ratios with this monitor can be used while having the ability to fill empty spaces of the screen with other display sources or activities. It would be great to see ultrawide monitors implement a feature like this when black bars are present, especially for 32:9 options like the ROG Swift PG49CDW Asus graciously sent my way for tests.
I am fairly optimistic that this will move in the right direction, and the growth from the lack of ultrawide support in some older titles to what is available now is certainly promising. Don’t let me down, PC game dev industry!
