Force Grids to be Square

[Gordon228]

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?

[Trevor]

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.

[Gordon228]

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.

[Trevor]

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.

[Gordon228]

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.

[Trevor]

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.

[Gordon228]

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.

[Trevor]

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?

[Gordon228]

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.

[Trevor]

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?

[Gordon228]

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

[Trevor]

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?

[innuendo]

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.

[Gordon228]

here it is the image with the problem and i like what innuendo suggested and note this is the smallest grid size possible

[Trevor]

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.