Good Window Size for a Game?

[SawQuart]

I'm currently at a point in my small game's development where I need to choose a window size. I'm only making a simple RPG-ish game to get a grasp on C++ and SDL, so nothing too big or serious gameplay-wise.

Anothony suggested fullscreen or 800x600, although I prefer dimensions divisible by 32 for tiling purposes. What are your ideal window sizes for games?

[Whackeddie99]

Personally, I enjoy fullscreen, or close to it. Try making it as big as you can with what you feel comfortable with for your game

[Jeff]

800x576, perhaps. Maybe 768x576.

[SawQuart]

@Eckhart:

> 800x576, perhaps. Maybe 768x576.

Both of those are kind of random. I guess I'll never be satisfied unless I choose something weird like that anyways.

BTW: 640x480 is WAY too small on my screen.

[Dark Crusade]

800x600 for a simple RPG. If the maps are scrolling it shouldn't be a problem, otherwise, perhaps you can use some of the room for a menu bar or other user interface?

[SawQuart]

@Kreator:

> 800x600 for a simple RPG. If the maps are scrolling it shouldn't be a problem, otherwise, perhaps you can use some of the room for a menu bar or other user interface?

Yeah, good point. I haven't tried doing GUIs yet, but I figure that'll be soon.

[Guest]

1024x768 is fair for screen resolutions of this day and age. Even my WinXP laptop has at least 1280x1024\. However, do you think you'll be able to make the maps interesting enough if they are so big?

[Robin]

Single-resolution systems are pointless when there are so many monitor sizes. Let the user decide.

[Kusy]

@Robin:

> Single-resolution systems are pointless when there are so many monitor sizes. Let the user decide.

This is your new avatar:

@Jungle:

> I'm currently at a point in my small game's development where I need to choose a window size. I'm only making a simple RPG-ish game to get a grasp on C++ and SDL, so nothing too big or serious gameplay-wise.
>
> Anothony suggested fullscreen or 800x600, although I prefer dimensions divisible by 32 for tiling purposes. What are your ideal window sizes for games?

This is your new avatar:

[Robin]

Common sense isn't actually that common. ;]

[Godlord]

@Jungle:

> …

Just grab the resolutions (or display modes) supported by the GPU using [SDL_ListModes](http://www.libsdl.org/cgi/docwiki.cgi/SDL_ListModes?highlight=%28%5CbCategorySDLVideo%5Cb%29) (SDL 1.2) or [SDL_GetNumDisplayMode](http://sdl.beuc.net/sdl.wiki/SDL-1.3/SDL_GetNumDisplayModes) and [SDL_GetDisplayMode](http://sdl.beuc.net/sdl.wiki/SDL-1.3/SDL_GetDisplayMode) (SDL 1.3), and have the user set it.

Yours faithfully,
  Stephan.

[Broojo02]

Pah resolutions? Its all about resolution independence, my next RPG is going to be all in vectors, think Dofus but with much better scaling :P

[Godlord]

@Santa:

> Pah resolutions? Its all about resolution independence, my next RPG is going to be all in vectors, think Dofus but with much better scaling :P

Rendering for a given resolution and setting the window's size to a given resolution are two completely different things. Both Direct3D and OpenGL generally use projections wherein you can express any coordinates using floating-point numbers, allowing you to render the same scene for every given resolution. It is however possible to use an orthogonal projection instead, wherein you can express any coordinates using integers representing actual pixels instead. The latter kind of projection is useful when you don't want to have your textures scaled (which is something you actually do want when you are using pixel art).

Yours faithfully,
  Stephan.

[Patrick0809]

Fullscreen… is my solution ;)
and it´s used in my Version :)

[Godlord]

@Patrick0809:

> Fullscreen… is my solution ;)
> and it´s used in my Version :)

Both fullscreen mode and window mode do use resolutions. There's no point in discussing the selection between fullscreen mode and resolutions, since you would be comparing apples with oranges.

Yours faithfully,
  Stephan.

[SawQuart]

@S.J.R.:

> Just grab the resolutions (or display modes) supported by the GPU using [SDL_ListModes](http://www.libsdl.org/cgi/docwiki.cgi/SDL_ListModes?highlight=%28%5CbCategorySDLVideo%5Cb%29) (SDL 1.2) or [SDL_GetNumDisplayMode](http://sdl.beuc.net/sdl.wiki/SDL-1.3/SDL_GetNumDisplayModes) and [SDL_GetDisplayMode](http://sdl.beuc.net/sdl.wiki/SDL-1.3/SDL_GetDisplayMode) (SDL 1.3), and have the user set it.
>
> Yours faithfully,
>   Stephan.

Oh wow, thanks. I didn't know that SDL featured those functions.

@Batman:

> 1024x768 is fair for screen resolutions of this day and age. Even my WinXP laptop has at least 1280x1024\. However, do you think you'll be able to make the maps interesting enough if they are so big?

It shouldn't be that big of a problem. I still haven't decided on the actual gameplay yet….

[Godlord]

@Jungle:

> Oh wow, thanks. I didn't know that SDL featured those functions.

If it didn't, I would have slapped its developers in their faces, because you want to be able to know as much as possible about what the computer supports in order to support proper game settings (which is something most users actually demand of any given game). SDL does lack some features similar to that, though. You can't get a list of the supported OpenGL framebuffer configurations, which tell you what attributes are supported by your GPU, making their entire OpenGL context creation interface completely useless for properly designed games.

Yours faithfully,
  Stephan.