[tityus]

My friend is flying with higher res than I. I'm also building a simpit which will use a widescreen monitor.

Are all the other settings at the same spec , specially visibility distance?

Instead of extracting info bit by bit, let me give you what you've first ask... but bear in mind that to be able to spot enemies first is on the contrary route of producing the better image possible. I personally, prefer a realistic image than a "practical" one where I can locate the enemies faster. That's up to each pilot. That said:

I was hoping for a generic reply that I could apply to any future purchase.

Display resolution: the number of pixels the monitor employs to show the image . The native resolution gives us the best perception one can get. If you set your monitor to something else, it will have to do some number crunching in the image to accommodate it on its native resolution at the expense of moving away from the best quality possible. Displaying more pixels in a smaller area makes the image much clearer. The higher the resolution - the more points it has - , the more detail it will convey [clearer perception].

Display area: this is the easier to decide and a direct consequence of aspect ratio and how many inches you decide to go for. The larger your monitor, the larger display area you have. What you should observe is: if you have a 1024x768 jpg image and look it on a 24" display, side by side, with a 15" display, you will perceive the image in the 15" monitor as clearer, because you have the same amount of pixels in a small area, therefore you have more pixels/inch.

Image resolution or input resolution - that's what your game will send to your monitor. The higher it is, the better you can discern details, clearer image. What those that want to get an edge on detecting the enemy do is lower the image sent out to the monitor, so when it interpolates the pixels, it accentuate the differences - plane to background - making them more pronounced and easy to spot. (they also tweak the gamma)

Aspect Ratio - proportion of the display - square or rectangular. It affects the number of pixels in the display for the same size. Usually a 19" widescreen display has more pixels than a 19" fullscreen (square one 4:3)

Response time - it is the time the monitor takes to respond to a change in the pixel it is displaying. Faster is better, specially for games.

Contrast Ratio - a ratio between the brightest and darkest pixel the display can produce. The higher the better.


Wrapping up...

If it were my choice, since I'm one that prefers the best image my monitor can show (that's not in the same direction as seeing the enemy first, it is contrary), I'd get the wide screen display with the largest native resolution I could afford, lower response time and higher contrast ratio.

GenPsycho and WildWeasel provided good suggestions.


good luck,
t