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GameMaker setup? For 3840x2160 resolution

G

George Saint

Guest
How do I setup the GameMaker program itself?
Especially for HD screens. I am running on 3840x2160, because other programs (like design/art software) I use require that.

I just downloaded this program today and it is a bit annoying me:
1) The fonts are too small,
2) Some bits of text disappears in a pulldown because the font is 'larger' then the lines they are on.
3) Text also disappears on buttons, because the text is wider than the button.
3) The icons are extreemly small, I can hardly see what they are.
4) Sometimes when I select (readable text) it suddenly changes the textsize, making it so extreemly small I would need a microscope to see what it actually says.
5) In the gamemaker interface I also notices that the fontsizes varies depending on what it is. Example, the menutext (File, Edit,... Help) is larger then the text in the resources directory ovberview (sprites, sounds,... global game settings). Not sure if that is how that is suppose to be.
...
x)... and I'll probably come across more problems if I'll go into the program some more.

Because of the high resolution my screen is set up with, I have set text and icons for windows standard to 150%. It seems some of the problems may be caused by that. However I can not change it to 100%, because most obviously everything else, like my desktop, would then completely become unreadable. But not everything in the gamemaker gui is effected by the windows 150%, as the different fontsizes makes me suspect.

See the image I'll upload to see the problem. Note the top left, taskbarmenu, small icons, different textsizes, et cetera.

Basically I would want all the text and the icons in the gamemaker-gui to be the same size and a bit larger than they are now, without it effecting how it is displayed on buttons and such.

Anyone know where I can do that? Because I can find no such option in the menu.
 

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rIKmAN

Member
Not sure if this will help or not, but I had an issue with the GUI being weird with regards to fonts and chopping off buttons etc,
I run 1920x1080 and my Windows scaling was already set to 100%, so it may not be the same issue - but then it might help.

Check this thread, specifically the last few posts.
 
G

George Saint

Guest
Ha yes, I kinda figured that was sorta the problem. Noting the Admin's responds in the post you linked, it seems to be a Delphi problem. Been a while I programmed in Delphi myself... so I googled a bit and the DPI issue in Delphi seems to be going around for many years already. I came across articles from 2009-2014.
Months ago I had a similar problem in Steam (though that is programmed in C++ if I recall)... and there the only real solution is to go into the settings and manually adjusting the size of each type of textfont in one of its config files, until the steam environment is workable.

I would figure that may work here too. Is there such a file where GameMaker stores all the textfonts and sizes for its buttons and icons?

If the autodetect of the dpi in GameMaker does not work in all cases, because of Delphi,... the devs would 'simply' (lots of work ofcourse) have to add the option to manually adapt the fonts and icons in size, so users can adjust it all themselves. Or, as I said, have a config file where we can adjust it ourselves.

If the dpi is indeed the problem and Delphi does not have a solution, GameMaker eventually would have to come up with such a solution, because there will be more and more 4k monitors in time. I hardly think I would be the only one with this problem.

Though...
... it is not only a dpi problem, I think. Not in all cases atleast. When you look at the picture I added in my OP, you can see the directory overview of 'sprite, sounds,... global game setting'... and you'll notice the little blue box. That is text that is unreadable, which was prior me selecting it sized the same as the other text around it. But the moment I selected it, turned blue and the fontsize dropped to unreadable.

To me that seems to be a programming error/glitch/bug,... not a dpi/fontsize one. Ofcourse I could be wrong there. It depends what routine they are using for the highlighting perhaps.
 
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rIKmAN

Member
There is an article here which has info on changing font sizes and the resource tree icons etc, and you can change the font / size in Preferences > Scripts and Code inside the IDE itself but I think that may be just for the script editor and not the whole IDE (buttons etc)

Also maybe right click the exe/shortcut and turn off scaling in the Compatibility tab to see if that does anything to help.

Beyond that I don't think I can help much more, the IDE just isn't built to work with such high resolutions as standard I don't think, but I guess it's one of the downsides of being a posh git and having such a nice screen! :p

Maybe with some combination of the info above you can manage to get something workable?
 
G

George Saint

Guest
Thanks I bookmarked the link and I will look at it tomorrow. It is kinda late here now, so I have to go close my eyes.

Thanks for your assistance.
 
T

Toppu

Guest
I am running on 3840x2160
...

Because of the high resolution my screen is set up with, I have set text and icons for windows standard to 150%. It seems some of the problems may be caused by that. However I can not change it to 100%, because most obviously everything else, like my desktop, would then completely become unreadable. But not everything in the gamemaker gui is effected by the windows 150%, as the different fontsizes makes me suspect.
If you want to comfortably use 3840x2160 resolution, you should use a really big monitor, like 40-50 inches, at the very least. This way everything will be clearly visible at 100%. Using such resolution on a small monitor where you can't clearly see anything without scaling it up doesn't make any sense.
 
R

renex

Guest
Might want to use a smaller secondary screen for GM, honestly.

I also recommend the GM8 skin.
 

YellowAfterlife

ᴏɴʟɪɴᴇ ᴍᴜʟᴛɪᴘʟᴀʏᴇʀ
Forum Staff
Moderator
If you want to comfortably use 3840x2160 resolution, you should use a really big monitor, like 40-50 inches, at the very least. This way everything will be clearly visible at 100%. Using such resolution on a small monitor where you can't clearly see anything without scaling it up doesn't make any sense.
Some screens have higher pixel density, just as pretty much all mobile devices do. This is more commonly the case for laptops, hybrid tablets, and drawing tablets, which are often used on a closer distance than standard monitors due to ergonomics.

On the topic, enabling larger resource tree icons and increasing code editor font size is the most you can do at the moment, I believe. Depending on your screen size, it might be sufficient, since majority of actions can be achieved through context menus (which are handled by OS and thus scaled correctly) or keyboard shortcuts (which can be set up via "Help - Key bindings").
 
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