bdugan@teri.bio.uci.edu (Bill Dugan) (04/03/91)
Here is an interesting problem introduced by Apple, that we are trying to get around at work. We have a product, a game, that was designed for the 640 x 480 layout of the "standard" 13" Mac II monitor. Now, suddenly, along with the introduction of the Mac LC, Apple has introduced the 512 x 384 (12") monitor, and there are suddenly lots of people who have color monitors but wouldn't be able to play our game. Using CopyBits to scale the graphics down is not an option because of speed and, of course, poor graphics quality. The game is not suited to a scrolling window (imagine Tetris if you had to use scroll bars). It is an interesting problem. As I see it there are 3 options we can follow. (1) Don't run on the 512 x 384 screen! (2) Use some type of "Stepping Out" option that would be more convenient than scroll bars. Still not a good solution because in this type of game, you want to see the whole playfield at once, not scroll around. (3) Don't run on the 512 x 384 screen! Has anyone else had this problem? I haven't heard much about problems with the 12" monitor, but I can't believe I'm the first who has had to contend with it. TIA bill
stevec@Apple.COM (Steve Christensen) (04/04/91)
bdugan@teri.bio.uci.edu (Bill Dugan) writes: >[that he wrote a game designed to run on the 640x480 13" Mac II monitor, > but with the introduction of the 512x384 12" LC monitor, the game doesn't > work correctly, presumably because the bottom and right edges aren't > displayed...] As I see it there are 3 options we can follow. >(1) Don't run on the 512 x 384 screen! (2) Use some type of "Stepping Out" >option that would be more convenient than scroll bars. Still not a good >solution because in this type of game, you want to see the whole playfield >at once, not scroll around. (3) Don't run on the 512 x 384 screen! Since I haven't seen your game, I don't know what the specifics are, but some questions come to mind. Is it a color-only game, or does it also run on the 512x342 Mac Plus,SE,SE/30,Classic? Do you use a full-screen picture (which would look bad scaled), or are all of the components drawn separately. If nothing locks you into a particular screen size (i.e., pictures), why couldn't you figure out how big the screen is and adjust the playing area accordingly? steve -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Steve Christensen Never hit a man with glasses. stevec@apple.com Hit him with a baseball bat.
yossie@fnal.fnal.gov (Yossie Silverman) (04/05/91)
Well, since you can't have a 'auto scroll' function (OIDS does this) you have three options (once of which you mentioned already): 1) (mentioned) run only on machines with at least (or only?) 640*480 screens. 2) fix your program to use a 9" screen (512*342) sized playing field (can be done, and is probably the best!) Look at Crystal quest, and others, for color games that work on anything from 9" up and don't lose much by using only part of the screen. 3) fix your program to use fullscreen on all machines, changing font size/graphic size/etc.. depending on resolution. Here you have two choices as well - use a fixed list of screen sizes (9",12",13",fullpage,twopage) or just make it totally dynamic (hardest, but will be most appreciated by everyone! :-) Cheers -Yossie --- yossie@fnal.fnal.gov; yossie@fnccf.bitnet What did the Caspian Sea? - Saki