Mouse pointer and screen DPI problems

[peted]

Not sure if these should be posted as separate questions, let me know if I should.

I just installed FGU on Windows 11 machine with a high DPI screen (3840x2400) and have run into a couple of problems with the resolution, as well as an issue with the mouse pointer.

* I configure my mouse pointer in Windows as the "Inverted" style. Unfortunately, this causes the pointer to be not visible at all in either the updater or the game's opening screen. It seems okay once you've joined a game, but of course the Windows cursor isn't being used at that point.

* While the updater includes a page for setting the display scaling, the updater itself does not respect this setting, even after being closed and reopened. I can see why it might be tricky to get that right in real-time, but I don't see why once I've changed the scaling, the next time the updater runs it doesn't use the scaling factor I've set. That it doesn't makes it very hard to interact with that program.

* Even when the scaling is set to 200%, this really isn't quite enough for the connected game client, especially the chat panel. I didn't see any settings to adjust the chat panel scaling independently. Are there any? If not, maybe the maximum scale factor could be increased at least to 300%.

Some of us gamers are getting older and our eyes aren't what they used to be. These issues all affect my ability to use the game with my preferred graphics settings in a way that allows me to see things on my screen. It would be great if FGU could be improved to accommodate those of us with less than perfect vision.

[Zacchaeus]

Welcome to the forums.

I'm not seeing any issues with inverting my mouse (that just makes the windows mouse black right?). I can see that the updater window doesn't seem to take on the UI scaling. Not sure if that is intended or not. (I'm unsure what you mean by connected game client. If you mean a connected player then the UI scale set by the DM is not used by the client - the client can set that scale independently of the DM).

To move or resize the chat box right click in it an select unblock position. You can then move and resize it to wherever you want. Right clicking and selecting lock position will then lock it in that place.

[peted]

Thanks so much for looking into this and for the quick reply. I think some clarification is in order though.

On the question of the mouse pointer, no...the option I'm talking about doesn't just turn the pointer black. It actually causes the area of the mouse pointer to display pixels that are the negative image of whatever is under the pointer. Pointer pixels over black become white, over white become black, and over other colors become a complementary negative image. This setting ensures that no matter where the cursor is, there is always good contrast between the pointer and the underlying screen image.

Please see the attached image for the selection in my mouse pointer settings in Windows.

Mouse pointer Inverted selection.png

I can see how this scenario might be a challenge for FGU, because it requires the underlying pixels to be accessible to Windows' mouse pointer driver, and maybe FGU is using some kind of video overlay that prevents this. I suspect there's some way to get it to work, since I have used Unity3d for my own projects and don't recall running into this particular issue, but one obvious alternative would be for FGU to use a custom pointer just as it does when you've joined a campaign, making the Windows setting moot.

I'm using the phrase "connected game client" to describe the difference between the screen you get when you first start FGU, vs. when you have finally joined a campaign. The initial launch screen is scaled, and at 200% (the maximum setting) this level of scaling is sufficient, at least for me. But when I get into the game, scaling the UI by only 200% isn't quite enough.

As far as the chat window goes, I do know how to resize it. But that doesn't change the size of the contents of the window, just how much space is in the window for those contents. I.e. what I actually want to see change is how large the font is. As near as I can tell, the UI scaling *does* help with the font size...I just need it to help more.

[Bonkon]

Good Day peted
I know nothing about your mouse issues, but there is a Large Font extension on the forge that might help you font size issue.
https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/376/view

[Zacchaeus]

Sorry, I was using the same setting that you adjusted and of course when mousing over the start screen which is mainly white the cursor changes to black - hence my query. As I say I can't reproduce the mouse pointer issue (as far as I underhand it) since it's visible to me. Over the white bits it's black and over the background it changes to either white or dark grey depending on the area pointed at. Interestingly when I take a screenshot it doesn't show when I paste the image into paint - so I can't post said screenshot. However it doesn't show the pointer it I reset it back to normal either, so that's probably nothing unusual.

I'm not sure what else you could try here; but possibly if you have a mouse that comes with it's own set up software there might be something in that which might help. (Like that software might be over riding the windows settings for example).

[Zacchaeus]

Oh, and also on the font front there are a number of font extensions on the forge (just search for Font) https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop. In most cases you can actually open up the .xml file in these extensions and change the size of individual areas of FGU. For example changing the number highlighted in the attached image will change the font size for certain messages sent to chat.

[peted]

Thanks. It sounds like you do understand the mouse pointer setting. I'm glad to hear it works somewhere. Are you running Windows 11?

For my own part, this is a stock Windows 11 install with no extra mouse software for me to try other settings with, nor which might be affecting the default Windows 11 behavior. I guess it's possible it's somehow related to the video driver, but since that's tied to the video hardware, I don't have a way to try different software there and I don't see any settings for the 3D card that seem like they'd relate to the mouse pointer.

I will look into whether one of the font extensions can help. That said, I still think this is a prominent enough issue, and likely simple enough to fix, that just allowing a larger scale factor would be warranted. I'll note also that scaling the entire UI avoids the concerns that the font extensions would have regarding changing the overall layout of text, potentially cutting off, hiding, or misaligning text in the UI.

Thanks again!

[Zacchaeus]

Ah, no. I'm on Windows 10. So there could be a difference there.

As for the scaling I'm not really technically knowledgeable on that front. But I do know that the scale does go up to 400% for certain mac monitors (which name always escapes me), so it is technically possible I would assume on Windows machines as well. There hasn't been a clarion call for it much that I've seen but as resolutions get higher it may be that the devs will have to look at that. As you say UI scaling is the best solution since it does mean that the fonts will stay within their boundaries whereas fonts on their own will not always work nicely.