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[Deliz Seemack]

It would be nice to be able to set an explicit game screen resolution. There are a few good use cases for this. One is for game capture for streaming or video on demand. If you want optimal conditions, you need to be able to select the game resolution.

On the implementation side of things, I think I do understand the use of the Font Set/Size and the Map Width/Height options. I've tried making my windowed game screen 1280x720 to match the standard 720p resolution but I wasn't able to. The best I came up with was using the 12/Crisp font with a map width of 70 and a map height of 50. I got 1200x720 with these settings. When I go fullscreen with these settings, the game changes the font set/size to 18/Cogmind to match my 1920x1200 native resolution I guess.

If I could set the map width to 72, I could maybe get closer to 1280x720 at the cost of some usability but I don't think that would be a good solution.

Maybe you could add a simple setting for screen resolution that would exactly set the game to use that resolution and automatically use some good values for Font Set/Size + Map Width/Height based on the selection screen resolution. Than you could have those Font Set/Size + Map Width/Height be some kind of advanced settings that power gamers could tweak on their own. I don't know.

People are used to be able to set their game screen resolution for both fullscreen and windowed. Game capture is good use case for this but I'm pretty sure I can come up with many more.

[biomatter]

I had some trouble with the setting earlier today, actually, in this regard. After going from fullscreen to windowed and a font size smaller, I was not able to select font size 18 upon resuming fullscreen.

One thing to note is that you can manually set the map height and width in the config file. This is not ideal, of course.

[Deliz Seemack]

I had some trouble with the setting earlier today, actually, in this regard. After going from fullscreen to windowed and a font size smaller, I was not able to select font size 18 upon resuming fullscreen.

One thing to note is that you can manually set the map height and width in the config file. This is not ideal, of course.

I just had the same problem. If you set your Map Width/Height to lower value and restart the game, that will unlock larger font Set/Size.

This kind of confusion is another reason why there should be something simpler for all those settings.

[biomatter]

I realized how it worked after deleting my config to refresh everything. You're right though, I didn't realize at first that I had to lower the map size to gain access to the options - my poor memory lead me to believe it was around 87~ when it was actually 78.

[Kyzrati]

I admit Cogmind's approach to resolution is pretty non-standard as far as games go, and it's made a little harder to understand/handle by the fact that the UI cannot be dynamically resized once the game has started. One compromise I was thinking about is enabling the game to restart itself after changing map size, so you can immediately see the effects. @biomatter: You shouldn't have to manually edit the config file--as the options help text explains, you can change map dimensions from the menu but a manual restart is required before they can take effect.

Most every other game allows you to specify an explicit resolution because they use scaling, or can at least show an arbitrary amount of view space, but Cogmind has to both show a multiple of the base font dimension and also offers many font sizes so the player can choose what suits them best (though the largest is chosen by default).

This approach essentially trades ease of use for flexibility. The idea is that it might take a little bit longer to get the view set up exactly as you want it on your system, but once you do it should look pretty good and you never have to fool with it again.

The main issue with allowing the player to specify a resolution is that Cogmind doesn't use scaling at all, and won't change your desktop resolution. Doing this opens the door to allowing your video card to scale the game however it wants to in order to fit your screen, which makes the game look pretty terrible...

[Arseface]

Most every other game allows you to specify an explicit resolution because they use scaling, or can at least show an arbitrary amount of view space, but Cogmind has to both show a multiple of the base font dimension and also offers many font sizes so the player can choose what suits them best (though the largest is chosen by default).

Is it possible to have a "buffer area" around the tiles in order to enable it to match exactly the resolution you want for things like streaming?

[Kyzrati]

It is, though this is usually less than idea for streaming because you want maximum size due to the UI density. What I'd suggest (and have seen) is to use fullscreen and put the chat window over the bottom left area of the map. On widescreen you don't quite need the leftmost half of the area to the left of Cogmind, anyway.

Letterboxing is the default behavior if you switch to fullscreen mode and just reduce the font size (Ctrl-PgDn).

[Deliz Seemack]

Here is an idea.

What if explicitly changing the resolution would only find a reasonable combination of font set/size, map width/height and padding to fit that resolution (while still setting the fullscreen or windowed resolution to that value)? Than if someone subsequently change the font set/size it would only change the width/height and padding to still fit best the current resolution. Wouldn't that be simple for everyone including those looking for flexibility and those looking for simplicity/usability?

This solution does not involve scaling.

EDIT: This solution already seems to be somewhat implemented in the current Alpha 1. As I described above, when you are in windowed mode with a small font set/size and a much smaller resolution than your fullscreen resolution and you switch back to fullscreen, the game will automatically change your font set/size to kinda best fit your fullscreen resolution.

[Kyzrati]

This is what it does right now, by starting with a preference for the largest possible font that will fit in the current resolution.

I can't be sure it's what you're after, though some players aren't realizing that there are a huge number of grid cells required to fit the entire UI (80x60), so displaying larger fonts beyond what the game decides automatically right now is not possible. The current method is to begin with the smallest possible map size combined with the largest possible font, then expand the map only if there is room to do so (usually due to widescreen aspect ratios).

Than if someone subsequently change the font set/size it would only change the width/height and padding to still fit best the current resolution. Wouldn't that be simple for everyone including those looking for flexibly and those looking for simplicity/usability?

This could be possible, but might end up confusing players even more because this would only enable them to make individual cells smaller, never larger. All font/resolution-related complaints so far indicate that a majority of players with resolution issues are looking for ways to increase the font size, not shrink it. Are you saying you'd like to make it easier to see more of the map area in exchange for even smaller fonts?

[Deliz Seemack]

The current method is to begin with the smallest possible map size combined with the largest possible font, then expand the map only if there is room to do so (usually due to widescreen aspect ratios).

It would be nice to explicitly expose this method to not only your native fullscreen resolution but to every reasonable supported fullscreen and windowed resolution. I agree that it might be a source of even more confusion and I do not have an easy solution to reduce this potential confusion for now but I suspect there is one.

I see the need for a larger UI or the perception of smallest for the current UI as a separate issue. It might be related but it is not my concern here. I understand that there is a lot to show and that needs space. If someone starts a thread about it, I might chime in.

[Kyzrati]

The current method is to begin with the smallest possible map size combined with the largest possible font, then expand the map only if there is room to do so (usually due to widescreen aspect ratios).

It would be nice to explicitly expose this method to not only your native fullscreen resolution but to every reasonable supported fullscreen and windowed resolution. I agree that it might be a source of even more confusion and I do not have an easy solution to reduce this potential confusion for now but I suspect there is one.

I can imagine exposing it as a separate pre-game menu which most games handle via a "launcher," though Cogmind is not built with that kind of engine and doesn't have easy access to that kind of thing--I'd have to build one separately, which would end up being a bit of a project in itself.

I spent quite a while devising the current scheme aimed at retaining the flexibility of the font system and dynamic UI in conjunction with the engine's limitations while still remaining somewhat automatable and transparent. It's really tough to balance all that.

The UI will be receiving lots of new font options that will be more important in satisfying players than resolution tweaks. Today I also implemented a DPI fix that should allow the game to scale properly the first time it's run on Win8 systems, which other than fonts has been the primary source of issues so far.