Android game on different screensize

Android Processing

mortenhbi..

Android game on different screensize

in Android Processing • 3 months ago

Hi.

I am trying to build a simple android game with processing, but i have run into a problem with the different screen size on android phones / tablets.

To make things simple, let's say that it is a simple platform game, and i would like to put some "robots" on the screen, at specific positions, and they have a specific width and height.

I have used my mad photoshop skills to illustrate what i wan't to do

Now this is the problem. When i do not know the screensize, how shall i choose position a and b, so it will look the same on all screens. I have the same problem with Width and Height. They should also be calculated to the actual size og my device, so they don't apear bigger compared to the rest of the world on a device with a smaller screen.

Now what is the "best" way to archieve this

This is the thoughts i have had so far.

1) The easiest way i could think of, would be to hardcode the size to 800,480 and then i would know exactly where everything is.

But is there then any way, to stretch the entire sketch to the screens actual size afterwards? And will the x/y coordinates i get from input then match my original 800,480 sketch, or will they now match the resized image? If that is the case this technique can not be used.

2) I could of course set the size to size ( displayWidth , displayHeight);

But then i guess i have to position everything according to this. The only way i can see i can position things according to this would be something like:

Position a = displayWidth/60, displayHeight/70

And also i should set the width and height of the robot like

robotWidth = displayWidth/70;

robotHeight = displayHeight/75;

This should work, but it does seem like a lot of work to actually do this everytime i need to position something.

So what to do?

Which of the above solutions should i choose, or is there another better solution for this?

Replies(2)

calsign

Re: Android game on different screensize

3 months ago

You should go with a solution most similar to your second idea. By scaling the locations and dimensions of everything on your screen, you can create an experience that is the same across all devices. My preferred solution typically involves creating two functions, for X and Y, to translate coordinates from a pseudo-screen into scaled coordinates appropriate for the device. Example:

float PW = 1000; //Pseudo Width
float PH = 1000; //Pseudo Height
float RW; //Real Width
float RH; //Real Height
void setup() {
//Initialize real dimensions
RX = width;
RY = height;
}
//Function for X
float realX(float x) {
return map(x, 0, PW, 0, RW); //Convert pseudo-screen coordinates to real screen coordinates
}
//Function for Y
float realY(float y) {
return map(y, 0, PH, 0, RH); //Convert pseudo-screen coordinates to real screen coordinates
}
void draw() {
rect(realX(250), realY(250), realX(500), realY(500));
}

In this way, the actual dimensions of the screen don't matter and everything can be scaled accordingly. Keep in mind that text, among other things, may look strange if drawn this way, and that the orientation of the screen does matter.

mortenhbi..

Re: Re: Android game on different screensize

3 months ago

Fantastic, that is also the thing i actually did, so really nice i don't have to do this over.

However it should be said, that all Input from the screen then of course should have an inverse function to it. So that the coordinates you get from finger inputs also matches the "Virtual" screen size.

I did like this: (NOTE: screenWidth and screenHeight, is here my virtual screen size.)

public float x(float xValue) {
float x = xValue * displayWidth/screenWidth;
return x;
}
public float y(float yValue) {
float y = yValue * displayHeight/screenHeight;
return y;
}
public float fingerX() {
return mouseX * screenWidth/displayWidth;
}
public float fingerY() {
return mouseY * screenHeight/displayHeight;
}