Resizing a stretchable window in code?

[ZapJackson]

Hey there!

I'm making another text mode game for another game jam (https://itch.io/jam/mini-jam-45-dungeons) and I had another question about window/screen sizing.

I know from this forum's help last time how to make the window stretchable, but I was wondering if there was a way to get it to start running at a larger size than the default, but still maintain the same number of text rows and columns.

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Is there a QB64 command that would simulate the user resizing the window?

Thanks!

[bplus]

With _PUTIMAGE you can build an image in one _DEST and then display it in any window or frame of a window you like (fitting/sretching can be automatic but read Wiki on the subject of _PUTIMAGE).

[FellippeHeitor]

You can do it like this:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. $RESIZE:STRETCH
2.  
3. canvas& = _NEWIMAGE(136, 208, 32) '       how big your original game screen is
4. displayArea& = _NEWIMAGE(408, 624, 32) '  how big you want it to be at start
5.  
6. SCREEN displayArea& '                     create a window with the initial size
7. _DEST canvas& '                           tell QB64 we'll be drawing on the canvas&
8.  
9.  
10. _FONT 8
11. _PRINTMODE _KEEPBACKGROUND
12. DO
13.     CLS , _RGB32(161, 122, 67)
14.     PRINT "This is going"
15.     PRINT "to be:"
16.     PRINT
17.     PRINT "Dungeons of the"
18.     PRINT "Spider Queen"
19.     PRINT
20.     PRINT RND
21.  
22.     _PUTIMAGE , canvas&, displayArea& '   stretch canvas to fill the screen;
23.     '                                     if you don't need alpha blending,
24.     '                                     turn it off with _DONTBLEND and things
25.     '                                     will render faster.
26.  
27.     _DISPLAY
28.     _LIMIT 30
29. LOOP

[SMcNeill]

Since you’re talking about a simple text game, wouldn’t the easiest solution be to just use a larger font?

Step 1: Choose a monospace font and size you like.
Step 2: Determine the font size to screen size ratio.
Step 3: Scale font up to a suitable size to fit the screen size you desire.

_FONT _LOADFONT(“consolas.ttf”,16,”monospace”) might be 640x400 pixels...  (I dunno what it’s actual size is, as I’m not at a PC currently to  print the values.)
_FONT _LOADFONT(“consolas.ttf”,24,”monospace”) would be 960x600 pixels.
_FONT _LOADFONT(“consolas.ttf”,32,”monospace”) would be 1280x800 pixels.

Scale the font on a text screen, scale the screen size.  ;)

[ZapJackson]

Since you’re talking about a simple text game, wouldn’t the easiest solution be to just use a larger font?

Yeah, this is an option I considered, I just like the look of the built-in 40-column font.  I guess somebody has probably made pixel fonts that are just that font but at different multiples...

[EricE]

I have discovered something about QB64 that might be useful here.

If one includes either $RESIZE STRETCH, or $RESIZE SMOOTH at the beginning of one's program, and then loads an image in a screen created by this line of code:
SCREEN _NEWIMAGE(800, 600, 256)
Then later when the Screen 0 window is created, its screen size in pixels will be determined by the pixel size of the image loaded earlier!
To get a larger Screen 0 text window, load a larger image, to get a smaller Screen 0 text window, load a smaller image file.

Perhaps someone could explain why, if the $RESIZE meta command is used, then the SCREEN 0 window size depends upon the image size loaded in a previous graphics screen?

[FellippeHeitor]

I have discovered something about QB64 that might be useful here.

If one includes either $RESIZE STRETCH, or $RESIZE SMOOTH at the beginning of one's program, and then loads an image in a screen created by this line of code:
SCREEN _NEWIMAGE(800, 600, 256)
Then later when the Screen 0 window is created, its screen size in pixels will be determined by the pixel size of the image loaded earlier!
To get a larger Screen 0 text window, load a larger image, to get a smaller Screen 0 text window, load a smaller image file.

Perhaps someone could explain why, if the $RESIZE meta command is used, then the SCREEN 0 window size depends upon the image size loaded in a previous graphics screen?

That's a very interesting discovery, EricE! It's hacky, sure, but surely enough does the job! Thanks for sharing.

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. $RESIZE:STRETCH
2. SCREEN _NEWIMAGE(800, 600, 32)
3. DO UNTIL _SCREENEXISTS: LOOP
4. SCREEN 0
5. PRINT "Hey there!"
6.  

PS: As expected, if you go to SCREEN 13 or any other legacy screen mode, it'll also retain the initial screen size set by SCREEN _NEWIMAGE.

[FellippeHeitor]

Interestingly it will revert back to original size if the _NEWIMAGE dimensions are in the same ratio as original SCREEN 0.

[EricE]

Hi Fellippe,
Here is the small test program I wrote to demonstrate the screen size depending upon image size.

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. $RESIZE:SMOOTH
2. SCREEN _NEWIMAGE(800, 600, 256)
3.  
4. ' Try loading images of different sizes
5. i& = _LOADIMAGE("IMAGE.JPG", 32)
6. SCREEN i&
7.  
8. _DELAY (1)
9. SCREEN 0
10.  
11. ' Print to Screen 0 window
12. ' Size of Screen 0 window depends upon size of IMAGE.JPG loaded earlier
13. PRINT "Hello World"