Illarion Client - Support for Up-To-Date Hardware needed

Here you can make and discuss suggestions to improve the game. / Hier kannst du Vorschläge einreichen und diskutieren um das Spiel zu verbessern.

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JacobB
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Illarion Client - Support for Up-To-Date Hardware needed

Post by JacobB »

Hi together,

since some months I use a new laptop with 4k (3840x2160) screen solution and a keyboard without extra numeric keys.

1) Please implement scaling, so that any screen solution can be used equally.
Currently there is no real scaling implemented. This means, if your screen supports only 1024x768, you will see only a small section, e.g. compared to 1920x1080. With a screen solution of 3840x2160, I am able to see an area which is covered by 4 (!) full hd monitors. It's nice to see the map of a nearly complete town, but since the font size remains unchanged, it's very hard to read and follow the emotes and text shown in the message window.

2) Full keyboard support
Currently, only some keys are implemented. Full client functionality requires an extra mouse and keys from the additional numeric keypad.
An extra numeric keypad is commonly available on desktop computers and big, heavy laptops.
But it is missing for many other machines, which are currently used to play: tablets, apple laptops, small mobility laptops, etc.

Best Regards,
PO Jacob
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Estralis Seborian
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Re: Illarion Client - Support for Up-To-Date Hardware needed

Post by Estralis Seborian »

Thanks for the hint!

1) Concerning scaling of graphics, I think there is little we can do at this moment. All graphics you see are small png files, nothing is animated on the fly. We do not use textures on areas but actual pictures to show e.g. ground tiles. These pictures are only available in one resolution/size. So you can of course scale the resolution of your monitor by using full screen mode but that will always look blurred. Concerning scaling of fonts, I am pretty sure this can be implemented. Question is just if this scaling shall be done automatically or manually. It is Nitram's policy to require the user to set as few options as possible, so an automatic scaling, maybe with settings such as "small/normal/big" might be the way to go. The correlation between resolution and font size has to be established. I have filed a Mantis ticket for this issue: http://illarion.org/mantis/view.php?id=11645

2) Maybe I do not fully understand this point but I cannot imagine any scenario with Illarion being played without a mouse. Every laptop has at least a touchpad that could be used. There is no key required on the numpad; using it for manual walking is convenient but you can also use the arrow keys or WASD for all directions (e.g. W+A = walk up-left direction)
Brightrim
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Re: Illarion Client - Support for Up-To-Date Hardware needed

Post by Brightrim »

Estralis Seborian wrote:Question is just if this scaling shall be done automatically or manually.
Maybe automatic scaling as default with an option to customize it in the options setting? I personally would love to scale the chat box. Its too small on my desktop's resolution for my personal preferences, while it is too big on my laptops resolution where it takes up too much of the screen.
JacobB
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Re: Illarion Client - Support for Up-To-Date Hardware needed

Post by JacobB »

Thanks for clarification.

1) I was not able to use full-screen, since this simply displayed the Illarion client within a 1/4 section of my screen (windows 10 pro).
I found a workaround, using a second windows account, which has a different screen solution defined (1920x1080 instead 3840x20160).

2) Tablets do not have mouse or touch pad.
My personal problem was, that convenient walking seemed not to be possible with a smaller keyboard without extra number pad.
After reading your message, Estralis, I recognized, that besides using the keys w, a, s, d, support for the directions between is already implemented :)
For example using the key w + a together moves the character to N.
Maybe the information in the help screen (F1) can be extended/corrected.

Maybe also some information regarding setting the counter in various opportunities added to the help screen would be helpful.
(I remember: shift + left click + move: bags, depot, shift + left click: crafting dialog, dealer dialog)
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snus-mumrik
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Re: Illarion Client - Support for Up-To-Date Hardware needed

Post by snus-mumrik »

I often play without mouse, using touchpad/touchscreen of my laptop. Several things could improve my experience:
1. Attack key. I use WASD walking, and when I want to choose an attack target I have to leave the keyboard and try to catch the running monster with my touchpad. As a solution I propose adding a key (e.g. "F") to target the nearest moster and a key (e.g. "Shift-F") to stop attacking. I've added it locally and it seems to halp a lot (I'll post a pull request if it is a desired feature). Note that it doesn't handle PvP in any way, and I have no idea how that could be done.
2. Less drag-and-drop. These are so easy with a mouse and so hard with a touchpad! And every time I enter a town I have to drag 3 items feom hands/head to my belt. I don't know exactly what would help here. Perhaps right-click menu with options to "equip / put in bag / put on belt / use". Or just double-click on equippable but not usable items to equip/unequip. Or hot keys for putting on player-defined equipment sets (peaceful, melee, ranged) - but that seems much harder to implement.
3. Help needs some improvements, e.g. I only found that "space" uses objects when I opened the code to add attack key.
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Seajiha
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Re: Illarion Client - Support for Up-To-Date Hardware needed

Post by Seajiha »

Some late answer, but:

1) Scaling: Is a desired feature, because the resolution gets higher and higher but the tile graphics dont. Also it is not-really immersive that you can see things move more far away than other players just because you have a "better" computer.

2) Keys: Same thing here. Ideally there would just be an assignable key-mapping (like it is implemented in nearly any other game) in the options of the game.

So why isnt it implemented? Two reasons: (1) devs/dev-time: The client is written in Java with a graphic framework. There are just a few persons in the dev-team who are used to this language and unfortunately these persons currently have a relatively stressed real-life, so things are implemented much slower than they used to be. (2) The client itself is some years old and larger portions of the client are based on a client that is even older. Many persons have worked on the code and, well, that is visible if you look at the code. Codes of this sort are much harder to maintain and it is even harder to add new features => it needs more dev-time, see (1).

=> Features will be implemented but please understand if this can take some time.

@snus-mumrik: If you can program and have added some features that helps the usability of the client, feel free to create a pull-request, any help is welcome.
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