I've come accross a very annoying problem with FS and the way it displays aircraft panels. In short, up to yesterday, I've been used to have a 4:3 ratio monitor (i.e. 1024x768 screen resolution). Of course, the whole panel engine in FS is designed also for 4:3 screen ratios, and all aircraft panels I know of, have a 4:3 ratio bitmap (most have a panel bitmap of 1024x768 pixels).(NB: all this don't apply to 3D VC. This only applies to 2D panel)I'm not sure this post belongs to the hardware forum, so here goes the issue, then the question to you:Yesterday I've plugged a 17" LCD monitor instead of the 15". All 17" LCD monitors come in the 1280x1024 pixel resolution, which IS NOT 4:3, but 5:4. So far so good, more display area vertically especially good for displaying pages of PDF files etc... But now comes the catch: when displaying a 2D FS panel, in 1280x1024 FS resolution (full screen), the panel which is designed (.cfg file and panel bitmap) natively to a 4:3 ratio is stretch by FS to a 5:4 ratio, and all round gauges are now oval (vertically stretched).Of course, I've tried to set the FS full screen resolution to a 4:3 ratio at 1280x960 resolution, but the monitor automatically stretches the display back to the full available display area, does vertical interpolation then, and then back to square one: the gauges are again oval.So here is the question: I guess the LCD 17" screens are becoming more and more popular, and I doubt I'm the only one in this community running one. So how do you do with it? how come I've never seen any message (I've tried a search in the forums about this) mentioning this issue, meaning is there a setting I'm missing in FS that you are using to avoid this? am I the only one still flying in 2D panel :-) ?I'm quite puzzled with this issue as with increasing popularity of 17" LCD screen with 5:4 ratios, this completely spoils the sim panel graphics in 2D ?! and there is an even greater issue for panel designer in my opinion, in that a well defined panel in the 4:3 standard ratio will be completely vertically distorted on a 17" LCD monitor, and won't be accurately displayed. Would this mean that panel designers will now have to offer 2 sets of panels configuration in their releases (one set for 4:3 screens and the other set for 5:4 screens)? or no one care?!?Let me know!

TBH I don't think a lot of people notice the difference, or if they do it does not bother them.There have been many posts in the past where users are setting display res that is not 4:3, even with CRT monitors so I don't think many people consider it a 'show stopper'.If you feed your TFT monitor with an anologue signal you should be able to set the resolution to 4:3.I bought a 17in TFT a while back and soon got used to the non-circular instruments.

My 'LCD 1280 x 1024 monitor shows the guages to be perfectly round!I have set it up in the display settings. FS9 of course.Dave.ASUS KT333 M/Board, Radeon9800Pro128mb, 1024DDR, ATI xp2400+CPU, 80 gb HDD

I also run an LCD panel at 1280 x 1024, and the gauges are very, very slightly oval, but you really need to be looking very hard to notice it.Dan.

I run 1280x1024 on my crt. I just changed back to 1280x960 to see if there is a difference and yes, but pretty minimal. I'd give it a go for a while and I'll bet in a day or 2 you won't even notice it. billg

Thank you for the feedback!in the meantime, with more experimentation, I've concluded the following:1) when using an aircraft which panel is designed at a 4:3 ratio, and when displaying at a ratio of 5:4 (1280x1024), then FS stretches the panel bitmap to fill the screen, hence oval gauges2) when using a screen resolution with a 4:3 ratio (1024x768 or 1280x960), the Monitor stretches the display to fill the screen so this cancels the 4:3 ratio, display the whole picture back in a 5:4 ratio, and back are the oval gauges.3) after connecting the LCD monitor with a DVI cable (it may have been available in VGA cable as well but I did not know), there is an option in the display driver (ATI) (settings / advanced / displays / FPD / Scale Image to Panel Size). When deactivating this option and when using a 4:3 ratio (1280x960), then the monitor displays it correctly, not stretched, and gauges are round again!4) when using a desktop resolution of 1280x1024, and when maximising the FS window to fill the desktop (not full screen mode, but the FS window maximise button to the top right of the Window), then, the areas of Window Title bar + menu + taskbar take enough space to in the end have the displayed part of the Window (the one displaying the panel, the 3D etc...) be roughly 4:3 ratio and back are the round gauges!Hope this helps others!

One needs to look at the native resolution of the LCD panel and if it has any autoscale features turn them off so whatever rez you select sticks. You do not want the panel to subsample at non-whole numbers of its native pixel rez.Use the display card utils to get what you want and determine the best fit for your LCD panel to maintain scale and best rez. If you need the rez chosen so subsampling is required to maintain a proper scale, aspect ration, and display fit, let the card do it. Insure the card sees the LCD at its native rez. A good card will not load down the mobo cpu and can handle this task efficiently with probably better results.This is only a loose guide the final result being your visual evaluation and performance of rendering.