Widescreen behaviour of INTERPIC graphic

[Graf Zahl]

There's 3 possible standards:

1. Everything is fit into 4:3 (as it is now)
2. Aspect ratio is always maintained and the pic is cropped to fit the screen.
3. Aspect ratio is always maintained and the pic is letterboxed to show it completely, regardless of screen size.

There's no way to decide up front which one is desired. This has to be set explicitly in the mod.

[CommanderZ]

My two cents:

I don't really care which of the options is used (though I would prefer a solution which would allow the graphics to cover whole screen in all resolutions) as long as it is consistent everywhere. Currently the behavior is:

Title screen - add black borders
Intermmission screen - add black borders
Help screen(s) - stretch to fill whole screen

I don't really understand why these are not all the same.

[Tormentor667]

Title screen - add black borders
Intermmission screen - add black borders
Help screen(s) - stretch to fill whole screen
I don't really understand why these are not all the same.

So why no make all graphics behave exactly the same way as the help screen, so at least, it always covers the whole screen?

[Graf Zahl]

Argh!

[Tormentor667]

?

[Xaser]

Aww, come on now. A proper solution was already posted a long while back:

Something that could be added to the gameinfo section of MAPINFO then? Like, I don't know, a way of explicitly stating the ratio of a graphic and at what screen ratios to use it?

As long as you're already replacing a TITLEPIC in a wad, it's only 1% extra effort to include a MAPINFO that also sets the desired resolution. Besides, changing the default behavior will most likely break something that's already there, in some way or form.

[Graf Zahl]

Indeed. That's what I hinted at several times and Tormentor each time responded with the same thing, hence 'argh!'

[Tormentor667]

The reason for this is simply what CommanderZ stated: There is a certain inconsistency that doesn't make much sense.

Beyond - and yes I know, it might only be me - I updated 3 of my mods with the 16:9 graphics when I thought that this behaviour was a bug and not "the way it is meant to be", sure that wasn't clever as well but I would need to update 3 files with about 20 - 60 mb just because of one single line of code. A solution that would letterbox all kinds of gfx to 16:9 would be the best I guess, for several reasons. Now consider that most mods out there haven't been concipated for 16:9 anyway, so letterboxing titlepics, interpics and other graphics like that wouldn't break things, it would actually make them look a bit better when titlepics and stuff fully fill the 16:9 screens just as ingame stuff does.

[Sodaholic]

I can see why you want this, reuploading a huge file is a pain. No offense though, but it would have been a good idea to have this discussion before you uploaded and released it, sorry. But I agree with Graf, it just isn't worth the risk of screwing up something that is already existing. A way to specify the ratio and display method is the best solution.

But I could suggest this, Tormentor: why don't you release a patch file of some sort (like an IPS file maybe?) to upgrade it for the people that already downloaded it? For any future downloaders, probably a good idea to reupload the entire thing.

[Graf Zahl]

So you prefer to add an inconsistency to the engine because you were too much in a hurry to upload your stuff?

I'm sorry, but that's not nearly enough reason to do it.

[Tormentor667]

Sure, I didn't expect to make this happen just for me, but it was worth a try I guess

Nevermind, so what about the GAMEINFO part in the MAPINFO lump then? Any chance of getting this in?

[Enjay]

Actually, GAMINFO might be even more useful if added as follows...

If, for example GAMINFO was extended so that different graphics lumps could be specified for different resolution ratios. In that way, you could make a graphic that looked good at 4:3 ratios and tell Zdoom to use it at those resolutions, a second graphic that looked good at 16:9 etc etc. That way, you wouldn't have to rely on autocropping to give you an automatic result but, rather, you could create your own "perfect" graphic in the paint program of your choice and ensure that Zdoom used the right one for an individual users preference.

I'm not sure how that would look. Perhaps something like:

titlepage = "TITLEPIC"
creditpage = "CREDIT"
infopage = "HELP", "CREDIT"
TITLEPIC = {4:3 TITLEP01, 16:9 16:10 TITLEP02, 5:4 TITLEP03}
HELP = {4:3 HELP01, 16:9 16:10 HELP02, 5:4 HELP03}
CREDIT = {4:3 CREDIT01, 16:9 16:10 CREDIT02, 5:4 CREDIT03}

I'm going to guess that the above example will not be able to work exactly like that for some technical reason that I'm unaware of but a sytem that allowed that kind of functionality would be nice if it was possible somehow. Perhaps the textures lump could be used to define the different ratio pictures? (Unless, of course, these screens need to be processed before TEXTURES has been loaded?)

[Tormentor667]

That would be cool, but I guess some option for describing also the behaviour of the graphic might be important. For example if I do have a gfx that works fine in 16:9 but also in 4:3 if cropped (or letterboxed), there is no need to have 3 different graphics instead.

[Demolisher]

That syntax looks like it would make the mapinfo parser explode, perhaps simply something like this.

titlepage = "TITLEPIC"
creditpage = "CREDIT"
infopage = "HELP", "CREDIT"
titleresize = "scale" // forces it to screen size
creditresize = "full" // displays all, shrinks if nessessary, adds black borders
inforesize = "crop" // crops edges to fit

[CommanderZ]

Do not forget console background, it also stretches currently.