Magnifying Glass or Free Trip to the Optometrist?

[Icedawg]

One of these should definitely be included with the purchase of the game! [:@]

Are the designers trying to show up the Isreali nano-technologists who recently managed to write the entire Old Testament onto an area smaller than a dust particle?

Seriously, how can anyone be expected to actually see anything when playing this game? All of the unit icons and hex details are so darned small that you just can't play! It looks to be a rather detailed and interesting game (from the little that I've been able to make out). However, even when sitting about 8-12 inches from my monitor and with the lower resolution option, I can't make out anything on the game map at all.

Besides the resolution change, is there a way to make things appear larger? If not, I'm going to have to stop playing this game or significantly help finance my optometrist's kids' college tuition!

[e_barkmann]

Admittedly I wear reading glasses these days but Battlefront looks splendid and crisp to me in 1280x1024. I have a 19" LCD and I suppose that helps because that's its native resolution - running games out of native resolution on LCD's looks awful for sure.

May I ask what monitor are you using and what res you are running the game?

cheers

[Fred98]

Look 2 threads dowm from this one and see an AAR I wrote together with screen shots.

When you look at the screen shots, is that how then game looks on your screen or does it lok different to that?

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[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Joe 98

Look 2 threads dowm from this one and see an AAR I wrote together with screen shots.

When you look at the screen shots, is that how then game looks on your screen or does it lok different to that?

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I couldn't play the game at that resolution and it is screen shots like those that prove his point. I can only play any of the DB games and Battlefront on the lowest possible resolution. While I love the series, I absolutely HATE the graphics. My personal pet peeve is the completely unneseccary addition of a confusing and distracting "camoflage" pattern to the counter backrounds. It's as if some graphic dweeb decided to play a joke on the customers and do everything in his power to make the display so crowded and busy it will be guaranteed to give headaches to anyone playing the game.

[Icedawg]

The hexes in these screenshots are at least half again larger to twice as large as the hexes on my screen when I play this game. How did you get them so large?

BTW, this is what the hexes look like when I play Korsun Pocket, Across the Dnepr, Battles in Normandy, etc. For some reason, when I play Battlefront, all of the hexes shrink way down (and it is not the game's resolution - even on the lowest resolution, the hexes in my game are only about half the size of those in your screenshots).

[cbelva]

It does come with a magnifying glass. Just press the alt key. Personally, I have don't understand why so many people have a problem with this. I have failing eyesight, wear glasses to read and don't have a problem with the resolution. In fact, I play the game on two different computers and don't have a problem. I do have to wear glasses to play on one. But then again, I am getting old [:D] (no wait [:@])
 
Besides all this, I had an eye injury several years ago and it does not take much to get my eyes hurting. However, I find Battlefront one of the more easier games on my eyes. Maybe it is just me?

[Icedawg]

I didn't realize they retained the magnify function from the Korsun Pocket series. In those games, the magnifier was a right mouse click (I believe). When I first tried playing Battlefront, I tried right clicking on units to magnify them. When nothing happened, I just assumed they dropped the function. It's nice to know it's still there.

As far as the ease on the eyes, try playing Advanced Tactics, Carriers at War or War in the Pacific. Those games have very clear, simple interfaces. You don't have to squint or play around with the magnify function. In addition, all necessary information is readily available with a simple mouse-over or click.

Thanks for the info on the alt key. I'll give it a shot tonight.

[HansBolter]

Personally, I find the magnifying glass to be just about useless.

It magnifies such a tiny area with such a heavy opaque outline that it is provides almost no "context" for the small area it magnifies. If it was about a third the size of the screen and magnified a radius of about 12-15 hexes instead of the approximately 3-4 (going on memory here) than it would actually be useful.

Again, if I could select units and issue orders while magnified it would be even more useful.

As it is, the tiny "peek" it provides, I find to be a total waste of time and effort.

What this series needs most, besides tooltips for all the confusing icons one has to memorize to play, is 2 or 3 different zoom levels for the entire map ala the John Tiller (Talonsoft) Campaign series.

[Fred98]

ORIGINAL: Icedawg
The hexes in your'e screenshots are at least half again larger to twice as large as the hexes on my screen when I play this game. How did you get them so large?

I have no idea. For me they are the same size in all the games of the series.

From within the game check whether you can change the screen resolution in the options scren.

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[cbelva]

At the startup screens, go into the option screen and you can change the resolution. I have two settings:  1024x768 and 1280x1024. I play on 1024x768. When I have used 1280x1024, the hexes and icons are way too small and I couldn't play with that setting. Maybe that is your problem. I have no problem with the 1024x768 setting.

