Posted November 06, 2019
Very frustrating problem. Just finished a complete playthrough of FEAR 2 at 1920x1200, my monitor's native resolution. The game occupied the entire screen and everything worked great. Been that way for three days.
Then I started in on Reborn which I just bought, and that too worked full screen for a while. But then it stopped working.
First, it spontaneously switched to letterbox with black bars at top and bottom. Apparently, the "Widescreen" option had gotten turned on somehow. So I turned it off. Now the game occupies the entire screen again, sort of. I say "sort of" because while the game fills my monitor, there are bands at top and bottom where the black bars used to be. These bands show the proper in-game scene but in a much lighter shade, sort of faded out. (See attached screenshot.) Plus, the HUD, which was previously pushed towards the edge of the screen, is now squeezed into the middle of the screen like it's being constricted to a small central portion of the viewing area. (HUD didn't get captured in screenshot.)
The "Widescreen" option keeps getting turned back on. I turned it off by editing "settings.cfg" and made the file readonly, but that didn't fix anything.
So I figured I'd revert to a pristine state and start over. I deleted everything under “%USERPROFILE%\Documents\WBGames\FEAR2\". To my surprise, this made no difference. The screen remains screwed up.
A search of the game folder shows no files modified after 9 PM tonight when the problem appeared. A Registry search found nothing either. So where the heck are the messed up settings stored? Any ideas (short of reinstalling, which I fear won't fix it either)?
Update...I finished Reborn with "Widescreen" turned on just to get through it. Then started a new game of FEAR 2 and it's working correctly. Quit that and started a new game of Reborn and it's working properly now too. Is it possible the on-screen display in Reborn changes intentionally as you move further into it? Or maybe going back to FEAR 2 "reset" things? Anyway, it's working properly now, but I'd still like to know the cause of the problem.
Then I started in on Reborn which I just bought, and that too worked full screen for a while. But then it stopped working.
First, it spontaneously switched to letterbox with black bars at top and bottom. Apparently, the "Widescreen" option had gotten turned on somehow. So I turned it off. Now the game occupies the entire screen again, sort of. I say "sort of" because while the game fills my monitor, there are bands at top and bottom where the black bars used to be. These bands show the proper in-game scene but in a much lighter shade, sort of faded out. (See attached screenshot.) Plus, the HUD, which was previously pushed towards the edge of the screen, is now squeezed into the middle of the screen like it's being constricted to a small central portion of the viewing area. (HUD didn't get captured in screenshot.)
The "Widescreen" option keeps getting turned back on. I turned it off by editing "settings.cfg" and made the file readonly, but that didn't fix anything.
So I figured I'd revert to a pristine state and start over. I deleted everything under “%USERPROFILE%\Documents\WBGames\FEAR2\". To my surprise, this made no difference. The screen remains screwed up.
A search of the game folder shows no files modified after 9 PM tonight when the problem appeared. A Registry search found nothing either. So where the heck are the messed up settings stored? Any ideas (short of reinstalling, which I fear won't fix it either)?
Update...I finished Reborn with "Widescreen" turned on just to get through it. Then started a new game of FEAR 2 and it's working correctly. Quit that and started a new game of Reborn and it's working properly now too. Is it possible the on-screen display in Reborn changes intentionally as you move further into it? Or maybe going back to FEAR 2 "reset" things? Anyway, it's working properly now, but I'd still like to know the cause of the problem.
Post edited November 06, 2019 by javic12
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