LackeyCCG

LackeyCCG Forum => General Discussion Forum => Topic started by: Gordon228 on November 19, 2011, 02:18:31 AM

Title: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Gordon228 on November 19, 2011, 02:18:31 AM
is there any way to force lackeys Grids to be square so you don't get the rectangle affect that you might see on wide screen monitors?
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Trevor on November 19, 2011, 07:01:01 AM
Not sure what you mean by grid, but I assume you mean the table playmat.

The table is assumed be square, and it stretches to the space you allot for it. While this can create distortions with very uneven aspect ratios, that's better than the alternative. The alternative is each player seeing a card in a different spot. And there are many other issues that can come up, depending on what you suggest it should be changed to.

If you apply a square playmat and don't stretch it, with a wide screen, some areas of the table will not have a playmat. Should you tile the playmat? Should you have it black there? Should you draw something else?

If you have any better ideas to do things aside from how they are now, send me some pictures illustrating them and if it's an improvement, I will implement them.

My main concern is I want things consistent from player to player. If 2 players have the same image but different aspect ratios, they should still see a card on top of the same part of the playmat. If I make a change to, for example, only draw a square table, and draw the wings of the table a different color, then that will be the new way ALL players will see things.
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Gordon228 on November 19, 2011, 10:00:55 AM
(http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/7429/cardsx.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/683/cardsx.png/)
if you look at the grid that is shown it's not a square and the play mat is fine how it is i do not care that it stretch's as long as you can have a square grid then all plugins can benefit from it.
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Trevor on November 19, 2011, 10:19:19 AM
Those are irregular rectangles because you have your table wider than it is tall. That's what I was talking about.

The plugin maker can increase the size of the rectangles, and some other things. As a plugin user, you can hide the rectangles if you don't want to see them.
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Gordon228 on November 19, 2011, 11:02:15 AM
i know that but it's frustrating when making a hex based plugin when the hex's don't line up. it's not a problem for square or rectangle based games. hell even the new walking dead board game would be frustrating to play on lackey and i am not talking about the one based on the tv show as that more monopoly then zombie apoc.
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Trevor on November 19, 2011, 12:05:56 PM
Why do you want the grid visible if you want it to be hexagonal?

I think you should just make a hexagonally tiled playmat image.
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Gordon228 on November 19, 2011, 04:17:45 PM
ah but you see for hex games like settlers of catan that is not possible as there is at least over a thousand play mats you would need to make just for the base plus the 5-6 player expansion now making it so that the plugin can define weather or not the squares remain fixed or not would be the best solution in my view. the only board game that use's hex's that would use a play mat is ingenious but then for the wide screen would not work.

Edit: the grid will never be visible but i use it to tell if i am making progress.
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Trevor on November 22, 2011, 12:25:09 AM
Well, if you reduce the size of the grid, it's like there is no grid at all. You still want a little grid to help keep things a little neat, but with the default size of the grid (or perhaps a little smaller), the grid should not limit you on where you can put something.

In light of that, will things work as you want them to?
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Gordon228 on November 25, 2011, 10:53:43 AM
not with the minimum size of the grid being .01 for some games thats small enough but not for hex based games unless tyhe grid was square all the time.
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Trevor on November 26, 2011, 12:10:48 AM
Quote from: Gordon228 on November 25, 2011, 10:53:43 AM
not with the minimum size of the grid being .01 for some games thats small enough but not for hex based games unless tyhe grid was square all the time.
I think the minimum grid size should suffice, Can you show me a screenshot, and/or the plugin so I can see more precisely what the issue is?
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Gordon228 on November 29, 2011, 06:03:08 PM
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/nikulas/SoC.rar this is the plugin that has been stalled as the grids are not square and the image has the grid size at 0.01 i think
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Trevor on November 29, 2011, 09:57:14 PM
Quote from: Gordon228 on November 29, 2011, 06:03:08 PM
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/nikulas/SoC.rar this is the plugin that has been stalled as the grids are not square and the image has the grid size at 0.01 i think
Can you show a screenshot of the problem?
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: innuendo on November 30, 2011, 07:19:34 PM
Would it be possible to use a "force standard size" and then if the screen is the wrong size the playmat scrolled?  I know this is how most boardgame programs work where the icons are a fixed aspect ratio and the screen size is adjustable (you can zoom in on the object, background zoomes in too), but the extra playmat is just hidden behind scroll bars.

It seems like if you want lackey to move to tabletop games you'll need this option to fix the aspect ratio.
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Gordon228 on December 01, 2011, 03:19:56 PM
(http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/9639/squareneeded.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/829/squareneeded.png/)

here it is the image with the problem and i like what innuendo suggested and note this is the smallest grid size possible
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Trevor on December 02, 2011, 07:50:53 AM
Quote from: innuendo on November 30, 2011, 07:19:34 PM
Would it be possible to use a "force standard size" and then if the screen is the wrong size the playmat scrolled?  I know this is how most boardgame programs work where the icons are a fixed aspect ratio and the screen size is adjustable (you can zoom in on the object, background zoomes in too), but the extra playmat is just hidden behind scroll bars.

It seems like if you want lackey to move to tabletop games you'll need this option to fix the aspect ratio.
I don't know what your talking about exactly. You use a lot of vague terms, like what does it mean to have the playmat "scrolled"?

Show me a picture of how things are now, and another picture of how you want them to be.
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Trevor on December 02, 2011, 07:52:15 AM
Quote from: Gordon228 on December 01, 2011, 03:19:56 PM
(http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/9639/squareneeded.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/829/squareneeded.png/)

here it is the image with the problem and i like what innuendo suggested and note this is the smallest grid size possible
I don't have any context. How is that bad? Show me a picture of how you want things to look, compared to that.

You can also increase the size of the octagons too.
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: Gordon228 on December 02, 2011, 12:58:43 PM
ok so i increase the size for me and then other people have to get it to look right on there screen and i come to a realization and that is with a square grid i would also need smaller squares as they are the smallest they can be witch is no good as no matter how i get the square grid they never seem to line up. also with a bigger hex that means a smaller game. i do not mind making more stuff but if i do not have to then i do not want to is the thing.
Title: Re: Force Grids to be Square
Post by: innuendo on December 02, 2011, 06:34:27 PM
Trevor it would make the view pane scrollable.

Presently you have everything set to "stretch to fit" mode. Where if the aspect ratio of the screen is 1:1 or 1:2 it doesn't matter, the "grid box" just changes to compensate. The idea would be if the playmat is 1500 x 3000 px and the viewpane is 1000x1200.

Currently you force that playmat to stretch down to that 1000x1200 size, you don't preserve proportions, and the grid is static to 1:1.2 px in size (the same aspect ratio of the viewpane).

My suggestion is to instead have the option (possibly plugin level, since this will mostly be used on certain games only) to instead leave the playmat at that 1500x3000 size, and then your "view" of that is only 1000x1200 at a time. and you can scroll around it, like you would on a map you are zoomed in (see: google maps, click and pan). Then the zoom function differently where instead of just expanding the cards you are actually zooming into the playmat, so if you zoomed in 2x you would see 500x600 of the playmat, and the cards are fixed size).

Then add this to gordon and if this option is enabled, force the grid to be 1:1. This would let very precise placement of components. The total size of the grid is no longer arbitrarily set by you at the "grid size" option, but is set by the playmat size. So the playmat is 1500x3000, so the grid box size is set, but the number of grid boxes total is a product of dividing the playmat size by the size of a single grid box.

This make sense? I'm at work so I can't whip up a picture, but I tried to be long winded enough to compensate!