Resolution and Aspect Ratio Management for Game Maker - Part 1

[@zugolf4980]

I code in XNA and don't even use GameMaker, but this is absolutely fantastic. Every developer needs to watch this!!

[@PixelatedPope]

Thanks.

[@Aurnoi1]

You, my Sir, just got yourself a Yoda award for your explanations! Thanks you.

[@karetenshinomatsu6127]

Watching this in 2020, and the only word i can think of to describe this video is: Illuminating. Thanks a lot!!!

[@Tinkerer_Red]

been like 6 years now and every time i change a projects resolution i still come back to this video to see the math at 9:46

[@Sven2157]

Thank you for a well rehearsed and on topic video! So many 'youtubers' ramble about things those watching don't care about! Well done, sir! Moving on to Part 2!

[@GenrihStar]

Thanks a lot. Very nice explanation. I think guides like this deserve much more views.

[@PixelatedPope]

Thanks. This "lecture" format isn't for everyone; most just want to see the code and learn from that (or just copy and paste it)... but I'm glad there are those who actually want to learn the reason they are writing that code. Thanks for watching!

[@Atmospirit]

You have to be god-sent to make this perfect tutorial. All Hail PixelatedPope!!!

[@alessiarockrose]

THIS IS PERFECT I know what I need to do but I needed an example of how to calculate the resolution to maintain the aspect ratio of pixel. Thanks!

[@RhettTheDungeonMaster]

The black bars are BEAUTIFUL ❤️ And reminds me of TV from my childhood

[@Joel2Million]

You the man PP, since I've never really finished my games until recently I've never needed dynamic resolutions but now that I am starting to make apps in mu free time this is perfect for me :)

[@Dyagames]

Perfect explanation! Upvoted! Man, I remember struggling with this time ago, hehe..

[@Esaups]

Hacen sus juegos en game maker? :o

[@skelestonks]

I never thought that resolution was so important to my game, thank you very much!

[@therbz]

Ironic. I played this in cinematic mode with 2 black bars.

[@GermanPeter]

Ironic. Pixelated Pope could save other games from black boxes, but not his own videos.

[@therbz]

a 4 year old comment which isn't completely awful...

[@dattuskedclock3134]

@@therbz quite the rare sight indeed

[@aarnijarvelainen8499]

@@therbz a surprise to be sure but a welcome one

[@kidando]

Fantastic series. Thanks for taking the time to explain this

[@Shadowstorm5400]

Thank you for this video it finally answers the questions about why and how to choose the pixel sizes for games

[@ivan7604]

I really appreciate you bother doing this, it's awesome man; now i can finally understand how this thing about the aspect ratio works, we need more videos like this, THANKS!!! :D

[@CosmoDextro]

Thank you so much, this was beyond helpful!

[@mesolagic]

This was very helpful and well explained. Thank you!

[@1wolfcubb]

thank you for covering this topic! Looking forward to seeing part 2

[@Gplaya]

I watch, I like, I sub. Perfect explanation! Thank you.

[@MarceloPetrucelliBR]

Awesome!!! Congratulations for this amazing video!

[@ruadeil_zabelin]

3:15 The SNES is probably not a good example of this, since the pixels are not square on a real 4:3 TV, which is how it was designed

[@blahuhm6782]

yea this really bothers me, seems nobody born after 1990 knows this basic fact and just assume SNES characters are suppose to look that skinny

[@robfrydryck127]

This was explained so well. Thank you

[@NoneLikeRob]

Wow what a fantastic explanation!

[@makebritaingreatagain2613]

🕇Truly you are gods chosen representative for pixel art. Been stuck on this sort of thing for so long. Now feel like a dumbass. Probably because I am. Bless you your holiness. Bless you.🕇 🕇Keep making videos. DEUS VULT!🕇

[@suzukyakira]

finally a perfect explanation, Ty so much man

[@AdamBarkerThe]

Hey Pope, not sure if you have the answer for me but I thought I would ask. I really want to use a resolution of 480x270 for my game since 320x180 is leaves my sprites too big and 640x360 leave them too small. My game will have a black border around the game window but would that be enough to make up for the problems of dividing into 1440p?

