An alternative to full screen windows!

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ID:70985
 
May 31 2009, 1:51 pm
Keywords: fol, interface

Poll: Do you like this way of handling full screen?

I think the cinematic lighting is better. 30% (15)
Both ideas work for me. 30% (15)
I prefer full screen, but this is acceptable. 28% (14)
I don't like it. 12% (6)

Login to vote.

Well after letting a friend of mine take a peek at the game by playing around with the current features, the only problem that came to him was the lack of full screen.

He explained that he sorely hated looking at his computer as he played a game, and that made a lot of sense to me. So I worked on ways to present a full screen game without terribly distorting my current interface (Hence the new interface design), but alas I couldn't find a good way to represent the game full screen... Until today.

After looking at a couple animations over at Newgrounds.com, I had the idea of allowing a blockout idead, which would darken the surrounding of the window into a cinematic sort of display.

I had to toy around with it a little bit (I hate how we really can't define window layers within the game program, and panes won't appear behind windows) but I struggled through... So now I ask you future players, if this is a suitable replacement.

Normal

Cinematic Mode

#1 May 31 2009, 1:55 pm
I like it. I find it better then Full Screen.
#2 May 31 2009, 2:21 pm
I second that.
#3 May 31 2009, 2:25 pm
Wow, that looks really nice! Are you going to put a little light/switch on the interface to toggle it?
#4 May 31 2009, 2:27 pm
Yeah I'll replace the whole resize button at the top with a light icon.
#5 May 31 2009, 2:29 pm
Just make the map pane a little wider and stretch the rest out to match whatever resolution the player's monitor is set to.

We need more (optional) widescreen BYOND games!
#6 May 31 2009, 2:33 pm
I absolutely hate games where it's just one set size and you can't mess with it or maximize it or anything. It's so much better to create an interface that can be anchored so that it looks fine at any size, and let people push and pull the game screen size to whatever they feel comfortable with.

The only situation where a set size works is for quaint, small games like little puzzle games and stuff, not for what is expected to be a high quality RPG.

All the stuff in the background of the game being darkened a little bit doesn't change the fact that the game screen is very small and puny looking.

But hey, that's just my opinion. :(
#7 May 31 2009, 2:34 pm
This is actually a really good and cool idea. Will you be releasing a simple how-to or demo?
#8 May 31 2009, 2:35 pm
Airjoe, my guess would be that he has some sort of window open up behind the game that has a transparency setting and that's maximized. Just my guess though.

On topic, great idea! Just like the windows blinds for DivX movies. I like it.
#9 May 31 2009, 2:37 pm (Edited on May 31 2009, 2:44 pm)
Would you prefer a game window that is forced to be maximized, and must be full-screen or minimized? Because you can setup a game where it will maximize the screen at startup then calculate the positions for all of the interface controls at the beginning of the game. As long as there are enough size-adjustable controls in the interface, you can make it fit any resolution. Although its hard to do that along with graphics.

Examples:

http://www.byond.com/members/Foomer/files/randomstuff/ SolarConquestRes1.jpg
http://www.byond.com/members/Foomer/files/randomstuff/ SolarConquestRes2.jpg
http://www.byond.com/members/Foomer/files/randomstuff/ SolarConquestRes3.jpg
http://www.byond.com/members/Foomer/files/randomstuff/ SolarConquestRes4.jpg
#10 May 31 2009, 2:40 pm
Zaole wrote:
I absolutely hate games where it's just one set size and you can't mess with it or maximize it or anything. It's so much better to create an interface that can be anchored so that it looks fine at any size, and let people push and pull the game screen size to whatever they feel comfortable with.

The only situation where a set size works is for quaint, small games like little puzzle games and stuff, not for what is expected to be a high quality RPG.

All the stuff in the background of the game being darkened a little bit doesn't change the fact that the game screen is very small and puny looking.

But hey, that's just my opinion. :(

I wish I could create a full screen alternative that is flexible yet properly displays everything. My interface is so graphical dependent that every attempt I've tried resulted in disappointment, which is why I turned to this alternative. I would love to provide full screen options, but without severely distorting the placements of everything (even with anchors in place) or the graphics themselves.

Airjoe wrote:
This is actually a really good and cool idea. Will you be releasing a simple how-to or demo?

I may, but the best way to explain it would probably be here.

The faded window is the main window with only a background color of #000000 and an alpha of 210, set to full screen upon client login, then its visibility is toggled.

The game window is the secondary one, so everything in terms of closing and manipulation relies on the faded window's controls. I couldn't do it the other way around because there is no way to set windows/panes behind the main window.
#11 May 31 2009, 3:13 pm
Foomer wrote:
Would you prefer a game window that is forced to be maximized, and must be full-screen or minimized? Because you can setup a game where it will maximize the screen at startup then calculate the positions for all of the interface controls at the beginning of the game. As long as there are enough size-adjustable controls in the interface, you can make it fit any resolution. Although its hard to do that along with graphics.

Examples:

http://www.byond.com/members/Foomer/files/randomstuff/ SolarConquestRes1.jpg
http://www.byond.com/members/Foomer/files/randomstuff/ SolarConquestRes2.jpg
http://www.byond.com/members/Foomer/files/randomstuff/ SolarConquestRes3.jpg
http://www.byond.com/members/Foomer/files/randomstuff/ SolarConquestRes4.jpg

I'd actually have no idea how to do that, would that work with grids too? Because I don't wish to disproportion them enough to remove any visible images.
#12 May 31 2009, 3:34 pm
I did the exact same thing for NA!

By darkening what is behind it, the players eyes focus on the more vibrant section of the screen. Which would be the game!

Great minds!
#13 May 31 2009, 4:03 pm
Reminds me of DivX

Edit: Oh shoot somebody already said that lol..
#14 May 31 2009, 5:31 pm
I got the same idea from Megavideo, it has a button like this. Good work though.
#15 May 31 2009, 9:52 pm
I could be mistaken, but I'm fairly sure that window transparency removes the the ability to use hardware rendering for graphics on the map due to DirectX incompatibility. Which means no more alpha transparency for your icons if you use an interface like that.

I'm not sure the aesthetic pleasures of the interface are worth sacrificing the aesthetic pleasures of the game itself.
#16 May 31 2009, 10:01 pm
Tiberath wrote:
I could be mistaken, but I'm fairly sure that window transparency removes the the ability to use hardware rendering for graphics on the map due to DirectX incompatibility. Which means no more alpha transparency for your icons if you use an interface like that.

Are you certain about that? I'm pretty sure I've used transparent windows without any problems with the game transparency itself.

#17 May 31 2009, 10:05 pm
SuperAntx wrote:
Tiberath wrote:
I could be mistaken, but I'm fairly sure that window transparency removes the the ability to use hardware rendering for graphics on the map due to DirectX incompatibility. Which means no more alpha transparency for your icons if you use an interface like that.

Are you certain about that? I'm pretty sure I've used transparent windows without any problems with the game transparency itself.

Transparency in icons seems to work fine with transparency in the window.
#18 May 31 2009, 10:59 pm
I really like the idea as an alternate to full-screen, really interesting.
#19 May 31 2009, 11:55 pm
The transparency in icons only works because that stuff is supported in software mode. Running in software mode will put more strain on your system for simple stuff and cause BYOND to run slower (in most cases).

But yes, using any kind of window transparency disables DirectX hardware rendering.
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