What screen size do you use?

[(Designer)Particle]

hello everyone, I'm making User Interface mods right now and I would like to get some data regarding what screen size everyone uses for zoo tycoon these days.  I personally am playing on 1920x1080 widescreen, which is not an option you see in the game options, but works fine on my graphic card if I just edit the zoo.ini.  So that is another thing I'm curious about, how many of you are comfortable with editing the zoo.ini file?  Is it something you do often (always make a backup first!) or is it something you'd rather not touch?

 

If you're reading this and wondering how to play in widescreen or even in a larger standard mode, it is very simple.  In your default zoo tycoon folder, find the zoo.ini, and make a backup of it.  Then open up the original (which should still be named zoo.ini) in notepad or any text editor, and find the settings for screenwidth and screenheight, they look like this:

screenwidth=800
screenheight=600

Change the numbers you see there to a resolution that your card allows for.  To find out what these resolutions are, go into windows desktop settings, find where you change your screen's resolution.  Any resolution listed in your default windows list will work.  Replace the numbers in the above 2 lines with the ones you have found in your windows settings, and save the zoo.ini.  After you do this you should be in the new resolution.   After this, don't go to game options and change the screen resolution there, or you will have to repeat these steps again.  Otherwise, it should work fine.

 

Please let me know what screen resolution you are using, and if you are comfortable with editing zoo.ini, this will help me figure out how to make the UI mods that fit everyone's screen.  :)

 

 

 

[Ashea]

Hi Particle.  I used a display of 1600 X 900.  I can go finer but it makes it harder for me to see and read what is on the screen.   I have had some experience in modifying the .ini file and as long as I know what I am changing and why it does not bother me. 

[HeatherL]

My desktop is set to 1920 X 1080, the zooini file is set to 1024 x 768.  If I go higher the image is crisper but it becomes further away, so actually harder to see.

The zooini file doesn't look difficult to change, but I would prefer not to mess with zoo settings too much as I am not very computer literate - there is probably more going on than I am aware of. 

 

It would be nice to have a nice, crisp, up-close view.

[(Designer)Particle]

@ashea Yay someone else in widescreen!  You are the first person I've talked to who is using it.  Well, cricket has apparently figured it out now too. lol.

 

@heatherL  You are not the first person I've talked to who says this, about things looking too far away, or not wanting to edit zoo.ini.  I am still just figuring out what to do right now but part of what I want to do is to possibly fix those things.  Of course the bigger the monitor you have, the easier it is to go a higher resolution and still see things.  With a higher resolution, although it is farther away it is much more HD like, and the 'worldmap', or what I would call the 'zoo', looks much better when you zoom in close.  But the icons and the rest of the UI do get very small so some people just won't like that.  Also if you use a laptop or an old monitor you just may not be able to do widescreen.  And finally... there is personal preference. 

 

For you it sounds like if you were to change zoo.ini, you would want something like 1366x768, which would be wider, but not change the size of anything on your screen.

 

I was going to put up some screenshots but i forgot, here is how it looks on my screen, these images are not full sized.

 

https://ibb.co/Pxq3FWC

 

Here is the zoo zoomed out fully

 

https://ibb.co/M5tFyby

 

My favorite part about widescreen is to be able to zoom out and see almost the whole map.  :)

[pukkie]

I am not at all comfortable chaning any files in my ZooTycoon I don't even know what an ini thingie is

No I stay away form anything and am proud on the fact I learned what an dll is and a ztd and where to put them

but all other things way out of my comfortzone

My comfortzone of knowing my zoogame is fine as it is.

[(Designer)Particle]

We won't make you do anything pukkie. <3

 

For people who don't want to edit the zoo.ini there are other options I might try... but I don't want to scare you with technical jarfle.  :)

[pukkie]

Don't think you need to worry too much I think I am about the only one who is a computertwit

[(Designer)Particle]

Well, consider this, it is a game meant for kids too right?  Do you know what screen size you are playing in?

[Ashea]

When I first got my wide screen I was shocked to find I could zoom out more - definitely helps to see the big zoo picture.

[(Trustee)ZooGrammy]

Particle,  I use a wide 27 " monitor which has 1920x1080 resolution.   We did adjust the zoo ini for the game.   It takes a little getting used to but it does fill the screen although I think a little distorted.