SOLVED: Direct Draw 5 Character problem.

derrikk88 · Tue 05/09/2017 00:53:35

Hello there,

i dont know why my character has a very low resolution if i start the game with directdraw 5. The Background is normal. Has anyone a solution for it?

Here a screenshot draw5:
https://picload.org/view/rwwwoiar/directdraw5.png.html

and direct3d9:
https://picload.org/view/dggdwrgr/direct3d9.png.html

Thanks so far.
derrikk

Khris · Tue 05/09/2017 01:06:21

Quote from: derrikk88 on Tue 05/09/2017 00:53:35i dont know why my character has a very low resolution if i start the game with directdraw 5. The Background is normal.

It's funny you put it that way, because in the DD5 screenshot, the character has the exact same resolution as the background, the way it's supposed to be.
D3D draws scaled characters at the resolution set in winsetup, not the game's own resolution, creating an aesthetic I find off-putting, tbh.

If you're absolutely sure you want a game with mixed resolutions, just ignore DD5 (and tell your users to do the same). But I definitely recommend to either redraw the character in the background's resolution or pick a higher resolution but use it consistently.

derrikk88 · Tue 05/09/2017 01:12:17

wow

thank u very much for ur fast reply ... it can be so easy =P^^

Actually it makes it much more difficult, but it looks better how u said. So I gonna change it.

Crimson Wizard · Tue 05/09/2017 08:01:18

Since upcoming AGS 3.4.1 you can also choose the character scaling method in winsetup for Direct3D (it makes it look in a proper pixely way, like in DirectDraw5).

(Although we do not support other way around for DirectDraw, because it is longer to implement and will supposedly make software renderer work much slower on large monitors)

derrikk88 · Tue 05/09/2017 08:50:30

okay, good to know that too. Thanks for the information.

Danvzare · Tue 05/09/2017 13:17:38

Quote from: Khris on Tue 05/09/2017 01:06:21
It's funny you put it that way, because in the DD5 screenshot, the character has the exact same resolution as the background, the way it's supposed to be.

I have to agree here.
Usually people complain about about mis-matched resolutions, rather than matching resolutions.

Word of advice though, go for what you think looks better. A lot of people hate mis-matched resolutions, but a lot of those people fail to realise that games have been using mis-matched resolutions for decades. A good example is Rampage.

In this case though, I'm going to have to go with the popular opinion. The version with the correct resolution looks much better.

Khris · Tue 05/09/2017 15:56:44

Quote from: Danvzare on Tue 05/09/2017 13:17:38A lot of people hate mis-matched resolutions, but a lot of those people fail to realise that games have been using mis-matched resolutions for decades. A good example is Rampage.

This is the first time I'm hearing of this. I've looked at Rampage screenshots but I'm not seeing mixed resolutions. Can you point to a few examples?

Danvzare · Wed 06/09/2017 11:02:41

Quote from: Khris on Tue 05/09/2017 15:56:44
This is the first time I'm hearing of this. I've looked at Rampage screenshots but I'm not seeing mixed resolutions. Can you point to a few examples?

Those are screenshots of the Amiga version.
The original arcade version is the one with the mis-matched resolutions: Rampage screenshot.

As a matter of fact, I think the same type of mis-matched resolutions can be seen on a lot of Midway arcade games at the time. Mostly because they used the same (or at least similar) hardware. For example Tapper.

Also I'm pretty sure that I remember some console games doubling the size of sprites, making them a lot blockier. Although I can't find any pictures of that, nor remember any particular games that happened in. So I could be wrong.
The only example I could find was this one screenshot on Parodius, here's an example of what it's normally like.

I used links for the pictures, because for some reason the Rampage one wasn't displaying properly, and the Tapper one was too big. As for the Parodius ones, I used links for those because I used links for the other two. I hope you don't mind.

Khris · Wed 06/09/2017 15:19:58

Ok, well, SNES games for example simply blew up enemies when they were exploding or the like, but afaik they were still using a bilinear filter. I guess you can count that as "using mixed resolutions" but that's still a far cry from highres characters on pixelart backgrounds making up 98% of the screen time.

Snarky · Wed 06/09/2017 15:50:22

Quote from: Khris on Wed 06/09/2017 15:19:58afaik they were still using a bilinear filter.

Unlikely. They were probably just scaling with nearest-neighbor.

I agree that I wouldn't really consider that sort of thing an example of mixed-resolution as an art style.

Danvzare · Thu 07/09/2017 11:54:07

Yes, but what about Rampage... HEY!!! THE SCREENSHOT ISN'T DISPLAYING CORRECTLY ANYMORE!!!

Damn it!

Alright, hopefully this one works:
[imgzoom]https://r.mprd.se/MAME/snap/rampage.png[/imgzoom]

Maybe it's just me, but I'm fairly sure those sprites are twice as detailed as the background.
But considering this is the only real mixed-resolution I can find in an old game (like I said though, I think Midway had a few games which used the same hardware). I retract my statement about mixed-resolutions being used for decades. Clearly it appeared in a few games in the mid eighties due to hardware limitations, and didn't appear again until recently.