I had mixed feelings about including this title, given all the problems I saw posted online, which wasn't limited to the Parhelia. However, upon installing the game and applying the latest patch, I had no problems. The ability to see more of the battlefield, so to speak, does make this game a perfect match for the Parhelia's Surround Gaming mode.
In fact, my "significant other" made a similar remark when she peeked in my office while playing in Surround Mode.
SETTINGS
Battlefield 1942 was tested using the following settings:
Surround Gaming - 2400x600 resolution
Normal - 1024x768 resolution
Trilinear filtering forced via driver
16X FAA enabled where noted
In-game graphics settings at maximum quality
SCREENSHOTS
Again, a comparison between a single monitor screenshot and Surround Gaming.
Normal
Surround
PERFORMANCE
I used FRAPS to acquire an average framerate while playing a single player campaign. The specific campaign was Operation: Market Garden.
This one has some meaning for me, having served in an Airborne unit a few years ago. Personally, I always found myself jumping out of the plane to relive some great memories.
Battlefield 1942 Performance
Test Mode
Average Frame Rate
Normal
67
Surround Gaming
48
Surround Gaming with FAA
39
The numbers are quite good, all things considered. As I mentioned before, the various forums on the Internet have painted a very poor picture in terms of bugs and performance.
The Normal performance was very good. I checked around the Internet and came across a review that benchmarked a Radeon 9700 in this game and it yielded right around the same numbers. One thing that should be noted is the fact that FAA distorts the fonts within the game. This is a bit of an annoyance, for obvious reasons. Battlefield 1942 was the only game I played that exhibited this behavior.
The Surround performance might seem a bit low, but it was actually playable to me. The game certainly benefits from having that added peripheral real estate like all the other games.
