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[Alo81]

Most of us have 16:9 monitors sitting on our desk right now. I've got one important question.

Does it swivel? Can you flip that sucker over and have a long, portrait screen in front of you? Well then this is the thread for you, because it's all about gaming in portrait mode.

This thread is for sharing portrait screenshots of games as well as recommendations, setups, and general chatter.​

These instructions will be for Nvidia GPUs as that is all that I have. If anyone has an AMD GPU and can link some instructions I'd be glad to add them to the OP.

1. Right click desktop
2. Open "Nvidia Control Panel"
3. Select "Rotate Display"
4. Tick "Portrait" and hit Apply"
5. Flip your monitor and save the settings.

Here is what the control panel looks like

Are the proper resolutions not showing up in game? Then you'll have to add them yourself! Here's instructions on how to do so.

First, you must open Nvidia Control Panel (you can right click your desktop and it should be an option) and under “Display” select “Adjust desktop size and position.” Within there set

1. Scaling to Aspect Ratio
2. Perform Scaling on to GPU
3. Tick the box that says Override the scaling mode set by games and programs
4. Here is a screenshot of the window. (Open in a new tab)

Next, on the left hand side of the window you must select “Change Resolution” and then Customize.

At the bottom of the customize box, select “Create Custom Resolution.”

To keep it simple, all you should probably mess with are

• Refresh Rate
• Horizontal Pixels
• Vertical Pixels

If, for example, you have a 1080p display then by default your settings are probably

Horizontal Resolution: 1920px
Vertical Resolution: 1080px​

Okay, so here’s some basics.

If you have a 1080p Display (1920w x 1080h)

Horizontal: 1080px
Vertical: 1920px​

If you have a 900p Display (1600w x 900h)

Horizontal: 900px
Vertical: 600px​

And adjust those numbers for whatever resolution your screen is.

What games benefit from portait gaming? Any good recommendations will get added to the list, especially if specific examples are provided.

Racing Games:

This is probably my number one recommendation. Assuming it's set up correctly with a good field of view, the viewing range you have of the area ahead of you is incredibly useful.

Examples:

Third Person Action/Platformer:

I've found that whenever I'm playing a third person game I end up liking the view of the world I get through a portrait screen more than landscape. Platformers especially when doing some vertical climbing it's great having this tall view of what's ahead for you.

Examples:

Arcade

Pretty self explanatory. A lot of arcade games were designed around portrait screens and flipping your screen to play it properly is great. You get so much more real estate to work with (also my Sinistar score get way better when I played in portrait mode ~anecdotal evidence~)

Examples:

​

Feel free to post your own and the cream of the crop will be added to the OP. If people wanna pitch in opinions on what they think deserves to be in the OP feel free - I'm open to feedback.

Dear Esther

Bioshock Infinite

DmC Devil May Cry

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012)

​

 

[Like the hat?]

There should be square monitors. Best of both worlds.

 

[liftedly]

Subscribed! I have a tated monitor for shoot 'em ups, didn't know people played other games in portrait mode That F-Zero gif is sexy.

 

[jim2point0]

I think 3:4 is the best portrait aspect ratio. I think 9:16 is a bit too tall. Duncan's been usin that for a while.

I'm not much of a portrait screenshotter, but I was able to set up the following portrait resolution in the control panel: 2400x3200 @ 50hz (automatic)

 

[Skyzard]

There should be square monitors. Best of both worlds.

.

Portrait is nice but for most games it's just not worth the sacrifice in width imo. If you have a nice monitor stand to flip it easily it comes in handy. Nice for documents etc, and just for a change sometimes.

F-zero does look great with it, interesting to see what else, subbed.

 

[Alo81]

I think 3:4 is the best portrait aspect ratio. I think 9:16 is a bit too tall.

Honestly, you're probably right. Often times I wanna crop down my 9:16 screenshots because there does seem to be some wasted space in shots.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

Dat F-Zero GIF. Holy cow.

 

[jim2point0]

.

Portrait is nice but for most games it's just not worth the sacrifice in width imo. If you have a nice monitor stand to flip it easily it comes in handy. Nice for documents etc, and just for a change sometimes.
.

For gaming, it's a bit silly. I've only seen portrait resolutions used for screenshotting. Never heard of anyone actually playing a game like that (until seeing that GIF above)

May as well throw in a couple I've done.

