RE: [GD-General] Scaling GUI graphics

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We evaluated Flash for our gui/frontend.  The runtime
(we looked at an off the shelf flash renderer) was a=20
bit heavyweight for what we wanted, but one of the=20
guys here has an almost functional SVG renderer that=20
we might use in the future. =20

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Forsyth [mailto:to...@mu...]=20
> Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 8:56 AM
> To: gam...@li...
> Subject: RE: [GD-General] Scaling GUI graphics
>=20
>=20
> The other cute trick I've heard of is to bite the bullet and=20
> put Flash in the game. Then the artists can do front ends and=20
> GUIs all they like, and the graphics coders don't have to be=20
> involved at all, so we can get on with the actual 3D stuff.=20
> Which appeals to me, seeing as the last fancy GUI we did=20
> chewed 6 months of a programmer's time. That was bad.
>=20
> Tom Forsyth - purely hypothetical Muckyfoot bloke.
>=20
> This email is the product of your deranged imagination,
> and does not in any way imply existence of the author.
>=20
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Kent Quirk [mailto:ken...@co...]
> > Sent: 25 June 2002 14:59
> > To: Tom Forsyth
> > Cc: Brian Hook; gam...@li...
> > Subject: Re: [GD-General] Scaling GUI graphics
> >=20
> >=20
> > We just built a skinnable GUI for a game we're doing. All=20
> the graphics=20
> > in the game are built from individual components at load time, with=20
> > the layout described in an XML file. We haven't supported=20
> any form of=20
> > scaling, as it's my experience that scaling always looks like hell.=20
> > But we do support tiling, so what we do is build a=20
> background texture=20
> > that's seamlessly tileable, and lay that down first. Then we place=20
> > interface elements on top of that.
> >=20
> > It let me use mixed file formats (highly compressed jpgs for the=20
> > background, GIFs for basic interface elements, and PNGs=20
> where I needed=20
> > transparency), and in addition to increased flexibility, we=20
> took about=20
> > 1.5 meg of interface graphics and compressed it to less than 300K.
> >=20
> >     Kent
> >=20
> >=20
> > Tuesday, June 25, 2002, 6:19:55 AM, you wrote:
> >=20
> > TF> My favourite solution is to scale, but only by powers of
> > two. So you design
> > TF> GUI graphics for 640x480. For 800x600 and 1024x768, you
> > don't scale, you
> > TF> just move them further apart (i.e. the bits stick to the
> > cornr, edge or
> > TF> centre as required). For 1280x1024 and above, you double
> > the size so that at
> > TF> least stuff is readable.
> >=20
> > TF> To do the scale x2 you can either just do the bilinear
> > filter thing (which
> > TF> doesn't look too bad on power-of-two scales), or just get
> > the artists to do
> > TF> second versions. Or mix'n'match (e.g. hand-done bigger
> > font, but scaled
> > TF> backgrounds).
> >=20
> > TF> Tom Forsyth - purely hypothetical Muckyfoot bloke.
> >=20
> > TF> This email is the product of your deranged imagination,=20
> and does=20
> > TF> not in any way imply existence of the author.
> >=20
> > >> -----Original Message-----
> > >> From: Brian Hook [mailto:bri...@py...]
> > >> Sent: 25 June 2002 04:23
> > >> To: gam...@li...
> > >> Subject: [GD-General] Scaling GUI graphics
> > >>=20
> > >>=20
> > >> Okay, this is a common problem that I'm sure others have
> > >> dealt with on=20
> > >> numerous occasions, but I have yet to deal with it so I'm=20
> > >> curious what the=20
> > >> conventional wisdom is.
> > >>=20
> > >> Basically it's the age old problem of having an interface
> > >> that looks good=20
> > >> at all resolutions.  AFAICT, the standards are:
> > >>=20
> > >> - do low res graphics for everything, then zoom appropriately
> > >> (leads to=20
> > >> serious blurring)
> > >>=20
> > >> - do multiple resolution graphics (lots of content)
> > >>=20
> > >> - render GUI graphics into textures/images instead of using
> > >> prefab images=20
> > >> (i.e. actually write line/circle/filled region software=20
> renderers)
> > >>=20
> > >> - don't scale, just make everything smaller (8x8 font at
> > >> 1600x1200...ewwww)
> > >>=20
> > >> Anyone find a solution that doesn't have a glaring flaw,
> > unlike the
> > >> above?  I suppose the closest I can think of is to do
> > >> everything in high=20
> > >> resolution, e.g. for a 1600x1200 interface, and then resample=20
> > >> down for=20
> > >> lower resolution displays.
> > >>=20
> > >> Brian
> > >>=20
> > >>=20
> > >>=20
> > >> -------------------------------------------------------
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> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >> Gam...@li...
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> > >>=20
> >=20
> >=20
> > TF> -------------------------------------------------------
> > TF> Sponsored by:
> > TF> ThinkGeek at http://www.ThinkGeek.com/
> > TF> _______________________________________________
> > TF> Gamedevlists-general mailing list
> > TF> Gam...@li...
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> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gamedevlists-gene
ral
> TF> Archives:
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>=20
>=20
> --=20
> Kent Quirk, CTO, CogniToy
> ken...@co...
> http://www.cognitoy.com
>=20

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