Dynamic scene size

[rustybroomhandle]

Not sure how to word this.

I am making a game that will work best if the bitmaps are never scaled, but different window sizes/screen resolutions just scale the scene around it. A window/screen bigger than the scene will center it, and smaller will scroll.

Is there any way to achieve this with SLUDGE as is, or will it require some hackery?

Also - Right now, even if I make a 1280x720 games and run it in windowed mode, the window is always quite a bit bigger for some reason.

The game I am making mimicks the graphical style of 1-bit isometric view ZX Spectrum games (with HD res), and it scales poorly.

Thanks!

[BigMc]

Hi,

you can create an ini file and set FIXEDPIXELS=1 to disable scaling in windowed mode. I think fullscreen is always scaled.

[rustybroomhandle]

Awesome, thank you very much. Just tried and it looks good. I'll continue working like this then and figure out a solution for fullscreen another time. If I can't, well that's fine too... doesn't look toooo bad in fullscreen. (ok, maybe a little)

[BigMc]

What is the problem with fullscreen? Did you try all 3 modes? There are antialiasing on/off and linear interpolation (not so nice).

[rustybroomhandle]

It's more my choice of art style that's its undoing. It's basically all done in 2 colours with Floyd-Steinberg dithering. It scales poorly, no matter what mode is chosen. Not a fault of the engine.

I was hoping there's be some way for me to emulate the way that something like Winter Voices  (on Steam with demo) works, there's a background that fills the screen, and the game part remains at a fixed pixel size.

[BigMc]

I see. I imagine it wouldn't be difficult to extend that FIXEDPIXELS option to fullscreen mode if the screen is larger than the game window. Center the output on a black background. Let's see what Trumgottist says.

[rustybroomhandle]

Thanks again. I have other questions regarding memory management etc., but will get to those eventually.

[Trumgottist]

IIRC, FIXEDPIXELS doesn't do any scaling in full screen mode either (if that setting is enabled, the game will attempt to run in the resolution specified) but on any non-CRT screen things will always be scaled unless you're in the native resolution of the screen. If SLUDGE isn't doing the scaling, either the video card driver or the monitor itself will do it.

Regarding your original question ("A window/screen bigger than the scene will center it, and smaller will scroll."): No that's not possible to do with SLUDGE.

(The reason for the way SLUDGE's graphics system is designed is that I don't want to care about pixels when making a game, nor do I think it's a good idea to design a game around a specific resolution these days. That design choice does mean that SLUDGE isn't ideal for making games that want that kind of control over pixels. You may want to consider another engine, or reconsider the dithering. Unless the Spectrum nostalgic look is important to you, you could get a similar effect using monochromatic images using the full palette, or a more interesting texture.)

[rustybroomhandle]

I'v already "cheated" on the aesthetic with the main character, so might just end up doing it with the scenery too. I'll post a few pics after experimenting a bit.

I like OpenSLUDGE enough to want to stick with it, and like the nostalgia thing too, so will keep both and just work around it.