UI scaling

[epmode]

If anyone in here has played this game or its beta, can you confirm that its UI (menus and icons and such) scale as screen resolution increases over 1080p? I've played too many strategy game with text and menus that are too small for my monitor.

[sikbok]

Hi epmode,

Our UI scales down on smaller screen.
What type of resolution are you on?

[edirr]

This came up in the beta, and here is the asnwer from one of the devs:

Originally posted by Arno:

We support all resolutions that DirectX tells us your computer/monitor supports. So if you have a monitor that outputs at 2560×1600 it will show up in the resolution list and you can select it. But you do need a (fast) videocard with lots of RAM though to run the game in a resolution like that.

So it's up to your hardware and what it can support. Scaling is automatic.

[epmode]

Originally posted by sikbok:

Hi epmode,

Our UI scales down on smaller screen.
What type of resolution are you on?

Thanks for the response, sikbok. I have a 2560x1600 monitor.

I may have been unclear in my original post so I'll clarify a bit:

Some modern games don't scale their UI properly (Endless Space and Fallen Enchantress, for example) and it makes the menus increasingly hard to see as screen resolution increases. By that I mean that the UI icons and text have the exact same pixel dimensions at 1280x800 and 2560x1600 which makes it harder to read at the higher resolution.

Many other modern games implement proper UI scaling (Diablo 3, Warlock) and they're much easier to see at native resolution.

I saw the dev's comment on UI scaling on the official forum but I'm still not sure how AoW3 handles it. The quote that edirr posted in above my post seems to be talking about whether or not the game can run at X resolution and not whether or not the UI scales properly.

If it's at all possible, I'd love to see an in-game screenshot of AoW3 running at 1080p as well as a 2560x1600 shot. That would answer my question right away.

[sikbok]

Hi epmode,


1080 shouldn't be a problem.
I think 2560x1600 should be okay.
4K I'm not sure about.

Just scaling UI up might not be the best solution for AoW3, given how interface is set up.

[edirr]

Game runs perfectly on 1920x1080 (I have that resolution and have had no problems with the beta) and the comment from Arno should answer concerns about higher resolutions. It just requires ore oomph from the hardware.

[amud]

Edirr -- I don't understand the 'more oomph' comment. The person is concern about text/ui element size NOT performance.

[edirr]

In order to be able to run the game at that resolution, you need flat out more powerful hardware unless you want things to slow to a crawl. Meaning that if you have something that can nominally support such high resolution, it is not necessarily enough since running all the 3D animation is a lot different than running a basic desktop, word processing or spreadsheet at that res.

I understood from Arno's comment that the UI scaling (elements, text, fonts etc) is automated and that all of the standard resolutions (including 2560x1600) are supported.

[epmode]

edirr, I read developer's comment as "the UI does not scale but the menus and text are large enough by default that 2560x1600 should be readable while playing at 4K will make it impossible to read".

I suppose he could just be talking about framerate at 4K but it doesn't seem like it to me.

I'd still love a screenshot comparison if it's at all possible. If you don't have a computer that supports 2560x1600, even a comparison between 720p and 1080p would be useful.

Believe me, I'd love to buy this game. I just want to be able to read the text is all.

[amud]

epmode - given the high resolution of your screen you can always run it at 1/2 resolution if it is too small. For powers of 2 the scaling should be perfect (no so much jaggedness0. I realize it is less than perfect solution as scaling would be nice (I wonder if opengl does a better job than direct-x in this area - no clue as I'm not a graphic programmer).

[epmode]

I know, and I do run a few games at 1280x800 (the widescreen versions of Infinity Engine games, for example).

But while there are no scaling artifacts this way, the low resolution is far more obvious in many games. Once I compare how it looks at my native resolution, I get annoyed by how much better-looking the game would be with a scalable UI and I just find something else to play.

In recent memory, this happened with Endless Space, Grim Dawn, X3 and every Paradox grand strategy game ever made.

[ss7877]

Originally posted by sikbok:

Hi epmode,


1080 shouldn't be a problem.
I think 2560x1600 should be okay.
4K I'm not sure about.

Just scaling UI up might not be the best solution for AoW3, given how interface is set up.

Hi. I have 27" FullHD monitor Iiyama Prolite XB2793HSU and can say, that unit description text (under picture of unit) is too small. Other text is ok. Can you do something with it, pls?

[sikbok]

I have some good news on this front, we've been looking into this and have had some success with interface scaling.

It's still experimental, so no promises about it being in the v1.5 Update yet.

[epmode]

I love you for even looking into it. Seriously, thanks.

edit: Oh, I guess I never updated my earlier posts. I did wind up buying the game and while the UI is smaller than I'd like, it's still playable at 2560x1600. Much better than the Paradox grand strategy games, anyway.

But proper UI scaling is a godsend for future 4K displays as well as downsampling for better image quality.

[sikbok]

Originally posted by epmode:

I love you for even looking into it. Seriously, thanks.

You're welcome : )>

Originally posted by epmode:

edit: Oh, I guess I never updated my earlier posts. I did wind up buying the game and while the UI is smaller than I'd like, it's still playable at 2560x1600. Much better than the Paradox grand strategy games, anyway.

Glad you like it.

Originally posted by epmode:

But proper UI scaling is a godsend for future 4K displays as well as downsampling for better image quality.

Which is one of the main reasons we are looking into this. We'd like everyone to play AoW3 for the years to come, just like people did with AoW:SM : D>

[ChuckB]

Hi - I wanted to second the motion for a better scaling UI. Granted, I'm probably on the extreme end (3200x1800 resolution on 14inch laptop) but I assume that with 4K becoming a factor more and more many people will have an issue in the future (and it would be a shame if the popularity of this great game would suffer as a result)