Resolution and Fonts

[AquaTsar17]

I have come across a dilemma. Earlier I asked for some opinions on scrolling vs static dungeons, but recently I realized something problematic with static dungeons. The maximum size of a dungeon floor is based on the size of the font, and the size of the game window (and thus resolution).

Allowing people to change fonts or screen size requires a scrolling dungeon. Now, if I wanted to instead make a static dungeon, the most obvious approach would be to just use a set font size (which is fine) and a set resolution.

What resolution would be "acceptable"? I am aiming for desktop machines, not handhelds, but OS should be irrelevant. I'm thinking 1024x768 is a standard monitor size now, but when I was in a computer store the other day I could not find a non-widescreen monitor. Is everything widescreen now?

So, does anyone have some ideas on an acceptable resolution?

[AmnEn]

There's a topic over on Tigsource about the very same topic, might help you out.
Also note the Links to other Surveys a bit further down.
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=13389.0

Can't you just make a set internal resolution and just scale it up proportionally to a user's choice of resolution? I generally skip games with fixed resolution because they either force fullscreen on me, which does atrocious things to my monitor or they leave it windowed, which turns the game into a stamp.

[AquaTsar17]

Huh, imagine that. Well that article addresses my question quite nicely, and the links from there are useful too. Thanks for pointing that one out!

[magellan]

Huh?
http://code.google.com/p/rlprospector/
Has adjustable font sizes, and doesn't scroll (Ok, it scrolls in space, but that just proves that both things are possible)
Winx=fontwidth*notiles
Winy=Fontheight*notiles
Of course you cant offer different font sizes without changing window size without scrolling, but isn't offering different window sizes the point?

[AquaTsar17]

Actually, my concern was how to make sure (no matter what screen resolution or font size used) a fixed numbers of tiles in X and Y were available. The problem ended up being a bit more trivial than I expected, but it's good to know others already looked into and discussed this issue.

I also wanted to make sure that if I used some specific window size, all my players could actually see the entire screen. I run into that issue with windowed applications (even non-roguelikes) a lot, and wanted to avoid it.

[Krice]

I generally skip games with fixed resolution because they either force fullscreen on me, which does atrocious things to my monitor or they leave it windowed, which turns the game into a stamp.

What's wrong with small stamp window, if you can see what's happening in the game? Lot of programs are smaller than the resolution size.

[Joonas]

I think it's bad and sheer laziness to limit your game to a fixed resolution. People have netbooks with 1024x576, big televisions in living rooms with 1920x1080 and 30" monitors with 2560x1200.

Make the game playable in a window or fullscreen and add a possibility to adjust the game window dimensions. I also like if the interface and text size can be zoomed.

I just recently rewrote the display part of an old project:

Smallest view for netbooks:
http://personal.inet.fi/koti/jhirvonen/roguelike/mini.jpg

Fullscreen:
http://personal.inet.fi/koti/jhirvonen/roguelike/full.jpg

Fullscreen, zoomed interface with 2x tilesize:
http://personal.inet.fi/koti/jhirvonen/roguelike/zoomed.jpg

Settings can be changed on-the-fly.

[getter77]

That looks pretty spiffy Joonas!   

[AmnEn]

What's wrong with small stamp window, if you can see what's happening in the game? Lot of programs are smaller than the resolution size.

Ye, if you can see what's happening in the game is the keyphrase here. There's no chance with a native screen resolution of 1920x1080. Games with small resolutions aren't bigger than a thumb in length. That's far too small to see what's going on, let alone read text.

[Bear]

Different monitors in my house are 1920x1080 (living room TV, which functions as a computer monitor when we set it to 'video 3'), 800x600 (specialized 'camping trip' laptop with 9-hour battery life and 3 days worth of backup batteries), 1280x1024 (regular laptop for use in more civilized areas where power is easier to find), and 2560x1600 (Main desktop machine, WXGA rotated 90 degrees for portrait aspect ratio rather than landscape).

I cannot imagine any single resolution and font size that would be appropriate on all these monitors.

It sounds like you're already committed to a much more graphical approach, but seriously, what's wrong with a plain-old-curses interface?  The advantages are that the font will have already been set to a usable/visible size for that monitor (and can readily be reset by the user), you don't have to worry about scaling blurs, and your game is more portable. 

[Slash]

@Bear, welcome to the temple... introduce yourself!

[Krice]

I think it's bad and sheer laziness to limit your game to a fixed resolution.

It's a technical issue mainly. With fixed fonts (in engine that doesn't support scaling) and/or tiles it's difficult to scale them without losing quality. You can provide different size fonts/tiles, but with tiles it could mean huge amount of work and all that for pussies who cry when their full hd monitor isn't used in all its glory.

[Krice]

It sounds like you're already committed to a much more graphical approach, but seriously, what's wrong with a plain-old-curses interface?

It's a limiting option when you try to write a next gen roguelike.

[AmnEn]

but with tiles it could mean huge amount of work and all that for pussies who cry when their full hd monitor isn't used in all its glory.

/edit: response edited out, not worth it.
Short note: That was uncalled for. Feeling envious, buddy?

Rest:
Why not scale it up proportionally? 2x, 4x? Black-Bar the leftover pixels. The issue with big screens is that the games that do enforce fullscreen do stretch, instead of proportionally scaling it. This leads to really odd and unplayable results. I've already explained the issue with windowed games running a small resolution.

P.S.:
slashie, sent you some bug report a couple of weeks ago, did you receive it?

[Fenrir]

Can't you adjust your monitor's screen resolution before playing? Do wide screens not support─for lack of a technical term─not-wide resolutions? I'm sorry if that was a stupid question; I figure this wouldn't be an issue if it is as simple as I'm thinking, so it obviously isn't somehow.