Well, since I already posted some of my mockups at acidcave I guess it wouldn’t hurt to do it here too.
For my project I’m creating most of the stuff in x2 version (1600x1200) of what Vcmi supports right now. While I am (probably) years away from any playable version there are also not so recently released Heroes III Hd which also have higher res graphics. So I think a mode that would allow double the size of current graphics in Vcmi could be useful not only for me. There are also some people from Vcmi mod team who started touching those files topic at polish acidcave
. Of course a scaller alghoritm would be nice here too so all that big graphics could get scalled down for smaller resolutions. For the current Sd content scalling it up ? I guess many people miss full screen battles / towns with sd.
Aside from that I guess full 32 bit png support for creature anims and adventure map is still missing ? (At least according to vcmi wiki) This would also be very nice to have
And so the last topic is 16:9. I was really disappointed that Ubisoft Hd version didn’t support that. However Vcmi could do a better job, here are my mockups with use of graphics from HD edition :
16:9 full screen support would be also beneficial to SD version (especially for android version). Generally every consumer laptop, smartphone, tablet or monitor these days is 16:9 so 4:3 is pretty much dead.
This was just a mockup I posted in hope to inspire someone that actually knows how to program vcmi code So there is nothing really going on with this one.
Anyway without touching Vcmi codebase the best what you can get right now is this (although a bit hackish):
One would need a json settings like for main menu resolutions to fix buttons positions and other interface objects.
For Combat screen no changes seems to be allowed (it just ignores bigger background or menu bmps). Judging from VCMI code 800px width is hardcoded for that screen.
That aside porting Heroes HD assets to Vcmi or converting the current SD ones to go with 16:9 aspect ratio is also not a small task to do.
That’s the way VCMI must work. VCMI must take resolution of town background graphics file and dynamically create a window for custom sizes (or standard).
No. VCMI can have mods with standard town screen size or can have at the same time mods with bigger resolutions. This cannot be configured through json (it will affect whole game not some one town).
Currently town screen drawing must be edited to allow any town screen sizes. Active icons and controls must be automatically repositioned as on your first screen. Maybe just centered under townscreen instead of aligning them to left corner.
I think for vcmi devs it would be a lot easier to do it like main menu. Your solution would need some new code that would change placement of buttons depending on provided town menu… Such code would have to be written while the main menu solution is there and can probably be easily copied over.
Other then that I’m of opinion that all towns should have the same size. Forge town had a different wider pic for town building and it annoyed the hell out of me. Towns need consistency.
But this is not engine issue. Buildmenu.bmp has 1188x600 resolution. If you change this bitmap at TPTHBKDG.bmp from original heroes h3bitmap.lod and rename it - you’ll get standard Forge building view.
but thanks for the info 