[Serious.Ray]

Hi people,

We are planning a game and our engine supports only a fix resolution which will result in people using higher resolutions having black bars and people using lower resolutions being able to play it only in windowed mode. Since we would like to retain the best possible result for most of you we would like to ask you which resolution you are using.
This data is very important to any of us developers with fix resolution limits.
If your resolution doesn't fit one resolution of the poll please use other and specify your resolution in a post.

Thanks in advance,
Serious.Ray
Crowbar Solutions

[ZeframCochrane]

Personally, I'm on a 1680x1050 monitor.
But, rather than absolute resolution, shouldn't the problem be limited to which aspect ratio is the most common?

Whichever resolution you pick for the game engine output to be, won't the monitor's firmware scale the game's output to fill itself? In which case, once you pick a resolution, you would've made the game playable with no distortions on any monitor with the same aspect ratio as the resolution you've picked. Once that is sorted, you can include an option to add pillarboxing or letterboxing bars in postprocessing (so your game engine would still be outputting the fixed resolution).

Eg. Suppose you find out that 16:10 is the most common aspect ratio. If this were the case, it would be sensible to pick a resolution with a 16:10 AR.
Say you pick 1280x800 as your fixed resolution for your game engine output. This should make the game playable with no distortion on any monitor with a 16:10 spect ratio. If the game is played on a 1680x1050 monitor, the game engine may as well output 1280x800-sized frames, but to the best of my knowledge this output will be scaled by the monitor to fill the entirety of the monitor's surface, rather then windowboxing it in the middle of the screen!
That said, if you add a "Keep 4:3 aspect ratio" in game option, should the player own a 4:3 monitor and enable the option, the game engine would still be outputting a 1280x800 frame, to which a padding of 80-pixel thick bars above and below the image would be added in postprocessing, creating a 1280x960 frame with a 4:3 aspect ratio, which would then be scaled up by the screen, resulting in a letterboxed image with correct proportions.

Does it make any sense? I've not a professional, so what I said may make sense in theory but be inapplicable in practice. In which case, sorry to waste your time.

[Serious.Ray]

Originally Posted by ZeframCochrane

Personally, I'm on a 1680x1050 monitor.
But, rather than absolute resolution, shouldn't the problem be limited to which aspect ratio is the most common?

Whichever resolution you pick for the game engine output to be, won't the monitor's firmware scale the game's output to fill itself? In which case, once you pick a resolution, you would've made the game playable with no distortions on any monitor with the same aspect ratio as the resolution you've picked. Once that is sorted, you can include an option to add pillarboxing or letterboxing bars in postprocessing (so your game engine would still be outputting the fixed resolution).
...

Oh how I'd love that it was this way. I thought about this and started with 1920 x 1200 (16:10) and tried to start the project on my 1680 x 1050 (16:10) system in fullscreen. This totally failed. The screen stayed black. I asked in the forum of the engine and there is definately no solution for this. Sadly...
That's why I have to choose a fix resolution most people can use. For example 1280 x 720. Then I will have bars e.g. but others will be able to play it in fullscreen too. (Those who use a resolution that equals 1280 x 720 or is bigger.)

[aimless]

I have a 1600x900 monitor but I don't mind black bars to either side of the game and hardly notice them if I'm engrossed in it.

[marvio]

None of those...

3840x1200

Is this a comercial release? If it is I would suggest you stop now and change your engine, you will get flack by every reviewer out there, and I couldn't blame them, for this.

What is this engine anyhow? I can't even think of one which would do what you describe, not even ancient DOS engines did that!? No scaling at all? Come to think of it, it's almost impossible, really? Unless the engine is using nothing but the GDI interface, in which case, REALLY STOP NOW and change yor engine. DirectX does this for you automatically, you don't even have to program anything, if this engine is using DX and still does this there's some pretty bad bug in there somewhere...

I'm not kncking you man, just giving friendly advice, I personally don't care, if the game is good I'll play it, but it really is a big shortcoming, specially in this day in age

[ZeframCochrane]

Originally Posted by Serious.Ray

I thought about this and started with 1920 x 1200 (16:10) and tried to start the project on my 1680 x 1050 (16:10) system in fullscreen. This totally failed. The screen stayed black. I asked in the forum of the engine and there is definately no solution for this. Sadly...

Hmm could that be because monitors can upscale but not downscale? What happens if you try to feed a 1280x800 or a 1440x900 picture generated by your engine to your monitor?

[Serious.Ray]

@marvio
Well we'll see about commercial once we see how the game turns out. We'll try our best.
It's the Wintermute Engine. Commercial games like The Art of Murder (Die Kunst der Mordens) have been produces with it aswell. It's going to be a rather small game though. So even if it's going commercial there will be a rather low price.

@ZeframCochrane
Certainly. If the system supports (gfx card + driver + monitor) the resolution of the game and the option is chosen not to use black bars you can play it upscaled, which is done by the system. Atm I seem to have some issue with displaying 1280x800 fullscreen even in windows. So I'll tell you if I was able to fix this. Other resolutions like 640x480 are upscaling ok.

