Suggestion for next patch

[Rich]

Two of the main reasons I finally bought both games is they now work fine in win7 and the higher resolutions. However, the hi res comes with an unintended consequence. Fonts that are too small to read. So my suggestion is to increase the size of the fonts including the top and bottom along with all windows like scenario descriptions and headquarters. Also I think it would be better to increase the size of the mini-map and buttons.

Since the higher res looks so much nicer and is a major reason for purchasing the games, suggesting setting a lower res in order to be able to read the fonts doesn't really work. The magnifier is an ok temporary workaround but that's it.

Imo an easy way to do this would be to make all those things at a fixed res of 800x600.

Anyway, I hope you folks look positively at this.

[DRG]

We have a lot of ideas for changes to the games for the next release and the 800x600 idea was already one of them. ( note what I wrote about it's capabilites when I released the revised SHPEd program ) That said, changing font and font size in this game isn't a simple prospect but we are looking into it

Don

[void1984]

I'm really glad to head it.
That's the only part of graphic's state that bothers me.

[Rich]

Don, thanks for the info. I hope you can work something out.

[Imp]

Okay I would be intrested to know what size fonts most people use in say there email or word processor as I am wondering if we are the only people that do not have trouble reading & Im the other side of 50 now so eyes are not quite what they once were.
I ask because its a combination of resolution & screen size that determines actual font size currently round a friends his sytem resolution is 1440x900 on I am guessing 17" maybe 19" monitor its not big. Neither of us has any trouble reading in game fonts in desktop mode at well over arms length as in standing over shoulder of. Also quite readable if shunt view to 50" plasma & play from where watch the TV from.

Using aerial as its a common font though I dont use it size 8 seems to equate to about in game font size.
For mails word processing etc common size I use equates to about areial 9 or 10
Size does vary a bit from font to font which is why I say use aerial but what do you guys use I think 12 is big anything greater is massive & makes reading harder as takes longer to scan a line.
Not used 800x600 full screen for a long time & it wont run on his computer but remember that was quite hard to read, not due to size but due to poor quality of the display.

[Rich]

I use a 12 point font when reading stuff. 10 point is too small and I need to strain to read. My monitor is a 24 inch 1920x1080 which is getting popular. The font, I would guess, is 6-8 point. In order to read it I have to get real close and strain. Using the windows magnifier allows me to at least play the game until, hopefully, this is improved.

When I suggested 800x600 it was only because I thought it would be the easiest way but maybe not. Maybe it would be easier to simply increase the font size and resize the windows. I don't know.

[iCaMpWiThAWP]

Originally Posted by Rich

I use a 12 point font when reading stuff. 10 point is too small and I need to strain to read. My monitor is a 24 inch 1920x1080 which is getting popular. The font, I would guess, is 6-8 point. In order to read it I have to get real close and strain. Using the windows magnifier allows me to at least play the game until, hopefully, this is improved.

When I suggested 800x600 it was only because I thought it would be the easiest way but maybe not. Maybe it would be easier to simply increase the font size and resize the windows. I don't know.

Wouldn't forcing 800x600 make a blurry image in a big screen?

[Rich]

Well the graphics would be blurry and that's why the higher res is so nice. But just the fonts would be ok. Regardless, Don and Andy might prefer to simply increase the font size in the game rather than use 800x600. Whatever works best and is easiest to implement.

[Imp]

Originally Posted by Rich

Well the graphics would be blurry and that's why the higher res is so nice. But just the fonts would be ok. Regardless, Don and Andy might prefer to simply increase the font size in the game rather than use 800x600. Whatever works best and is easiest to implement.

Simply guessing here fonts is probably not the issue as a simple if clunky workaround could just replace the ones it currently uses from your operating system using explorer or whatever. The tricky bit is probably finding the code & getting the window / graphics round it to resize to the font.

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Rich

Well the graphics would be blurry and that's why the higher res is so nice. But just the fonts would be ok. Regardless, Don and Andy might prefer to simply increase the font size in the game rather than use 800x600. Whatever works best and is easiest to implement.

800x600 for the background shape used for the dialogue windows, not the screen.

Don's rewriting a bit of SHPEDIT's code removed the 640x480 limitation that was there previously - probably only because the original DOS game was limited to 640. All I did was resize the image that displays icons so it can handle the maximum size we use without cropping, and added a bit of code to clear the background, so older images did not 'overlay'. Plus the MBT palette gets loaded automatically now, so one step is removed.

So there is the possibility for more display space on those screens - or perhaps to use a larger font. (We are looking into the utilities that came with the VFX libraries - which use a bitmap font made up from an LBM image, and not Windows Truetype - the VFX graphic libraries date from the 90's after all).

Larger dialogue windows would probably mean ditching 640 mode support - but who uses that these days anyway (other than on postage-stamp sized mobile phone screens)?.

Andy