UI Scaled for large 4k TV

[mnemonikos82]

I know from reading posts that other's have encountered similar problems, but I can't find anyone who has found a good solution. I'm playing on a 55" 4k TV after a long long time away and everything is TINY. I can't hardly read anything to even change the settings. I did find a UI that someone custom made that scaled a lot of stuff up, but I'm not a fan of the UI elements itself. And even using this UI and chatfontsize to size 6, it is still pretty darn hard to read without squinting, and I'm sure if I tried to play like this I would have a headache inside of 10 minutes. My only other option is to just play on my Surface, but that's a problem of a different sort.

I'm curious if anyone has found any other custom UI's that work for them on large TV's or settings they can mess with to make things more readable.

Thanks!

[mcoy]

I think Loramin found something in the eqgame.exe windows settings. In the "compatibility" tab click on "change High DPI settings" and mess around with those options.

-Mcoy

[galach]

https://i.imgur.com/KkDuhsS.png

[mcoy]

Ah, thanks Galach! I couldn't remember which scaling option it was. Makes sense to do it for everything if the TV is the primary display.

-Mcoy

[Gustoo]

Chatfontsize I can't wait to see if that helps. Do the UI font sizes change or scale or are they fixed at being pretty small?

We really could use a pro walk thru for UI setup on 1080p, "3k", and 4k displays to help people get set up modern style. I haven't played enough with new forced UI to really offer much help but it seems to me to be a major barrier about getting the game going.

[mnemonikos82]

Galach, unfortunately, that's the first thing that I did. The game itself is scaled just fine. I can see characters clearly and even read nameplates. It's the components of the UI that don't scale at all. And changing screen resolution in game just makes the window smaller, it doesn't cause the UI elements to scale any differently.

[Jibartik]

So.

I have been thinking about a 4k UI for eq.

I htink it would take a few weeks tbh.

here's how it woould work:

1. There are AI texture scaling programs, infact, spoiler, someone is using one to update background textures for the whole game, I suspect we'll get that at some point this year! (https://medium.com/zero-equals-false/ai-scaling-makes-classic-games-more-beautiful-5fc8048ea532)
2. we can use that same AI to scale the UI images to 4k!!! (it takes some art skill to make them 1:1 and its easy to screw up if you get careles, but its really powerful and cool technology that works VERy well!)
3. reformat the UI to use these larger textures & XML (this part is trivial but and time consuming)

Really, it'd be that easy.

So it IS possible to get a classic 4k UI for our current velious UI... I(someone) just need(s) to get off my(their) ass with all this stay at home ordershitwhatamItalkingaboutIhavenoexcuse!

(edit: there is SOME amount of hard coded UI in the spell bar, I had to make custom spell gem holders for our spell gems, because they are scaled somewhere but I forget where that scale is, its not in the spell gem images, its somewhere else but I forget, but other than that we ok)

[Nirgon]

I've won every box so far on 1999 IBM Aptiva

[loramin]

Rustle UI (made by our very own Deezy) has a 4k version:

https://www.eqinterface.com/downloads/fileinfo.php?id=6829

Unfortunately it still (I think) has a bug, which can sometimes make you crash when you loot your corpse (or do other weird things with bags, because it provides an "all in one" view of your bags, which sometimes annoys Titanium) ... but otherwise it's a truly awesome UI.

[Gustoo]

Are you allowed to use any modified UI's yet on green?

[mnemonikos82]

So.

I have been thinking about a 4k UI for eq.

I htink it would take a few weeks tbh.

here's how it woould work:

1. There are AI texture scaling programs, infact, spoiler, someone is using one to update background textures for the whole game, I suspect we'll get that at some point this year! (https://medium.com/zero-equals-false/ai-scaling-makes-classic-games-more-beautiful-5fc8048ea532)
2. we can use that same AI to scale the UI images to 4k!!! (it takes some art skill to make them 1:1 and its easy to screw up if you get careles, but its really powerful and cool technology that works VERy well!)
3. reformat the UI to use these larger textures & XML (this part is trivial but and time consuming)

Really, it'd be that easy.

So it IS possible to get a classic 4k UI for our current velious UI... I(someone) just need(s) to get off my(their) ass with all this stay at home ordershitwhatamItalkingaboutIhavenoexcuse!

(edit: there is SOME amount of hard coded UI in the spell bar, I had to make custom spell gem holders for our spell gems, because they are scaled somewhere but I forget where that scale is, its not in the spell gem images, its somewhere else but I forget, but other than that we ok)

That's great! Please let me know when it's done. I would really appreciate it!

[mnemonikos82]

Great news! I fiddled around enough with advice from others that I FIXED IT! YAYAYA.

