New user - screen resolution question
Posted: 2021-04-18 10:12, Sunday
Hello, I found Open General last year, after having played Panzer General 2 for many years since it first came out, and for probably thousands of hours, playing custom campaigns etc. PG2 has been my favourite computer game of all time.
I played 7 or 8 campaigns in Open General to get a good feel for it. I have noted down quite a list of bugs/quirks/queries/suggestions, which I would like to submit but it needs writing up properly and clearly in full sentences, not just a jotted list, and health issues are affecting getting that work done.
But first I would like to say that Open General is simply brilliant, it completely captures the feel of the original game, more so than People's General which I also played, Panzer Marshal the online playable version I've seen out there, and the official sequels such as Panzer General 3D (I think it was called), and Panzer Corps, both of which I was surprised to find not just lacking in the original's charm and character, but essentially unplayable for various reasons.
Not only is the faithful recreation of the game superb, but the stability on Windows 10 is great - only one crash in about 4 months of playing - and the way it makes it easy to change campaigns, equipment files and maps etc is really excellent. The additions to the original gameplay of PG2 are thoughtful and good as well, as are the hundreds of new unit icons.
So serious congratulations for the achievement of making Open General great. I used to work as a software developer many years ago, as well as a QA tester for commercial software, so I have a fair idea how big a job it has been to make this game so good, complete and polished, and I'm sure many players appreciate it.
I've only found one serious problem with the game and that is the resolution. The icons, units, hexes and information on the screen are just way too tiny. On last year's older laptop I had to drop the game's resolution to 800 x 600, which was OK and workable. But recently I got a newer laptop which has a higher 1920 x 1080 resolution, and now dropping the game to that lowest resolution of 800 X 600, it is still too small to play with comfort. I can see when trying the game at the native resolution of 1920 x 1080 that everything is crisp and sharp and the video that plays looks great. But at this resolution and all resolutions below this, the icons are simply too small that they strain the eyes, and even at 800 x 600 which was workable on my old laptop it still looks too small, and the text is also quite unsharp although is workable. Perhaps if I was running the game on a large monitor then I'm guessing it might be better, because the screen's area is physically larger and so everything will look larger, but on any laptop screen I think it is a major problem.
So with the amount of effort that has got into this game I am surprised that this is an issue and that it's not possible to customise the size of the units, icons and hexes in the game better, because it obviously majorly affects the user experience.
For comparison I ran the original Panzer General 2 game on the same new laptop, it is stable and works fine although the units move a little too slowly for some strange reason. But the clear difference is that it looks visually fine - the units are a good size and easy to see and work with, and the map, icons and text don't look too tiny, or fuzzy. Since the old Panzer General 2 can look fine despite it being decades old, I'm surprised the new Open General can't be made to look fine on the same screen, or even better.
So once again thank you for making the game, and any suggestions would be appreciated about how to make it display at a playable size on my new screen.
I played 7 or 8 campaigns in Open General to get a good feel for it. I have noted down quite a list of bugs/quirks/queries/suggestions, which I would like to submit but it needs writing up properly and clearly in full sentences, not just a jotted list, and health issues are affecting getting that work done.
But first I would like to say that Open General is simply brilliant, it completely captures the feel of the original game, more so than People's General which I also played, Panzer Marshal the online playable version I've seen out there, and the official sequels such as Panzer General 3D (I think it was called), and Panzer Corps, both of which I was surprised to find not just lacking in the original's charm and character, but essentially unplayable for various reasons.
Not only is the faithful recreation of the game superb, but the stability on Windows 10 is great - only one crash in about 4 months of playing - and the way it makes it easy to change campaigns, equipment files and maps etc is really excellent. The additions to the original gameplay of PG2 are thoughtful and good as well, as are the hundreds of new unit icons.
So serious congratulations for the achievement of making Open General great. I used to work as a software developer many years ago, as well as a QA tester for commercial software, so I have a fair idea how big a job it has been to make this game so good, complete and polished, and I'm sure many players appreciate it.
I've only found one serious problem with the game and that is the resolution. The icons, units, hexes and information on the screen are just way too tiny. On last year's older laptop I had to drop the game's resolution to 800 x 600, which was OK and workable. But recently I got a newer laptop which has a higher 1920 x 1080 resolution, and now dropping the game to that lowest resolution of 800 X 600, it is still too small to play with comfort. I can see when trying the game at the native resolution of 1920 x 1080 that everything is crisp and sharp and the video that plays looks great. But at this resolution and all resolutions below this, the icons are simply too small that they strain the eyes, and even at 800 x 600 which was workable on my old laptop it still looks too small, and the text is also quite unsharp although is workable. Perhaps if I was running the game on a large monitor then I'm guessing it might be better, because the screen's area is physically larger and so everything will look larger, but on any laptop screen I think it is a major problem.
So with the amount of effort that has got into this game I am surprised that this is an issue and that it's not possible to customise the size of the units, icons and hexes in the game better, because it obviously majorly affects the user experience.
For comparison I ran the original Panzer General 2 game on the same new laptop, it is stable and works fine although the units move a little too slowly for some strange reason. But the clear difference is that it looks visually fine - the units are a good size and easy to see and work with, and the map, icons and text don't look too tiny, or fuzzy. Since the old Panzer General 2 can look fine despite it being decades old, I'm surprised the new Open General can't be made to look fine on the same screen, or even better.
So once again thank you for making the game, and any suggestions would be appreciated about how to make it display at a playable size on my new screen.
to the forum Holmes 
It a mission impossible.
i use 1280x720 or 1366x768 depending the hw support, if you don't want to become blind, a 27" screen is mandatory for a 1920x1080 fortunately most recent laptops can be opened up to 180 degrees