Dead Space 2

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

 

[Alo81]

For gaming, it's a bit silly. I've only seen portrait resolutions used for screenshotting. Never heard of anyone actually playing a game like that (until seeing that GIF above)

May as well through in a couple I've done.

It's definitely not for every game but I enjoy playing in portrait, especially for racing games and it's cool in 3rd person games if you can set up the camera nicely.

 

[Pops Maellard]

And how exactly do you change the aspect ratio in the games? I rotated my monitor just for kicks but when I boot anything it's obviously just a rectangle in the center surrounded by expanses of black.

 

[Skyzard]

For gaming, it's a bit silly. I've only seen portrait resolutions used for screenshotting. Never heard of anyone actually playing a game like that (until seeing that GIF above)

May as well throw in a couple I've done.

Great shots.

It's definitely not for every game but I enjoy playing in portrait, especially for racing games and it's cool in 3rd person games if you can set up the camera nicely.

I'll be sure to give it a try with some racing games when I get my pc running again, nice, thanks.

 

[Alo81]

And how exactly do you change the aspect ratio in the games? I rotated my monitor just for kicks but when I boot anything it's obviously just a rectangle in the center surrounded by expanses of black.

Hmm, it usually swaps the resolutions for you. You can probably just add a resolution yourself.

I wrote down some instructions a while back on my Tumblr, you can view them here.

Here's the general gist.

First, you must open Nvidia Control Panel (you can right click your desktop and it should be an option) and under “Display” select “Adjust desktop size and position.” Within there set

Scaling to Aspect Ratio
Perform Scaling on to GPU
Tick the box that says Override the scaling mode set by games and programs
Here is a screenshot of the window. (Open in a new tab)​

Next, on the left hand side of the window you must select “Change Resolution” and then Customize.

At the bottom of the customize box, select “Create Custom Resolution.”

To keep it simple, all you should probably mess with are

• Refresh Rate
• Horizontal Pixels
• Vertical Pixels

If, for example, you have a 1080p display then by default your settings are probably

Horizontal Resolution: 1920px
Vertical Resolution: 1080px​

Okay, so here’s some basics.

If you have a 1080p Display (1920w x 1080h)

Horizontal: 1080px
Vertical: 1920px​

If you have a 900p Display (1600w x 900h)

Horizontal: 900px
Vertical: 600px​

And adjust those numbers for whatever resolution your screen is.

 

[Nethaniah]

I tried portrait gaming quite a few times with a triple monitor setup and at times it's the best thing ever but other times i think it's absolutely unplayable, can make nice screenshots though as demonstrated in this thread.

 

[creyas]

The great tallscreen screenshot project thread!

Amazing things.

 

[whitehawk]

"...But why?"

 

[djplaeskool]

tate mode fo' lyfe

 

[Ezalc]

F-Zero looks godawful like that.

 

[Coreda]

This is a real curiosity. I'm thinking of buying a swiveling monitor sometime and it's cool to see a thread about the gaming side of them. Quite liking the F-Zero gif tbh.

 

[Lysander518]

I'll stick with 16:9

 

[mr stroke]

I go both Landscape and Portrait depending on the game. But generally I roll Portrait Surround/Eyefinity-


my 3x24 set up-




4k and super immersive, trying it for the first time will blow your mind.

 

[Alo81]

"...But why?"

It's cool. I feel similarly about it as I did with 3D. I heard of it and thought "that's dumb,l why would I ever do that?" then I got a 120hz monitor and tried 3D and really fell in love with it. I feel similarly about portrait gaming. It adds an interesting new dimension to a lot of games that you don't really see with a landscape view. Worlds feel much larger and areas feel more expansive. I like it.

tate mode fo' lyfe

I was reaaaal sour when I tried out Jamestown in portrait mode and found that it only stretches.

F-Zero looks godawful like that.

If you're talking about the HUD then I'd agree the stretched HUD is unfortunate, but I think gameplay is actually awesome like that.

Quite liking the F-Zero gif tbh.

^And this guy agrees^ =p

I go both Landscape and Portrait depending on the game. But generally I roll Portrait Surround/Eyefinity-


my 3x24 set up-




4k and super immersive, trying it for the first time will blow your mind.

I would really love to get a setup like that, those always looked really cool to me.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

There are advantages to this, and advantages to widescreen.

