Just got my first 21:9 monitor and was surprised to find one of my favorite games, Overwatch, does not support it! I looked online and found that the reason is Blizzard thinks it would add a competitive advantage? How about supporting what your fans play on to make your game look as great as possible. People have much better computers and faster connections than me but we aren’t locking frame rates are we? I guess this means I’m just going to play Overwatch less since now when I boot it up I have these giant black bars on my screen.
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There will always be some limitations and players who don’t like them for obvious reasons. I believe that some of these limits are set based on the popularity of hardware features.
Ultrawide is used only by a small percentage of players. A similar example is support for keyboard+mouse on consoles.
In contrast high refresh rate hardware (cpu+gpu+monitor 120/144Hz @ 1080p) is very affordable for Overwatch and becomes more and more popular. IMO more than 60Hz isn’t a huge advantage with a lot of heros. High refresh is easier on the eyes and hitscans benefit from it.
A good place to get a rough estimation of the popularity of hardware features: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
The top 3 in the “Primary Display Resolution” section are 1080p (63%), a laptop resolution (11%) and 1440p (6%). Most other resolutions are 0-2%.
I play at 1440p 144Hz Ultra and based on the texture resolution/detail I’m 100% sure that the game is optimised for 1080p. They’ll probably push the max quality to 2k or 4k in Overwatch 2.
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I used an Ultrawide for a little while, but stopped because it made me dizzy…
It’s both decently new and decently rare, so I see no reason why Blizzard should be obliged to optimise their game to suit it. Perhaps they will with OW2, but it would be like all phone apps optimising themselves for Samsung Galaxy Edge phones. It’s a little bit niche. 
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It’s another resolution, you don’t need to optimize for it. Most modern shooters support it. Letterbox the menus if you don’t want to do the UI work just let the game render properly. Blizzard responds to Overwatch 21:9 support (Blizzcon 2016 Q&A) - YouTube
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Ultra wide monitors were invented to increase desktop space without the need to use multi monitor set up.
Thus, the game is still a normal size as everyone else’s. (official size, espacially for esports)
basically, its just a bonus if a game allows you to use the entire space.
There is indeed a mode you can use that Blizzard has included to fill up your monitor space. it only cuts off the top and bottom a bit. But it is opposed to having an advantage on the sides over others, as the majority of people out there use normal size monitors.
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The cut the top and bottom off the screen mode is complete garbage and makes the game terrible to play. The idea they thought that was a useful mode is ridiculous.
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They didn’t think it would look best on your display. They simply set maximum limits both for the horizontal and vertical 3D camera view angles based on popular aspect ratios that are relatively far from 21:9.
You are allowed to decrease your vertical view angle (chops off top and bottom but leaves no black bars) but aren’t allowed to exceed the maximum horizontal view angle (black bars without chopping top and bottom) to gain competitive advantage.
For those who need a reference, here is what it actually looks like (16:9 on left, 21:9 on right)
https://www.mystgraphics.com/OverwatchForumImages/MaximizingPerformance/Screenshot21-9Comparison.jpg
It’s a minor thing but adding left/right black bars to the left image instead of having top/bottom black bars on the right would show what appears on a 21:9 monitor.
That is what happens if you keep the setting on 16:9 on a 21:9. My image example shows the top and black bars as I screenshot a 21:9 resolution on my 16:9 monitor.
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I expected something different but I never actually tried OW with an Ultrawide monitor because I don’t have one.
Sorry I misunderstood your message. I assumed that you have a 21:9 monitor. I just checked it on youtube and my assumptions were correct: on a real 21:9 monitor there are no top/bottom black bars that’s why I find those images a bit confusing when they are paired up with my description of the black bars.
First off welcome to the ultrawide master race. Second, yeah OW doesn’t support it. People have been asking for it since launch but Blizzard refuses to add it for some dumb and hypocrite reasons. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying your new monitor. Plenty of good game out there that do support 21:9, including competitive ones.
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Master race is a racist term and I don’t get why PC gamers use it to describe tech they like. That being said there are a lot of great competitive shooters out there that DO support the way PC players want to play. I for one am going to go get back into Destiny 2, Apex and try out CoD Warzone for the first time because they have great PC versions that look great in 21:9.
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That’s the first time I’ve seen someone consider that “racist”. It’s just a joke term, but I guess everything is racist these days.
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Wow I’m ALLOWED to decrease my vertical viewing angle. Great PC video game feature!
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You actually do need to optimize for it. Just not in the way you’re thinking (performance). It’s another aspect ratio that you need to adjust the UI for, as well as any gameplay features.
For example, take McCree’s deadeye ult. It’s doesn’t hit everything on screen, it hits everything in a specific frustum around him. If the aspect ratio gets too wide people may start complaining about how McCree stopped shooting people they could see.
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Don’t you mean increase?
No he means decrease. Setting the game to an ultrawide resolution cuts off the top and bottom of the screen (decreased vertical FOV)
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Well yeah, as seen in my example above though the amount you see vertically is reduced while the horizontal view remains the same.
Is that not a decrease?