A lot of professional players in various games including Fortnite and CS:GO is playing on stretched resolutions and this trend is also commonplace in Apex Legends.
In this guide, we will explain the benefits of custom stretched resolutions and how you can play on stretched resolutions yourselves.
This guide is similar to our guide on how to play stretched resolution in Fortnite.
Benefits of custom and stretched resolutions
Some of the common arguments for playing on stretched resolutions is that they will increase the FPS and make the character hitboxes larger.
The first argument is mostly true since custom resolutions are usually lower than the native resolution and therefore naturally will increase the frame rates.
The second argument depends on the game and how it handles custom resolutions. For CS:GO it is true that the player models will become wider and therefore larger. In Fortnite however, this is not the case.
We are currently investigating the case for Apex Legends, and our results will be ready soon and published on this page.
How to play stretched resolution in Apex Legends
There are a few steps you need to go through if you want to play on a stretched custom resolution in Apex Legends, and at the same time avoid black bars.
Nvidia Settings
First, you need to adjust your in-game resolution and have fullscreen enabled.
Next, go to your NVIDIA Control Panel and create your custom resolution:
- Click on Change Resolution
- Choose one of the predefined resolutions or create your own custom resolution (see the next steps).
- Click on Customize…
- Check the Enable resolutions not exposed by the display
- Click Create Custom Resolution
- Now set the Horizontal pixels and Vertical lines to your desired resolution
- Click Test
- If everything is OK your new resolution is created and you can check it and click OK
- Click Apply
- That’s it, you are done.
Apex Legends Config Settings
You need to change a config file in order for the stretched resolution to work without getting black bars.
- Navigate to your Apex config (cfg) folder, it is usually located here:
C:\Program File\Origin Games\Apex\cfg - Create a new text file and rename it to “autoexec.cfg”, make sure you change the file extension from .txt to .cfg.
- Open your autoexec.cfg in a text editor, for example, notepad.
- Copy and paste the following two lines to your autoexec file and save it:
mat_letterbox_aspect_goal 1.33 mat_letterbox_aspect_threshold 1.33
Apex Legends Game Properties
The last thing you need to do is make sure your autoexec file gets executed when you launch the game.
- Open the Origin Launcher
- Go to My Game Library
- Right click on Apex Legends and click Game Properties
- Choose Advanced Launch Options
- In Command line arguments add the following and click save:
+exec autoexec
That’s it!
Please let us know what your experience is with custom and stretched resolutions in Apex Legends.
If you want to get additional FPS, we recommend to check out our Apex Legends: Best Settings Guide.
CouRage