The screen resolution problem

[Reiter]

Thanks all for your replies.

3) Resize the screen, but do not resize the interface. Position the interface relatively. Perhaps include several different resolution "packs" for larger and smaller interfaces to make it better for those with larger and smaller resolutions than the standard.

I didn't get the difference between 2) and your no. 3)?

In a 2d side scroller then I wouldn't bother supporting more than one resolution, or maybe two - 4:3 and 16:10 ratio - your graphics will look sharpest in the resolution you created them for - any scaling will degrade their look.

I think widescreen vs 4:3 is probably a more annoying issue to deal with than resolution

Why get spend lots of time dealing with resolutions etc when you should be spending that time on making the game.

Since I had to rework much of the game because I didn't think about resolution first, this is a helpful hint. But also if half of the few players trying the game cannot run it because of resolution issues the overall work was also wasted.

I would strongly recommend to always use the desktop resolution: the video mode switching is an anachronism. The modern flat panel monitors interpolate your picture in all resolutions except their native one, and the result of this interpolation often looks ugly.

The worst case are resolutions close to the native one (like 1024x768 on a 1280 x 1024 monitor).

Well. If I get you right your statements are contradictory because first you tell to use the desktop resolution (e.g. 1024*786) because different resolutions will be interpolated automatically to the native desktop resolution with ugly results. But this also means if there is video mode switching anybody could switch to their native desktop resolution and so the interpolation could be avoided and finally the result won't look ugly. I am confused.

The scaling problem is especialy important for a 2d game based on pixel art.
In that case I would recommend to choose 800x600. It is low enough that it gets interpolated nicely on most modern monitors giving a visually pleasing soft image.

I use 640*480. Should be also fitting then .

Even for 2D games the solution can be in 3D area. Just do 2D over 3D. Any adequate 3D engine handles aspect ratio so on wide screens players just will see more.
Proper video modes enumeration will guarantee that all video modes will be available for player to choose.

P.S.: I almost always playing games in a non-native for my monitor video mode and didn't see any artefacts.

Nice idea indeed. I may consider this for the next project.