Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Pages: [1] 2 3

Author Topic: Any solution for UI scaling?  (Read 13446 times)

CMDR_Nomad

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 2
    • View Profile
Any solution for UI scaling?
« on: July 30, 2019, 07:28:44 PM »

I'm using a high resolution screen screen as of this moment, it is pretty annoying that the game doesn't have a ui scaling option(or maybe their is?). I have to downgrade the resolution to a lower volume. Just want to know anyone having the same problem? Is there any third party software to use to scale the UI?
Logged

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 23986
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2019, 10:04:01 PM »

Hi there! If you've got a 4k monitor, I'd recommend running in fullscreen at half the native resolution of your monitor. I'd like to eventually look at supporting this within the game, but it'd amount to... well, basically the same thing, with worse performance (because it'd be outputting extra pixels, compared to just using a lower resolution), but would work in windowed mode (which would be the point of doing that in the first place).

(If you're wondering, only scaling the UI and not the rest of the game is not a good option, since the rest of the game is also designed to work well within a certain range of resolutions, from graphics assets to zoom levels/scales etc, and that does not include 4k. In-between resolutions such as 2560x1600 are kind of in an awkward spot; some people find those playable in native; personally I'd still run fullscreen at a reduced resolution in that case.)
Logged

CMDR_Nomad

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 2
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2019, 06:25:23 AM »

Hi there! If you've got a 4k monitor, I'd recommend running in fullscreen at half the native resolution of your monitor. I'd like to eventually look at supporting this within the game, but it'd amount to... well, basically the same thing, with worse performance (because it'd be outputting extra pixels, compared to just using a lower resolution), but would work in windowed mode (which would be the point of doing that in the first place).

(If you're wondering, only scaling the UI and not the rest of the game is not a good option, since the rest of the game is also designed to work well within a certain range of resolutions, from graphics assets to zoom levels/scales etc, and that does not include 4k. In-between resolutions such as 2560x1600 are kind of in an awkward spot; some people find those playable in native; personally I'd still run fullscreen at a reduced resolution in that case.)
Well, here's the problem. You could zoom the battlefield(or the main display whatever you call it) but you can't zoon the UI and the text. Yep, I am using half the native resolution to make the UI and text larger even before I posted this thread. But obviously it isn't the same thing as only scaling the UI. As for the performance of the game. Well, I think the game is pretty well optimized. I can even run one of my laptop which I bought eight years ago.  Increased load on hardware won't be a problem.  Anyway, thanks for your replay. :)
Logged

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 23986
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2019, 08:08:16 AM »

Well, here's the problem. You could zoom the battlefield(or the main display whatever you call it) but you can't zoon the UI and the text. Yep, I am using half the native resolution to make the UI and text larger even before I posted this thread. But obviously it isn't the same thing as only scaling the UI.

Right, yeah - but if you zoom in enough, there's little point to running at the higher resolution, because the resolution of the artwork isn't high enough, if that makes sense. So short of an "HD" release of the game (which would need to update all the assets to 2x the resolution; a massive undertaking), what you're already doing is about equivalent to what I would do if I did scaling in-game.

So, just to clarify, only scaling the UI isn't really viable - not only is that *also* a massive amount of work (compared to scaling everything), it also doesn't have much upside.

(I mean, for some things like the planet spheres, you'd see marginally smoother outlines at a higher resolution. But aside from a few things like that, it just wouldn't be very noticeable because most of the game is 2D assets, where if they're zoomed in at a higher res or just displayed at a lower res is basically equivalent. Sorry if I'm repeating myself!)

As for the performance of the game. Well, I think the game is pretty well optimized. I can even run one of my laptop which I bought eight years ago.  Increased load on hardware won't be a problem.  Anyway, thanks for your replay. :)

:D
Logged

Wyvern

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 3784
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2019, 10:05:22 AM »

So, just to clarify, only scaling the UI isn't really viable - not only is that *also* a massive amount of work (compared to scaling everything), it also doesn't have much upside.
I really can't agree with (the tail end of) this; I have no leg to stand on discussing how much work it would be, but being able to run the game at higher resolution has a significant up-side: being able to get better use out of the game assets that are already there.

As the game is right now, both in-combat and out of combat, I am almost always zoomed out as much as the game will let me.  With the current implementation, this means that a lot of the fine detail on the sprites is lost.  A game mode that kept the perceived size of things the same while running at monitor-native resolution under the hood would (I expect, based on my experiences with other games) look a lot better.
Logged
Wyvern is 100% correct about the math.

