FG2 on Netbooks?

[Fade]

I was having trouble yesterday getting FG2 to run and be able to display the chat box yesterday.

The netbook I was using was a Dell Inspiron Mini 9, and it has a screen resolution of 1024 x 600. With FG2 fullscreen, the chat box ran off the bottom of the screen, so that I couldn't see what I was typing in, nor the bottom couple of lines of text and it also obscured the hotkey bar.

I tried setting the netbooks desktop to 800 x 600, in the hope that FG2 would resize at this resolution, but even after right clicking on the FG2 desktop and select Restore Window to switch to Windowed mode, it didn't seem to help.

Is there a way to configure FG2 and make it usuable in a netbook 1024 x 600 resolution?

[Oberoten]

I think possibly that it could be done with a custom ruleset... or an extension that makes the chatbox shorter.

[Valarian]

Something's not right there, because AFAIK that should work. FGII should be taking the screen resolution as set in the Display properties when working in full screen mode. I've got FGII running on a laptop with a widescreen display (albeit a little larger on the screen resolution - 1280 x 800 or something like). This works fine. Sorry it doesn't help, but I can't see why the full screen mode isn't using the screen settings.

Maybe something to do with the screen settings, or the Direct X configuration?
Just a thought, did you create the campaign on that laptop? There may be something in the campaign registry file. Create a new campaign with the same ruleset. Then copy over the db.xml, images folder, and portraits folder. Leave the rest. Try opening up the new campaign.

[Griogre]

FG usually windows in 800x600 so I would have thought it would have fit on the screen. I believe some other users of netbooks have had problems too though.

[Sorontar]

FG usually windows in 800x600 so I would have thought it would have fit on the screen. I believe some other users of netbooks have had problems too though.

I switched my resolution last night to 2400x600 to see what Fade was experiencing and it's a royal pain.

Looking in the d20+ ruleset I'm guessing it is set in desktop_panels.xml

<panel name="chat" modes="host,client">
<class>chat</class>
<bounds>
<rect>15,90,390,560</rect>
</bounds>
</panel>

Which I'm guessing sends the chat out to 405, 650 and thus off the bottom of the page.

There's a couple of other things like statchat which are there as well.

[Oberoten]

I switched my resolution last night to 2400x600 to see what Fade was experiencing and it's a royal pain.

Looking in the d20+ ruleset I'm guessing it is set in desktop_panels.xml

<panel name="chat" modes="host,client">
<class>chat</class>
<bounds>
<rect>15,90,390,560</rect>
</bounds>
</panel>

Which I'm guessing sends the chat out to 405, 650 and thus off the bottom of the page.

There's a couple of other things like statchat which are there as well.

Hmmm... How hard would it be to anchor the chat-window to top and bottom of the panel so it'd be resizeable on resolution change at the least?

There are several parts that needs to use the same sizes, but maybe that could be stored in a register setting locally and retrieved? I know it has been tried before to make resizeable windows, but with the new wave of machines with lower resolutions perhaps it is time to take a look at this as a concentrated effort. How about it SW?

- Obe

[Valarian]

Fade, does the 1280x720 (1280x750?) setting reduce the size of the screen too much. Looking at the laptop spec, you've got a 8.9" screen so it may be much too small for you. A similar sized resolution is okay on mine, but the screen's much bigger (13.1" screen). I'd hate to try and use FGII on my travel laptop (Asus eeePC w. 7" screen). I have just enough room when running a game as it is. There may also be a half-way house setting (1152x675?) for your aspect ratio (1.707:1).

Maybe there needs to be an addition to the system requirements information on the website about minimum screen resolution of 1024x768.

[Sorontar]

Maybe there needs to be an addition to the system requirements information on the website about minimum screen resolution of 1024x768.

Agreed, if it's not to be addressed then I'd say it's a minimum that the requirements be added to.

[Fade]

The Dell inspiron mini 9 has the following screen specs

LCD Display Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)

Perhaps there is a minimum resolution that FG2 will run under, but it does seem that they might be limiting their userbase, because these tiny solid state netbooks are becoming very popular nowadays.

It would be fine, if there was a mechanism for making the chat box stick within the confines of the active windowed area, or if there was a setting to select a specific resolution and resized option. Its just the hard coded nature of the chat box, leaves the whole software more or less rendered useless at any resolution below 1024x768.. which does seem unnecessarily restrictive.

[Valarian]

You would be able to do this, but it involves creating a custom ruleset based on the d20 one. To do this, you'd have to run the d20unpack.exe from the Fantasy Groups program folder (the installation folder, not the application data one). This will create a copy of the ruleset in the examples folder in your application data folder. To create a ruleset, copy the contents of this folder to your rulesets folder (ensuring to give it a different name to "d20", e.g. d20Fade).

As mentioned by Sorontar earlier, you should find an entry in the desktop_panels.xml like the following:


<panel name="chat" modes="host,client">
<class>chat</class>
<bounds>
<rect>15,90,390,560</rect>
</bounds>
</panel>


If you change the bounds of the chat frame, this may solve the issue.

<rect>15,90,390,460</rect>

However, I'd have to check it out to ensure that it'll do what you want. There may be other components in that XML file that also need moving (e.g. Modifier Box, Hotkey slots, Token box). Also, some of the graphics frames may need to be modified as the shape of the area used will change.

[Foen]

There has been quite some discussion about the chat box, moon_wizard or Joshuha (I think) looked long and hard about making it dynamic/resizing but ran into a brick wall. Not only is there the chat panel, mentioned in Sorontar's post, but I think there is also a special chat object which accepts die rolls etc. I think you can only move the panel and not easily move the chat object.

