suggestions for better usability
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1) changeable resolution
- Tpt runs in low resolution, 1 element is 1 pixel, so the sandbox is too small, also, it does not look well in fullscreen mode on modern monitors (1920x1080 and similar).
It will be good if there's setting that can set resolution of the window (not the sandbox, sandbox is smaller than the window of course), there should be resolutions like 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1360x760, 1680x1050, 1920x1080
in online saves there may be information about resolution of the save (actually, of the program that saved it)
it would be better, and allow users to make bigger, more interesting and more sophisticated saves (like big city, big processor, etc.)
if someone has screen with low resolution and save requires higher resolution, it would show scrolling bar for X and Y axis (like zomed image in viewer or zoomed page in internet browser)
2) allow users making their own element
- The elements are various, but someone can miss an element, so there should be a small utility that allows users to make their own element, they can set name (including label), flammability, behavior in various temperatures, conductivity, powder/liquid/solid/gas etc.
after opening an online save where is custom element, the element will be loaded to the elements bar and user will be asked for saving the element to the bar
sorry for my english :) -
1) it was suggested, and rejected, first of all, variable resolution would lag the game, because there are a lot of checks depending on window size, also you you make area of simulation N times more, FPS will drop N times. saves can currently save the size, but this is only used in stamps, all saves on server are 612x384
2) you can, there's lua modding
EDIT: oh, embedding lua in saves, that doesn't work yetEdited once by mniip. Last: 21st Aug 2013 -
I suggested something like 1) some time ago but the thread died away pretty fast.
It's about having a scalable window (by dragging the sides) and scaling the entire game screen surface (NOT the simulation space, as that would be really hard to add and probably would break the whole) using some style-fitting algorithm and then adding black borders on the sides of the surface to keep the aspect ratio the same (as you probably know from your favourite movie plaver application).
Then we could keep the default game size (1 pixel = 1 pixel) as the minimal resolution, avoiding having to downscale anything.
This would break not a single save but still make the game a whole lots more usable for new players and people with resolutions too small for the double size mode and too big to enjoy the default mode.
The only flaw I could think of was that scalling the game screen would be a performance killer, but since this thing would only use a subset of scaling (no downscaling, no change of the aspect ratio), I think it would be worth it.
Yeah, that was basically everything that was inside the original thread, but heres the link anyway (don't necropost but discuss that here, k?) -
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jiribekr:
1) changeable resolution
- Tpt runs in low resolution, 1 element is 1 pixel, so the sandbox is too small, also, it does not look well in fullscreen mode on modern monitors (1920x1080 and similar).
It will be good if there's setting that can set resolution of the window (not the sandbox, sandbox is smaller than the window of course), there should be resolutions like 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1360x760, 1680x1050, 1920x1080
in online saves there may be information about resolution of the save (actually, of the program that saved it)
it would be better, and allow users to make bigger, more interesting and more sophisticated saves (like big city, big processor, etc.)
if someone has screen with low resolution and save requires higher resolution, it would show scrolling bar for X and Y axis (like zomed image in viewer or zoomed page in internet browser)
2) allow users making their own element
- The elements are various, but someone can miss an element, so there should be a small utility that allows users to make their own element, they can set name (including label), flammability, behavior in various temperatures, conductivity, powder/liquid/solid/gas etc.
after opening an online save where is custom element, the element will be loaded to the elements bar and user will be asked for saving the element to the bar
sorry for my english :)I don't like this the element customizer idea!
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@jiribekr
At point 3), did you like miss the whole point of the Lua API? Custom elements were possible for so long now...
EDIT:
@mniip
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_scaling#Pixel_art_scaling_algorithmsEdited once by nucular. Last: 22nd Feb 2014
