Custom widescreen DDR backgrounds

So, as we are all aware, the world is going widescreen and there's no turning back. Laptops, TV's, monitors, StepMania (4/5/ssc), and even DDR is here to stay in widescreen.

Unfortunately, 2 problems exist because of this:
1) StepMania 4/ssc has a bad history of stretching backgrounds instead of cropping or letterboxing them to prevent fugly distortion.
2) The backgrounds in Ziv are 4x3.

I'd like to get around #1 with an obvious solution: make graphics in a widescreen format, say 852x480 (or if you insist on making your PNG's mod16, then 848x480). This lets people still using 3.9 crop their backgrounds to 640x480 without any important loss of image layout/clarity. Trying to go the other way and change 640x480 graphics to widescreen will either force odd crops (640x360 with top and/or bottom missing, resulting in text/graphics being hidden by the gameplay UI), or loss of clarity.

Luckily many backgrounds are just patterns of lines or gradients which can be extended relatively easily. However, many more backgrounds custom-made by the many talented people on Ziv can't be so easily enlarged to widescreen ratio. I'm hoping our regular contributors can release old backgrounds in widescreen

But in the meantime, I'll post some easily-done bgs which don't require art skills:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/681348/DDR%20Widescreen/AA-bg.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/681348/DDR%20Widescreen/BREAK%20DOWN%21-bg.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/681348/DDR%20Widescreen/PEACE%28%5E%5E%29v-bg.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/681348/DDR%20Widescreen/SO%20DEEP%20%28PERFECT%20SPHERE%20REMIX%29-bg.png

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<hydrothunder>Super Start!</hydrothunder> I'll repost the full UNIVERSE backgrounds on the alt graphics thread later today. And see about getting them from UNIVERSE 2 and UNIVERSE 3.

I have the background and banner rip for UNIVERSE 1 and 2, but apparently I'm missing many U2 files due to a corrupted zip/rar archive.

I thought Uni3 was different?

Universe 1's 720p backgrounds. I believe I got this from silverdragon back in the DDRUK days.

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The HD rips of the Universe series weren't done by me. When i was still a design rookie, I tried to take the best picture possible of all the Universe graphics with my cellphone T_T

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Oh yeah, another thing I wanted to check, but I can't because I'm at school, is what DDR Ultramix (1) did with the backgrounds in widescreen mode. I don't remember or know if they cropped them vertically, or if they had new backgrounds...

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Knowing Konami they just got cropped.

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You mean this? >>>New post on alternate graphics thread>>>

Ok this is basically the debut of some of my HD bgs. These were requested by neothe0ne so I hope they are satisfactory.

Fascination(eternal love mix) HD
HAPPY ANGEL HD
KYOKA-SUIGETSU-ROW(DDR EDITION) HD
POSSESSION HD

It feels so good to work with a much wider canvas just like my senior exhibit projects. I'll make more if requests come in and I'll be making some for myself as well. I will continue the rest later since I'm going to take care of the new X2 song bgs and banners right now.

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No, I meant Ultramix 1, when Konami Hawaii hadn't started recreating the artwork from scratch.

Thanks for the bgs, silverdragon754

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They look so nice at such a high resolution, silverdragon. Thanks!


Wait... ULTRAMIX had a widescreen mode?

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg170/hooky_-i-_vanisher/PARANOiAEVOLUTION.png
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg170/hooky_-i-_vanisher/GYRUSS-FullTilt-.png

All of my BGs will be in widescreen from now on, unless I make them for the official simfile packs.

Edit: Changed the bevel on Gyruss a bit: http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg170/hooky_-i-_vanisher/gyruss.png

I like that you're taking the official backgrounds and giving them text. It's a simple mod but it works so well.