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

BHVR posted the latest Player Test Build notes (5.6.0) yesterday, and while the new Killer The Onryō 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) :

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!