Hi everybody. I'm new here, so I thought I'd introduce myself and ask a question at the same time. My question probably belongs someplace else, but I thought I'd post it here since I'm new.
So here's the deal: I need to make high-resolution screen shots of Crysis, and maybe some Crysis mods, and maybe also some other games, like Battlefield 3. I need high-res because I am going to make large prints out of them.
I have a $3,000 (USD) budget for hardware, and I need to start from scratch. I don't really care how well the games play, as long as I can make the screen shots, and I don't care about things like the color depth of the displays, since I will be working with the images on another computer (a Mac, actually).
Here's my question: can anybody here help me figure out how to get the most pixels for my money? Should I get three 1920x1080 displays? Two 2560x1600 displays? Unfortunately, I don't have time to build it myself, so I'm looking for a US-based vendor that knows what they're doing so I can get everything in one place and know it will work? Am I dreaming?
A 3-screen setup won't get you any better resolution on your center monitor, it will just be a much wider picture. So if you need extra pixels vertically, it won't help at all.
When you say you are doing large prints, I would assume you don't mean long thin panoramic style ones, so I would probably be looking at 2 2560x1600 displays as you say, or even a 4-panel Eyefinity combo with 2 1920x1080 on top and bottom rows.
Not in the US so unsure who makes systems over there, sorry.
Does the aspect ratio matter? The largest single screen is going to be a 2560x1600, at 16:10. The largest 16:9 is going to be a 27" 2560x1440. If a "super wide" aspect ratio is fine (a la AMD Eyefinity), then a triple monitor setup might be what you want. You could do 3x2560x1440 with these:
They run $729 each, so that would be $2187, and leave only $800 for the PC. That's going to be anemic for a PC of worth while specs. This setup would be 11.06 million pixels. Another option would be to do a 5x1-Portrait Eyefinity setup. This would be 10.4M pixels with 5 1080p monitors. You can get good IPS LED-backed 1080p monitors for about $225 (21.5") - $275 (23"). Five of these would average you about $1250. Then add $400 for the WSGF Edition monitor stand to hold them all ^_^
This will give you an aspect ratio of about 21:9, and would fit a middle ground between the 3x1 Landscape Eyefinity (the traditional implementation) and a single 16:9 panel. To run this you will need an AMD card with 5 or 6 outputs. I don't see any current gen cards available (the 6990 is the latest). Here is a 6870 E6 card with 2GB of VRAM.
This is a very interesting problem. I had to do the same in Solidworks for work and found there was actually an option hidden to save an image at printer resolutions. It let me choose any size I wished and it worked wonderfully. There really ought to be a piece of software that does this for games; it would let you choose a resolution, then it would have the video card render a single frame at that resolution on your command.
I smell a market! Unfortunately I don't have the programming skills to pull something like that off, but I know someone who might.
Thanks guys for your fast and thoughtful responses. I don't want a panoramic aspect ratio: I definitely don't want to go wider than 16x9 ( 1.8 ), and would like to keep it below 1.6.
I was looking around online, and found a site that specializes in multi-screen displays. I spec'd out the following system:
Display:
(the site doesn't say what model monitors they're selling, just the make and some general specs)
4 19" Widescreen (HDCP) Dell LCDs (set up in a grid):
Video Inputs = DVI (Digital) and VGA (Analog)
Minimum Height (Adjustable) = 29 inches
Maximum Height = 35 inches
Width = 35.2 inches
Depth = 12 inches
Weight = 68 lbs
Color = Silver
2880 x 1800 total resolution across all monitors
1440 x 900 pixel resolution screens provide sharp graphics
300 cd/m² brightness and 1000:1 contrast ratio for super color
5 ms typical response time enables crisp and clear images
Before I drop a lot of money, I also wanted to confirm that a lot of display pixels, and thus a screen shot with more pixels, will give me a better print than a smaller screen shot that I enlarge using either Photoshop or special image enlargement software like Perfect Resize (FKA Genuine Fractals).
I'm assuming that, if I can get a game like Crysis to run at, for example, 2888x1800, it still won't generate more detail than it would at a lower resolution, but that the graphics engine and or the GPU (I don't really know what I'm talking about here) will do some anti-aliasing that will make everything look smoother. But in the end I don't know if I'm wasting money trying to get a lot of screen real estate.
This is pretty lame for a 4 monitor setup. Save yourself alot of heartache and just get a single 2560x1600 monitor instead, no black plastic bezels to worry about, it will work with all games, etc.
Before I drop a lot of money, I also wanted to confirm that a lot of display pixels, and thus a screen shot with more pixels, will give me a better print than a smaller screen shot that I enlarge using either Photoshop or special image enlargement software like Perfect Resize (FKA Genuine Fractals).
This will always be the case, yes. The higher the resolution of the source data, the better enlargements will look.
I'm assuming that, if I can get a game like Crysis to run at, for example, 2888x1800, it still won't generate more detail than it would at a lower resolution, but that the graphics engine and or the GPU (I don't really know what I'm talking about here) will do some anti-aliasing that will make everything look smoother.
This is a good point. It comes down to Aspect Ratio. If the Aspect Ratio of the final monitor setup is the same as the monitor you wish to emulate, then it will be a more crisp version that looks the same (for example, using a 2560x1440 27inch monitor to emulate a 1920x1080 24inch monitor - both 16:9 aspect ratio). If the Aspect Ratio is different, then the screen will look different depending on the game. Some draw extra on the sides, others stretch the screen, etc.
So if you want everything to appear exactly as it should for a person gaming on a 'normal' monitor, then you need a monitor that uses the same Aspect Ratio that you want screenshots for.
As for the broken link, try this one. http://widescreengamingforum.com/forum/forums/gaming/mods-tweaks-tools-tutorials/17556/how-take-even-higher-resolution-screenshots
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If it were me, I would be buying a huge 2560x1600 (16:10) or 2560x1440 (16:9) monitor, as either of these are considered normal aspect ratios today, getting a normal gaming system (like an Intel i7-2600K with an applicable motherboard and 8GB RAM etc) with a high end video card like an AMD Radeon 7970 or Nvidia GTX590 and just taking screenshots that way. I wouldn't be buying a multi-monitor setup up. Although I love them dearly, they are a pain in the bum at times and ones like you posted won't help you alot. And you get to save your cash for other parts of your project.
Truly, a 5x1p is going to get you the best playable resolution. But if you want to be a bit hackish about it.... here's what I'd do, since you're probably taking screenshots.
Get yourself 4 screens and a suitable mount. When you do bezel correction, go CRAZY with it. This will let you push your resolutions up to some higher levels. Though I'm not sure what the limits are. So, during the setup make sure to increase the distance between the bezels by as much as you can. Of course you can't really play the game like this because your bezel is cutting through the center. But if you're taking screenshots with the computer (using F12 while playing on Steam, for instance) then it'll draw in everything for you. But your pictures will be at the bezel corrected resolution.
This is probably the cheapest thing you can do. Alternatively, a 3x1P setup also works. But doing a 2x2 with 1080p panels and abusing bezel correction might get you further than anything else.
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