Trouble with widescreen sideborders

Tonic Ink · Tue 17/11/2009 10:35:24

Hi Guys,

I've been mucking around with AGS on and off for the better part of 7 years.

I'm thrilled to find out that the 3.2 beta now resolves the issue of games stretching on widescreen monitors (which are becoming the norm these days).

I have an issue however... I can't seem to get the bugger to work :S (no borders, still stretching)

I've compiled 3 or so dummy test games in 1024 with the option both ticked and unticked in the setup.exe I've also tried manually changing the config to no avail.

I'm currently using a benq 24"

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Regards

Edit: My apologies if this post is better suited to the beginners forum

Edit: I have just e-mailed the test game to a friend with a 22" widescreen, he's also not receiving side borders and confirms tick is checked in setup

AGS version is 3.2 RC2

Thanks again

DoorKnobHandle · Wed 18/11/2009 16:50:10

I experience the same, actually, on an Acer 24" widescreen. Whether or not side borders are checked our not doesn't really seem to make a difference (certainly not working properly) and what I get on the screen is really random depending on the game resolution. 640x400 will never center, there will be a black bar on the left side and the stuff missing on the right etc. 640x480 actually works in perfect fullscreen but is obviously stretched etc.

I know you can try and play with the OSC settings but with everything else (low-res-ish), the auto focus function works fine, with AGS games it doesn't.

Tonic Ink · Wed 18/11/2009 23:41:50

Damn

Sad to hear I'm not alone here.

If I change my monitor properties to aspect rather than full (through buttons), it doesn't stretch the screen. It's preferable that this info need not be
given to anyone who may be running the executable for the first time.

*prays for update*

Divon · Fri 20/11/2009 14:03:44

Has anyone else had a chance to try this? I'm going to give it a shot at home this weekend...this was my favorite feature of the new version, so I hope CJ resolves it

EDIT: Just made a fast 3.2 test game and verified this. This feature is definetly broken currently

Pumaman · Mon 23/11/2009 22:56:36

I have retested this on my machine, and it is definitely working for me with 320x240 and 640x480 games.

However, it doesn't seem to be working with 800x600 games, and 1024x768 games create the sideborders but the game screen isn't properly centred -- I will look into these issues.

To those of you saying it's not working, what resolution is the game, and what is your Windows desktop resolution?

Tonic Ink · Tue 24/11/2009 03:43:59

Quote from: Pumaman on Mon 23/11/2009 22:56:36
I have retested this on my machine, and it is definitely working for me with 320x240 and 640x480 games.

However, it doesn't seem to be working with 800x600 games, and 1024x768 games create the sideborders but the game screen isn't properly centred -- I will look into these issues.

To those of you saying it's not working, what resolution is the game, and what is your Windows desktop resolution?

Thanks for the look-in CJ

My game res is 1024x768, screen res is 1920x1200

speewave · Tue 24/11/2009 11:39:37

What if its not an AGS thing, more like a GPU\Monitor thing...

Check any Monitor or Graphics cards settings .... from my nVidia Control panel i get many options on screen stretching for Hardware strecthing (GPU) or Monitor Streching (some monitors do have functions)

Divon · Tue 24/11/2009 13:25:54

I've only had a chance to test this on my netbook (I know, horrible platform for a test), but its resolution is 1024x600 and the game I made to test was 640x480.

My actual dev box runs at 1440x900, but I havent checked it on that yet...mostly because it slipped my mind

Pumaman · Tue 24/11/2009 19:13:49

What problem are you seeing? Is it just that you're not getting any black borders, or are they going wrong in some way?

What I found with my monitor was that when I ran a 1024x768 game with widescreen borders, the monitor tried to be clever and automatically adjusted itself to remove the borders again. I don't know if this might be happening to you, too? Try manually adjusting the screen horizontal alignment to fix it, and then see if your monitor changes it back the next time you play the game.

Tonic Ink · Wed 25/11/2009 00:03:27

Quote from: speewave on Tue 24/11/2009 11:39:37
What if its not an AGS thing, more like a GPU\Monitor thing...

Check any Monitor or Graphics cards settings .... from my nVidia Control panel i get many options on screen stretching for Hardware strecthing (GPU) or Monitor Streching (some monitors do have functions)

Yeah, It's easy enough to set your monitor to display as aspect rather than full. However setting this up may be beyond the initial scope/patience of the casual PC user who simply wants to try out your game.

hence why the auto-side border feature is really exciting.

Pumaman · Wed 02/12/2009 20:27:35

Just to summarize the situation:

800x600 games will not give you side borders in widescreen. This is a bug and I will fix it.

There are no other bugs with the side borders that I am able to reproduce. If anybody is still having problems please post more details.

abstauber · Wed 02/12/2009 21:05:39

I suppose, there's also some trouble with custom dialog rendering:

Quote from: general_knox on Thu 26/11/2009 14:14:45
Im using Custom Dialog1.5, 1024x768 and 32 bits. My customdialog GUI is a png with the pink color as transparent. Everything works great in window mode, but when I go full screen and have the borders on left or right for widescreen (in the release candidate), the customdialog GUI is off-center (part of it gets eaten from the borders, and its way way right off-center).

Would this have something to do with your module, or (more likely) the fullscreen with borders in the release candidate (2)?

If it has nothing to do with your module, Ill post this then in the bugs section.

However I haven't checked for myself yet.

Wonkyth · Thu 03/12/2009 11:12:25

This probably isn't related, but in Apprentice II I cant see the bottom of the screen in the dock room when I set it on fullscreen.

Pumaman · Thu 03/12/2009 19:53:48

Quote from: abstauber on Wed 02/12/2009 21:05:39
Im using Custom Dialog1.5, 1024x768 and 32 bits. My customdialog GUI is a png with the pink color as transparent. Everything works great in window mode, but when I go full screen and have the borders on left or right for widescreen (in the release candidate), the customdialog GUI is off-center (part of it gets eaten from the borders, and its way way right off-center).

This is happening because the CustomDIalog module uses the System.ScreenWidth and System.ScreenHeight properties to calculate positioning. ScreenWidth/Height provide the actual screen size which will include the side borders.

You need to use System.ViewportWidth/ViewportHeight when working with co-ordinates. This used to be more obvious before native hi-res co-ordinates were supported, because the ScreenWidth/Height was double the size of the viewport. I'll amend the manual to make this distinction clearer.

QuoteThis probably isn't related, but in Apprentice II I cant see the bottom of the screen in the dock room when I set it on fullscreen.

You probably just need to do a bit of manual adjustment on the monitor to bring the screen into view, it might be that the monitor has never run at that resolution before and needs to be calibrated.