[Boct1584]

Is there a way to modify the source code to support 800x600? I don't know much about it (the source code), but 800x600 would be a good idea, methinks.

[phreak]

There is a way, but with the new graphics cards coming out, they would prefer 1280x960 or 1600x1200 support.

[EdrickV]

Not everyone has a couple hundred dollars to spend on brand new "top of the line" graphics cards that will be old news in 6 months. I'm still using a Voodoo 3 2000 PCI. I wouldn't mind 800x600 support, but higher then 1024x768 (which I haven't even used) would be too much.

[LtNarol]

i dont have enough for anything better than my 16bit 3d accellerator, keep the 640*480, i cant take anything higher for the love of god.

[penguin]

Originally posted by Boct1584
Is there a way to modify the source code to support 800x600? I don't know much about it (the source code), but 800x600 would be a good idea, methinks.

From a code point of view the changes would probably be trivial.

The difficulty would be the hundred-or-so graphics that make up the UI screens the HUD, etc. which are all either 640x480 or 1024x786.  Open up sparky-hi.vp in VPViewer -- each of those files would have to be converted to the different resolution.  You could scale it in Gimp or Photoshop or whatever your drawing program of choice is, but it would probably look pretty crappy.

It doesn't matter if it's 800x600 or 1600x1200 -- lotsa new images would need to be created.

[Capt. Llamatron]

There's a reason there's not 800x600 in there already, and its not necessarily because all the interface would need to be redone to support a new res. There's not much difference in 640x480 and 800x600. I can almost 100% guarantee that if someone spent the time to get this in there, noone would notice any difference.

Its just not worth the time, IMO. The time could be better spent adding cool stuff

[CptWhite]

im sorry but there is no reason to have anything less than a tnt2 ultra these days, (which i think run better than geforce 2 mx) you can pick one up for around £30/$45//50 euro

hell i can see a geforce 3 ti200 for £95 - not a rediculous price

[Bobboau]

I have a 8mb S3 Savage 4  

[CP5670]

Have it so that the menu displays and the game itself do not run on the same renderer. If this is done, the menu can be locked in 1024x768 or something while the ingame resolution can easily be changed to anything else. This would also fix some of the graphical bugs we FSAA users notice.

[##UnknownPlayer##]

I believe it is already done this way, otherwise I see no reason why the graphics engine couldn't treat the interface like a texture and scale it.

[Fineus]

It should be fairly easy to downscale the 1024x768 graphics to 800x600... it'd take time but if you could get the engine to support it it'd probably be worth it.

That said, it might be a better idea to completely re-do the graphics for the game in 1600x1200 then downscale them to the lower resolutions - which would be a lot more impressive in the long run.

[LtNarol]

if you're so bent on having such high resolutions, then make it an option that can be changed in the options menu.  I for one dont have money for anything more advanced than a 16bit card, this sucker costed me $32 and thats as cheap as they come down here, that TNT2 you were talking about is somewhere around $200, thats about $195 more than my current savings, i'll pass thank you very much.

[KARMA]

Originally posted by Thunder
It should be fairly easy to downscale the 1024x768 graphics to 800x600... it'd take time but if you could get the engine to support it it'd probably be worth it.

That said, it might be a better idea to completely re-do the graphics for the game in 1600x1200 then downscale them to the lower resolutions - which would be a lot more impressive in the long run.

thats right, if you want to create 8*600 graphics scaling the original files the result will not be crappy, since you can start from higher resolutions (1024*768), they will look better than the original 640*480 due to the higher res....

the problem would be to create completely new graphic for resolutions higher than 1024.

probably the best way (but i don't know if possible or if it will decrease hardware performance ) would be to create graphic art for highest res possible and to have an engine that automatically downscale the pcx's

[Boct1584]

Sounds good to me. I'd help but I have NO skill at this kind of thing.

[penguin]

Another advantage to doing "our own" images -- not just for the HUD, but for the whole MenuUI thing (barracks, main hall, etc.) is that we would be another step closer to a complete package -- one where you don't need any of the original *.VP files.

Hmmm... new user interface, new mods, new missions & campaigns... sounds like FS3 to me...

( penguin awaits the inevitable hammers and goats that appear at the mention of FS3 )

[EdrickV]

Just a little note: You can replace the interface screens like the main hall and stuff. The Robotech MOD partially replaces the main hall screen (with a nice VF flyby) and has modified versions of most of the other screens as well. Changing the coordinates for the "doors" and the help overlay is quite a bit more complex, but all of that can be done without source editing I think. Adding new things you can do (like a MOD manager) is different though. As is adding support for 800x600 and other resolutions. That stuff is hardcoded. (As I'm sure you already know.)

[penguin]

Originally posted by EdrickV
... As is adding support for 800x600 and other resolutions. That stuff is hardcoded. (As I'm sure you already know.)

Yeah, the filenames and screen coordinates of all of the UI stuff, as well as the HUD gauges are hardcoded in the source files.  There are two settings, for 640x480 and for 1024x768.

It would be nice to have all this stuff in yet another .tbl file.  That way it could be customized on an individual basis, or per campaign, etc.  It would be a big file, since every UI widget on every screen would need to be listed, as well as all of the HUD gadgets.  And the resolution could be whatever the UI designer wanted...

Yet another thing to add to the wish list...

[Red5]

we better modify it to somewhere around say around 256 x 224... some of the best video games made like doom and wolfenstein 3d had this resolution as an option...I Dont Know where video game companies get off thinking they should change these resolutions...It makes us people have to update hardware way to much...I was hoping to put of upgrading my ram to 32 megs next year (total ram) but i guess 24 megs and a S2 video card arent what they used to be

[Carl]

the interface art would not have to be changed. ingame stuff would just appear smaller, like ytour desktop does when you turn up the resolution. new icons aren't created, the old ones are just smaller. i think this approach would work well for FS2.

[LtNarol]

it does mean more of the scene has to be rendered, going from 640*480 to 1028*700 (or whatever it is) is quite a large increase and not one my PC can handle, thats just too much calculating, so as i stated before: if you're bent on having higher resolutions, than make an option for it under the options menu, dont make it set to such a high resolution permanently.  I for one can't afford to go out buying hardware very often, getting everything for FS2 costed close to $100 and i dont have that kind of money to spend very often.