About video options in casual games

[xelanoimis]

Hello,

I see that most casual games have limited video options, porbably to make it simple for the players. But are these options enought?

For example, what about wide resolutions? Today we see a lot of wide LCD monitors. A standard resolution would look stretched on such screens. Imagine a game that shows a lot of circles.

Also, entering a LCD into a non-native resolution, sometimes produce really bad quality graphics, especially if the game has pixel art or similar.

And what about incompatibility issues? Wouldn't a advanced video options menu be something usefull for suck cases. Like when DirectX doesn't look quite right, to switch to OpenGL or software.
And maybe some separate (non-ingame) configuration tool.


So, what do you think the next standard video options, for casual games, should include?

Thanks!

[Dyno Kid]

As far as resolution goes i had Dyno Kid at 800x600 but for my new one im leaving the resolution to what ever the user has it on.

After testing on 5 pcs with differnt reso settings and a wide screen laptop it seems the best option for me.

Darren.

[Desktop Gaming]

As far as resolution goes i had Dyno Kid at 800x600 but for my new one im leaving the resolution to what ever the user has it on.

After testing on 5 pcs with differnt reso settings and a wide screen laptop it seems the best option for me.

Darren.

You mean, you're running your game in whatever the user's desktop resolution is set to??

[Nikos Beck]

Widescreen and screen resolution has been discussed before:

http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=11542
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=11166
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=9700
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=9299
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=10592
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=11166

Apparently, it's been discussed quite a bit.

I develop in 800x600. I detect the current resolution and add black bars if the monitor is widescreen. I haven't decided what to do if the user has a high-res desktop because, you're right, the art pixelates like crazy. I have toyed with having a black border all around the game, maybe with the game's name in the margin so that even if the screen is 1360x768 I have my game nicely centered at a resolution I can trust but I know some users might not appreciate all of the black.

In the options screen, I try to keep things simple. I don't have a "high resolution" button but that might be a very good option to have. I wouldn't overwhelm the user with a dozen options but it might be very reasonable to have a short list with "low, standard, high and very high" as resolutions to choose from.

The options screen was also discussed before:

http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=11236

[ChrisP]

You mean, you're running your game in whatever the user's desktop resolution is set to??

That would appear to be what he's saying, yes. I do that as well, by default, although the user can of course change this. (I default to fullscreen, obviously.) If you can get away with the fillrate and you can scale the game to suit different aspect ratios, then it seems a sensible thing to do. No worries about picking a resolution that the user can't run, or looks too blocky, or isn't the right aspect ratio for their monitor.

[xelanoimis]

Thanks for the feedback!

Would it be a nice idea to have additional graphics on the sides, in wide screen mode,
instead of black bars? Something simple that fits with the scene, like more landscape
with no really action in it. Maybe move some hud elements to the corners too.
Well, I guess it depends on the game.

As for small resolution games (about 256x192) with pixel art, like my DizzyAGE projects,
I did a lot of work to keep it form stretching or bluring, using point filtering and perfect pixel-texel mapping.
The game content is scalled by a factor of x2, x3, etc to match the choosen resolution.
http://www.yolkfolk.com/dizzyage

Oh, by the way, I've seen a crazy Sony LCD monitor with scalling options,
that allows you to use an old resolution like 320x200 scalled and centered in the native resolution, with the choosed the filtering options.
All hardware and looking perfect. I say crazy, because it was crazy expensive!
I guess, it would be a while untill all monitors do that.

Thanks again.

[Dyno Kid]

Yes thats right, sorry for late reply.

Darren.