A few questions about graphics and sound options..

[JDR13]

First, is the music volume slider broken? No matter what I set it at, it doesn't seem to change the volume, and it's a little too loud for my taste.

Also, what is "Smooth scaled sprites" in the graphics options? Does that actually do anything?

And do the scaling options have any effect when in full-screen mode or are those just for windowed modes? What is "Max round multiplier"?

[bliss]

Originally posted by JDR13:

First, is the music volume slider broken? No matter what I set it at, it doesn't seem to change the volume, and it's a little too loud for my taste.

The in-game music volume slider works for me (Windows 10), but it does not have the range you would expect from other games; all the way down only reduces it maybe 50%. Would it be a reasonable workaround to put it all the way down, and put the other sliders all the way up, then reduce the master volume in your OS mixer?

Originally posted by JDR13:

Also, what is "Smooth scaled sprites" in the graphics options? Does that actually do anything?

Sprites are mainly used for the game characters. The characters are scaled-down as they move up on the Z axis (into the distance; away from the fourth wall), in order to create the illusion of 3D perspective. "Smooth" means it anti-aliases the character sprites at this time. While it does make scaled-down character sprites look smoother, this can make them a little incongruous relative to the background art, so I personally leave it turned off.

Originally posted by JDR13:

And do the scaling options have any effect when in full-screen mode or are those just for windowed modes? What is "Max round multiplier"?

The scaling option under 'graphics settings' controls how large the game is drawn within the game window. In windowed mode, it also makes the window bigger. In full-screen mode, it can eliminate or reduce black bars (whether you get black bars depends on your combination of aspect ratio and the mode your graphics adapter is in while running the game).

"Max round multiplier" is simply an "auto detect at launch" option, to automatically choose the largest scaling option supported by both the game and your display resolution ("mode").

This may all seem a bit strange, but it makes sense when you know the nature of the game engine: Gemini Rue's art was made at 320x200, and the engine upscales it in whole numbers. e.g. x2 is 640x480 and x3 is 960x600. There appears to be an artificial limit of x5 imposed on windowed mode by the configuration tool, but I found you can override this by editing the config file directly.

[Wadjet Eye Games]

The smooth scaled sprites option is for scaling purposes. If the character is scaled down for any reason, "smooth scaled" makes the sprite look... smoother. Otherwise the sprites gets super pixellated. Some people prefer the pure pixel look, so you can set that to false if you want!

Scaling options are purely for windowed mode. You can use them in fullscreen mode if you wish, but some monitors might not display the game correctly (those options are removed in the current version of AGS). As for max round multiplier, it's used to auto-detect the proper size for your monitor. In 99% of the cases, it works fine!

Regarding the sound, I will check in with the game's programmer!

-Dave

edit: amok explained this better than I did! So read his post instead. :)

[JDR13]

Thank you for the replies.

Even with the music slider set all the way to the left, it's still quite loud for some reason. Raising the other sliders doesn't help because then those become too loud as well. I guess I'll just turn my master volume down, but I wish I didn't have to do that.

[Wadjet Eye Games]

It might have something to do with the way the new version of AGS handles sound. The volume sliders were the one thing I didn't test when making the newest version. I'll see if I can figure it out and push an update. Hopefully without breaking saves. :x