Theme overcrowding

[Eleazar]

I've started a poll in the user's forum asking about the resolution they play Wesnoth at.
My reason? I think it's time to stop trying to cram the wesnoth interface into a 800x600 screen, and i'd like some data to back this up.

My suspicion is that the majority of our players use 1024x768 or higher. There are lots of useful suggestions about data that could go in our side bar, but there's no room for more at 800x600, unless we completely overhaul it with cryptic icons.

I propose the current default theme becomes the default-small theme. There have been a number of good ideas for UI information that could be presented. We could probably fill up the new default down to the 768th pixel with useful data. (Though, of course, it should be tastefully done to avoid chaos/confusion.)

If the game could choose the appropriate theme at startup, that would be even better.

It seems that the GUI isn't actively being developed ATM, which is OK, but i'd just like to put the idea out there for when a coder finds the time.

[Dave]

My reason? I think it's time to stop trying to cram the wesnoth interface into a 800x600 screen, and i'd like some data to back this up.

Long ago, Wesnoth used to only run in 1024x768.

Then we added support for any resolution greater than or equal to 1024x768.

Enough people complained, wanting it to run in 800x600 that support was added for resolutions as low as 800x600.

The 'official' stance is that 1024x768 is the minimum recommended resolution, but we will try to support everything down to 800x600.

I don't think we're going to change this. Among other things, it's nice for someone who runs their desktop at 1024x768 (which is alot of people, I think) to play in windowed mode, and have the window at a resolution a little below 1024x768.

David

[torangan]

I do run my desktop at 1280x1024 but in order to fit in a IRC client, a taskbar and other chat windows, Wesnoth is running at ~800x600 in a windows for me. Of course, some optional features of the gui which are not really required could only be activated for higher resolutions. No need to restrict higher resolutions to a bad interface, just keep the one at 800x600 in a state where you can play well.

[Boucman]

I run my PDA on 320x240, and I still hope to have wesnoth running on it someday;)

seriously, though... anybody knows what has becomed of the tiny gui compile option ?

[Noyga]

We have a nice tool which are the themes.
Then we can make nicer themes specifically for higher or lower resolution.
IMHO the default theme should support a large scale of resolution as it does today.

It would be even better if the themes could be more "intelligent", according to the resolution (perhaps there is already something like this, i don't know very well theme WML).
Something like this :

Code: Select all

[if]
   [screen_resolution]
      greater_than=800x600
   [screen_resolution]
[then]
  <some theme code>
[/then]
[else]
  <another theme code>
[/else]
[/if]

[zookeeper]

It would be even better if the themes could be more "intelligent", according to the resolution (perhaps there is already something like this, i don't know very well theme WML).

Yes, themes can currently define things differently for different resolutions. Currently these are, I think, used mainly to change font sizes or something like that (not really sure, I'm not familiar with themes either). But the mechanism is there.

[Darth Fool]

We have a nice tool which are the themes.
Then we can make nicer themes specifically for higher or lower resolution.
IMHO the default theme should support a large scale of resolution as it does today.

It would be even better if the themes could be more "intelligent", according to the resolution (perhaps there is already something like this, i don't know very well theme WML).

The theme engine chooses the theme based upon the resolution. It chooses the theme whose resolution is the largest of those that are less than or equal to the game-resolution. It then scales the placement and size of things according to how in the theme that the particular element is defined. So, the theme engine effectively already does what you wish. The theme does not automatically scale font sizes, so text in scaled versions will be the same #pixels.

The question as I understand it is really, should we start making UI changes in the higher resolutions which will not appear in the 800x600 resolution. Note that if we do this, given the number of people playing in windowed mode, we might choose to make the "default" resolution for themes 1000x700, and let the engine scale up to the higher resolution.

On a completely off topic note, my new monitor came in yesterday, and my new computer arrives today. I will soon be playing wesnoth in 2560x1600 mode!

[scott]

I don't know if this is on-topic, but does the theme scaling also work with the title screen?

[sparr]

I run my PDA on 320x240, and I still hope to have wesnoth running on it someday;)

seriously, though... anybody knows what has becomed of the tiny gui compile option ?

playing at 320x240 shouldn't be impossible... a 4x6 font means the theme can take up about 10 pixels at the top and 80 on the side, that leaves 240x230 for the map. 18x18 tiles are just playable, but youd want to make units only scale down 50-60%.