Stretched Resolution in Dead by Daylight Is Being Removed – And Yes, It Was Cheating

ByDanielD
PublishedFebruary 16, 2022
15 Comments

stretched res is cheating removed dead by daylight featured image

BHVR posted the latest Player Test Build notes (5.6.0) yesterday, and while the new Killer The OnryÅ is probably what caught most people’s eye, a smaller change is arguably far more impactful. Hidden amongst the Bug Fixes is the following: “Fixed an issue that allowed players to play the game with Stretched Resolution to gain an unfair advantage.”. At long last, players will no longer be able to see over obstacles by playing in non-standard resolutions.

The advantage playing with stretched res gave cannot be overstated. Take a look at the difference in vision over obstacles when playing on stretched res (images captured by Reddit user MaximusProxi) :

dbd non stretched res example — Normal (16:9)

stretched is cheating dbd — Normal (16:9)

Frankly, it’s comical that players defended this by saying “I just like how it looks”, or otherwise suggesting it wasn’t done for a competitive advantage. By using stretched resolutions, many loops that should hide the Killer could be seen over — giving the Survivor an immense vision advantage they shouldn’t have while looping tall loops.

It’s true that some players are still using older monitors that aren’t 16:9. What the update does is add black bars on the top and bottom of the screen to simulate 16:9, so those players will also be forced to play with standard resolutions. While it’s a bummer for those players, the alternative is letting players continue to cheat.

The next chapter is set to release on March 8th, and this bug fix should arrive along with it. Still, given that we’ve been waiting for this change for years, three weeks is nothing. To those of you who think you’re good at looping and are using stretched res: get those wins in while you can.

If you’re somehow still rocking an old 4:3 CRT, or want to out yourself as a cheater by defending stretched res, let us know in the comments!

DanielD

Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.

Articles: 1623

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aloan

2 years ago

It’s quite stupid, they could’ve just made it run like counter strike instead of adding BLACK BARS, this just reveals how lazy they’re & bad at designing.

ur mom

2 years ago

My life was thrown away from me…

strechthesecheeks

2 years ago

looks like there is a lot of closeted cheaters in this game

WilWig

2 years ago

Alright so although i def understand killer frustrations with this type of shit as someone who adamantly only runs it because it looks better on my monitor it’s a bummer they removed it, now the game honestly looks so terrible that im gonna considering quitting. would be very nice if they made it possible to see past the character model in the native res. I would estimate that about 60-70% of my screen is taken up by the character model in native.

DanielD

Author

Reply to WilWig

2 years ago

The camera is the way it is for balance reasons — you have a huge advantage in vision as Survivor because you’re in the 3rd person. Being able to see over obstacles the way you can in stretched resolutions makes the game incredibly unfair.

Edit: Just for fun I went into Photoshop and calculated the percentage of the screen the character takes up while you’re running in 16:9 — Nea takes up 18.2%. A character like David might take a bit more, maybe even up to 25%, but definitely not 60-70%.

Last edited 2 years ago by DanielD

-5

zaza

2 years ago

stretch is not a cheat, both sides could have used it and it balance itself, and if people wanted to cheat they would straight go to wallhacks and not need stretch. they should have added the option for stretched in the settings so people wouldnt go this far, the game give motion sickness for many people at native. thats just a fact.

Hana

1 year ago

good

[Name Removed by Admin]

2 years ago

its also done for hardware reasons, 16:9 resolutions give way less fps compared to 1:1 or even 4:3. and the competitive advantage of seeing over objects also sets up new depth perceptions, and both the killer and survivor appear to be moving faster, which can hard to adjust to.

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val

Reply to [Name Removed by Admin]

2 years ago

yeah, its dumb that they removed something players can use for frames when they refuse to optimise their dog shite game

[Name Removed by Admin]

2 years ago

imagine crying about stretched res lol.
this game makes me motion sick playing in standard resolution, but i guess being made physically ill evens the playing field.
wouldnt want players being comfortable with their preferred screen size xD

-2

DanielD

Author

Reply to [Name Removed by Admin]

2 years ago

I don’t think calling cheating what it is constitutes “crying”. I’m sorry you get motion-sick, but that doesn’t justify giving yourself an unfair advantage in a PvP game.

-16

mclean

Reply to [Name Removed by Admin]

2 years ago

lol cringe, who still uses “imagine”

-1

MythicalLobster

2 years ago

Bruh I use stretched resolution becuase my game runs like ass if I don’t, on normal res it freezes and stutters a lot and stretched resolution fixes that. So dumb yall gotta stop whining and just get good

-2

DanielD

Author

Reply to MythicalLobster

2 years ago

I believe you can still run the game in resolutions other than 16:9, it’s just that you can no longer gain a vision advantage by doing so.

-8

sheesh

2 years ago

I like how it looks

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