Playing in widescreen - Problem with HUD/dials

[Holiace]

Hey guys, I'm playing racer v0.6.3 (works best for me, newer versions just don't work or crash). I play with a 1920x1080 resolution and everything but the dials scale to the new aspect ratio.

Is there any way to fix the dials so they keep the correct ratio and stay perfectly round?

 

[KS95]

They look fine to me :S

 

[Harey]

hm, try different resolutions out. like despite my monitor being capable of 1600x900, I only run 1440x900, because that way everything stays true.

 

[luthobu]

FCOL... dosen't anyone read the racer.ini file?

; Rendering aspect; 1.333 for most VGA resolutions, 1.6 for example for a 1280x800 screen (Apple screens, 16:10). 0=automatic (width/height)
render_aspect=0

What you want is render_aspect=1.6

 

[Holiace]

No no no, the aspect ratio is fine, it's just the dials (Speedo/tacho) that are wrong...
I have already edited the racer.ini, didn't help. That's why I came here

Also, I don't want an aspect ratio of 1.6 but a ratio of 1.7... (1920/1080=1,7777777)

Yet again, the aspect ratio is fine, I'm just having a problem with the dials being oval (If you take a close look at my pick you'll see that the tachometer and speedometer are both oval for some reason).

 

[luthobu]

Ok. sorry then

 

[Holiace]

See, if you look at the picture and tilt your head, you'll see how bad it is.

 

[KS95]

Ah yeah, there it is.

 

[Holiace]

Haha, so noone really even get's what I'm on about?

 

[MitchVL]

I will take a look at it monday.
Ruud is on vacation ...

 

[Harey]

ah interesting, kind of hard to see with the car in the picture that looks too tall lol.

one question I have is the needles on the dials does the tip of those needles sort of move out of place kind of in certain spots of the dial, as in needles are fine but the dial texture isn't squared.

 

[Holiace]

The needles seem to be fine. They just show the wrong speeds/revs (when not totally horizontal or vertical ofc).

 

[eschefo]

It happens with all cars? I lost dials in some cars.

 

[Holiace]

Yes, the even older version I have of racer lacks most dials completely. (only digital work usually)

 

[boomer541]

There was a dial making tutorial years ago that I used to make dials and have had no problems with them. RPM and speed match with the data keys. I'll try to find it and post it. You can used to make your dials and if they then come out oval it will be due to your aspect ratio.

There are two dial tutorials in the download thread.

 

[Sergey Eremin]

Any solution? I have the same problem with 1920x1080...

 

[Mr Whippy]

ah interesting, kind of hard to see with the car in the picture that looks too tall lol.

one question I have is the needles on the dials does the tip of those needles sort of move out of place kind of in certain spots of the dial, as in needles are fine but the dial texture isn't squared.

Needles seem to get corrected for aspect ratio, but the dials don't, so the dials are too wide in widescreen resolutions, so the needles sweep incorrectly over the graduations.

Basically, despite recent fixes, something still isn't right. I've measured my screen and tried all manner of tweaks and tests to get my round dials appearing round, but they are still oval.
To get them to look round, took lots of aspect ratio adjustment for my pixels, and it resulted in the actual 3d scene being way out.

Basically, dials are still wrong in widescreen

Dave

 

[Stereo]

Well, it's not something that has an easy fix. The HUD is defined as if the screen is 800x600 - all coordinates use those numbers, with bottom left being (0,0) and top right being (800,600), and treating pixels as square.

If you wanted to define them so they could show up correctly no matter the aspect ratio, you'd have a few options
- link them to the corners/sides of the display, rather than all being offset from bottom left, requiring a rewrite on every views.ini
- change width/height values of elements, so they show up "square" on the new aspect ratio, while leaving their offset position constant, which would cause problems for any car where the needles aren't centered on the graphics behind them
- show elements in a virtual 4:3 window inside the screen, which would end up with all the dials closer to the middle of the screen rather than out of the way

 

[Mr Whippy]

The method now works. They all get positioned fine. The dials even trace a circular path at their tips.

The adjustment, surely, could just adjust the dials x-axis scale appropriately about the graphics x axis centreline?

Yes, maybe a problem for some gauges with sub-dials within them, which makes those more complicated.


The best thing then, at least, would be to make sure that if gauges DO have to look wrong, then the dials that track across them are also wrong, but right now they are correct and so end up pointing at the wrong things, or not even reaching the outside of the gauges at the sides, but then look ok when pointing up or down


Other games can get it right, so we just need to think up a robust way to do it, and then do it a new way.

Personally I struggle with setting these up so much, they take ages to get looking right.

Maybe a system that has parent items that new items get bonded to is more ideal? Ie, nest elt's so each new one is offset relative to it's parent, with locations getting scaled nicely then if the parent is scaled?!

Hmmmm indeed

Dave

 

[Stereo]

Ah, accidentally figured out how to make the needles and gauges both show up correctly - but as mentioned in 2nd option, doesn't work well with non-centred needles.

For a 16:9 widescreen,
aspect=1.333
render_aspect=1.333

Seems to be relative to the base 4:3 ratio - set render_aspect=1.333, then calculate the aspect by dividing the actual ratio (eg 16/9 / 4/3 = 1.333, or in the screenshot below, 24/9 / 4/3 = 2.0 so aspect=2.0)

As mentioned it doesn't work for things that aren't centered. And relative size is weird (tiny needles, big digital elements) But it looks okay on the Lamborghini.