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[warmblood]

I've retested with three different computers, and ran into no problems at all.  As I said before, I think the problem is with that particular Dell notebook.

[DocBass]

I have lost the ability to select maintain aspect ratio. Both in the engine and after compiling the game. Not sure why it happened, it just went away.

It has something to do with my project file because I get the option on other projects, like the demo. Yep. After opening a few other project files they all had the option. Just our main project has lost the ability, and I cannot figure out why. What would cause this? I hope it's nothing too major since we've decided to switch to a widescreen aspect ratio 

[Mikael]

Tested without problems. And I must add that this feature is a VERY good idea. I hate to see games distorted on widescreen monitors.

Mikael

[mylesblasonato]

For some reason i don't even get the ratio option to check.

I unpacked to the wme install folder.

[DocBass]

For some reason i don't even get the ratio option to check.

I unpacked to the wme install folder.

You mean like there is no additional option on the startup screen? Try creating a new project and running it immediately and see if it comes up then. I am having the same issue with my current project.

[mylesblasonato]

Tried it but it didn't work Doc

Cheers
Myles Blasonato.

[DocBass]

Hey Mnemonic, any idea why this could be occuring? I've tried to solve it on my end but I can't figure out what it would be. I went through the scene files in a text editor and couldn't really find anything, and I'm not sure if it would be anything within the game files themselves.

[serializer]

I'm encountering a real issue when I try to alt-tab out of a running game.

Normally I've been able to do this fine.

What basically happens, is the game screen stays visible, but mouse control returns to windows - I ctrl-alt-del but can't see the task manager because the game still has control of the display. In the end my only options was to hard reset.

This is reproducible every time on my Toshiba laptop.

Please let me know if I can give you any more info.

[odnorf]

(just a little note: Mnemonic is currently away for a few days so he can't help with those problems right now. Just have patience or invite a brain parasite  )

[Mnemonic]

I'm back. I'll have to make another build with some detailed logging of what's going on inside, otherwise I really have no idea why if should stop working all of a sudden (unless you're running an old version of wme).

serializer: As far as I know, this is a DirectX or driver issue. I've seen it myself and it happens if the game uses the same resolution/color depth as desktop (which can easily happen now when using the aspect ratio feature). I believe it works in Vista, but I can't say for sure.

[warmblood]

I did a bunch more testing today and decided I needed to be very methodical to try to figure out when some strange things were happening. This may be overkill, but I thnk it is important because it does impact on how players will see your game at different game and display resolutions.

1) I started with a matrix with 9 game resolutions across the top (columns), and 9 display  resolutions along the side (rows). The idea is to try all of the combinations of these game and display resolutions.

2) I created a simple project with a default scene for each of the different monitor resolutions:
a)  Background is the size of the display resolutions.
b)  Floor is the size of the display resolution.

3) Then I looped through the following:

- For each display resolution:
    -- Make the corresponding scene (see 2 above) the startup scene
     -- for each game resolution (set at top lhs of project manager), run the game observing:
        --- was the Maintain aspect ration option displayed (Y/N)
        --- Screen capture of the display.
        --- If the background isn't totally visible, does it scroll when the actor moves?
        --- Any other problems?

I recorded the results in a spreadsheet.  A pdf printout of it is here:
http://fisherbee.com/knbShare/aspectRatio.pdf

You'll notice if you look at the resulting spreadsheet, that the way the scene is displayed is sometimes hard to predict.  In particular, it is hard to predict when the game will be displayed centered on the display, when it will be displayed at the top left. (IMO, it should always be centered.) I highlighted the wide game resolutions (columns) in yellow and the wide display resolutions (rows) in pink, and that does seem to be one important factor.

You cannot set the width of the game resolution higher than 1600.

Sometimes the game mysteriously switched to windowed mode -- sometimes only window mode was available, sometimes the next time I ran I could turn window mode off.

Sometimes I didn't get the "Maintain aspect ratio" option one time, but the next time I would. Didn't seem to be any particular pattern for this.

I'm sure I made some errors, because there was a lot to do and not much time to do it. Still, it seems to point to some potential problems.

[DocBass]

Warmblood I play our game on my 24 inch widescreen just fine 1920x1200, unless you're referring to something else when you mention the max res width.

[warmblood]

@DocBass  - Are you talking about game resolution or display resolution?

When I open Project manager and change the resolution width (along LHS, under Startup settings) to something > 1600 -- for example, 1680. I get an error message "'Resolution - width' must be a number between 320 and 1600."  Of course I am able to use a higher resolution display -but it didn't show the full 1680x1050 background in my test -- the background scrolled.

Are you saying you can get a non-scrolling background bigger than 1600 to work? Do you hand edit the project start up options? ( I'm afraid to -- assuming that the 1600 limit is not just arbitrary -- although it may be an artifact of earlier technology limits.)

[Dionysius]

Checkbox "maintain aspect ratio" is cool! (tested on laptop)
This bug is fixed! Cool!
Mnemonic, you rock   

[DocBass]

@DocBass  - Are you talking about game resolution or display resolution?

When I open Project manager and change the resolution width (along LHS, under Startup settings) to something > 1600 -- for example, 1680. I get an error message "'Resolution - width' must be a number between 320 and 1600."  Of course I am able to use a higher resolution display -but it didn't show the full 1680x1050 background in my test -- the background scrolled.

Are you saying you can get a non-scrolling background bigger than 1600 to work? Do you hand edit the project start up options? ( I'm afraid to -- assuming that the 1600 limit is not just arbitrary -- although it may be an artifact of earlier technology limits.)

My apologies, I thought you simply meant scaling the screen to be larger. I have not tried to do a game wider than 1600 natively.