Resizing desktop background for 4k monitor

[Alchemister]

Hi Folks,

Have just got a new monitor, but now my desktop backgrounds are tiling. Monitor is 2560 x 1440.

What should I resize the desktop.png to, to avoid tiling? It's driving me nuts!

Guidance appreciated...

[Talyn]

You'll have to dig into the graphics_frames.xml too because each part of a theme is framed by the specific pixel locations.
Generally speaking, FG only works with images up to 2000x2000 however that's for maps, handouts, etc. I have no clue if it will accept larger sizes for a desktop background image.

I'm sure Zach or one of the dev-types will pop in and give a better answer.

[Moon Wizard]

Which ruleset are you using? Generally, we try to keep background graphics set up so that if they need to tile, then it is not too conspicuous. (i.e. use solid colors or middle desktop frame definition which tiles well).

Regards,
JPG

[Nickademus]

Is this theoretical? I have a few maps over 2000 px wide. They seem to do fine in FG. Biggest one I see at the moment is 2489 x 1892.

[Moon Wizard]

Image assets defined in rulesets are scaled to 2048x2048. If a larger image file is used, it will be scaled down to this size.

Images used within the campaign data (maps, handouts, etc.) are not scaled. (However, they do chew up lots of memory and are generally slower to manipulate.)

Regards,
JPG

[Talyn]

Ah, thank's for the clarification. I knew I had the (pretty darn close) right resolution but I thought it applied to any image FG was trying to render.

[damned]

If you are using one of my themes as your template for this I have noted in several places it wont work for screens over 2048.
For screens that size you could do something like this:

get your main image and size it to 1920x1080
expand the canvas size to 1920x1180
make the extra space a block colour that is acceptable to you

update this part of the extension

<middle rect="0,0,1920,1080" />

to something like

<middle rect="0,0,1920,1080" />
<decal rect="0,1080,1920,100" />

and that will give your image in the center of your screen.
Something else you need to be aware of is that as the GM the screen you setup will flow to the players - based on their resolution. Less than 1% of them will have your 4k screen...

[Talyn]

Actually, just paid attention to the first post and looks like he's working with a 1440p monitor not a true 4K one. So that shouldn't look too bad if he gets a 1080p-ish image to work with, and it should scale down for his players as well.

[damned]

True - its not 4k but its width still exceeds the max.
If using the single image as a background then he can still use the above.
It also doesnt "scale" for players with different resolutions - it will show as much as it can.
The way it was designed (by FG not my method) you define:
topleft (which positions top left)
top (which positions top and tiles horizontally)
topright (which positions top right)
left (which positions left and tiles vertically)
middle (which tiles vertically and horizontally)
right (which tiles vertically)
bottomleft (which positions bottom left)
bottom (which positions bottom and tiles horizontally)
bottomright (which positions bottom right)
decal (positions in the center above the rest of the graphic and does not tile)

And to throw some more in the works... there is now a separate sidebar definition for 3.2.0 because it can have variable width...

[Talyn]

Oh! That's unfortunate. :( I hope a more modernized thought process can go into the design of this stuff whenever the Unity engine finally makes its debut.

So if it's going to essentially force the players to see whatever his setup is, would he be better off not going fullscreen and resizing his FG window to as close to 1080p as he can get so it looks normal to the players? And using a 1080p max theme?

[damned]

Oh! That's unfortunate. :( I hope a more modernized thought process can go into the design of this stuff whenever the Unity engine finally makes its debut.

So if it's going to essentially force the players to see whatever his setup is, would he be better off not going fullscreen and resizing his FG window to as close to 1080p as he can get so it looks normal to the players? And using a 1080p max theme?

I dont understand - its very scaleable and flexible the way it is.
If its a fully scaling single image how does it adapt to all the different permutations that will be used in someones gaming environment? The GM might have it stretched across three 1920x1080 screens, one player might be on a 2560x1440 screen, one on a 1366x768 laptop, another is stretching it across 1.5 screens because he has a pdf open on the other half a screen etc... if it scales up to accommodate the 3x1920 wide does it stretch length only, does it scale in both directions and display the top, the middle or the bottom (height wise). Tiling and breaking it into zones is the right way to accommodate differing screen sizes.

I made a basic theme that makes it easy to use your favourite image as your background but (depending on how you do it) it doesnt scale above 1920 (or 2048 in some cases).
The correct way to do it to scale is to use most of post #9 and put the decal in as a decal extension - it still cant scale that image because everyone will have different display resolutions but it will display it in the center...

There is a decal extension tutorial here: https://www.fg-con.com/free-downloads/

[Moon Wizard]

It doesn't force the players to see his setup, but they all use the same graphic and frame definition for the graphic (what damned described).

This approach is pretty typical for the drawing of UI elements in almost any application. It's called a 9-slice. FG adds the decal option.

The separate sidebar mentioned by damned actually helps this situation, since there no concern about the sidebar being duplicated. Of course, if the frame definition done correctly, it would be fine anyway.

The issue described in OP will happen with any tiles UI element.

If you are looking to do something more like a picture, you should be replacing the decal, not the background image. This was broken out in CoreRPG-derived rulesets in v3.1.x. The 5E ruleset uses this to allow custom decals to be defined for each official module purchase.

Regards,
JPG