[BoredStiff]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Personally, I find the magnifying glass to be just about useless.

It magnifies such a tiny area with such a heavy opaque outline that it is provides almost no "context" for the small area it magnifies. If it was about a third the size of the screen and magnified a radius of about 12-15 hexes instead of the approximately 3-4 (going on memory here) than it would actually be useful.

Again, if I could select units and issue orders while magnified it would be even more useful.

As it is, the tiny "peek" it provides, I find to be a total waste of time and effort.

What this series needs most, besides tooltips for all the confusing icons one has to memorize to play, is 2 or 3 different zoom levels for the entire map ala the John Tiller (Talonsoft) Campaign series.

I agree with all this, in addition to your prior comment regarding the camouflaged counters. I would also add that the map graphics are similarly overdone and look too busy/confusing. I would prefer a sharper delineation of the different terrain types. I once read a comment at the SSG Forum wherein someone opined that the map looks like someone vomited on it - a somewhat (c)rude comment, but I agree with the sentiment.

As for the size of the graphics, it was Korsun Pocket, plus the fact that I could no longer read the phone book, that caused me to get reading glasses a little over a year ago. They're great. Get bifocals!

[Icedawg]

I've already done that. You can play on either 1280x1024 or 1024x768. I play on 1024x768 and I still can't see squat.

What gets me is that I can play the other games of the same venue by SSG (Korsun Pocket etc) just fine. I can load up Korsun Pocket with the same resolution setting as Battlefront and see just fine with the Korsun Pocket game, but can't make out diddly with Battlefront.

Someone posted some screenshots a few posts back. I can see those just great - they're about twice the size of the hexes on my game screen.

I don't know how to get a screenshot, but when I get home from work, I'll try to figure it out and show you guys just what I mean.

[Icedawg]

I can read the phone book just fine. The type there is HUGE compared to what I get with my Battlefront screen. If I could just get Verizon to design a modified edition of Battlefront, I'd be just fine. [:D]

[cbelva]

Just for comparison, I am posting a screenshot of a scenario I have been working on. I am currious how it compares to what your screen shows. This is taken at the 1024x768 resolution.

I might add that even this screenshot looks a little smaller than what I see when i run the program.

[BoredStiff]

If all else fails, you could try reinstalling the game. Maybe something went wrong there. You could also ask for help at the SSG Australia website, there seems to be more activity there.
NVM, you already did.

[e_barkmann]

yep it's worth an email to support@ssg.com.au to see what's up there, if you can view their other games fine and yet Battlefront is not behaving, something's definitely up.

cheers

[mllange]

It almost sounds like he's getting the strategy map view by default for some reason. Have you tried clicking on that button to see if it will re-set to a normal view? Can't hurt to try...

[Icedawg]

Wow! I would kill to get my game screen to look like this! Even on the 1024 x 768 resolution setting, my icons are about 1/2 to 1/3 the size of these.

I haven't figured out how to do screenshoots. If someone could give me some instructions on how to do so, I'll get you a shot of what I'm looking at on my computer.

[BoredStiff]

ORIGINAL: Icedawg

I haven't figured out how to do screenshoots. If someone could give me some instructions on how to do so, I'll get you a shot of what I'm looking at on my computer.

You do it by simply copying and pasting into a paint program. You copy a screen by hitting the "PrintScrn" key on your keyboard, like this:

1) Hit the "PrintScrn" button. This will "Copy" the current screenshot to your clipboard.
2) Open a paint program (any will do) and open a "New" project, or whatever the program calls it.
3) Right-click and "Paste". This should paste the screenshot into the paint program.
4) Save this picture. (Save it as a ".jpg" as those are smallest in file size.)
5) Upload it to an image hosting site or the Matrix site (I think they allow that).
6) Link to the URL in your post here.

Note that once you have the screenshot in your paint program, you can manipulate it before you save it, such as cropping unwanted parts of the picture, or changing it's size.

Here are a couple of image hosting sites. Simply upload the picture, which will result in it getting an URL to which you can link. These are free:

http://tinypic.com/
http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/ this one is nice because it lets you change the size of the picture at the same time that you upload it.

This will all become second nature, once you do it a couple of times.

[Fred98]

Remember to edit the picture. A full screen would be too much to post here.
 
Use Microsoft Paint.
 
It comes free with your'e computer and nobody has sued Microsoft over it as yet [:)]
 
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