12 Bar Aspect Ratio Blues

Started by helpessfool, Tue 24/01/2017 03:30:41

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helpessfool

So yep, I've got those aspect ratio blues, my friends.

So for some reason I made my game's resolution 320 X 200, which I'm now fearing was a big mistake. See, I'm making a "retro" game and it actually looks great when I run it on my desktop at full screen with max round multiplier. The borders are minimal and the graphics are sharp. The trouble, however, is that my desktop has a weird 8:5 aspect ratio (1440 X 900). When I run my game at full screen on a monitor with a 16:9 ratio using the max round multiplier and the nearest-neighbor filter, the border around the game is HUGE, to the extant that it'd probably annoy your typical gamer (though it's still readable and playable, at least on the 15.6" monitor I tested it on).

I mean, I can easily make the original The Binding of Isaac take up more screen real estate on 16:9 monitor than what I'm getting with max round multiplier - and that's not a good sign for me. I've tried every possible setting and haven't come up with a good solution. DirectDraw is too buggy on modern computers for me to want to use the Hqx filter (plus my game's aesthetic is highly reliant on sharp pixel graphics). Stretch to fit screen stretches and squeezes pixels in weird ways. Native resolution is blurry.

Oddly enough, I've had the most success running the game full screen at 1024 X 768. It takes up a decent amount of screen space on both my 8:5 and 16:9 monitors. And the blurriness - while still present - is at least minimized.

I'm starting to think that 1024 X 768 is the poison I'll have to drink at this point, sans completely redoing the graphics. And I wouldn't even know what resolution is better anyway. It's all really bummed me out, because I've put a ton of work into this game (art, story, original music, etc.), and I honestly think it's shaping up OK outside of this resolution issue.

So I guess what I'm wondering is... ("FINALLY!" you scream) is there maybe an alternative solution? When I ran the game at full screen at the native resolution in AGS Draconion for example, I was able to use that engine's scanline filter to make the blurriness less of an issue while also adding a nice retro touch. But that was a DirectDraw filter, which rules it out for me. Plus, I would've liked to change the appearance of the scanlines a bit, but I'm just a glorified script kiddie/monkey. I can do things that are explained well in the manual or in the demo of a module, but that's about it.

So yeah, that's where I'm at. Hoping for a miracle, I guess.

Khris

The standard resolution nowadays is 1920x1080, which means your game would run at 1600x1000. That's a subtle border at the top and bottom, and a big one on the sides (I wouldn't mind at all, I usually play 320 games in a window, at x3 or x4).

However, if you decreased your vertical res to 180, you could keep all your assets and the game would exactly fit into 1080p at x6.

CaesarCub


Just like Khris said, to me, the best way to get a nice pixel perfect ratio in most screen today is to go for the 320x180 resolution.

It works perfectly at on 1080p with at 6x and also if the screen is 720p it fits there with x4.
So it covers both of the most used screen resolutions today.

helpessfool

#3
Quote from: Khris on Tue 24/01/2017 12:40:52
The standard resolution nowadays is 1920x1080, which means your game would run at 1600x1000. That's a subtle border at the top and bottom, and a big one on the sides (I wouldn't mind at all, I usually play 320 games in a window, at x3 or x4).

However, if you decreased your vertical res to 180, you could keep all your assets and the game would exactly fit into 1080p at x6.

Thanks. I'll try out 320x180 and see how it goes. I don't have a 1920x1080 monitor to test it on, sadly, but I'll take your word for it. Good thing there's a big sky in a lot of the rooms. It gives me something to cut.

helpessfool

#4
Ok, well... I tried 320X180 and the results were MUCH better. The borders are a tad bigger than I'd like at 8:5, but still within reason. And 16:9 looks pretty good, though I'm not getting an exact fit at 1366x768, which believe it or not is the most common resolution today thanks to cheapo laptops (I've seen it's usage estimated at anywhere from 15-35% of the market). My goal was just to get the game to display as well as LISA (an RPG on Steam made with RPG Maker), which wasn't even a great goal to have. Now I'm satisfied. Next time I'll know better, but this salvages all the work I put in.

Danvzare

Quote from: helpessfool on Tue 24/01/2017 03:30:41
the border around the game is HUGE, to the extant that it'd probably annoy your typical gamer
Most of us typical gamer's are used to that kind of border by now. Mostly because there's quite a few games in 320x200, and almost everyone has monitor with a common aspect ratio. So yeah, most of us are used to it.

The only reason it's probably bothering you that much, is because you're used to no borders at all (or at least next to no borders) thanks to your 8:5 aspect ratio.

That being said, I think Khris's suggestion of cutting it down to 320x180 would solve your problem.

helpessfool

Quote from: Danvzare on Tue 24/01/2017 13:52:31
The only reason it's probably bothering you that much, is because you're used to no borders at all (or at least next to no borders) thanks to your 8:5 aspect ratio.

That being said, I think Khris's suggestion of cutting it down to 320x180 would solve your problem.

Hmm... maybe you should all join the 8:5 revolution! I'm telling you, there's a lot more room on the screens out here!

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