2.00 Use extra screen space to show more of the level?

[namida]

So - something that I believe can be done in (Super)Lemmini and Lix. When the user has more screen space available, rather than using it to zoom and/or display higher-resolution graphics, should there be an option to use it to display a larger part of the playing area (in the case of a level that's not large enough to make use of this, it could either fall back to zooming it, or place a border around it)?

I don't see much downside to such an option, so the only real question is how many people think they'd use it.

[Simon]

I wouldn't even make this an option, and instead use the entire screen all the time.

The settable zoom option governs the zoom level; the screen size should not govern the zoom level. But you can guess a useful default for the zoom option based on the screen size.

-- Simon

[namida]

Hm... I do like the sound of that idea, but (especially in fullscreen) some people might want to keep a more "classic" feel to it...

[ccexplore]

On the one hand, since the original game is always fullscreen and never leaves black borders around the level area, one can argue that displaying more of the playing area to avoid leaving black borders is actually more classic.  On the other hand, the level data allows the level author to set the initial display position of the level, and for a small portion of levels, it might be preferable to the level author if they have control over exactly which portion of the level is initially in view regardless of screen configuration, being that the initial view is sort of a first impression.  (I'll grant you it's a fairly weak argument, just throwing it out there.)

[namida]

On the other hand, the level data allows the level author to set the initial display position of the level, and for a small portion of levels, it might be preferable to the level author if they have control over exactly which portion of the level is initially in view regardless of screen configuration, being that the initial view is sort of a first impression.  (I'll grant you it's a fairly weak argument, just throwing it out there.)

If this feature is implemented (which it most likely will), I'll simply handle this the same way as SuperLemmini does - the file contains the starting center point, rather than the top-left corner.