[mrLOL]

lol current winner is "1024 x 768" looooool who uses that resolution?!? :O
My 800x600 cellphone almost has higher resolution that that

anyway I played Dirty Split (Wintermule Engine) on my 1920x1080 monitor and I don't remember any problem.

but yeah I think you're talking about aspect ratio as well, I'm guessing most wintermule games has a static BG built for those 1024px monitors and then that one is upscaled to fullscreen for every monitor (some with blackbars on top or sides)

[zenger]

Hi Serious.Ray, other was my option

My resolution:

1280x768

Kind regards

[Jaesun]

voted 1280 x 1024

[Serious.Ray]

Had to go in the ATI Catalyst Control Center to "My Digital Flat-Panels" -> "Properties" and check "Enable GPU scaling". (Although that should not be mandatory since it's the same aspect ratio and another resolution, 1440x900 worked without that option too. Oh well, ATI moves in mysterious ways. ) So yeah. Upscaling works but downscaling doesn't work.

@mrLOL
We'll see ^^.

[ZeframCochrane]

Originally Posted by Serious.Ray

Had to go in the ATI Catalyst Control Center to "My Digital Flat-Panels" -> "Properties" and check "Enable GPU scaling". (Although that should not be mandatory since it's the same aspect ratio and another resolution, 1440x900 worked without that option too. Oh well, ATI moves in mysterious ways. )

Driver-level flat panel scaling is one big mess, the way I see it.
Nvidia has a similar option, and it misbehaves as well. I still have to figure out if it's the driver's fault, or my monitor's. I'm thinking it's the latter.

I've never been able to figure out at which level the scaling is done, ie. exactly what kind of image is being fed to the monitor. If done properly, the graphics card should feed the monitor an image at the monitor's native resolution inclusive of pillar/letterboxing bars, so that the monitor will interpret the bars as part of the frame, and not attempt any kind of scaling of itself.

Be it as it may, any combination of resolution/scaling option I pick, the result is a stretched image which fills the whole screen.
My first try was to enable the "Use Nvidia scaling with fixed aspect ratio" and set a 4:3 resolution of 1400x1050. What I expected was to see 140-pixel thick letterboxing bars to appear at both sides of the screen (1400 + 2*140 = 1680) and a 4:3 desktop in the middle. No joy. What I got was a horizontally streched desktop that filled the whole screen, which is what normally (ie. without the "Use Nvidia scaling with fixed aspect ratio") happens when a resolution with a lower aspect ratio than the screen is selected. Either the driver is failing to add the padding, or the monitor is scaling the frame beyond its native resolution to crop out the bars.

I gave up on Nvidia scaling altogether, or until I can borrow a monitor from someone, and see how it behaves on "Nvidia scaling with fixed aspect ratio".
When I play 4:3 fixed resolution games (like The Lost Crown. Wintermute?) I either put up with the odd proportions, or play with my laptop, where Nvidia flat panel scaling actually works.

Sorry for the rant, I kinda had to get it out of my system.

Originally Posted by Serious.Ray

So yeah. Upscaling works but Downscaling doesn't work.

So, ignoring driver-level scaling for a moment, I'd say you have your work cut out for you. The first thing you have to do is decide how backwards-compatible you want the game to be. If you want to support 1024x768, I guess the best choice is to develop the game at 1024x768 (4:3), and enable a "Widescreen Aspect Ratio" option, which will add pillarboxing bars in order to output frames at about 1230x768, which will in turn be scaled up by the 16:10 monitor. Which is, I believe, the way the City Interative games like Art of Murder behave.

[rayvio]

1280x1024, highest resolution my monitor supports and I don't have the space for a bigger one even if I could afford it

[DustyShinigami]

Mine was 1024x768 until I bought a new monitor recently (well overdue). Now it's 1360x768.

[Stuart]

1920x1200 here. What sort of game will it be, any hints? Theme for example?

[Serious.Ray]

First one will be an point and click adventure game set in about end of 1800 beginning 1900. It's going to be a rather fantasy parody genre with some small influence of sci-fi with a male actor but female sidekick at some point. It's going to play on a fictional continent settled by immigrants while two powers are formed out of these. The alliance and the empire. The empire is planning a plot against the alliance. There's going to be a princess which will play an important but marginal role, a messenger (protagonist) and his sidekick, a temporarily playable prisoner, bad guys and some allusions to popular tales, series/movies, historic events and adventure games.

[Gonchi]

Originally Posted by mrLOL

lol current winner is "1024 x 768" looooool who uses that resolution?!? :O
My 800x600 cellphone almost has higher resolution that that

I do. You're welcome to buy me a new monitor and graphic card if you'd like me to use another resolution.

[mataku]

the only one that's not in your poll: 1600x900

I think a widescreen resolution with black bars for 4:3 monitors is the way to go. the future is widescreen, you'd want your game to live on, don't you?

Originally Posted by Gazzoid

Mine was 1024x768 until I bought a new monitor recently (well overdue). Now it's 1360x768.

so you bought a new monitor just to get an extra 336 horizontal pixels?

[Serious.Ray]

Originally Posted by mataku

the only one that's not in your poll: 1600x900

I think a widescreen resolution with black bars for 4:3 monitors is the way to go. the future is widescreen, you'd want your game to live on, don't you?



so you bought a new monitor just to get an extra 336 horizontal pixels?

I'm planning to go with widescreen. Nevertheless I need some reference resolution .

[marvio]

Originally Posted by Gazzoid

Mine was 1024x768 until I bought a new monitor recently (well overdue). Now it's 1360x768.

Dude!

Were you using an old 15" CRT

I can't even remember the last time I used 1024X768, maybe with my PII setup?

It's a shame you're over the pond... I have so much "crap" at home that my clients throw out, you wouldn't believe