[@PixelatedPope]

I think so! Worse case scenario you could apply a bilinear filter easily enough and smooth out any issues. This is what Sonic Mania does to render at 1080p on Switch

[@AdamBarkerThe]

@@PixelatedPopeawesome thanks so much for the fast reply, i’ll look into the filtering also then. Does using a size like 480x270 on a 2k screen cause other issues outside of not exactly right, like half pixels or deformed art? Sorry I am new to gamemaking and gamemaker.

[@PixelatedPope]

@@AdamBarkerThe Maybe? But ultimately I wouldn't worry about it. Just make your game. if your game is fun and interesting to look at, nobody is going to notice half a pixel of distortion

[@FeniksGaming]

It was great video thank you for making it. Great job.

[@bradleybrand0]

Nice video. How do I put all this into GameMaker though?

[@PixelatedPope]

I recommend watching this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZiUfYRslq59fM0 And then applying what you learned in part 1 and 2 to that logic. (There might be a tip in the comments of the linked video)

[@Garrettstarns]

I've just started pacticing pixel art and wrapping my head around trying to make a top down snes like game with sprites similar to FF and Chrono Trigger and your videos are helping me a ton, but I feel there is so much to learn it's daunting. Do you or anyone in the comments have any resources that you used that helped you wrap your head around all this stuff? Thank you for these great videos.

[@PixelatedPope]

Join my GameMaker Discord server! We have a channel specifically for art questions and resources. discord.gg/By6u9pC

[@魏家乐-w1r]

Very good.

[@dmas7749]

5:49 "...because there is no such thing as half a pixel in computer graphics." A *PIXEL* is just a *PIXEL* you can't say it's only half

[@dmas7749]

memes aside good video

[@JorySatana]

Well, "D" MAS, hear me out. A pixel actually has 3 parts to it.

[@dmas7749]

@@JorySatana i know, the Red component, the Green component, and the Blue component

[@blahuhm6782]

Does he take into account those game were intended to be 4:3, so the pixels are actually not actually perfectly square, but slightly wider? This point seems to missed by almost everyone who talk about NES/SNES era graphics

[@FeNniXX3]

Godsend tutorial.

[@sylentdoom]

Perfect my dude.

[@TheAmazingBrand0]

Thanks for the info.

[@coxyofnewp]

Really nice tutorial, It explained aspect ratio in an in depth way,but simple enough for all to understand. Nice Job! I've been working on a game for a year or two (the old school way - on paper) And I hope to start making it soon. The one thing I'm having allot of indecision about is - The rooms and how best to design them and also store them.. I've read allot of articles about Level design,tiles,also programs like Tiled and GMare. But I get people saying yes they good,others saying no, Is there any chance you could do a tutorial showing how you'd make a big play area that has many areas to it - (and for mem reasons you wouldn't want to have it all as one room?) Also maybe have a loading/saving system that can load level data as you go though. I was maybe thinking some type of world chunk system? Any help advice you could give on this subject would be most welcome!! many thanks and keep up the great work..

[@PixelatedPope]

Yeah, this is certainly a big issue with Game Maker. I don't have much experience with any 3rd party tools (GMare looked awesome, but still had a long way to go, and development seems to have stalled). Hopefully this is a big focus for Yoyo with the successor to Studio. My Zelda project had each dungeon and the overworld each as their own rooms (You can find the source linked in that video description if you are curious), and honestly, that's (one of the reasons) why I never finished it. I couldn't imagine having all of those objects and tiles all together. I would be terrified that I would screw something up in one room and end up wrecking something or everything in every other room. In more recent projects I've tried to keep rooms more compartmentalized. Things are manageable if they are only 1 or 2 screens tall and wide. I would be really interested to know how to team for Hyper Light Drifter managed all this. A lot of people resort to random generation or auto-tiling to reduce the amount of time they spend in the actual room editor by letting the game engine determine how the room should look based on a few variables and the objects placed there, but if you want something gorgeous like Seiken Densetsu 3, I don't think there's any substitution for hand placed tiles, which is an exhausting, time consuming, and often frustrating endeavor in GameMaker. My personal biggest beef is the layer system for tiles. I wish I could name them and make sets of them that would persist between rooms... Sorry, this probably isn't what you were hoping to hear, but I don't really have any cool tips or tricks for large rooms. They are just a pain.

