A key to toggle small game graphics while in-game

Got a cool idea that should be in R'n'D? Let's hear it!

Moderators: Flumminator, Zomis

Post Reply
ncrecc
Posts: 153
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:59 am

A key to toggle small game graphics while in-game

Post by ncrecc »

Sometimes I start a level and realize it would be convenient to know what's beyond the camera (e.g. in small puzzle levels that are just too wide to fully see from the starting position). In that case it would be nice if I could press a button (Z for zoom?) that toggles the "small game graphics" option without having to exit to the menu and go to the graphics settings. Is this practical to implement?
User avatar
Holger
Site Admin
Posts: 4073
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:13 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: A key to toggle small game graphics while in-game

Post by Holger »

That sounds like a useful key shortcut indeed! :)

I am not sure how much effort it would be to add it, but I will check it. (It might cause graphical glitches, as the playfield is not fully redrawn every frame, but drawn "incrementally", so switching tile size will require a full-playfield redraw, which will probably have some corresponding graphical side effects.)
User avatar
Holger
Site Admin
Posts: 4073
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:13 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: A key to toggle small game graphics while in-game

Post by Holger »

I just had a deeper look into the code for switching from or to "small game graphics", and indeed this has a lot of consequences for various parts of the graphics engine and also the game engine (like re-initializing most graphics buffers, resetting game engine snapshots due to invalidated scroll values, required re-initialization of graphics mappings for the Emerald Mine engine, and even re-initializing and restarting global animations for some reasons).

I still think that being able to change game graphics size on-the-fly while playing a level would be a cool and also useful feature, but apparently it is not as easy to accomplish as I thought before looking at the code. :?

So this would be a feature that might be easier to be implemented after the graphics engine has been modernized (which would be a good thing for a number of reasons, and which would make a lot of things easier than they are done now)...
Post Reply