Looking into MMF2 Dev, a few q's...

[Sarah]

Let's assume the user's PC is already at the res they want to use....

One way you might do this is with subapps. You can have a frame with a subapp in that holds another frame.

Have 3 frames
- entry frame
- frame sized at 1024*768 (action frame)
- frame sized at 800*600 (action frame, reduced size).

Say the action frame is at 1024*768, but the user wants 800*600. In the 800*600 frame add a subapp sized to 800*600 that references the action frame. Make it custom sizable and stretch frame to object size.

In the entry frame of the app let the user choose from either 1024*768 or 800*600. If it is 800*600 make them jump to the subapp frame.

This 95% worked on the app I tried it on - just one bit that was position and path movement dependent didn't - I'll have to delve into why exactly [smile]

[Sarah]

Actually, I've just worked out what Sphax meant, and his method works 100%, so I'm going with that [laugh]

Again, you have to assume the user has their PC at the res they want the game at. I'm not sure if there's a command line code for this or not.

The 'resize the frame to fit the display' is an Application property. In the Properties window for the app, click the Window icon, and scroll down if necessary to find the checkbox.

In the frame to be resized, you need a Window Control. To resize the frame to 800*600, use the Window Control actions:
- set X to 800
- set Y to 600.

Run your app, and if your screen res is 800*600 it should fill the screen and work fine. If not, it will park the resized window up in the top left corner of the screen.

[Sarah]

You might find these options handy:

Are there any specific command line switches I can use with a stand-alone application?
Yes, the following command line options allow you to force your stand-alone applications to use specific graphic modes, etc.:


/DIB => forces standard graphic mode
/DIB3 => forces standard graphic mode, 256 colors
/DIB4 => forces standard graphic mode, 16 millions of colors, 24 bits
/DIB6 => forces standard graphic mode, 32768 colors
/DIB7 => forces standard graphic mode, 65536 colors
/DIB8 => forces standard graphic mode, 16 millions of colors, 32 bits
/DDRAW => force DirectX + VRAM mode
/NOVR => no VRAM
/DEBUG => displays graphic mode in title bar
/NOF => runs in windowed mode
/NOC => prevents images from being compressed in memory (for internal test)
/NOX => disables Alt+F4
/VSYNC => forces V-Sync ON

And there might be something in this extension that could help as well:
http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=16581&page=4#Po st16581

[Reactor]

Thanks Sarah, I appreciate your efforts to assist. A few things though- the methods you've mentioned only deal with one frame at a time. What I'm after is a way to store the screen width and height, and have every frame load according to that set value.

Forgive me if this is something you know, but when people run games today, they unfortunately don't run them with command line options. All screen resolution changes (and this includes changes to screen resolutions *above* what they might be running Windows in) take place from an in-game menu. The user will select a change, often hit apply, and the graphics will adjust for the entire game. So, as the game screen adjusts, so must things like path movement, mouse coords, etc.

After playing with MMF, I can see that changing a frame's size and scaling graphics isn't going to be an issue (at least to a certain degree), but dealing with these other things may be, unless someone like Sphax can elaborate on what is meant by changing the virtual size of a frame.

Again, I appreciate your thoughts.

[Sarah]

Whether you use Sphax's resize window to fit display or you use Change Resolution mode, path movement and mouse coords are automatically changed to fit. These methods work on all frames in the app. One tick in the box, and you're done.

I hit a slight problem with the subapp method. This is probably because the resizing wasn't done to same degree of accuracy as with the App Property 'resize window to fit display'.

Nobody is suggesting that your user types in the command line options [laugh] YOU would do that if you had one overarching app that ran apps using a command line.

If you want to store the screen width and height to use in every frame, place two global counters on your entry frame, and then copy these to all the other frames. (You set a counter to global in its Properties. Click on the Runtime Options icon, and then check the Global Object box).

To access the values in these global counters, you'd replace X=800 with X=(retrieve data from object)Current Value of your global counter for width.

[Reactor]

Thanks! That sounds like just the ticket I'm after I'll have a play and see what I can do...

[Sarah]

From the help:

Virtual Width
Very useful for huge scrolling games: defines the virtual width of the frame. A large virtual width allows you to scroll on a large surface, larger than the frame itself. If the Wrap option is selected in a layer, the background of this layer will wrap automatically when it reaches the real width of the frame. For example, a frame size of 640x480 and a virtual width of 10000 will enable the player to scroll up to the position 10000 on the right without being stopped. If you enter -1 in this field the scrolling is quasi-infinite.
Virtual Height
Same a above, vertically.

[Reactor]

Thanks again... I'm not sure how I missed this in the help.

[Sarah]

And if you want to make your life even easier [smile] Swap those global counters on the entry frame for a couple of global variables.

You'll find these under the Application Properties. Click on the Values icon, and you'll find global values (integers) and global strings. You can pass these values to subapplications, and you don't have to copy them frame to frame.