Default settings should not be "abysmal quality"

[Caydr]

When Spring installs itself, settings should default to medium or medium-high settings, and MORE IMPORTANTLY the screen resolution should be set to whatever the desktop's is.

Also please bring back the drop-down resolution box. I have no problem with it but newbies would.

[zwzsg]

Also please bring back the drop-down resolution box. I have no problem with it but newbies would.

Newbies are not meant to activate "expert" mode. The resolution is a drop-down box in "simple" mode.

[Master-Athmos]

I'd still vote for putting the max particle number slider options way down to like 5000 or even less. I mean everyone would go ahead and say: Hey - I've got this cool super-clocked dual core / nice quad core so I'll go for a very high setting in this option as my PC could be called "High-End". Unfortunately this will ruin the performance as soon as a large can of BA nano-particle spam is opened (or enter any other particle heavy scene here) this will bring any PC no matter how modern it is to a crawl...

So make the max values more "realistic" and maybe make the maximum an "Ultra" setting that unlocks a box where you can type in the max number of particles you want...

For ground decals something similar might be handy too as it isn't obvious that this setting should remain at "1"...

[Caydr]

Hmm.. ok. I didn't realize the drop-down box was expert-only.

Anyway, screen res should default to desktop default, not 300x182 or whatever it is. Some crappy newbzolution.

[Societal]

1024*768

[CarRepairer]

Just use the in-game menu to adjust your visuals.

[Argh]

If you set Spring up for larger resolutions than people can display, Spring crashes, currently.

I found this out when I tried to "right-size" display settings with the P.U.R.E. Demo, when it went through QA with Stardock.

[ZellSF]

Spring should get the desktop resolution and use that, not set some larger resolution people can't display.

Also, why even have default settings? Make the lobby clients ask on first run so users get to choose between framerate and graphics themselves and make the game settings less hidden in the lobby clients should the users change their mind.

[Societal]

New users don't necessarily even know to start Spring from a lobby. The default resolution of 1024*768 is in the source code. IF the user knows to change the resolution in springsettings.cfg first they won't have a problem. This is assuming too much about someone that may download Spring on a whim.

[imbaczek]

you will notice that AAA titles do start with 1024x768 _if_ they don't perform hardware autodetection during setup.

the reason probably is that people who don't know how to change resolution (or don't care) also usually don't have the hardware to handle higher quality. in spring's case it's not as much of a problem as it is more cpu-bound than anything, for now.

i currently don't see a reason to change the default resolution in spring.exe. if somebody contributed an autodetection program, it could get included as a part of settings and/or setup.

[Caydr]

I'll try a different approach. If Spring was to use the default desktop resolution:

Positives:
-More room for UI elements
-Better graphics
-No real performance reduction, game is CPU bound not GPU
-The game will not look like a smearmess because it's not at LCD native res
-Eliminates necessity to figure out how to change resolution
-Computers with screens not capable of displaying 1024x768, for instance in the rapidly growing netbook segment (which will soon be able to handle games like Spring fairly easily thanks to improved integrated graphics coming down the pipe), will not crash

Negatives
-If someone were to, somehow, have their desktop set to a resolution which their monitors cannot in fact display, but were still able to launch Spring, Spring would crash. Fortunately they'd never know it, since their display would be out of range.

So, for people with netbooks - there's a few million of them right now, and lots more on the way - this will prevent the game from doing the instagib. For all 7 of the power users that actually set their main screen to scroll by having a larger desktop resolution than their display resolution, but will not be able to figure out why the game crashes, you'll have to answer a help topic.

I can make a flowchart next

[aegis]

For all 7 of the power users that actually set their main screen to scroll by having a larger desktop resolution than their display resolution

there's a windows api call for getting the physical resolution of a monitor... not sure how it works with a panned resolution.

[imbaczek]

There are different api calls for getting display resolution and the whole virtual desktop size.

[CarRepairer]

So, for people with netbooks - there's a few million of them right now, and lots more on the way - this will prevent the game from doing the instagib.

lolol I have the only netbook in the world with wxga resolution (1280x768) on a nice little 10" screen http://h40059.www4.hp.com/hp2133/
I don't instagib so I win and everyone else loses the end. Especially peet.

[Neddie]

CPU limitations make playing on a netbook nearly impossible, I mean, unless you want to play one on one in one of those games or mods that never gets more than a hundred or so active units.

if somebody contributed an autodetection program, it could get included as a part of settings and/or setup.

[CarRepairer]

CPU limitations make playing on a netbook nearly impossible

I conveniently left that part out and only emphasized my screen size for braggability. On my netbook it's completely impossible to play. I use it to spec, and even then I can only spec about halfway through a game before the unitcount gets too high.

Back on topic though, I'd hope someone who buys a netbook and uses it for light gaming is smart enough to understand the concept of screen resolution settings in games. Otherwise every desktop and standard laptop monitor should have sufficient pixelage.

[Caydr]

Ur just not a good enough hacker, I play Spring on my pink first-gen eeepc.

(I call him haro. I've got a custom windows sound for every time anything happens.)

[Neddie]

You don't play Spring, you play a particular game or mod on Spring, and even then the bottleneck is not something you could overcome without changing the engine itself. Certainly your settings have to be "abysmal quality" in a very real way. Most people with netbooks will not want to play a *A without lua in 1v1 or Kernel Panic (With one of the smallest hardware footprints) with a low unit cap.

[Caydr]

dame~~!

[Caydr]

Truly, not just for for the sake of having a pissing contest:

I just tried Spring on my Acer Aspire One. It ran... surprisingly well. SpringLobby hides the "Leave" button though. And if you try to do anything even remotely involving shaders and whatnot, the world comes crashing to a halt, but... honestly it's playable. Enjoyable even.

I might have to take a video because I don't even believe it myself.