Screen Resolution for Commercial Mac/PC game?

[jchedges]

Hi there,


I hope I'm in the right place.


I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts are on the proper resolution to release a game in that will make it useable on a wide variety of PC/Mac screen sizes. Right now I have my project set at 1920x1080 using the Yanfly Core Engine, but I imagine that isn't going to look great on all screen sizes.


Is it more about picking a good aspect ratio and going lower resolution so it'll scale up? Or...honestly I have no idea. Help!

 

[kovak]

I'd stick with 720p and use a zoom plugin to hide part of the map.


I'm not sure if most of people has a 1080p monitor though.

 

[Tsukitsune]

I think it's better to use common aspect ratios rather than a certain resolution. Also it's better to scale up than to scale down.


Right now I"m using 960x540 for 16:9. I feel like it's a good enough size that won't cause a lot of lag like larger resolutions. Though I"ve seen many people use 720p just fine. I'd stay away from 1080p though for reasons stated above.

 

[Saboera]

Personally with MV I'd go with 720p as a base line, with ACE and others, 360p and 16:9 aspect ratio since it's the most common screen ratio.


Nobody use or should be using 4:3 as an aspect ratio anymore. You are also selling a game with low technical requirements so expecting everyone to have a 1080p monitor is a bad move since you exclude many laptops. Hell even my own Desktop PC doesn't have a 1080p monitor yet, I'm on 16:10 aspect ratio and my native resolution is 1680x1050.


Find a plugin/script that allows you to scale up, 16:9 should still look decent with 16:10 screens.


So all in all, with RPG Maker MV, 1280x720, RPG Maker Ace and others 640x360.

 

[SimProse]

720p here (1280x720) to take advantage of MV's higher res and better engine. Just looks better than those postage stamp Ace screens, IMO.

 

[Lantiz]

I just submitted a topic for a plugin (MV) that enables to customize that.

 

[Plueschkatze]

I guess you should stick with a 16:9 resolution to avoid black spaces then toogeling fullscreen.


960x540


1280x720


should be fine.


1920x1080 almost seems a little to big for my taste... you should add bigger sprites and rework a lot of window placements therefore.

 

[beenbaba]

Personally when I chose the resolution to use I based it on two things map size and UI size. For map size, it was a case of what is the smallest map I could do without getting black bars appear when full screened and still allow decent camera movement (did not want to use map zoom, looks awful to me). For UI it was about how much space do I need to fit everything on the screen nicely without feeling too much stuff was displayed at the same time.


It was a lot of trial an error to get one I was happy with but it worked out in the end. It might be worth going through a similar process to see what resolution you come up with.


As a quick one though, as others have said, I would steer away from 1920x1080 and a good baseline is 1280x720 as probably the max I would go to.

 

[McSundae]

I don't know if it's ******ed what i'm doing but i choose 640 x 360 as the resolution, it scales by 200% to get on 720p and by 300% to get on 1080p.


I compared this with games like starbound and stardew valley and it seems like they are doing the same trick, but i actually don't know 100%.


Definitely stay away from 1080p, so you have to map zoom or you will have tiny characters OR you will have to create entire new resources that are compatible with full hd, which will actually be a hell load of work

 

[mcphersonsound]

First assume monitor sizes are going to range from 6 in. tall (for a small netbook) and larger (like a tv). The larger the overall resolution the smaller it will appear on the screen overall. Next we have to look at common base resolutions. For laptops they generally have a height of 800 pixels. (16:10 aspect). So I would say the largest resolution you should use is 720p in widescreen 16:9.