800x600 only? Your kidding me....

[wervdon]

wervdon, interesting insights on the scalability of graphics.

If I understand you, this would simply make the existing image bigger--filling the 'available' resolution. But the whole reason I use a large monitor/high resolution combo is to see more context.

Thats exactly what it would do, and depending on the video card, it would either be very blocky, or slightly blurred (much preferred, just like what happens in more recent 3d games when textures are scaled). It would however, not be any "better looking" than it did at lower resolution, and may/probally even look slightly worse. What it would do though is allow people who want to run it at higher res's for reasons other than appearance (such as the person with the flat screen monitor that doesnt resize well above), a way to do so.

Oh and with my class project game that I did this with, it did actually make it look better to be scaled up by a decent card that did the averaging to fill in empty pixels. But that was just because my artwork is horrible and blurring it a bit (actually its more like the "soften" filter in photoshop) hid some of that :P

Again, if our experience is similar to what Rantz is reporting, all of this may be moot!

Oh I definately agree, I already said Im perfectly happy with 800x600. Id even be happy with 640x480, though less so because of screen real estate on the galaxy map :P

[MOOFAN314]

If you want it on a higher resolution what do you want them to do about it?

It would drastically slow the game down to scale and blur for every frame (not to mention making it blurry).

There would be no point in scaling and pixelating, you might as well be on the normal resolution.

No one want's it to not scale, and have a black frame around it for a higher resolution.

And it would take a lot more time and money to design everything seperately for each resolution.

This is not a game that can easily have multiple resolutions, unless you want them to start over.

[Desprez]

I've seen some games/apps use a seperate window or pallette for different reports and functions. This would let you customize your set up according to your screen realistate.

When integrated well, it can be great feature. However, if done poorly, all you have is a bunch of awkward windows cluttering everything up.

Too bad more games of this sort don't seem to pull this off.

[Craig P.]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Phil S. of Tropico and Railroad Tycoon2 (also was involve in some heroes games) wrote an article about that subject in one of the gaming mags awhile back. They can and did make the art scalable for graphics and cpu concerns, so lessor systems could play the game. It does not have to be a problem as the solutions are already known.

And yet, unless I'm missing a setting somewhere, RT2 is fixed resolution, even though the map graphics do scale according to zoom level. The non-map graphics are designed such that I don't think multiple resolution support would be feasible. Which is, incidentally, largely the same problem MOO3 has.

[vmxa1]

Yes Moo3 is not the only game to fix the res annd some even fixed it at 800, but not a lot of them. Most fixed it at 1024.

[Master Marcus]

Originally posted by Rantz
I'm currently running 1200 x 1024 as my desktop rez, and it resizes no problem, both going into the game and out of it.

Does that means the game has or will have a simple and very practical checkbox like "full screen" ( video settings) whatever the desktop/video card res?

[Rantz]

Originally posted by Master Marcus


Does that means the game has or will have a simple and very practical checkbox like "full screen" ( video settings) whatever the desktop/video card res?

Video setting automatically change to game rez from whatever your desktop rez is and vice versa without a hitch.

So say you have your screen set to 1600 x 1200, launch MOO3, it goes full screen, changes the rez while your playing the game, when you quite it go back to the desktop rez.

is that explaining what you're asking? forgive me if I'm a bit dense, lack of sleep.

[Atragon]

One point for setting the game up to stretch the graphics to the desktop resolution is so that people with multi-monitor setups won't have trouble with whatever's on the secondary monitor shifting around.

This happens in several current games that don't/can't run at my full primary resolution.

So, if a game runs in 800X600 native, then stretching the graphics up to 1600X1200 would have the same effect as changing the monitor's resolution to 800X600, but it WOULDN'T affect anything else, you could alt-tab out to your internet browser and it would be running at 1600X1200, and so on.

[Zanthis]

If the game has the same depth as the previous Moo games, the eye candy will soon be forgoten as the player gets used to it. It will be the deeper content that will keep people playing for years after its release. I played moo1/2 for years. I even played games like Colonization and Master of Magic for years until the games became so old they were incompatable with the new computer technology and I could no longer load them. There's only so long graphics alone will entertain the player.

[pg]

Originally posted by Craig P.
My desktop at home is 1024x768 (on a CRT). When I play a game that's at 800x600 (like Railrood Tycoon II or HoMM3, lately), I don't even notice until after I quit, when my Webshots desktop image has been sized to 800x600 instead of 1024x768.

this is odd. do lots of people have computers that change your windows resolution when playing games at 800*600 when your windows res was 1024*768? then you have to manually change it back?

just for example... i can play games(both 2d and 3d) in 800*600 without my desktop resizing. i can even alt-tab out of the the 800*600 game i'm playing and my windows will be 1024*768 already. and of course when i exit the game i go back to 1024*768, there isn't even a delay like it's changing back.

[Master Marcus]

Originally posted by Rantz


Video setting automatically change to game rez from whatever your desktop rez is and vice versa without a hitch.

So say you have your screen set to 1600 x 1200, launch MOO3, it goes full screen, changes the rez while your playing the game, when you quite it go back to the desktop rez.

is that explaining what you're asking? forgive me if I'm a bit dense, lack of sleep.

yeah, thanks for the reply

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Zanthis
If the game has the same depth as the previous Moo games, the eye candy will soon be forgoten as the player gets used to it. It will be the deeper content that will keep people playing for years after its release. I played moo1/2 for years. I even played games like Colonization and Master of Magic for years until the games became so old they were incompatable with the new computer technology and I could no longer load them. There's only so long graphics alone will entertain the player.

Incompatable? They still work for me on my XP PRO box, sound and all. Well I do not have colonization, but Mom and Moo ae fine.

[Main_Brain]

Of the Four Monitors I own only one runs in 1024* so im happy :=)
*Happy not being at the Top of the HighTech pyramid*

[Deathmerchant]

The 800x600 issue has already been beaten to death on the offical forums. It is 16 days untill the offical street date. Everything is quite locked at this point. I think your a bit late to be arguing over the resolution.

[vmxa1]

An we have better things to do? It is just a dialogue amonst gamers. People still talk about many issues that they will have no impact on.