Why 1366x768? seriously? what kind of Effing resolution is that for a screen.
Yeah, alright it looks okay I guess but I still remember the good old days of low resolution 800x600 crts. 1024x768 was like a dream to me back then. Now I run hacked programs and Ye oldie emulated games in 1024x768 and it looks GODDAMN TINY. How the hell people ever worked with 640x480 without needing glasses and/or going blind faster than a 40yr old virgin on year-long wank-a-thon I’ll never[/quote]
When I use programs on a resolution like 800x600 and 640x480 on full screen, I think the computer just magnifies the image up fit the screen. It won’t display as much information as a 1366x768 screen, but what it will display won’t be tiny.
How do you change the distortion back to square on linux? Modifying fontdata does not seem to do a whole heap, and my terminal preferences don’t seem to have any settings for “square” fonts, I may have to try and find one somewhere.
For those interested, there [url=http://www.cataclysmdda.com/smf/index.php?topic=269.0]was a thread[/url] with links to square fonts (fonts specially designed for this kind of purpose). That info is also available [url=http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=How_to_compile#Square_fonts]in the wiki[/url].
So wiki actually recommends square fonts, and yet it’s not default in the game itself. It doesn’t make any sense, but more strangely it seems only a few people even know about it while everyone else just goes along with it, not noticing anything odd. Perhaps the game is so good and their imagination so powerful that they only see what’s in their mind’s eye and has little to do what is actually on the screen. Or something. More power to them, I guess.
Yes, modifying FONTDATA is only for Windows. As for Linux, I couldn’t do it with any Xorg terminal I have either, plus some of the terminals didn’t show proper colors, so I run it outside of Xorg in actual frame-buffer console. For that I had to add “VGA=1” parameter to my boot options, which will boot Linux frame-buffer console in 80x50 instead of usually default 80x25. There are quite a few other resolutions beside that, it’s all defined by VGA/VESA standard so it should all work the same regardless of your distro. There should also be some console tools that can change console fonts and resolution on the fly, without needing to reboot, I just didn’t bother to find them. I would think there also should be Xorg terminals with adjustable font settings, but I don’t really know.
Normal non-square fonts are the default in this game because it’s the default in most roguelike and it’s the default font in terminals. Even Dwarf Fortress, which doesn’t even use fonts per-say, comes with a rectangular “font”.
Also square fonts are really up to personal taste, I can’t stand square fonts that throw readability out the window, like Topaz-8 or setting the default font to a square size, while others can.
All the arguments for square fonts are as compelling as the arguments for rectangular fonts.
Cataclysm is not like other roguelikes, it has “sprites”. It’s trying to represent finer resolution graphic than other roguelikes. Beside, just because everyone else is doing it wrong is not a reason to make your own game distorted.
Also square fonts are really up to personal taste, I can't stand square fonts that throw readability out the window, like Topaz-8 or setting the default font to a square size, while others can.
When it comes to reading maybe, but for graphics non-square tiles are simply distorted, which I’d think is quite apparently very wrong. You just got used to it, after 10 minutes you would get used to reading square fonts too. I think 8-bit computers and consoles all used mainly square fonts: Commodore, Spectrum, Amstrad, Nes, Gameboy… maybe Snes and Genesis too. Many square fonts are perfectly readable. It’s all about getting used to, it’s not about squares and rectangles, it’s about the shape of the font in general. You would need time to get used to Helvetica and Times New Roman instead of your usual font as well, square or not square.
All the arguments for square fonts are as compelling as the arguments for rectangular fonts.
Wiki calls it “distorted” and recommends square fonts. What more can I say? If you mean to recommend some settings you should just make it default. And yet it’s not even a proper option, look how many people don’t know about it.
To be fair, the wiki, being a wiki, can be and is edited by everyone. That includes both developers and players. In this particular case that entry was added by me. I probably shouldn’t have put the “recommended” part, as it leads to confusion. I’ll rephrase that so it doesn’t sound like it’s official or mandatory. Particularly considering how unpopular they seem to actually be.
Indeed.
I understand LazyCat’s “but, guys, it’s wrong!” thing here, but ultimately it’s just a matter of preference.
With that said, what convinced me to make the shift was driving vehicles. With normal fonts you’ll notice that vehicles “morph” like a wild sausage when turning, which I found annoying and distracting. That was solved by using square fonts.
IMO it’s just a matter of finding the “right” font. Maybe for most of you none of the listed are quite “right” yet, so if any of you is aware of other fonts not listed, please, let me know or add them yourself to the wiki.
I’ll put my hand up as a recent newcomer to dda, but not to roguelike ascii games. the default dimensions put me off mostly because when going for a ranged attack it becomes hard to naturally judge distance, what with the vertical being stretched. so sometimes i’d go for a shot that felt to be in range, but would turn out to not be… and then cancelling that out-of-range attack would count as a turn as well, bringing my death closer. but that’s me being a newcomer, obviously the more i play the more i’ll become used to the dimensions, but now that i know how to change them i think i will. after all, it’s hip to be square.
