FMX and iMac 5K Retina?
Can FMX deal well with this comparatively extreme resolution?
VCL has the same challenges with the new 3K and 4K displays under Windows 8.1 using system font scaling.
Even in the IDE, we already run into design time issues, as the forms are mangled if designed at one resolution/font scaling, and then are opened on another PC at a different resolution/font scaling.
I wonder, are there any plans to look at solutions to this issue in the near future?
I have seen some pretty low prices on 4K displays. The shock usually comes in looking at the graphics card it takes to support them.
Lars Fosdal and Bill Meyer – as I’ve stated elsewhere on this forum, I believe high DPI monitors are the next big challenge for developers. 4K is not that expensive – my 4k laptop with a decent graphics card was (only) $1,100. It could well be standard resolution within two years.
Steve Maughan I agree. Right now, I see a 28″ ViewSonic monitor at about $500, and an Asus fanless card that will support the 4K res at about $60. Not bad, though I found only two graphics cards under $100 with the needed support.
And I am not sure it will become “standard” resolution in 2 years, but I would not be surprised to find it achieving very good market share in the next year.
Steve Maughan can you tell us please what monitor and graphics card you bought so cheap?
about 6 months ago, I bought a 30″ dell with 2560×1600(2k?) second-hand(!) for about $800…
Dorin Duminica Here it is http://goo.gl/abn1rK
Cheapest 4K laptop I see on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834317540
Steve Maughan Yikes! 4K on a 15″ screen? I am working 1080p on 27″ screens, and pretty happy. 4K on 27-28″ screens would be smooth as silk. On 15″ it strikes me as overkill.
Bill Meyer I was shocked at first but if you set the text scaling to 200% it’s actually quite pleasant.
How does it affect your forms, Steve Maughan? Do you see any artifacts when running on a PC with lower resolution?
I’ve run my app on the big display with text at 200% and it looks surprisingly fine. I haven’t yet done any form designing on the machine.
Hmmmm – that’s something to try out on a test app first. I’ll let you know the results.
I’ve seen issues with form design between workstations that had different system font sizes and varying DPIs. The standard “solution” was to ensure that all of us used the same desktop sizes and DPI settings, so it’s hard to say if this still is an issue, but I fear it is.
FMX Canvas.Scale solves the any resolution problem, but I’d like it to be customizable. (Scale=1 … draw … Scale=default) to allow for example drawing thin lines at single pixel level.
David Berneda, in FireMonkey Canvas you can invert scaling with
Canvas.SetMatrix(TMatrix.CreateScaling(1 / Canvas.Scale, 1 / Canvas.Scale) * Canvas.Matrix);
I write now from a tablet and do not have Delphi but I remember something was changed with TMatrix.CreateScaling function in XE5. Maybe this is the old format.
PS. this is of course for your drawings, not FMX controls.
Cristian Peța Ah that’s a great tip, I’ll try to use it in some cases I need to draw non-antialiased lines and polygons
David Berneda I used this before I decided to use a Bitmap. I have a bitmap bigger than I need to draw on screen exactly with Canvas.Scale factor. Bitmap has Scale=1 and I use Canvas.DrawBitmap
Cristian Peța Hmm, I’m also using bitmap but BitmapScale:=Canvas.Scale, otherwise text looks fuzzy on android (gpucanvas) due to stretch.
David Berneda I draw the text in the Bitmap bigger with Canvas.Scale factor to compensate with PaintBox.Canvas.Scale
David Berneda the strech will not do any harm to your Bitmap if you strech it exactly with Canvas.Scale factor. I used to draw lines at (0.5, 0.5) or add to canvas matrix this 0.5 to avoid bluring but I do not remmenber now if i draw also bitmap in this way.
Cristian Peța I have also pending to test the 0.5 offset, in all platforms/canvas classes, all XE versions, and different graphics (lines horiz, vertical, curves…) not in 5 minutes 🙂
Bitmaps also has own scale property:
{$IFDEF DXE6UP}
B.BitmapScale := …
{$ELSE}
(B as IBitmapAccess).BitmapScale := …
{$ENDIF}
I know I’m pretty lonely with my opinion but her it goes anyway: Why should I buy a high resolution display, that gives me a gigantic amount of pixel real estate, and then ruin it all by scaling the applications so that I’m back to where I started with a low res screen? I really don’t get it. Plus scaling goes wrong anyway, no matter how hard the developer tries. At least in Windows that’s the case, and I’m talking about Office 2013 here…