WC3 looks blurry on new computer at lower resolution?

Hi guys, FINALLY got a newer computer with which to play WC3. Unfortunately it's a laptop. The only problem is at the resolution I always played the game at, 800x600, everything turns into a blurry, stretched out mess. It's like the screen is too wide so everything becomes blurry and stretched and really unpleasant to play and look at.

The only solution I've found so far is changing the "scaling" option under graphics properties to "maintain aspect ratio" which creates BIG black bars on either side of my computer screen and also doesn't use the full screen. Is this the only way to play a low resolution on a more modern computer with a wide screen, or what could I do? Currently using Windows Vista.

Thanks for any help

800x600 is a 4:3 aspect ratio, and widescreens use something like 16:9 aspect ratio.

If you want it to use the entire screen you have to select a wide-screen resolution, (such as 1280x720 or 1920x1080), or you will get the blurry mess or black bars.

Personally, I much prefer playing in 4:3 for WC3 and use black bars, no problem for me.

I see, thanks for the feedback

Also, the blurriness is probably from your display attempting to anti-alias 800 * 600 to a native resolution that is not an integer multiple of it, especially if it is stretching more in one direction than in the other.

Maybe it's just a matter of personal preference, but I think WC 3 looks better with the black bars on a widescreen. No one wants to play with stretched out units (that sounds so wrong when read...) and environments!

Now if only blizz would release a true widescreen (or even HD) version of WC 3, that would be awesome! Imagine being able to see as much as you can in SC 2.

And I have no clue if updating your video card drivers will help your blurry issue when playing stretch craft. Can't hurt to try, unless it does!

The trouble with having black bars on the side, imo, is that there isn't a resolution available that's 800 pixels high, as I have 1280*800. So you're stuck with 1024*768, which thus gets stretched. It's possible to set it so you get a black border but it is not about a black border, trust.