Not tried it myself, but moon_wizard and Joshuha know their FG onions, so I'm guessing this isn't doable.

I think it might be possible to amend the ruleset so the chat window is smaller and still works, but it would then apply to everyone, regardless of screen size, and that probably isn't what you're looking for.

Foen

[Valarian]

Well, the shrinking of the screen is possible but it doesn't leave a lot of space for rolling dice or viewing the chat history on screen (i.e. without paging up). I've attached a couple of screenshots. The first at the 1024x600 resolution, the other at my normal 1280x800.

One thing to note, the dice position needs to be reset as they appear off screen at first. As soon as you do "rearrange dice" they arrange next to the modifier box. I would imagine that there's some changes to make in gameelements.xml.

Code changes are needed in both desktop_panels.xml and desktop_classes.xml.
I will need to see if I can put these together as an extension for the d20 ruleset.

desktop_panels.xml


<panel name="chat" modes="host,client">
<class>chat</class>
<bounds>
<rect>15,90,390,310</rect>
</bounds>
</panel>

<panel name="chat" modes="local">
<class>statchat</class>
<bounds>
<rect>15,90,390,310</rect>
</bounds>
</panel>


desktop_classes.xml


<windowclass name="chat">
<frame>chatbox</frame>
<sheetdata>
<chatwindow name="chat">
<bounds>17,15,356,235</bounds>
... further down ...
<chatentry name="entry">
<bounds>16,276,310,20</bounds>
<state position="345,360" speak="chat_speak" emote="chat_emote" action="chat_action" ooc="chat_ooc" story="chat_story" />

[Valarian]

I've been trying to get this to work as an extension, but I'm having some problems with the extension override functionality. It's complaining about the duplication of the chat window definition.

[VenomousFiligree]

Any update on this? I'm thinking of getting a netbook myself.

Would be nice to get the screenshots approved as well.

[Valarian]

The ruleset modification works. The screen is a little cramped, but it works. I've not had any luck with the extension version.

[VenomousFiligree]

Would that work with other rulesets? My main ones are CoC and SW.

[Valarian]

Should work with any of them, just need to add the changes in to the file. Of course, back up the originals first.

[VenomousFiligree]

Thanks! :)

[mr_h]

I realize that this is a year old topic, but I stumbled across something while trying to get some games to work on my netbook. It turns out it works with Fantasy Grounds as well, so I thought I'd share.

I am using an Acer Aspire One netbook running Windows 7 Professional. This fix comes from a a thread (https://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=20012&p=113540#p113501) on the Acer Aspire One fan forums. I can not promise that this will work on other netbooks or Win7 versions, but it's worth a shot.

The process involves editing the Registry of your computer, so make sure you back up the registry before doing this. I can not be held responsible if your display gets messed up, if your computer stops booting, if it takes over the world, or if it insists on GMing the Tomb of Horrors.

In the Registry look for Display1_DownScalingSupported. Change the value from 0 to 1. There may be multiple copies of this line in there (I found two on mine), so keep searching until you are positive you have set them all. After you've changed these, reboot the computer and you should now have additional screen resolutions. (I had 1024x768 and 1152x864.

I changed to those, started up FG lite (connecting to one of my other computers hosting it), and it came out pretty good. Keep in mind that even if the resolution changes, you're playing on a screen designed for 1024x600.


https://img517.imageshack.us/img517/1877/fgnetbook2.png

https://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6407/fgnetbook1.png

[ddavison]

Very Cool. Can anyone else with a Netbook confirm if this worked for them?

[Czarisyn]

must be only for Windows 7 because I have 2 Windows XP loaded Dell Minis that dont have that regkey..
but they will be getting Windows 7 soon

[Stitched]

I realize that this is a year old topic, but I stumbled across something while trying to get some games to work on my netbook. It turns out it works with Fantasy Grounds as well, so I thought I'd share.

In the Registry look for Display1_DownScalingSupported. Change the value from 0 to 1. There may be multiple copies of this line in there (I found two on mine), so keep searching until you are positive you have set them all. After you've changed these, reboot the computer and you should now have additional screen resolutions. (I had 1024x768 and 1152x864.


Found something similiar in the registry of a Samsung NC10 called "DownScalingEnabled" (0 or 1) running Windows XP (32-bit).

Tried setting it 1 since the default Fantasy Grounds 2 screen doesn't fit my native resolution (1024 x 600) but it didn't change anything, unfortunately. A shame really because I wanted to use the notebook to work on a rule-set, while sitting in a cafe. Need to be able to see the changes as I update the code-

Ah well.

[GuyPRunkle]

Should work with any of them, just need to add the changes in to the file. Of course, back up the originals first.

I know it's been ages since this response, but I am trying to get this to work for the 4th Edition ruleset, and I don't have a clue where to find the ruleset . . .

How can I modify the chat window size in the 4th edition ruleset?

I have several players who are connecting to me using netbooks, and they can't see the chat window, which is, of course, a big problem. :(

Guy Runkle

[Moon Wizard]

The ruleset for 4E is located as a .PAK file in the Fantasy Grounds program directory. You can unzip the file to look at the contents.

Changing the chatwindow size is probably best accomplished by creating an extension to change out the "chat" panel definition. I haven't done it before, so I'm guessing that should work.

Regards,
JPG

[GuyPRunkle]

Thanks, Moon_Wizard, welcome back from your travels and thanks for the release of 2.7.2!

I was able to resize the chat window using the instructions that Valerian gave. As soon as I figure out how to write an extension, I will work on that. . . steep learning curve though. Thanks for the help (and great support).

Guy

[Wargrum]

Nice tip Mr_H

Worked perfectly for me on my MSI Wind (running Win7 Pro).