[@nicholas_8617]

Doesn't seem like the source is linked anymore, assuming you meant the "Yet another abandoned fan project: "16bit" Original Legend of Zelda (1080p 60FPS)" video.

[@MrZarupta]

Now if only I could figure out why my pixels are still stretching when I'm scaling up from 320x180 by an integer of 6 to get to 1920x1080...

[@nazz1979]

Why do "we" decide on a resolution of 512x288? 4:41

[@PixelatedPope]

Because it's aspect ratio is 16:9. But just because something has the same aspect ratio as your target monitor, doesn't mean it will work, which is why I chose that resolution in particular.

[@luksart5752]

this means the camera should be 480x270 or the room? in gm

[@PixelatedPope]

If you are following this tutorial, your room size is irrelevant

[@cristiandavidalexanderarch1360]

It works in gm1??

[@jonatheringaming8369]

So I fixed the black lines in fullscreen but now my 32x32 sprites and stuff look kinda blurry in fullscreen mode.

[@PixelatedPope]

Did you disable "interpolate colors between pixels" in your global game settings > [platform] > Graphics tab?

[@jonatheringaming8369]

I fixed it! My problem was keeping the aspect ratio consistent and I also disabled that setting. But is there a way I can make the view bigger without having to deal with the aspect ratio?

[@PixelatedPope]

Not really. When you say "without having to worry about aspect ratios" you are essentially saying "without worrying about black bars or distortion." Which, obviously, you probably want to worry about. Black bars aren't always a bad thing, but distortion always is. If you have further questions or need further help, you should join my Discord channel and get help in real time. Lots of very helpful people that can help guide you with these issues as well as any other issues you might be having. discord.gg/tVNhwY

[@jonatheringaming8369]

Ok I thought I was going to get that answer! xD\ Thanks for the help! and the invite to the discord!

[@riemerdijkstra5974]

a trick that I like to use is to just upscale my pixel art 8x or so. That way when the resolution changes the pixel changes aren't really noticible This way you also don't have to use pixel perfect graphics

[@PixelatedPope]

To any other viewers who see this comment, this is absolutely 100% not good advice. Do not pre-upscale your art.

[@riemerdijkstra5974]

@@PixelatedPope could you elaborate?

[@PixelatedPope]

@@riemerdijkstra5974 It's just completely unnecessary. Things will still look distorted if your aspect ratio is set wrong, and you'll have to design your game around art that is 8x bigger than it needs to be. Additionally, your texture pages will fill up 8 times faster, meaning your game will take up more video memory. This is especially a problem on mobile devices where VRAM is often limited. The problem is compounded by the fact that dynamically managing your aspect ratio is especially important/desired when building a game intended for mobile devices. Beyond that, this comes from personal experience. I've done the whole art scaling up thing, and it ended up causing just as many if not more problems in the long run.

[@riemerdijkstra5974]

@@PixelatedPope thank you for your honesty, i'll keep this in mind

[@Manas-co8wl]

I don't see any problems with black bars though. That's the targeted resolution you're supposed to play in, what's the issue?

[@PixelatedPope]

No problems inherently! I even talk about this in the FAQ video. Some games are built for specific aspect ratios, and that's fine. Any of the 2D zelda games, for example, ONLY work with a static aspect ratio. But this series is for those who want their game to not have black borders on any resolution monitor.

[@bobu5213]

So wait if I make an image let's say 64 by 32. It will be scaled up automatically as long as the resolution is in proportion to my original resolution?

[@kudofan]

Yes.

[@hx6027]

soooo... I don't get it.. if I make my room size 480x270 will it scale properly for all screens? (Im working on a game for android so i want my game to scale properly to all mobile screens)

[@PixelatedPope]

No... that's like... super wrong. Room size is the wrong thing to be using. If you have done everything right, you shouldn't be using room size at all to determine your games resolution. Keep watching the rest of the series.

