Aquaria FAQ

[Snaptrap]

I was wondering if it would be alright to use a hex editor and modify the game to support widescreen? I can post a tutorial if I am able to get permission and if I can accomplish this with Aquaria. I've done it with other games which don't support widescreen formats. I have the demo of Aquaria and I have no interest in prolonged playing in windowed mode.

[Alec]

I don't really see how that would work. There are a lot of things that have to be modified for widescreen to work.

[Snaptrap]

The side effect that happens with the other games is that some of the hud panels such as a lifebar could end up closer towards the center of the screen. Basically, the guages will remain positioned as they would at the native resolution, but the actual game will be resized to fit.

[Alec]

There's other things, like the cull radius, the black out tiles (they're based on 4:3), stretching certain sprites to fit the screen.

Some things like the minimap don't even look partly right.

I tried hacking widescreen and I could tell by the number of things that looked wrong that it would take a lot of work.

[PiscesToAquaria]

I think rather than extending the playfield horizontally to support wide screens, you should simply inscribe a 4:3 display into whatever the current monitor's aspect may be: 4:3, 16:10 or 16:9.  (Check out Peggle on a wide screen.)   This way you don't need to expend resources only to end up with gameplay  compromises in a game designed for 4:3 display.  If you don't like the idea of black bars on the sides, you can fill the area in with suitable artwork.  I have a 16:9  Samsung which allows me to switch to 4:3 aspect, and it works beautifully (without the ugly sideways stretch that's become ubiquitous in so much content).

[Alec]

That has similar problems. (how to set the correct ratio, how to center it properly, how to prevent the mouse control from messing up)

I think the only way to simplify it would be to force it to use render to texture:

pretend that the game is running in some 4:3 resolution, render to texture and then wipe the screen and draw the texture in the center of the 16:9 view.

But that seems pretty wasteful/limited.

[PiscesToAquaria]

The path to this solution is straightforward, though.  You can start by assuming square pixels, so that you can derive the aspect from the resolution.  Blit whatever you want for the background up front, then center your display on that.  Virtualize the 4:3 game screen (framebuffer) somehow, as you said, and add in whatever X offset you may need to the frame just before sending it to the screen.  (This would be a constant you calculate up front.)  This might involve some busy work, but it won't be anything like trying to redesign the game for a different aspect.

[Alec]

I don't know that its that simple since I'm using OpenGL. (3D acting as 2D) It wants to use the whole screen space to render stuff the way its set up, so what i have to do is expand to that space, figure out some magic ratio (which i got close to but not close enough) to squash stuff again in the middle, then adjust... then magically rewrite the framebuffer code to compensate. (no idea how)

It gets really tricky, its not like in 2D saying: render this slightly to the right.

[PiscesToAquaria]

Yeah, that's a whole other paradigm.  I don't know enough about OGL to be of any use there.  2D used to be so simple.     But you'd never get that smooth zoom out of an old 2D software engine.

[Mush Man]

Shit post. Please ignore.

Edited: 22 March 2011

[Alec]

Cough

[anzy]

Hey!

I just played a game called Eternal Winds on my Wii, when I remembered a great game I played on a PC before. It occured to me that it would be great for this great game to be released on Wii (trough Wiiware or on solid media), because it just seems so perfect for this console. Please considerr doing something in this direction, because I'd really like to play it on Wii someday. Oh, by the way ... I'm talking about Aquaria off course!

[Xiagan]

check out the dozen wiiware-threads...

[subedii]

Hi, I'm interested in buying the game, but I've got a question.

At the moment I'm away from my PC, and only have access to a Mac right now. If I were to buy the Mac version, would I be allowed to download the PC version at a later date? Or is it the case that the version you bought is the version you have access to, and I'd be better off getting the PC version?

Basically I'm asking whether if I make the purchase, do I get access to both Mac and PC versions, or just the version I bought?

Thanks.

[Xiagan]

Just the version you bought. At least if you buy the PC version (because Ambrosia handles the Mac Version and they don't give it for free no matter what you do) - I don't think/believe Bit Blot is giving the PC version for free if you buy the Mac version, don't know if they can check if you bought it).
So it might be better for you to buy the PC version and play it with a windows emulator/bootcamp on the mac and then switch to your PC later.

Meh, this looks confusing, hope it helps.