[Yarn]

Basically what's described in Mantis #2237 (although "crop" wasn't really the correct term to use). In my opinion, the interface would look better in widescreen resolutions if it weren't stretched to fill the screen, especially on super-wide multimonitor setups.

[mjn.mixael]

meh, I prefer stretched over 4:3 letterbox. besides why spend time on this instead of allowing widescreen menus altogether?

[zookeeper]

Yeah, the stretching is utterly awful. Some time ago I did try to implement a fix, but unfortunately it turned out to be too complicated (for me, anyway).

[Yarn]

Since people have different preferences on this sort of thing, it might be a good idea to let the player decide whether to stretch the menus (although I don't think stretching should be the default). Don't forget that some players use things like AMD Eyefinity and Nvidia 3D Vision to play on multiple monitors; the stretched menus would look absolutely horrible for them.

[Ace]

I'd be nice to have a launcher option to keep the menu scaled 4:3 and to have an option to have a border image around it (black by default).

So you could do a 1080p border image and the 4:3 menus get placed within.

So I guess I'm asking for a stylized pillarboxing option.

[Zacam]

I may be off base, but I thought there was already something in play for this.

Maybe it was a script.

Hmm.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

meh, I prefer stretched over 4:3 letterbox.

Here's someone who plays Diaspora on triple-monitor; I think you'll agree that unstretched would be preferable in this case.

besides why spend time on this instead of allowing widescreen menus altogether?

There would be a lot more resolutions to create interface art for, I guess... People play FSO all the way from 5:4 (e.g. 1280x1024) to 16:9. You'd have to create and distribute individual interface packs for different screen ratios (tech support might become interesting on that one), or ask people to download huge all-in-one interface packs (of which they'd only actually use about a quarter). Just for the mainhalls it would be cool, but for every single interface element I think that would be... stretching it

[mjn.mixael]

Wat?

Just do a similar thing as with the HUD table and allow the modder to create art that can work for multiple resolutions as they see fit.

Also, the number of people that play on triple monitors is much less than normal wide screens... No reason to change all the defaults for the niche crowd. I would still say a proper interface.tbl is a better solution than another game flag to add pillar boxes. It's way more important that we break the menus out of their 1024x768 prison.... This is 2013 after all.

[Goober5000]

I may be off base, but I thought there was already something in play for this.

Maybe it was a script.

Hmm.

There is a tab in the display control panel on Windows that offers the option to preserve the aspect ratio when scaling screens.  This is what I use, and it may be what you're thinking of.  (Caveat: It may only be an option for certain video cards.)

[The E]

And it wouldn't work in this case anyway. What we do right now is to scale the interface graphics to the screen resolution. What we should be doing is to allow the user to choose a scaling mode; that is, offer up a selection of either the old behaviour, scale while preserving aspect ratio (filling the rest of the screen with black or something), and not scale at all (with the graphics centered on the screen and the rest blacked out).

[zookeeper]

I may be off base, but I thought there was already something in play for this.

Maybe it was a script.

Hmm.

You're probably referring to something else, but just for the record, I also attempted to write a script which would de-stretch everything while in menus. It didn't work out because then model rendering (in tech lab, for instance) and possibly text as well were getting borked.

[Yarn]

I may be off base, but I thought there was already something in play for this.

Maybe it was a script.

Hmm.

You're probably referring to something else, but just for the record, I also attempted to write a script which would de-stretch everything while in menus. It didn't work out because then model rendering (in tech lab, for instance) and possibly text as well were getting borked.

When the game stretches the menus, it stretches everything in the menus--even text--except for the mouse cursor and 3D models.

[Woolie Wool]

Wat?

Just do a similar thing as with the HUD table and allow the modder to create art that can work for multiple resolutions as they see fit.

Also, the number of people that play on triple monitors is much less than normal wide screens... No reason to change all the defaults for the niche crowd. I would still say a proper interface.tbl is a better solution than another game flag to add pillar boxes. It's way more important that we break the menus out of their 1024x768 prison.... This is 2013 after all.

And who's going to make that art? Do you know how incredibly complex the interface art is and how few times anyone has successfully replaced it? I can think of exactly three all new interfaces in the entire history of FSO modding (TVWP, Diaspora, and Wing Commander Saga). That's it.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

And who's going to make that art? Do you know how incredibly complex the interface art is and how few times anyone has successfully replaced it? I can think of exactly three all new interfaces in the entire history of FSO modding (TVWP, Diaspora, and Wing Commander Saga). That's it.

Well, that's what we have the templates for, right? I could see them extended for different resolutions...

[mjn.mixael]

And who's going to make that art? Do you know how incredibly complex the interface art is and how few times anyone has successfully replaced it? I can think of exactly three all new interfaces in the entire history of FSO modding (TVWP, Diaspora, and Wing Commander Saga). That's it.

Well, that's what we have the templates for, right? I could see them extended for different resolutions...

Indeed.

I just don't see it as super beneficial to add more code that helps lock us into an outdated resolution. I think time would be better spent finding a middle ground that will allow unstretched 4:3 ratios if desired, while still giving modders more tools to make the interface at whatever resolutions they see fit.

[Yarn]

Just to be clear, my request is really about showing menus in whatever aspect ratio they were designed for (by user preference, of course), similar to how FSO currently plays movie files. I have no problem with widescreen menus--I would welcome them, actually. I just don't like FSO's stretched menus.

[The E]

I just don't see it as super beneficial to add more code that helps lock us into an outdated resolution. I think time would be better spent finding a middle ground that will allow unstretched 4:3 ratios if desired, while still giving modders more tools to make the interface at whatever resolutions they see fit.

The thing is, the interface art we do have looks pretty bad once it's stretched out to modern resolutions, and if we go into extreme multimonitor setups, it can get actively unusable. That is something we need to address, and IMHO we need to address it sooner than any other feature additions regarding the interface (The ability to define a scaling mode being, IMO, a necessary function for any other form of interface we do).

[Rodo]

I know it's hard but, can't something like what was made for the HUD code be applied in this case?

It will probably require to define table entries or something like that for every menu or button arrangement in the options screen, hangar screen and all that, but it seems like an optimal solution. you'll get the interface stretching in line and at the same time be providing mods the tools to develop custom menus throughout the entire game.

[Reprobator]

As a eyefinity user (6084*1080 ) i really wish an option to prevent scaling to resolution even if it stay 4/3 and doesn't filled fully a single screen , it would be anyway 100 time better than the actual things

The hud like solution can be neat but it'll require a lot of work!

THe two solution would be perfect, if you have no table ready for you then you can tickle a standard 4/3 centered interface in the launcher

[Swifty]

I know it's hard but, can't something like what was made for the HUD code be applied in this case?

I had to rewrite the HUD code to do that and that took about 6-9 months to complete while being unemployed. It's best if we have smarter scaling of interface screens for now until someone volunteers to implement a better replacement/rewrite/extension of the current interface system.