Game Resolution Question

Can some one explain game resolution to me in easy to understand terms. I am currently playing Grand Ages:Rome and it seems the higher I put the resolution the larger the figures are. I thought it was the opposite. The higher resolution actually give a larger broader area so I thought the figures would be smaller..

I've noticed that happens with Ceaser 3. Instead of getting a higher quality and more clarity in the overall picture, I seem to get the lower resolution made big.

Perhaps the age of the game has something to do with how the resolution setting affects the overall depiction of the game when the resolution is raised to a relatively current standard.

Depending on the game, your video card or monitor could be up-sizing it(or for that matter the game itself could be i guess). I haven't played either of those games but if it looks like it is just the lower resolution made bigger than that could be what it is.

Thanks guys. It seems to just change the size of things. It may be the video card, the monitor or the game itself.

I don't see any possibility of a monitor to upsize an individual object ingame, because a monitor only shows things, not influences them.

It could possibly be an inability of a game to comprehend new GPU structure.

If a game you mentioned uses 2D graphics maybe it doesn't recognize several resolutions. So in order to adapt to a resolution, it was not programmed to, this particular game is stretching 2D sprites.

Maybe it was build this way and it is stretching sprites whenever you put higher resolution.

@ RYUchan, That's the proper language for what I was trying to inexpertly describe!

I didn't mean that the monitor would up-scale certain things only, what i meant with my reference to a monitor is that like a tv it can stretch things that do not fit its screen aspect ratio. What i meant with regard to the game is that it could be doing what warcraft 3 does and just stretching the stuff to fit the screen. or it could be something else that i can't think of.

I think the game is about 6 or 7 years old. So it probably doesn't recognize the newer resolutions. Thank you all for your help. At least I know there is nothing wrong with my machine. I still want to upgrade my video card but with recent happenings in my life that is on hold for the moment. Hopefully next month I will be able to think about that.

Lndf117 wrote:

I didn't mean that the monitor would up-scale certain things only, what i meant with my reference to a monitor is that like a tv it can stretch things that do not fit its screen aspect ratio. What i meant with regard to the game is that it could be doing what warcraft 3 does and just stretching the stuff to fit the screen. or it could be something else that i can't think of.

Ah, I see, well I just pointed that out because people who are not so savvy with PC can be confused that something is wrong with their monitor, which is not the case at all

Necro ftw! but seeing how the actual question was not answered, why not?

There are two distinct elements: the resolution of the screen (monitor), and the resolution of the image you are trying to display.

Lets say you are displaying a 800x600 picture on a display that is set at 800x600.
The picture will nicely fill the screen and look good.

If you increase the resolution of the picture to 1600x1200 and leave the display resolution at 800x600, only 800x600 of the picture's pixels will be displayed, basically its like a zoom-in effect.
You will only see a quarter of the picture that will fill the screen, and you will have to scroll to see the whole picture.

If you increase the resolution of the screen to 1600x1200 but leave the picture at 800x600, the 800x600 pixels of the picture will only take a quarter of the screen, so it appears as a zoom out.

Games will not tell you how they handle resolution, do they affect the picture resolution, or the monitor resolution, or both, varies from game to game.
In the case of your game Nakia, it seems to increase the resolution of the picture without changing the resolution of the monitor so it appears as a zoom-in.

Very well put Kaay, nothing wrong with a necro when it's useful.

I'd like to add a useful link when it comes to tweaking games:

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Home

The information on this website is pretty thorough.