I am NOT a technically minded person, so if my description isn't how this works, please feel free to correct me for others who have the same issue.

So, the problem lied in this: when I changed the resolution in game, my computer was automatically messing it up by forcing the game to play at a fraction of the screen to mimic that resolution. So, for example, on my 4k screen, if I set the in-game resolution to 1080p, the screen took up 1/4th of my total screen space, rather than stretching the 1080p game over the entire screen. (I kid you not, it would just make a window that took up 1/4th of my TV screen rather than a 1080p version of the full 55" screen).

So, I did a few things and frankly, I'm not sure which one of these fixed the problem.
1. under the compatibility tab for Properties of "EQGame.Exe," I selected to "run this program is compatibility mode for Windows Xp (Service Pack 2).
2. Under the compatibility tab for Properties of "EQGame.exe," I hit the box for "Change high DPI settings": and selected both: the first checkbox to "use this setting to fix scaling problems..." AND "Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by System Enhanced."

Now, when I change the resolution of the game, it puts it in the correct resolution so that I can actually see what I'm doing AND stretches it across the entire screen.

[galach]

If you launch witg wineq & my upscale settings from 1920 x1080 it will scale perfectly to 4k

[buttdog]

If you launch witg wineq & my upscale settings from 1920 x1080 it will scale perfectly to 4k

Can you explain a bit more? How do you enter full screen? Are you refering to WinEQ2?

[Gilbegger]

if I set the in-game resolution to 1080p

mnemonikos82, where do you do this?..Are you talking about your computer display resoloution?

[Gilbegger]

OK..its fixed. Thank you mnemonikos82. I guess the first time i checked the "high dpi scaling overide" box...it didnt take. I went back in and made sure exerything was checked and "bingo"...

I can read everything clearly now...much...much better.

thank you all again

[Poklin]

Kind of late to this thread but i just wanted to say i was having the same problems and was excited to find this but it doesn't seem to work for me, when i change my in game res it still only takes up 1/2 or 1/3 of the screen. Do the resolution's in eqclient.ini need to been something specific? there is like 3 different res's in there and i don't know what they all do.

[Trexller]

/fontsize 5

[Shawk]

The High DPI Scaling thing really only works for big TVs but that is because their scale is set to 100% or something and it needs to be 200 - 300% so setting that will force the executable to scale the window and its elements.. TVs will cause all sorts of issues like that but it does not scale the GUI elements up.

I made this a year or so ago and didn't finish it but am getting to finishing it now and this is what people are talking about when they talk about "scaling" the interface.. which this and most older games never had in mind as 1440p / 4k was pretty much unthinkable back then.

And there is no function to "scale" the interface with some setting or something, it has to be done manually, so the best bet is to make new interfaces for each resolution. Even at 1080p, the hud elements are tiny, and most UI mods are the same. And you don't just "Stretch" the textures.. Because you need to modify the drag items etc as well to fit inside the inventory slots etc. Its a lot of work.

These images will be large but it seems a real definition is required for this issue. It isn't something people anywhere seem to actually understand in these older games. I personally play at 1024x768 but when I do play at 4k, I want the UI AND the game to scale properly. 1440p @ 144fps is kind of standard for me now and anything less is very noticeable but older games like this have huge potential for upscaling and looking really good. Especially with updated textures, like I show with the spell gems in my mod. Not all are complete, to show the contrast.

Velious UI @ 1080p
https://i.imgur.com/rfLJaAx.png

My Mod @ 1080p
https://i.imgur.com/NNOh0Qi.png

You can see, even at 1080p it's pretty bad.

"Velious" UI @ 4k
https://i.imgur.com/ymdjdrl.png

"Velious" UI @ 1440p
https://i.imgur.com/QfEPkiF.png

My Mod @ 1440p
https://i.imgur.com/BOjGX4v.png

[Jibartik]

looks great shawk! (fix those pixels on the left side of the buttons! haha)

[Shawk]

looks great shawk! (fix those pixels on the left side of the buttons! haha)


Haha ya lots still broken I just got back to modding this after a year and a bit so I first had to fix a bunch of errors I apparently made.

Thanks BTW as I got your UI a long time ago for Blue from years ago when playing on Blue, seems to be the same one on Green for the most part?

This is where I think I will go with it as far as scaling up it, this being the 640x480 lowest scale, then scaling from here
https://i.imgur.com/2ZfmOX8.png

Scaled it in the same aspect ratio of 640x480 then just taking the raw old images that are at 640x480 and scaled them up, so for example would look more like this, which would help with scaling up obviously.

