Demo On Mac

Cyberis · #1 November 9th, 2014, 09:52 PM

I've run the demo on my Macbook Pro 13 inch with retina display and the lettering is unreadable. It ran great on my windows desktop.

ibol · #2 November 10th, 2014, 03:09 PM

Hi, Cyberis,
Can you please provide a full-size screenshot of the Mac screen?
That is disturbing, and I'd like to see how bad it is.
Making plans to fix (work around?!)

Cyberis · #3 November 10th, 2014, 04:29 PM

Ok,
So I have attached a screenshot. Unfortunately the forum software automatically compressed it as a jpg so I zipped it and attached the zip also which should be at full resolution. My MBP has Yosemite with all released patches installed. I let it open up to its default size and have also tried it maximized and the lettering is somewhat hard to read either way (the screen shot is with it at the default size). I don't have trouble with lettering in any other application so I don't think it's my box. Unfortunately I don't have a Mac desktop to try it in. But works on all my window machines (5 in all) including a Windows 8 and Windows 7 laptop.

Let me know if you need any other info.

David E. Gervais · #4 November 11th, 2014, 06:22 PM

Hi,

I noticed on the screen shot you posted that the window for Approaching infinity is like 1716x1288 in size. I'll poke Bob about the strange size, the game was designed for 1024x768 desktop window. I am confused as to why the mac is scaling it up so much.

I will also make a 'bigger' font for Bob to test on the Mac. Hopefully with a bigger bitmap font, when scaling down the text will keep itself readable.

Thanks for this valuable screenshot and feedback.

Cheers!

ibol · #5 November 11th, 2014, 11:26 PM

Hi, David has made a replacement font. All I have is a mac mini, which I run on my tv when necessary, so I don't see it on a 13 inch screen.

If you are able, you can replace the files I've attached here.
Unzip, and put the files in the 'media' directory. it's like 'show package contents' and then something else, then media. it will replace the existing font.

This would provide the quickest and most relevant test for your situation.

Thank you,
Bob

Cyberis · #6 November 12th, 2014, 02:27 PM

IBOL/David,
So I'm sorry for the delay but I spent a fair amount of time with the new font as well as trying to figure out what is going wrong. First, the new font is a bit more readable but probably want to work on that a bit more.

A 13-inc MacBook Pro with retina display has a native resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. That's a LOT of pixels for such a small display. So when OS X runs on this display it runs as pixel doubled leaving a working resolution of 1280 x 800. Your setup.agc file is asking for a 1024 by 768 display which, in pixel doubled mode is not possible (while there is theoretically enough space on the screen, The menu bar takes up space that can't be used by the app, and the dock (unless auto hide is turned on) also takes up space that can't be used by the app. I turned dock auto hide on but when launching the app it still won't take up that space without manually resizing it. Even when the app is sized correctly (which is very tricky on a mac with non-applescriptable apps) the fonts actually look worse. I tried using other screen resolutions (the display settings support 3 other resolutions) and they tend to look worse.

I have uploaded two pngs (and two zip files), one with the new font with the game opening up at its "default" size which on my mac is actually 860 x 677 doubled pixels (or 1720 x 1345 hardware pixels) and the other with the new font with the game scaled at 1024 x 768 double pixels (give or take a pixel). Note that this size is for the outside area of the app which iincludes chrome along the top of the window. I'm not sure that I can fully size it so that the drawing area is 1024 x 768.

Update: I tried one more thing. With the dock in autohide mode, I maximized the game (and took a screenshot of course in zip file) and with the new font it looks playable. So I think it's a scaling issue and one that is likely a problem for retina displays but possibly solvable.

I'll DM you with some more stuff.

David E. Gervais · #7 November 12th, 2014, 04:26 PM

Cyberis, thanks for the detailed feedback,.. I think I might have an out-of-the-box solution.. we'll keep you posted.

Cheers!

ExplorerBob · #8 November 13th, 2014, 06:13 PM

I've played through the Mac demo a few times, and've pretty well hit the exploration limit on the most recent run-through; the only planets I think I haven't hit yet were high-G or irradiated, which I can't yet survive with my level of suit. With all the exploration and mission options used up, I've taken to trading and crafting items. I typically buy cheap equipment so I can scrap it, getting a wide variety of parts.

There seems to be a bug that takes place when you die underground and immediately go to start a new game. The game automatically kills you after you click "Start Game", saying that you died underground. Quitting the game and reopening it fixes it; it's just a bit of a nuisance, especially if you use the funds from "Pay It Forward", as the instadeath basically wastes all that money.

ibol · #9 November 13th, 2014, 11:28 PM

Hi, ExplorerBob,
Seems like you're enjoying it.

Yep, I found that bug myself a while back, and have since fixed it. I guess that's another reason to re-do the demo

Sorry about the P.I.F. money...

ExplorerBob · #10 November 14th, 2014, 09:15 PM

It's no great loss; I've made more since then.

Will saved games from the demo cross over to the registered game? Right now, I've been holding off on starting a new game in the demo, since I have a top-notch ship with an elite crew in my current game, but if it's all going to be lost anyway if I get the full version this holiday season, there's no reason not to.