And it’s not default, most likely, because it’s a wee bit hard to setup as the default, and no one has bothered doing it. (Ignoring the fact that many people don’t like what it does to text in-game)
Not that the various tile versions are usually square font, because once you switch to a graphical rendition it gets a lot easier. But a large portion of the player-base, esp. most of the developers, play in console at the moment, where it’s easiest to just go with “whatever” and not try to force it.
I honestly didn’t know it was possible to square them. I’m already used to the distorted view, notably by having played Dwarf Fortress a lot, but I have to agree it’s just one more unecessary boundary to entry to ascii roguelikes. Perhaps we should find the best font for squares and just change it to default for good. Even though it might be hard for those who are used to the skewed version (myself included) to adapt at first, I don’t see how you can make an argument that it’s not superior to have it in squares.
The simplest answer is that the Alphabet, (and damn near any form or textual information,) is biased to be taller than it is wide.
It’s why fonts have been biased towards 2:1, and it’s a strong influence on where monitor resolutions get their proportions (even though modern ones are mostly just following early precedents.)
All the old-school RLs (and arguably nearly all period) at least started life as being pure text/ASCII, and (I believe) a large core of the RL fandom play for the old-school feel, both visually and in gameplay.
In short, that’s the way it started, and will always be the baseline unless Humans move to a square-based writing system.
Look! We can do ascii equipment! :P[/quote]
And nazi zombies!
While I think that’s overcomplicating something that can be easily solved by installing a square font I really like the idea of showing the equipment… and the inevitable sexual innuendos (is that a crowbar or are you happy to see me?).
Cataclysm is not like other roguelikes, it has “sprites”. It’s trying to represent finer resolution graphic than other roguelikes. Beside, just because everyone else is doing it wrong is not a reason to make your own game distorted.
Also square fonts are really up to personal taste, I can't stand square fonts that throw readability out the window, like Topaz-8 or setting the default font to a square size, while others can.
When it comes to reading maybe, but for graphics non-square tiles are simply distorted, which I’d think is quite apparently very wrong. You just got used to it, after 10 minutes you would get used to reading square fonts too. I think 8-bit computers and consoles all used mainly square fonts: Commodore, Spectrum, Amstrad, Nes, Gameboy… maybe Snes and Genesis too. Many square fonts are perfectly readable. It’s all about getting used to, it’s not about squares and rectangles, it’s about the shape of the font in general. You would need time to get used to Helvetica and Times New Roman instead of your usual font as well, square or not square.
All the arguments for square fonts are as compelling as the arguments for rectangular fonts.
Wiki calls it “distorted” and recommends square fonts. What more can I say? If you mean to recommend some settings you should just make it default. And yet it’s not even a proper option, look how many people don’t know about it.[/quote]
Cataclysm doesn’t have sprites; it uses a font, it’s not drawing images from a graphical resource. It’s exactly like other rogue-likes.
And like I said, square vs rectangular is up to preference, you can’t argue this, because I like the rectangular font, hence any point against “its up to preference” is void.
Either way, whatever you want to say about what is “right” or “wrong”, it’s a question of graphics vs readability. One can get used to either of them, like you said. I appreciate the time you took to read my post and understand what I was saying [/sarcasm], but my point still stands, most games use a rectangular font, hence people are used to the rectangular font. There is no reason to replace the rectangular font with a square one and force it on everyone because of your preferences.
But be my guest and implement an option to toggle between square and rectangular fonts in-game, this would be the most productive approach to this problem, much better than trying to impose a way on how people should play.
Annoyingly distracting wild sausage. That’s just more poetic way to say it’s wrong. I don’t see why are you trying to justify it when the only arguments are: “it’s too hard”, “everyone is doing it” and “I’m used to it”. Those are not reasons, those are excuses.
…and even easier, depending on your choice of graphic library. 80x25 is only one of many standard console resolutions, 80x50 is just as valid. People can read square fonts very well, it only takes few minutes to get used to.
Not that the various tile versions are usually square font, because once you switch to a graphical rendition it gets a lot easier. But a large portion of the player-base, esp. most of the developers, play in console at the moment, where it's easiest to just go with "whatever" and not try to force it.
I’m pretty sure large majority play Windows version where it is extremely easy to make square fonts be default, by making FONTDATA read like this:
#Terminus
16
16
All videos on YouTube seem to be made in Windows. Why do you think more than few people play on Linux? I would think no one plays on Linux due keyboard bug where you must not hold down any key or the game will continue to play by itself long after you let go. And shouldn’t it be expected of Linux users to know how to set up their own console and fonts? How hard could it possibly be? – I just don’t get how could you not mind playing distorted game. Give it 10 minutes with square fonts and I bet you will never go back.