So for example of that again. @ 5120p(?) or something, still no stretching.

https://i.imgur.com/dsPiAWv.jpg

End result would be more like this for example for the standard 1920x1080p player gauges

https://i.imgur.com/sb4VpLe.png

[Shawk]

I see what you meant there now lol, I think I just stretched it wrong when I first started

Now a smexyEmptyButton
https://i.imgur.com/PloZWHv.png

[Jibartik]

actually i was talking about these pain in the asses, its touhg because of the way they are scaled, and way the buttons share maps.

https://i.imgur.com/5LHRyTS.png

like, see how the left side the dark grey bar is like 1 pixel, but the top and bottom theyre thicker?

the reason is they are getting more vertical scale than horizontal, for the origional map that is being used.

A work around is to make a totally custom map for those buttons, because if you fix it for those, then youll get fat grey bars on other smaller buttons.

I its sucha pita lol youre giving me flashbacks when I was working on this, draw a pixel, load the game, quit, color pixel different, load game, quit, move it a smidge, load game, quit...

haha its looking great so far though I can also help with some paint overs for buttons, im glad someone decided to put in some work on a 4k UI!!

[Shawk]

actually i was talking about these pain in the asses, its touhg because of the way they are scaled, and way the buttons share maps.

like, see how the left side the dark grey bar is like 1 pixel, but the top and bottom theyre thicker?

the reason is they are getting more vertical scale than horizontal, for the origional map that is being used.

A work around is to make a totally custom map for those buttons, because if you fix it for those, then youll get fat grey bars on other smaller buttons.

I its sucha pita lol youre giving me flashbacks when I was working on this, draw a pixel, load the game, quit, color pixel different, load game, quit, move it a smidge, load game, quit...

haha its looking great so far though I can also help with some paint overs for buttons, im glad someone decided to put in some work on a 4k UI!!

Ahh gotcha. I think I was last messing around with that area, I added the old Sit Button just to see how it fit and I think it stretched it but it seems I was stretching the buttons in XML and the image I was using was wrong too :cool:

Theres a lot like The Player Gauge idea I had for Pet/Group etc I will probably replace with the original Velious style idea for now too just to make the "Velious" upscale first then maybe ill make a new one but want to stay true to the original now for nostalgia. Trying to keep the dimensions exactly the same as original velious style.

the Abilities bar area in general is hard as it didn't exist, we hit F9 or whatever it was and clicked it from there far as I remember.

smexyTinyButton
https://i.imgur.com/YmuKiuP.png

Haha, I am kinda use to it now but spending hours working on something only to find it was something extremely stupid on my part hurts.. Really want to see this UI scaled up properly with some 4k/8k remade textures that stay true to the original. I think its really highly under rated even with this game being a legendary masterpiece I think it hasn't gotten to TLC it deserves. Good to see games like D2 getting what they deserve though, I am also working on a DAOC GUI scaled remake but there are some hard coded issues there.

[Poklin]

So am i wrong on this in that you can't full screen on green and there is no way to scale the ui size? if you play on 1440p or 4k on green do you just have to deal with the tiny ui?

[Shawk]

So am i wrong on this in that you can't full screen on green and there is no way to scale the ui size? if you play on 1440p or 4k on green do you just have to deal with the tiny ui?

Let me know if you find out haha

Why i had to try to upscale it manually myself I will upload my branch of VeliousUI mod UI if you want to try it I just need to fix some stuff, but ya I don't think you can use on green atm maybe I can make mine so simular to VeliousUI that they will use it as a HD option in case others have this issue ;)

You can full screen. Try Alt+Enter or that exe dpi fix mentioned with compatibility set to win7 and it should work. Blue has this issue too its engine wide. Also EQPlayNice does it all I think?

[Poklin]

When i go in full screen my games lighting or gamma changes alot idk whats happening with that in window its pretty dark in full screen is very bright. Any one know what's up with that?

[Shawk]

When i go in full screen my games lighting or gamma changes alot idk whats happening with that in window its pretty dark in full screen is very bright. Any one know what's up with that?

Game forces Gamma so whatever you Gamma is set to in Options it will revert to over your windows/monitor's settings.

[Shawk]

So far so good few things still to do but getting there. Plays so nice at 1440p and a scaled interface.

Upscaled @1440p
https://i.imgur.com/AacdaD2.png

Orig Example @ 1440p
https://i.imgur.com/zR5eyWu.png

Anyone by chance know how to modify <font></font> in the <Gauge> elements? Can't seem to find where the parent is on default font sizes? SIDL says its a parametre that can be changed and it isn't defaulted to anything. I know its just something stupid I'm missing but you can modify the <text /> <textoffsetx /> <textoffsety /> pretty much everything except <font /> in the <gauge> elements specfically so I can't change text size of the gauges yet anyway.. I'm sure it's something stupid I am missing.