[@hx6027]

ok thank you..i did actually watch the rest but its all so confusing XD i will them all again anyway thanks.

[@karlhans6678]

Can you explain what's the difference between aspect ratio and resolution?

[@PixelatedPope]

Resolution is the total number of pixels. 1920x1080 is a resolution that tells you there are 2,073,600 pixels. The aspect ratio of a 1920x1080 monitor is 16:9, which is basically just the simplified fraction of 1920/1080. So it's just telling you how wide the monitor is compared to how tall it is.

[@karlhans6678]

@@PixelatedPope so they're basically the same thing told through a different manner? But when creating a game are there softwares that will ask separately for which resolution and aspect ratio to use?

[@PixelatedPope]

@@karlhans6678 They aren't the same thing, but they are related. 960x540, 1280x720, and 1920x1080 are all different resolutions, right? But they are all 16:9 aspect ratio.

[@karlhans6678]

@@PixelatedPope ok I see what you mean. In the video you said we multiple the aspect ratio by 120, but now I see we can also multiple it 60 and 80.

[@williamthemediocregamer4794]

How do I just zoom out

[@PixelatedPope]

Resize the view. Make it bigger to zoom out (show more of the room) make it smaller to zoom in (show less of the room)

[@oscur_destal]

Hu I don't get it. If I design a game for 483*123, it's for some reasons and I want it to be displayed like this on a screen. If the user wants it fullscreen, this is gonna be ugly even if the ratio is kept because "zoomed" pixels. Still if he forces fullscreen, it should expand the biggest side of the window (here, width, 483) until it reaches the width of the screen, and expands height proportionally so there will be black bars. I don't get how you avoid black bars without losing ratio when your native ratio is not the same as the screen. In last your last example you say we have to make it fit for any screen but what you do only works for 1920*1080, and you are very lucky the ratio of your game is the same as the screen one otherwise you would put 4 times your game horizontally but maybe only 3.60 vertically and you would end with horizontal black bars.

[@PixelatedPope]

Correct, you can't avoid black bars on every monitor without compromising the aspect ratio of your game. If your game is designed for a VERY specific aspect ratio, then you are going to have black bars on every monitor that doesn't match your desired aspect ratio. There's no way around that if you are unwilling to adjust your aspect ratio to match it. and that's fine, some games are designed for a specific aspect ratio. I do highly recommend PICKING your aspect ratio based off of 1920x1080, however. Take 1920x1080 and divide it by any number. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 the higher the better. You should design your game around that resolution. Then it will fill the screen perfectly in fullscreen mode on the most popular monitor resolution.

[@oscur_destal]

Oh OK, I may have misunderstood your video. I thought the last part was about a ratio that matches every screen.

[@PixelatedPope]

It's possible to match every screen, yes. But it requires an immense amount of work on the design end. Designing a game that fits every aspect ratio is very, very difficult. So for beginners, just pick a resolution/aspect ratio and stick with it. Don't worry about black bars.

[@huecosinfondo5048]

For some reason it stops working, or maybe because I am a different pc

[@andresgrimminck8674]

5:46 But Why...

[@vcihiethea]

I didn't get the terentino reference...

[@PixelatedPope]

www.google.com/search?q=hateful+eight+aspect+ratio&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS705US705&oq=Hatefull+eight+aspe&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0.3548j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[@Daelan1234]

Tarantino latest movies have suuuper wide resolutions where width is almost three times bigger than height.

[@roqnako]

i have the free gamemaker version and opera gx games have such an weird resolution 2024 : 2024 or smt

[@fivoscapone9377]

thanks!

[@shadow__dancer]

this makes no sense. why did you choose 512 to begin with? thats not even a standard pixel or aspect ratio. why not just pick 1920-1080 and be done with it?

[@PixelatedPope]

512x448 is the resolution of some of the original Super Nintendo games (like Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy 6). But, I do just what you suggest in my Cameras as Simple as Possible video.