Windows GMS2 on a 4k desktop?

[sparklemotion]

Hi guys

I was unsure where to put this. I love GMS, but the space needed to have an overview is getting the better of 1080p. So I am thinking; does GMS work nicely with 2160p?

Keep in mind that I do not mean the resolution of the game itself, only the GMS work environment.

Thanks!

 

[Questalot]

If you're concerned about the GMS' UI size at that resolution, things will be somewhat on the small side. Windows will upscale its DPI to probably 200%, and there's an option in GameMaker too to zoom-in the interface if you go to Preferences -> General Settings -> Enable DPI override. I'm using GMS on a retina display and it's all fine.

 

[TsukaYuriko]

Getting a monitor with twice the resolution of 1080p in each dimension and then setting DPI to 200% is equal to no gain in space at all.

I'm using GMS 2 on a 4K monitor (and two 1080p) and couldn't imagine it any other way. Works well.

 

[sparklemotion]

Thanks Guys! TsukaYuriko, could I see a picture of that setup?

 

[YellowAfterlife]

Here's what GMS2 looked like on a 43" 4K screen:

so, on one hand, it's certainly better than 1080p, but you still run out of space easily unless you manually arrange the windows.

I think something around 32" 1440p is going to be the practical limit.

This feels like a good place to also suggest trying GMEdit before you settle on a substantially more expensive monitor.

 

[TsukaYuriko]

Sure. Here's a mockup of my usual layout using an old project for demonstration, which is pretty much static - room editor (internal or external) on the left, code in the middle, manual (!) on the right. The middle portion has no fixed form and the one in the previous image is just one of many "typical" layouts I use (this one would be for debugging interactions between certain gameplay elements).

When I'm trying to focus on one specific thing, I just drag whatever code I'm working on into new windows and tile them all over the screen. (Having a tiling window manager such as GridMove is extremely helpful to quickly create such layouts.)

I usually keep multiple middle layouts open on different virtual desktops, with the room editor and manual mirroring to all virtual desktops.

 

[GMWolf]

I would recommend ditching the workspace layout and go for the tabbed layout. This is how other editors have done things since before standard HD amd makes excellent use of the space available.
That's how I used GM on a relatively small laptop monitor. At 1080p workspaces are simply unusable.
I have briefly tried GM on a 1440p monitor, it's probably the minimum I would recommend if you really want to code in the workspace layout.

 

[sparklemotion]

Thanks for your inputs - and pictures of your setups!

I am looking at a 28" 4K IPS monitor. I use a 27" 1080p IPS as of now. For general use, other than only GM, like normal desktop use, web browsing, writing, playing C&C Remastered (in 4K) when it arrives, watching youtube/Netflix/videos etc. how would you rate 4K? Is it going to give me a better experience than 1080p? I would rather not go to something like 1440p, as I would like integer scaling for my game projects and for watching video content.

Thanks!

 

[TsukaYuriko]

4K has both ups and downs. What you're trying to do in 4K really needs to be optimized for it, as anything else will result in stuff being too small to read - remember, 4K has 4 times the space of 1080p, or 2K, or however you want to call it.

For example, games which have a UI that's optimized for 1080p and don't upscale it anyhow to 4K, while still playable and mostly readable, are what I'd consider to be on the border of unreadable if I don't also either fully or at least mostly upscale my monitor's physical size to match the bigger resolution. For reference, my 1080p monitors are 24" and my 4K is 32". Not an integer upscale, so stuff looks (relatively) smaller on the 4K than on the 1080p. Text that's barely readable on 1080p is unreadable on 4K. This should not be the case if your 4K is physically twice as big as well - that should just look like you glued four 2Ks together in a square formation without bezels.

When the physical difference is 1", as in next to nothing, you can expect stuff to look about half as big on the new one.

 

[sparklemotion]

Yes, that is my worry. I was thinking about getting a 32" 4K, but they seem to be VA as opposed to IPS. How do you guys think VA will do in my setup? Should I be going for IPS no matter what?

 

[kburkhart84]

Am I the only one who just works with 1080 and multiple monitors? I tend to push the manual off one way and keep the rest of it on another. I actually 4 monitors but only 3 are 1080p.