[Shawk]

Game forces Gamma so whatever you Gamma is set to in Options it will revert to over your windows/monitor's settings.

To fix this if you have nVidia card just go into your nVidia control panel and under display in Adjust desktop color settings change your monitor to Use NVIDIA settings instead of Other applications control color settings.

Makes the loading quicker.. Can test by doing ALT+Enter to switch between full screen and windowed too see the color change.

I'm sure there is a Radeon specific way you can do this too if have a Radeon card.

[Shawk]

Anyone by chance know how to modify <font></font> in the <Gauge> elements? Can't seem to find where the parent is on default font sizes? SIDL says its a parametre that can be changed and it isn't defaulted to anything. I know its just something stupid I'm missing but you can modify the <text /> <textoffsetx /> <textoffsety /> pretty much everything except <font /> in the <gauge> elements specfically so I can't change text size of the gauges yet anyway.. I'm sure it's something stupid I am missing.

If anyone in future has this problem. You cannot change the font size of a Gauges font. You have to use a Label, and just Offset the text from gauge off the <Screen> its associated with.

[Marijn]

Well I just came across this thread today, and want to add that if that scaled-up UI mod is anywhere near publishable please, my eyes beg you to release a version, even if rough. Tracking has been quite a lot less useful because I just can't read the names of the mobs without leaning forward and squinting. I internally refer to my group mates as 'the one with the long name' or 'the one that seems to start with an X' because I can't really read their names at all.

[Shawk]

Well I just came across this thread today, and want to add that if that scaled-up UI mod is anywhere near publishable please, my eyes beg you to release a version, even if rough. Tracking has been quite a lot less useful because I just can't read the names of the mobs without leaning forward and squinting. I internally refer to my group mates as 'the one with the long name' or 'the one that seems to start with an X' because I can't really read their names at all.

Ya for sure.

I didn't do the tracking element yet but just finished the Loot, Bank, Spellbook etc so I'll get tracking done, should be easy enough so probably tomorrow ill upload it to EQInterface.

[Shawk]

Ya for sure.

I didn't do the tracking element yet but just finished the Loot, Bank, Spellbook etc so I'll get tracking done, should be easy enough so probably tomorrow ill upload it to EQInterface.

Bit busy today but I should be able to at least send it to you tonight, here is what it looks like lemme know if you want anything changed.

https://i.imgur.com/35gAItj.png

[Jibartik]

Looking good shawk!

[Marijn]

Looks glorious to me.

[Shawk]

Looking good shawk!

Thanks for the help BTW! :)

[Shawk]

https://www.eqinterface.com/downloads/fileinfo.php?id=6847

Like I say in description, it ain't 100% very much WIP but all the main stuff works I am just concerned of late game stuff so let me know

[Marijn]

Oh, I guess green disables selecting alternate UIs entirely, so I wasn't actually able to try this. :(

[Toxigen]

Where's the cell phone picture from your couch of the TV w/ EQ on it???

[Shawk]

Looking good shawk!

Do you recall how to get the Character Screen to be the Defaulted to a UI? So when you log in from Server it goes to Character Screen of the UI being used not the default. I notice your Velious UI mod does it.

[Shawk]

Do you recall how to get the Character Screen to be the Defaulted to a UI? So when you log in from Server it goes to Character Screen of the UI being used not the default. I notice your Velious UI mod does it.

nm figured it out - and for those who don't like ass backwards figuring out of things too..

its a naming convention thing, velious is forced on blue and green as far as UISkin="" is concerned in the EQClient.ini

blue just allows modding of individual char.ini files but it will force back once your load the server's char select screen from the eqclient.ini, then once you load a character it forces the character's .ini UISkin="" again.

reason i am saying this is it didn't use to be like this so if anyone in future has this issue know that UISkin="" in EQClient.ini is not modifiable and is the thing that is forced to be velious on Blue and Green.

work around is renaming your folder of your ui to velious but on green you need no dependencies elsewhere, so you need all the files in the velious folder, don't have any dependencies or parent directories that your mod is dependent on, like default directory.

my next question is how much do the admins hate this? i am aloud to convert the green UI and also am I aloud to "improve" the current velious UI? I notice some things are offset wrong etc.

[Shawk]

ediot*
it will force back once you load the server. while playing from char to char it's fine but once you have to load the server after game shuts down, it loads the velious over default again if that bool:true from /loadskin input, else it will just go with default, writing those changes to all your .ini files