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 23986
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2019, 10:14:13 AM »

Ah, hmm, maybe I've been thinking about this wrong. Being too focused on the "most zoomed in" case, which, really, isn't the right thing to focus on here. Thank you for mentioning this; will absolutely keep it in mind.
Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12117
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #6 on: July 31, 2019, 10:24:41 AM »

As the game is right now, both in-combat and out of combat, I am almost always zoomed out as much as the game will let me.
Same here.  Perception of environment is much more important than admiring vanity on your ship.  Wished that combat automatically zoomed out to the max allowed for ship class instead of me always needing to wheel the middle button to zoom out to the max in every battle.
Logged

SCC

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 4112
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #7 on: July 31, 2019, 10:35:15 AM »

I too very often play zoomed out, and if not, I dynamically adjust so that my ship is maybe 10% of my screen, rarely ever paying attention to it.

Bonanza

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 2
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #8 on: August 04, 2019, 01:11:33 PM »

I'd like to add to this in the case of 1440p monitors, which have been gaining in popularity. Halving the resolution to 720p is subjectively not enough pixels for an enjoyable experience. 1080p fullscreen is worse as the pixel ratio is off which creates a blurring effect. Without UI scaling, we need to either deal with the small text in full screen or run the game in a 1080p window. I understand the dev time required might not be worth the added convenience.
« Last Edit: August 04, 2019, 01:16:42 PM by Bonanza »
Logged

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 23986
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #9 on: August 04, 2019, 01:22:43 PM »

Right, yeah - 720 is actually not even enough for the UI, 768 vertical is the smallest it's coded to support without elements going off-screen. Trouble is, it's an awkward in-between resolution, so I suspect any in-game UI scaling would also have similar kinds of issues to 1080p with the pixel ratio being off.

Well, that or basically a parallel UI specifically for it, with different sets of assets - at least fonts, and probably some icons etc - which really ups the work required, even compared to more basic scaling. I guess depending on the approach, one might be able to automatically scale it more nicely somehow; I'm really not super familiar with this, though.
Logged

Imp0815

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 53
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #10 on: August 05, 2019, 04:43:00 AM »

I'm short sighted and having to deal with really small text and ui is very exhausting for me. To a point where i stop playing because my neck or my head hurts. Lowering the Resolution often resultus in a lower quality which lowers my enjoyment of the game. It's frustrating. Any game with a scaleable UI gets a Goldstar in my book. Just my point of view but maybe there are more people with that kind of problem out there.
Logged
Quantity instead of precision

Tartiflette

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 3529
  • MagicLab discord: https://discord.gg/EVQZaD3naU
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #11 on: August 05, 2019, 05:25:59 AM »

Maybe you can check this to avoid any quality loss:
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=15783.0
Logged
 

warmaha

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 5
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #12 on: August 05, 2019, 09:25:43 AM »

Solution to this 4k scaling problem that decided to test today was to get Lossless Scaling software from Steam.
Price was 4€ (could be less, depending about tax where you live).
https://store.steampowered.com/app/993090/Lossless_Scaling/

You can see program UI picture at steam page and to get it work with Starsector is just :
  • Start Lossless Scaling software.
  • Start Starsector at 1080p resolution windowed mode.
  • Click scale hotkey set on Lossless Scaling software.
  • Enjoy playing with zero quality loss! Picture looks as sharp as from 1080p monitor.

Other positive things in this software :
  • Also alt+tab works with this like dream (it stops scaling until you activate game window again).
  • Works with multimonitor setup too.
  • There is optional anti-aliasing, that works very nicely with Starsector too. If you have big monitor and don't like big pixels.

For me this did beat every other choices I have tried hands down.  :)

Scaling 1080p to 4k : https://i.imgur.com/lrS74Iw.png
Scaling 1080p to 4k with anti-aliasing : https://i.imgur.com/dALrHuY.png
« Last Edit: August 05, 2019, 09:41:30 AM by warmaha »
Logged

Ungern

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 3
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #13 on: August 05, 2019, 01:05:49 PM »

Price was 4€ (could be less, depending about tax where you live).

You can get http://tanalin.com/en/projects/integer-scaler/ for free.
Logged

warmaha

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 5
    • View Profile
Re: Any solution for UI scaling?
« Reply #14 on: August 06, 2019, 01:39:54 AM »

Price was 4€ (could be less, depending about tax where you live).

You can get http://tanalin.com/en/projects/integer-scaler/ for free.

True and yes both Lossless Scaling and that integer-scaler programs does same scaling. I did look that integer-scaler before buying Lossless Scaling, but did not test it because did not know who runs that web-site or who did make that software. Also to get easy updates to Lossless Scaling via Steam and those nice extra features like anti-aliasing was enough for me that I was happy to pay 4€ for that scaling program.

If someone has tested both programs, it would be interesting to read comparison. Like is there differences in FPS or game compatibility etc.
Logged
Pages: [1] 2 3