I actually haven't fully still warmed up to the whole workspace thing either though. I still tend to just open up what I'm working on, and then close it when I'm done. That said, I haven't made any really big projects but I'm prepared to properly push other parts to other monitors too, for example the room editor.

 

[ph101]

I would recommend ditching the workspace layout and go for the tabbed layout. This is how other editors have done things since before standard HD amd makes excellent use of the space available.

Absolutely. Change settings to open any code or events opens to maximised code windows and use the tabs all the way. I literally never use the linked box things - too slow for big projects, sorry. Dragging around a virtual workspace? No way - use ctrl-T to open it there and then, and close any objects and tabs you aren't using when done. The way the tabs are organised by GM2 (ie not by object, but by "code"/events/workspaces) is not perfect, nor do the tabs go wide enough for some script names which is annoying (requiring you to hover on them to see full title), but this approach is far more efficient.

edit. re: multiple monitors - I use this approach with 3 monitors each at 1920x1080.

 

[TsukaYuriko]

Yes, that is my worry. I was thinking about getting a 32" 4K, but they seem to be VA as opposed to IPS. How do you guys think VA will do in my setup? Should I be going for IPS no matter what?

What type of monitor panel you should choose depends on what type of activity you're going to be carrying out on them. For competitive gaming, you may want to opt for better response times, while video editors will want color accuracy... I suggest reading up on the ups and downs of each panel type and decide what's important to you. For example, I pay close attention to the viewing angles of my monitors as I have a triple monitor setup, so if I won't be able to see the contents of the ones that I put off to the side because I have to put them at a certain angle due to space constraints and/or keep them at roughly equal distance... they're not gonna be helpful.

As for the workspace vs. tabbed layout... I partially agree, and partially don't. Especially when I'm working with something where multiple pieces of code interact with each other, I tend to easily lose focus if I'm jumping between tabs while stepping through breakpoints. This isn't the case when I have all the relevant code windows open on a single workspace. It's certainly a personal thing and may differ between people with varying degrees of concentration spans... but for me, both layouts are useful for their specific usage cases.

 

[kburkhart84]

Since scripts(as in the resource) generally operate as generic things instead of being directly related to an object, I go ahead and have those open up as full tabs instead of in a workspace. Then, the objects can open the workspace still, and using the different code editor viewing options on the chain thingys I can see multiple object events' code at once which seems to work fine. Most of the time at least for me, code in object events is smaller, and so is fine in that space, while code that is larger is most often put into a separate script. It isn't always that way but it is often enough that it is fine leaving scripts full screen/tab and object events in the workspace nodes.

 

[LoganTheCreator]

While I don't have a 4K monitor, I do have a 24" 1440p, and I honestly feel like even 1440p is a little small for GameMaker 2 (I'm not using any Windows scaling).

Thanks for your inputs - and pictures of your setups!

I am looking at a 28" 4K IPS monitor. I use a 27" 1080p IPS as of now. For general use, other than only GM, like normal desktop use, web browsing, writing, playing C&C Remastered (in 4K) when it arrives, watching youtube/Netflix/videos etc. how would you rate 4K? Is it going to give me a better experience than 1080p? I would rather not go to something like 1440p, as I would like integer scaling for my game projects and for watching video content.

Thanks!

I used to have dual 4K 27" monitors and I'm infinitely happier with triple 24" 1440p. Windows scaling is terrible and at 4K with only 27" everything was just so small. Even with windows at 150% I would constantly zoom in Chrome. I also get way better framerate in all games because 1440p is a lot easier for games to run compared to 4K.

> as I would like integer scaling for my game projects and for watching video content.

I have never had a scale problem with games running windows 1080p / fullscreen 1440p or any other applications (running at windows 100% scale).

My 2 cents is that personally for me, the only reason I would use a 4K monitor is if I was doing something that required the pixel density like editing 4-8K video or drawing large illustrations in photoshop. When you're dealing primarily with text (like with editing code) I feel like 24" 1440p is ideal for me. Your experience may be different and you may love 4k.

What I can tell you though is that once you upgrade to at least 1440p you'll *never* be able to use a 1080p monitor ever again lol so watch out for that.