My God.

If we combine the two...

We might end up with something like...

 

[mr stroke]

There are advantages to this, and advantages to widescreen.

My God.

If we combine the two...

We might end up with something like...

]

 

[One3rd]

Wow!

 

[Coreda]

motherofgod.gif

I have to know what monitors those are! Loving those virtually non-existent bezels.

 

[Alo81]

motherofgod.gif

I have to know what monitors those are! Loving those virtually non-existent bezels.

I actually posted the picture to reddit a while ago and it was well received, someone found the guy who made it and his set up.

From reddit - "This is CallsignVega's work. He removed the outer casing on the Samsung S23A750D."

 

[MrRoderick]

Sweet thread mang

 

[Alo81]

Dropping another gameplay (I'm using that term loosely) GIF.



Click for 50fps version.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Dawn patch, first game I ever tated

 

[Wonko_C]

Wait! Last time I tried F-Zero GX on Dolphin 3.5 it was slow and the car shadows were glitchy. What's happening here!? Are there special settings to make the game run fast and with perfect shadows? Please TELL MEEEEE.

 

[red731]

Hmm...
*goes to desktop PC and think about how to have that monitor stable

 

[Alo81]

Wait! Last time I tried F-Zero GX on Dolphin 3.5 it was slow and the car shadows were glitchy. What's happening here!? Are there special settings to make the game run fast and with perfect shadows? Please TELL MEEEEE.

For the sake of making the GIF I had it running at a smaller resolution and my PC basically brute forced the frame rate.

 

[CreepingFear]

Portrait gaming is not for me, but I think it's cool that it's an option for people out there. Fascinating.

 

[red731]

holy shit, this is kinda impressive
*what will I play

 

[joedan]

Great googly mooly! I want.

 

[red731]

.

Hush now, Bob.

ed: And Hard Reset + the ultimate gaf experience. And I've died many times - I am no octopus.

I guess I won't try this again, but the construction I've created to hold the monitor in this portrait rotation was cool.
Also - when I first launched Tomb Raider, the aspect ration was still 16:9 and, oh boy, wasn't Lara a freakishly tall and anorexic lass

ed: png8 nevermore

 

[jim2point0]

1char

 

[Spazznid]

I love the screenshotting but, for gameplay, Portrait mode is very situational.

 

[Alo81]

By the way I added that to the OP, I've always really, really loved that shot.

 

[Stein3x]

Nice thread Alo81 ,portraits are really cool and a little trickier to get them right ,here's 2 from Remember me

 

[One3rd]

I don't do many of these but I thought the hallway looked better in portrait mode especially with the lower rez close up wall textures taking up over half the image in landscape.

 

[TouchMyBox]

I've just been playing some Downwell with my monitor pivoted and by golly it sure is neat.

Where are your pivoted gaming recommendations from the last two years aside from Downwell, GAF? Let's revive this sucker.

 

[GearDraxon]

*yawn* wake me when we get to Diagonal Gaming

#45°FORLIFE

 

[epmode]

Yeah, Downwell looks so good in portrait/tate. Lots of fun too.

 

[Alo81]

Huh. Damn. I was planning to get Down Well when it came out on Android but reviving this thread made me realize it probably would be pretty awesome on PC with a rotated screen... Huh!

 

[Nzyme32]

Wow, can't believe I didn't know this thread was a thing. Been planning on grabbing a swivel monitor for my next build to mess with this stuff. As a bump for the thread, I thought I'd post some brilliant portrait screens from Shadow of Mordor. These were all made by forrest using a 21:9 monitor in portrait, all from the 21:9 thread.

 

[Mupod]

one of the reasons I got the monitor I did was so I could tilt it for shmups. Mostly only used it for Raiden 4/Fighters Aces on 360. Never even considered using it for something else.

 

[FunkyDealer]

I'm currently playing Phantom Hourglass, it has bosses where the top screen of the DS is used as a vertical extension. It looks pretty cool.

9:16 is a bad aspect ratio for most games though in my eyes. 16:10 is in many ways the best for PC gaming. At least if you frequently play RTS, City builders and such.

 

[Jason]

There are advantages to this, and advantages to widescreen.

My God.

If we combine the two...

We might end up with something like...

bwahahaa

 

[old manatee]

Pinball is amazing in portrait mode.