Ideal Resolution

[demonicbagel]

Hey guys. I have a question. I'm certain it's been answered before, but I currently don't have time to go fishing for them.

Anyway, the question is: What would be a good resolution to build a visual novel at? Computers at my home use 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 monitors. However, I don't want it to be squished or stretched on other monitor resolutions when in fullscreen. Anyone know what the resolution that Princess Evangile or similar visual novels were made at? Thanks for any answers provided.

[Alte]

There's an article that I find interesting on screen resolutions.
http://pegasi-dev.blogspot.com/2013/07/ ... tions.html

I would say try a higher resolution or view the responses from the previous thread.

[KuroOneHalf]

In my opinion 1024x600 with the option to resize window is the best, most affordable option. For several reasons:
- It's not tall or wide enough that it will overflow or be partially hidden by the taskbar in laptops (which is a huge market, and whose common resolution is 1366x768), but still big enough that it looks fine in 1080p monitors and above without feeling small.
- The ability to resize covers the odd cases of people who prefer to have it at the size they want.
- Not rendering assets to support various sizes saves in obvious work and development time.

[noeinan]

There's an article that I find interesting on screen resolutions.
http://pegasi-dev.blogspot.com/2013/07/ ... tions.html

I would say try a higher resolution or view the responses from the previous thread.

Thank you for sharing this article-- I've been making my game in 1280x720 and have been worried about resolution, but I feel much better about my decision after reading.

[Kinmoku]

I'm making my VN at 2560 x 1440... I use a lot of Macs! Though this is the resolution of my 6 year old iMac, which to me is dated compared with the retina displays they are selling now.

IMO Bigger the better in this situation. You can always downscale later, but cannot upscale.

[Elmvine]

I've been looking at the possibility of 1920x1080 as although the most common resolution seems to be 1336 x 786 , there are stats to suggest that 1920x1090 is more common among gamers.

I would feel more comfortable with assets that look great in full screen up to that size with no quality loss, rather than having to try and upscale a lower resolution and get low quality results. Ren'py would adjust the size for smaler screens anyway.

[Aviala]

I always use 1920x1080 because that's the basic HD resolution.

[PyTom]

The next-generation Ren'Py gui is intended for use at 1280x720 and 1920x1080.

[KuroOneHalf]

I'd just like to bring up how much of a terrible idea I think this is, due to the problems it causes standard laptop users with 1366x768 resolution screens. I made something to illustrate what happens:

The top of the window is 30px and the taskbar is 40px. So a 768 height screen, -70px, you end up with 698 pixels to display content inside a window, so 22 pixels of height inside that window will be hidden.
You're forcing the player to either hide their taskbar (which is a hassle) every time they play, or go fullscreen which doesn't display stuff in true size and can also be an inconvenience. I know it was a big hassle for me when I was still on a laptop and I bumped into VNs that did this. I urge you to reconsider.

[guinevak]

I'd just like to bring up how much of a terrible idea I think this is, due to the problems it causes standard laptop users with 1366x768 resolution screens. I made something to illustrate what happens:

renpy720.jpg

The top of the window is 30px and the taskbar is 40px. So a 768 height screen, -70px, you end up with 698 pixels to display content inside a window, so 22 pixels of height inside that window will be hidden.
You're forcing the player to either hide their taskbar (which is a hassle) every time they play, or go fullscreen which doesn't display stuff in true size and can also be an inconvenience. I know it was a big hassle for me when I was still on a laptop and I bumped into VNs that did this. I urge you to reconsider.

Oh, good, it's not just me. My desktop and monitor crapped out a while ago and I just can't afford to replace them right now, and this issue puts a definite crimp in my game time.

[Aviala]

Can't you just... drag the window to resize it and fit your laptop screen better?

[KuroOneHalf]

Can't you just... drag the window to resize it and fit your laptop screen better?

If the game allows it, sure. But even then you're having the trouble of resizing it and getting scaled graphics instead of true size.

[PyTom]

It seems weird that there isn't a good way to get even minimal HD resolution on a relatively modern laptop screen. Perhaps the right answer is to hide the window chrome unless the mouse is towards the top of the window. (I don't know if I can do this, however.)

[guinevak]

Can't you just... drag the window to resize it and fit your laptop screen better?

If the game allows it, sure. But even then you're having the trouble of resizing it and getting scaled graphics instead of true size.

And if the window is not, by default, so large that the edges don't even show up on your screen, giving you the worst of both worlds. (Yes, this has happened to me.)

[PyTom]

Ren'Py will automatically resize so it fits on the screen. (Or at least, it should - Kuroonehalf managed to avoid that somehow.)