What screen size do you use?

[HeatherL]

15 hours ago, Ashea said:

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.

The same thing happened to me. 

[carlos franco]

My laptop is 14 "and the presentation mode is 1366x768 and the zoo.ini is configured as follows:

 

screenwidth=1366
screenheight=768

 

However, when I run the game I get the following way, as you can see, the complete map is not visible

[Yellowrose]

with screens that support more of a lower resolution your Hack Particle cuts off the bottom part of the menu which also shows the rotate item arrows so instead of rotating an object in the purchase menu you would have to rotate the whole map to be able to place in an orientation of your choice. Might be an idea to see if you could do an adjusted version for the game's original graphic settings of 800x600 and 1024x768 that wouldn't cut off anything and still have a few extra spaces to show more items available.

 

[(Designer)Particle]

Hey guys, sorry I didn't answer sooner, i was afk for a few days.

 

I'm going to do a new version of the bigger menus mod soon, that will fit screens that are 768 high.  I'm still wondering though who is using 800x600 at this point in computer history, and also why they would need bigger menus... so I'm not sure it will be necessary.  I made the bigger menus mod because when you see the game in a large wide screen, you can't help but think, "I have a lot of unused screen space".  That is just not the case in 800x600.  But that is why I made this thread, to find out what would be the best thing to do here.  I am actually kind of surprised that everyone, no matter what screensize they're using, is saying they love the bigger menus.  So again thanks for the feedback, going forward I'll be making UI mods that do fit on 1366x768 screens.

[HeatherL]

Most of us are older.  That means we have vision problems and the larger icons are easier to see.  We also tend to have a huge number of downloads.  For instance I have at least 200 foliage items, so a menu that only shows me 10 items at a time is tedious.  It is MUCH easier with larger icons & a menu that shows more of them at once to find what I am looking for.

[(Designer)Particle]

I understand HeatherL, and I have set up my 2nd computer to be in 1366x768 so I can see what things look like in that size.  :)

 

Having said that, remember, monitors are getting bigger all the time.  A typical recommendation for a gaming monitor is minimum 25 inches wide, and a 35 inch wide monitor is not that hard to get.  If you put a 1366x768 resolution screen on a 35 inch monitor, it will look OVER twice as big as it does on a 14 inch monitor.  Or you can think of it like this, if you put a 3440 x 1440 on a 35 inch monitor, the zoo tycoon menu icons will be the same size as they would be on 1366x768 14 inch monitor, AND everything in the zoo will be in HD (higher definition).  So if my monitor is twice as big as someone like carlos on his laptop, then even though i am old and need glasses myself, i would not want to play in 1366x768.  So this isn't necessarily about the size of the icons on your screen or how well you can see, it is more about the size of your monitor, and how many pixels will fit on it.

 

Having now said ALL that, I just want to assure you that I will not forget about people that use older monitors, or midsize laptops.  I want to include those people like you who have been here playing zoo tycoon for the last 17 years, for sure.  But I also hope to include people who have brand new gaming rigs, who may come across a mod like bigger menus and think about reinstalling this game again just to see how it looks on their brand new monitor, which hopefully might encourage them to register at zoo tek phoenix for the downloads, so that the community might continue to grow in the future.  I hope you can understand that it is a lot to consider, but I'm doing my best to make it happen.  :)

 

Please keep the data coming guys, I really appreciate it.

[Thunder]

 

This is 800x600 resolution.

 

 

This is 1024x768 resolution.

My laptop is a junky HP Elitebook, so I can't edit the zoo.ini to go any higher than the native 1024x768. While it is slightly cut off in that resolution, it is playable and the expanded menus help immensely.

 

I notice the native menus show just 10 icons in a 2x5 format. Maybe there is a way to increase the columns, to show icons in a 4x5 format with scrolling bar to the side as normal. That would be, in my opinion, the greatest mod the game could produce, as that is a MASSIVE QoL improvement for us whom frequent with hundreds of mods.

 

Edit: This was a clean install, so there are no other mods. I had to reinstall because I could not find a mod that was messing with my maintenance workers (they would not pick up trash and were unable to be assigned tasks) and the game kept booting up like it was the base vanilla version (I have Complete Collection).

 

[(Designer)Particle]

Do you prefer to play in 800x600 or is the 1024x768 acceptable for you?
 

Quote

 

I notice the native menus show just 10 icons in a 2x5 format. Maybe there is a way to increase the columns, to show icons in a 4x5 format with scrolling bar to the side as normal. That would be, in my opinion, the greatest mod the game could produce, as that is a MASSIVE QoL improvement for us whom frequent with hundreds of mods.

 

But wouldn't it be even more QOL improvement if it was 4x12 and still fit on your screen?  Why would you want to see only 20 items in the menu when you could see 48?

 

It seems to me that just switching from 800x600 to 1024x768 or higher is a much bigger QOL improvement... and should be the first step anyone takes when playing a fresh install, before installing any mods.  I don't think anyone is going to have a computer or monitor that is so old that forces them to 800x600, that would be a very old indeed... and if that is the case, then maybe a greater QOL improvement would be to upgrade your computer.

[Thunder]

43 minutes ago, Particle said:

Do you prefer to play in 800x600 or is the 1024x768 acceptable for you?
 

But wouldn't it be even more QOL improvement if it was 4x12 and still fit on your screen?  Why would you want to see only 20 items in the menu when you could see 48?

 

It seems to me that just switching from 800x600 to 1024x768 or higher is a much bigger QOL improvement... and should be the first step anyone takes when playing a fresh install, before installing any mods.

 

I have no qualms playing in 1024x768, but I've always played in 800x600 in the past; I never really bothered to change it, but it won't change anything with me if I have to go to 1024x768.

 

Sure, more icons would be great. However, any more and 800x600 would become cut-off. If that's a limitation I would have to accept, I wouldn't mind though. Even if 48 is better, 20 is still double what it was originally. 24 (4x6) may be possible if the size of the icons could be shrunk, but it's clear 800x600 may be the odd ball out here.

[(Designer)Particle]

I prefer to make one mod that fits all people's screens as opposed to doing 10 versions that are all different sizes, like I could imagine people requesting 2x10, 4x5, 4x8, 4x10, 4x15, 6x12, 6x15, 8x20, all those are things that might work better than 4x12 for some people, but that is a lot of work for me.  The 4x12 one will fit on everyone's screens, except 800x600, so that is what the next version is going to be.  After that, we'll see.