Talking about screen resolution

[ETERNAL]

Hello everyone. I want to get some info on a topic that I'm sure people have discussed before: screen resolution.

I'm aware that the standard aspect ratio of visual novels has been 4:3 for a very long time, and that even many (good-looking) commercial Japanese games are done in no more than 800x600. I believe ef fits that bill despite the fact that the devs seem to have gone through a lot of trouble to make it visually attractive. Of course, considering the proliferation of widescreen hi-res monitors, a fair bit of eroge in recent years are being released at a much higher res (case in point: minori's game after ef, eden, is in 16:9 though I don't know what resolution it is).

tl;dr I know that screen size is a personal choice, but here's my real question: is there a specific reason why so many VNs are still made in 800x600, or is it just a general case of not wanting to exclude players with old hardware?

Also, a related question: is it possible to create screen resolution options in Ren'Py like most commercial games have, or it that more complicated than it looks? I don't need to know how to do it, I just need to know if it's possible. Similarly, what happens to the images when screen size is changed? Do high res sprites automatically get downscaled, do they have to be vectors for it to work, do you need a separate set of sprites for each screen size...?

Any feedback would be appreciated. I know this has been discussed before and I've seen opinions in support of both low-res and high-res games. What I really want to know is if there's an obvious issue specific to VNs that I overlooked or if this is effectively the same as fansubbers in the mid-2000s arguing over XviD and h.264.

[Taleweaver]

tl;dr I know that screen size is a personal choice, but here's my real question: is there a specific reason why so many VNs are still made in 800x600, or is it just a general case of not wanting to exclude players with old hardware?

I believe that's mainly because 800x600 is the generic resolution that comes with Ren'Py. My current production is 1024x600 because that's the resolution of my netbook. I guess most people have a reason like that one.

[psy_wombats]

Guess I have more questions than anything, but... Personally it's not a huge issue for me, but that's because I don't place a lot of emphasis on the visual components. As long as it's a bit low enough that it'll fit in a netbook screen properly, it works for me. Things running off the bottom of the screen is awful.

But another resolution question: What about mobile VNs? The normal iPhone resolution is 320*480, so if I was going about making a cross-platform game, I wonder if it would be better to scale 480*320 up to 960*640, scaling 960*640, or just having two sets of assets.

[papillon]

is it possible to create screen resolution options in Ren'Py like most commercial games have, or it that more complicated than it looks? I don't need to know how to do it, I just need to know if it's possible. Similarly, what happens to the images when screen size is changed? Do high res sprites automatically get downscaled, do they have to be vectors for it to work, do you need a separate set of sprites for each screen size...?

While I don't know the actual renpy codes myself, I'm pretty sure it can be done. Normally things will just scale if you resize the screen, but you can have optional graphics and settings that kick in at different sizes.

If you play the demo of Magical Diary and mess with the window sizing, you'll notice that certain things change when the screen proportions do. Bits of the GUI hop around and alter to fit the space.

As for *specific* reasons for sticking to 4:3 - I think some people have found that widescreen layout feels a bit weird. You can end up with the textbox being made too wide for comfortable reading, or with the scenes no longer feeling intimate because you can see so much more empty space around the characters you're talking to. All of this can be worked around with good design, but it may make some people hesitant to hop the border.

[jack_norton]

Ren'Py is really cool how scales things. For example check the two screenshots: I set my game at 1024x576 since some (crap honestly) netbook have that resolution. But what happen on my desktop PC that can handle MUCH higher resolution? When you scale up, if you used higher res sprites, Ren'Py will use them
So as you can see, while the background and texts are a bit blurry because they're effectively resized in the bigger image since was drawn at 1024x576, since the sprites are 1024x1024, when scaled up they have much higher definition!

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I think most VN are in 800x600 or smaller resolutions because that is the tradition for VN, inherited from Japanese game makers who started work on titles when those resolutions were the standard (1990s). Now though, I think a lot of people simply copy or mimic the look of "professional" VNs, so they use those same resolutions. I also know a lot of people like to play VNs in a window for some reason - personally when I'm gaming I'm focused on that, so I like to go fullscreen.

But 16:9/16:10 widescreen ratios are the future. Valve's last gamer survey showed that nearly 60% of gamers had widescreen monitors and resolutions over 1024x768. Add in the fact that you can't even buy 4:3 ratio monitors any more and that number will only grow as time passes. Widescreen ratio is more natural to the way human field of view and sight works also. Once you get used to it, it feels like someone has put blinders on you when you have to use a 4:3 ratio monitor.

I prefer widescreen and large resolutions, but I think really VN makers should do what Papillon and Jack are displaying here - have built in options and scaling for everyone to experience the game at the resolution they enjoy most.

[Pyonkotchi]

I assume its because its the default for ren'py anyways, and because people are nice and don't make it so huge :U

that being said. I don't really like the screens resolution to be any bigger 800x600
its a good, decent size

and I play with a netbook, 1024x600 resolution
its all I have ;___; , I can change my screen resolution to 1024x768 but I don't like to

[Camille]

I think it's just tradition + the fact that it's default, so most people don't bother changing it. Newer Japanese VNs are straying from that, though. I played one with a 1024x576 resolution (I guess that's sort of wide screen?) and really liked it, so now I'm making all my games in that resolution.

[LVUER]

I think some newer Japanese commercial VN uses 16:9 ratio (and support higher resolution). And obviously, all VN in PS3 and XBOX360 is in HD and 16:9 ratio (so if they port it to PC or vice-versa, the resolution and ration would be similar).

[ETERNAL]

Thanks for all of the replies, this is pretty much what I wanted. I haven't decided on what to do yet but I'll at least consider something other than 800x600 as an option.