[GEN][ZH] Enable resolutions with aspect ratios different from 4:3 in Options Menu

[valeronm]

The game only allows select resolutions with 4:3 aspect ratio and the logic between Generals and Generals ZH is slightly different. With these changes, it's possible to select all supported by display resolutions.

Changes:

• Extracted duplicated logic for filtering resolutions from W3DDisplay::getDisplayModeCount and W3DDisplay::getDisplayModeDescription into single function isResolutionSupported;
• Allowed all aspect ratios between instead of fixed 4:3;
• Applied the same logic for Generals and Generals ZH.

Screenshot

Fixes #72

[DevGeniusCode]

Great job! I had a chance to review your work and noticed this commit valeronm@d597b7f . I was wondering if it addresses the issue mentioned below. If so, would you be want to submitting another PR?

• Camera height does not scale properly along with aspect ratio of game resolution #78

[valeronm]

I was wondering if it addresses the issue mentioned below. If so, would you be want to submitting another PR?

Yes, definitely. The commit just combines the code from #78 with some hacks around control bar. I'm going to submit separate PRs for these changes.

[tintinhamans]

Any reason why are not supporting 21:9, 32:9?

[HossamAbubakr]

As 16:10 displays are beginning to get a lot more common on premium laptops, is there any chance to allow that as well?
ex: 2560x1600, 1920x1200 etc

[xezon]

Nice, thank you.

[xezon]

Are you sure this fixes #453 ?

To test it, you need to go to Options.ini in MyDocuments, set an uncommon resolution, launch game in windowed mode, and then reproduce 453.

[valeronm]

Any reason why are not supporting 21:9, 32:9?

It's easy to change or remove the check for aspect ratio, and I just used the aspect ratios described in #72 as a baseline for the PR. Will be happy to change it to any values. There is also an issue with fixed FOV of 50° in the game, which effectively zooms everything on resolutions wider than 4:3, so even on 16:9 we can see less than on 4:3, and I imagine that on 32:9 we'll see only several units until #78 will be fixed.

As 16:10 displays are beginning to get a lot more common on premium laptops, is there any chance to allow that as well?
ex: 2560x1600, 1920x1200 etc

16:10 is already supported by the code. It covers all resolutions between 5:4 (aspect ratio 1.25) and 16:9 (aspect ratio 1.778), so 16:10 (1.6) and 3:2 (1.5) are also supported.

Are you sure this fixes #453 ?

To test it, you need to go to Options.ini in MyDocuments, set an uncommon resolution, launch game in windowed mode, and then reproduce 453.

I'm sure that this code doesn't support custom resolutions specified directly in options.ini. But I see that in #453 GenTool prevents overriding standard resolution (1920 x 1080), while in VS6 it's reset to the first available 4:3 resolution just because the game doesn't see 1920 x 1080 as an option. With this change, the problem will be resolved because 1920 x 1080 will be available and selected in the list of resolutions.

[sorcerer86pt]

ok, resolutions appear:

And changing to those resolutions work as intended. But if we change the resolution to a invalid one manually (like described on #453 ) the game crashes on launch with error :

[valeronm]

I think that supporting non-standard resolutions should be done separately. One reason for that - non-standard resolutions will work only in windowed mode, so there should be conditional logic to differently work in full screen and windowed mode. If we think that #453 is about non-standard one, then it's better to unlink this PR from the ticket. This PR is only about extending the aspect ratio filter implemented in the game to support a wider range of resolutions.

[tintinhamans]

I think supporting all resolutions supported by the display device should be there. Arbitrarily restricting the aspect ratio will cause issues for people who have for example this monitor: LG DualUp

[xezon]

I think that supporting non-standard resolutions should be done separately.

Yes. If that is a bug of the retail game.

I prefer to keep changes small, and this change has perfect size and scope.

If the custom resolution issue can be addressed separately from this change, then that can be done in a separate pull request.

[DevGeniusCode]

Is it necessary to add a yaml file with these fixes? As they affect the user experience, even though users hardly remember this bug since it was fixed in gentool :-)

[xezon]

Yes this change is user facing and will need to be documented, but Vitex is still working on the change log pipeline. We are not submitting these kind of changes yet, not until the foundation is done.

[barefootlogician]

Yes this change is user facing and will need to be documented, but Vitex is still working on the change log pipeline. We are not submitting these kind of changes yet, not until the foundation is done.

Can we atleast have these enabled for vs22 debug and internal builds? It makes it easier to test other things especially on resolutions that users would be likely to actually play on.

[barefootlogician]

I thought about the advantage aspect and one possible solution could be to make the total viewing area fixed. This would be more work but alternatively we could have the ultrawide use 16:9 for the view but utilize the extra space for things like the mini-map, chart, superpower shortcuts, etc

Since FOV should be restricted on multiplayer (although I think that should be an match option but enabled at default), why not add multiplayer related panels? Things like chat logs or player lists can be added to fill those spaces.

That's kinda what I meant when I said we could "utilize the extra space for things like the mini-map, chart, superpower shortcut".

However, that's a lot of work so I think the best option is to use the full screen for the viewport but balance it by having the zoom level be adjusted accordingly so that the total visible area of the map is the same for all aspect ratios.

Or we could just allow people to set whatever Max zoom they want in the ini file and still be allowed to play multiplayer. Since map shrouding is a thing, past a certain point, zooming out doesn't benefit that much.

[barefootlogician]

I think we can decide how much to adjust the zoom levels for different aspect ratios in a follow up pr and should just merge this for now with all aspect ratios allowed.

[xezon]

Is it possible that you choose a 16:9 resolution on a wide-screen and get black-bars rather then a stretched view?

Do you mean black bars left and right in the game window, to fit max 16:9?

[Skyaero42]

Is it possible that you choose a 16:9 resolution on a wide-screen and get black-bars rather then a stretched view?

Do you mean black bars left and right in the game window, to fit max 16:9?

Correct

[xezon]

Can you draft a change that implements this so we can test that?

[barefootlogician]

Can you draft a change that implements this so we can test that?

Can whom implement what?

[xezon]

This: "Is it possible that you choose a 16:9 resolution on a wide-screen and get black-bars rather then a stretched view?"

[xezon]

@valeronm Can you please resolve the merge conflicts?

[xezon]

Code looks good.