Screen Resolution

[rclawson007]

Can the screen resolution be adjusted. Those of us with a larger screen, like 1600x1200 would like to take advantage of the extra real estate.

[IainMcNeil]

Sorry not in Gates of Troy & Spartan because of the 2D nature of the UI.
 
For Legion Arena we made 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200. It was 2D and each had to be created by hand and it was a nightmare - never again!
 
For future games we're working on 3D UI's that will scale to any resolution.

[anarchyintheuk]

Appreciate the effort that you put in on the 2d front. The results were great on Spartan, Troy and LegionArena. I still prefer it actually but I understand why you will discontinue it.

[IainMcNeil]

There is no reason why 3D would look any different unless we chose to make it do so. A lot of people use 3D badly, and this is why wargamers often think they will not like 3D. Just because you can spin the camera and let people zoom in to see the whites of their eyes doesn't mean you have to. In some games it can work, but in turn based strategy games just leads to confusion and disorientation. We've only ever used 3D up till now in the real times parts of our games.

[jvgfanatic]

I used to program and design UIs in 2D that were totally scalable. Even with textured backgrounds it's possible. Creating each by hand was out of the question. Of course, this was a long time ago and perhaps the development tools have made this harder (though I find that hard to believe).

[IainMcNeil]

Of course its possible to scale the UI. The problem is that graphics not drawn at the resolution they are to be used at look awful
 
It's ok for a business application but not for a game where presentation is very important.

[jvgfanatic]

I'm not talking about stretched graphics. I'm talking about programming the UI so that it draws dynamically and still looks as good as rendered artwork. I'm a photoshop guru (at least in the UI circles I used to work in) and so I know the value of a well designed bitmap and I admit it took a few sleepless nights to get these UIs programmed with no sacrifice in render speed but we did it.

Now, this was all on a Mac and these WERE games (and edutainment software), perhaps Windows just isn't as flexible <wink>. Everything I've seen so far for UI on Windows is just cumbersome bitmap crud (despite it looking just above average). They've apparently done nothing revolutionary for UI design that would allow for any flexibility whatsoever. Locking the user into preset resolutions is archaic, really. Having to do what is essentially a 2D task in 3D just for scalability is kind of like making a mountain out of a molehill. It also taxes the user's computer just that much more. Bleh. I've been out of the industry about 6 years now and probably don't have a clue. I'll stick to playing the games and griping about lame UIs.

Also, you mention that presentation is important in games. I agree. However much of what I'm seeing in PC games (matrix is no exception) appears to have absolutely NO usability design behind it. It's ALL presentation: "does the screenshot look good? SHIP IT!" That's not to say there's isn't a good game under the hood as I'm just talking about the UI. Sure, it makes a pretty picture but it all just comes down to hastily laid out graphics that are well aligned that in some cases accidentally "work."

Now, before I get jumped on for that...I know you people think about these things but there really is more to good, solid UI design--that is a step above just making it look pretty and behave reasonably well--than what goes into the games matrix publishes.

One game that has exceptional Usability (excusing any faults of the game itself) is Hearts of Iron II. Whatever faults Paradox and the developers have they clearly had an experienced UI designer working on that project.

PS: I do have to add that despite anything I say about UI in Matrix Published games...I love Spartan and Gates of Troy.

[IainMcNeil]

I just don't agree. Stretching 2D graphics in any way at all will reduce the quality, especially things like text which are only 1 pixel wide and end up being a mix of 1 & 2 pixels wide or disappearing when you shrink and enlarge them :)

Our next game, Arena Warriors, will have a 3D UI, and that is going to be able to handle all sorts of resolutions, but that's a totally different kettle of fish

As for UI design I agree with you. Too many wargames are almost impossible to play without spending hours reading the manual. We spend weeks working on the UI layout and functionality. We have completely scrapped the last 2 systems for Arena Warriors and are on our 3rd now! We have been tryng to minimize the distance you move the mouse to click the most common buttons, how many mouse clicks to perform actions, how much text is on screen and many more issues.

In the end, we've often been criticised by the hard core as they associate easy of play and good UI design with shallow gameplay... you just can't win!

[jvgfanatic]

The programmable 2D UIs weren't stretched, they were drawn programmatically to fit into different screen sizes. I agree with you that stretched 2D graphics look like crud (be they in business apps or in games). What we did was a 2D UI that wasn't stretched, we drew the elements offscreen and used them when necessary, placing them at their appropriate sizes and locations based on the screen resolution or window size. This allowed the UI to work even when the resolution or window size was changed while the game was running.

It was a beauty. I did not disagree with your point that 2D graphics look like crud when stretched but instead described a 2D interface that was NOT stretched yet worked with any screen resolution therefore I consider your disagreement nullified, lol Cheers.

PS: the closest analogy I can find in software that matched what we did was basically "vector based" graphical UIs. Vector based graphics do not lose any definition when stretched, nor did our UIs. We filled them with appropriate textures and shading and they looked beautiful. Since all this was handled offscreen there was no sacrifice in speed. A performance hit would have been unacceptable.

In the end, we've often been criticised by the hard core as they associate easy of play and good UI design with shallow gameplay... you just can't win!

Aint this the truth!

[IainMcNeil]

Ahh I see, a UI drawn in code can do anything. Problem is, it's going to be single colour boxes and lines, possibly fades. It could work for some styles of game, such as sci fi, if the borders were semi transparent and made use of effects, but I think for most games it just would not work.