Dom3 Community Screen Resolutions

[Ballbarian]

I am working on a map editor in which the user interface is critical. Screen space is a premium and I was wondering:

What is the average minimum desktop resolution for the typical Dominions fanatic?

Keep in mind that the question is what desktop resolution (not what resolution you run Dominions at).

[Gregstrom]

On my laptop, 1280x800.

On the desktop machine: 1680x1050

[Edi]

Desktop, 1920x1200.

[vfb]

1280x1024

[lch]

Strange to see 1280x768 as an option, but not 1280x1024.

Desktop: 1280x1024, but I almost never use it.
Notebook: 1024x768 (native resolution)

I think the resolution is not that much of an issue if you can teach your program to scale depending on window size, or have slider controls. Do you have a screenshot for it? :)

[capnq]

My normal resolution for day-to-day use is 1280x960.

[ano]

1280x1024

[llamabeast]

1280x1024.

[Stavis_L]

1280x800 for laptop.

1680x1050 for desktop.

More time spent on the laptop recently, but that shifts over time, depending on how busy I am.

[Arralen]

1280x1024

[Ballbarian]

Strange to see 1280x768 as an option, but not 1280x1024.

Desktop: 1280x1024, but I almost never use it.
Notebook: 1024x768 (native resolution)

I think the resolution is not that much of an issue if you can teach your program to scale depending on window size, or have slider controls. Do you have a screenshot for it? :)

You caught me. 1280x768 is my resolution so the poll was slightly biased. :)

My biggest concern was the screen width and I am relieved to see no 800's listed. There is already some scaling to screen size, but some of the panels are hard pressed with a width of 1024. The UI is still changing and I hate to show it in it's current state. Most of the work so far has been in reading, error checking & writing of map files. I have a long weekend coming up and I will try to post a screenshot then.

A big thanks to everyone for their input! :up:

[Illuminated One]

1280x1024

[dlcooper]

1440x900

[Zeldor]

1680, but I always play dominions windowed, it occupies 50-70% of the screen.

[elmokki]

Does anyone actually use smaller resolutions than 1280x800 on laptop, 1440x900 on desktop anymore? Apart from netbooks that is, they're generally 1024x600.

[thejeff]

Yes. Not everyone has bought a new computer in the last year or two.

One of the great things about Dominions is that it runs without the latest hardware.

[Gregstrom]

Given the number of votes for 1280x1024, the answer to your question depends on whether you think that's smaller than 1440x900.

It's worth remembering that Dom3 plays well on older machines, so it's not unreasonable to expect a proportion of players to be using monitors deting from times when 1280x1024 was high-end.

Edit: Ninja'd!

[capnq]

Does anyone actually use smaller resolutions than 1280x800 on laptop, 1440x900 on desktop anymore?At my normal res (as mentioned above) of 1280x960 on my desktop, the default fonts for Windows are starting to get uncomfortably small for reading (Changing the font size that Windows uses breaks too many other apps to be worth the effort, IME.) I've got a couple games that run best at 1024x768.

I've been spending a lot of time lately playing browser based Flash games, and I occaisionally find one of those that's easier to play at 800x600, which is the lowest my video card will go.

[AstralWanderer]

Flybook: 1024 x 600
Desktop: 2048 x 1536 (only because Dom3 won't offer 2560 x 1600 - bah).

[Ballbarian]

Thanks everyone!
It looks like I'll be safe if I treat 1024x768 as a minimum.

Here are the screens that I promised:

Editing a province's commanders...
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=11&pictureid=147

Editing a nation...
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=11&pictureid=148

The program already reads in existing map files, parses the commands, does some error checking (found a lot of errors in semirand provinces!), and fills in some misc data extracted from Edi's database and can then save the updated map file. I am making good progress as long as I can keep motivated. :)

[Sombre]

Looks superb! Keeping on going ballbarian.

[llamabeast]

Wow, looks awesome!!

[Ballbarian]

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I wanted to thank you for the encouraging words. They really help! :)

Here is a rather large, untidy preview showing that progress continues:

http://SemiRandom.Dom3Minions.com/creepycellar/Progress.png

[Calahan]

:shock: That's looks amazing Ballbarian! Already starting to add up the hours I'd spend playing around with something like that.

[Gregstrom]

It's looking good from here.

[reverend]

Just noticed this... the editor looks spectacular!

Since I'm using two monitors (both 1280x1024) is it possible to make the tool windows de-dockable - e.g. like GIMP, VS, Photoshop etc.?

[Foodstamp]

Wow how did i miss the screenie, this is hot stuff!

[Ballbarian]

Thanks for the encouragement!

I considered putting all of the tools in their own window early on, but decided against it for now. It is possible that future versions will incorporate this. The screenshot looks a little cluttered, but when actually editing the map, you can hide all of the tool windows except the one labeled 'Province'. The pair of purple tool windows can be drug around within the main window's boundaries and all options are saved in a configuration file so that preferences are retained after closing the program. Not shown are the unit, site & item pickers which hide all other tools when opened.

Also not shown is the options window which contains settings for:
Maps directory
Background Image
Map Markers
-Flash selection
-Show neighbors
-Mark visited
-Center on selection
-Marker attributes
--(base center, ring, neighbor colors)
--(selected center, ring, neighbor colors)
--(Visited center color)
--(Nostart color)[incomplete]
--(Start color)[incomplete]
--(Victory point color)[incomplete]
--(ring width & radius)
--(neighbor width)
--(selection block width & height)

Most changes in the marker attributes are shown real time in a preview window. The markers are the circles that denote province centers (instead of flags). A fair bit of information can be seen about a map through markers. There are currently tools to:
-Mark province (currently selected w/ definded 'visited' color)
-Mark starts
-Mark nostarts
-Mark special starts (w/ nation color)
-Mark owners (w/ nation color)
-Mark victory points

The possibility of user defined marking filters is in consideration. For example, mark all provinces with terrain of type farm, sea, swamp, etc, or mark all with commanders, custom poptypes, labs, and so on. On the wish list anyway. :)

One ambitious item high on the agenda is province templates. The buttons are there, but the functionality is still in the planning stage. More on that later. I also want to add some support for map specific mods but it is too early to really consider all of the implications to the design as it stands. I am trying not to get so ambitious that I smother the project into the recycle bin.

[PsiSoldier]

This thing looks sweet. I hope I notice when you finally get it released, I cant wait to play around with it.

And I think you are past this by now but my res like many others is 1280 x 1024 Anymore than that and it gets pretty difficult to read text its too small.

[AreaOfEffect]

Looks great!