Display resolution problem...

    Anybody else having this problem? I have a 1920x1200 display. Obviously the layouts don't work well with wide aspect ratios, so I tried to set Mala to switch to 1024x768. When I set this in the options, it switches the resolution, but then if I close Mala and restart, it doesn't switch to 1024x768. The box for switching the desktop resolution in the options is still checked, it just doesn't do it.


    Am I doing something wrong?


    Also, are there any plans to implement wide aspect ratios?


    Thanks,


    Kevin

    Hi,


    I checked it and it works for me without problems. MaLa changes the resolution on a restart too. In the attachment you can find a screenshot of my settings.


    MaLa already supports any resolution of your graphic card. To display MaLa on a 1920 x 1200 pixel desktop you can create a so called fixed size layout with this resolution and then there is no need to switch the resolution anymore. Check out MalaLayout to create fixed size layouts. You cannot use layouts designed for another aspect ratio but it isn't complicated to edit them to fit your resolution/aspect ratio with MalaLayout.


    Hope that helps.

    I think I will add the aspect ratio 1.6 to the layouts soon so it is possible to create layouts with a size of 960 x 600 which will be stretched to 1280 x 800 or 1920 x 1200. Or a free choosable aspect ratio value ...

    Thanks. The fixed resolution idea is the best solution for me. I really didn't want to have to change resolutions anyway. Still not sure why it wasn't working, though.


    Very nice front end, by the way. Seems to be almost exactly what I was looking for. I want to use it with XP MCE, and with the right layout, it fits right in. Support for the MCE remote would be cool, but being able to operate the interface through the joystic is just as good.


    By the way, is there any way to change the keypress for confirming the closing of the program? I set a button on my joystic for exit, but then the "Quit?" dialog comes up. Before I set it up for my joystick, I could confirm by pressing 1 and 2. But now, nothing seems to work to confirm quitting, nor am I able to get the Quit dialog to go away.


    Thanks again,


    Kevin

    This is a bug. There is no joystick routine in the exit dialog at all, hehe. Stay tuned, I will wait some days for other bug reports and then I will release an update on the weekend.


    I already implemented a aspect ratio of 1.6 to the layout.

    I hope I'm not bothering you too much, but I am curious as to how you are implementing the resolution scaling.


    From what I can see, when you try to display at a different aspect ratio, the background image gets scaled properly, but the fields get scaled isotropically. I am guessing that this has to do with the inability to scale fonts anisotropically.


    As far as I can see, this creates two problems.


    1) The background image gets distorted, which for some layouts can look very bad.
    2) The relative alignment of the text fields with the background image is messed up, and the fields may even extend off of the screen.


    I have a possible suggestion which may allow for layouts to be scaled to different aspect ratios without these problems. Of course, as a programmer myself, I realize that even simple sounding suggestions may be very difficult to actually implement...


    Anyway, my suggestion is to simply use letterboxing when the aspect ratio is different. You could have in the layout options like how the layout should be aligned (left, right, center for horizontal letterboxing, and top, bottom, center for vertical letterboxing). You could also allow for specifying the fill color to be used, or even an image to be used (which would be stretched to fill the space). That way the main screen would still be displayed at its designed aspect ratio. No image distortion, and no messed up field alignment.


    One reason I am suggesting this is because of the issues with TV output. Widescreen TV resolutions are usually about 16:9, rather that 16:10. Not only does this already mean that separate layouts must be designed, but the addition of 16:9 aspect ratio support won't really work, because the resolutions are usually not exactly 16:9. For example, 1366x768.


    On the other hand, a layout designed for 16:10 could be letterboxed on a 16:9 screen with very tiny bars at the top and bottom (about 42 pixels each).


    Anyway, like I said before, I don't know how difficult this would be to implement, but it would eliminate the need to separately support specific aspect ratios, and would allow layouts to be designed which will look good at any aspect ratio.



    Kevin

    Hi Kevin,


    please download the new RC4 of MaLa from the webpage. The new version let you create layouts for wide screens and the display resolution switch should work too. And the joystick works in the exit window now.