ISSUE: Browser ZOOM & Windows High DPI Zoom settings

Scirra Ashley

If a player has

Browser ZOOM Setting to anything other than 100% (very common)

and or

Windows Zoom setting for high DPI displays to anything other than 100% (200% would be normal on many high DPI systems)

then

This results in

1) graphics will be the right size but they will look blurry (more prominent on Chrome than edge)

2) your touch will behave strangely / feel laggy (only in Chrome and more in full screen)

3) performance drops due to the extra scaling (more obvious in chrome)

4) janking more regular. (more obvious in chrome)

5) game feels laggy (again probably due to some extra delay for the scaling)

Set everything to 100% and everything is good

For users to have these settings not at 100% is very common, especially on small screens and high end tablets/laptops with high DPIs screens

But as far as I can see there is no way to control these settings from within Construct and I/we are limited to making a warning notice for players at the start of the game

Ashley please advise

I can't reproduce any such issues. I regularly test on high-DPI devices and haven't noticed any of the issues you describe at all.

I'll try to do a vid this weekend. It is definitely a thing but it might just be a Surface Pro thing. They do seem to highlight a lot of the quirks with Chrome.

I'm using a Surface Pro 4 as well, but haven't really noticed anything like that. Might be that I didn't compare though, but I can check it out later too see if it apply to me as well.

1) graphics will be the right size but they will look blurry (more prominent on Chrome than edge)

This one I can confirm even on a mac. Scaling in chrome will make game blurry.

Save the gif to see it more clearly. This will update un runtime so if you change the scale while the game is running you will see this effect.

**** EDIT:

Although if you reload the game it will look correctly even with scale of 250% it only will blur if you change it while the game is running. At least for me on a mac.

Ashley

Testing basic browser zoom setting in chrome on a 1080 screen with no windows scaling

Sorry not the best example as the explosion sprite is actually blurry but you can see from the other stuff

On windows this happens regardless of browser or game reset. Chrome maintains the zoom level setting

The player could be inadvertently playing a game that looks like picture 3 when it could/should look like picture 1

edit: noticed that window mid variable is half the the window pixel width so you can see that scaling reduces pixel density this is also probably what is affecting touch)

Chrome 100% Zoom

Chrome 150% Zoom

Chrome 200% Zoom

Ashley

High DPI surface pro

windows scaling /zoom 200% (default/recommended setting for surface pro 4)

due to need to scale, higher dpi screens give blurrier graphics in chrome 100% zoom !

edit: again , notice the window mid variable is half the the window pixel width)

chrome 100 % zoom (already blurry, this will be the standard setting so this is what most players will see!)

chrome 150 % zoom

chrome 50% zoom (looks like 50% zoom in chrome cancels the 200% scaling in windows)

NetOne

What sampling are you using? Does it matter if it's linear or point? Or it will get blurry in both cases? I haven't had time to test this on my surface yet, but hopefully tonight. I'm going to check if C3 also has the same issue.

Did you reload the game after changing the settings, or are you changing the zoom while the game is running?

tunepunk currently using linear, changing to point changes the look of the blurriness to more blocky but still blurry.

as chrome keeps/remembers the zoom setting for the site rebooting browser or re-launching game doesn't change.

you could argue that there is no reason for a user to change the zoom setting on a web game site but I sure there are many cases where they might.

but more cause for concern is that high dpi systems 150-200% scale, like your surface pro, will automatically zoom the chrome browser giving blurry graphics without any notice to the user and while the browser still shows 100% zoom.

this is a pretty serious issue if you ask me.

NetOne probably if you're targeting PC. One of the reasons i might not have noticed this is because I'm mainly doing for mobile.

Are you reloading Chrome/the game after changing the zoom/DPI level? It won't handle it correctly during runtime, only startup.

Ashley

Makes no difference

there are 2 things.

1: Chrome on windows retains the user set zoom setting of the specific site on reboot browser or reload game.

2: Chrome global (all sites) zoom setting changes descreetly based on the windows scale setting and does not show this in chrome zoom setting.

I.e as shown previously if your Windows scale is 200% your chrome zoom setting will show 100 but actually be 200 so you need to set the browser to 50% zoom to actually get 100% zoom and no scaling for game

NetOne

Tested this again on my surface pro and didn't get any such results. Game looks exactly the same and as expected on different settings as long as the game is reloaded after changing the settings.

Pic 1. 100% scaling in windows. 300% scaling in chrome.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5q4xgg7elbc50 ... e.JPG?dl=0

Pic 2. 200% scaling in windows 100% scaling in chrome.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/weyfbnkoi8jnl ... 2.JPG?dl=0

No matter what settings i try, game looks exactly the same after reload.

tunepunk yes indeed it does !? thanks for taking the time.....

i took the liberty of trying myself (awesome touch control btw ?? i so want to go on a big adventure with that guy??)

i see that with your game that chrome still does remember the zoom setting but the relaunched game just ignores it

i then tried a few of the c3 demos also and get the same result. hmmmmm

so wtf is going on with my game !!!@##$#@@?

why is my game taking notice the zoom setting , even after relaunch, when other games arnt ??

some setting ?

i do change window height after launch could that be it???

these are questions to self btw. i will test to see....

i do change window height after launch could that be it???

Could probably be something like that. At least now you got a bit closer to the answer maybe.

Hope you find what's causing it