Layout 'Resolution'

[pilotwannabe1]

I have a 4K (3840x2160) display.  However, my 9pack frames show the resolution only as 1920x1178 on the Layout > Load window.  How do I change that? (Does it even matter?)

Thanks,
Rushad

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Just put everthing as you want including main frame size, and save the 9pack again, under a new name if you want.

[pilotwannabe1]

Thanks Jeroen, I tried that, but it still says 1920x1178 against each frame in the Layout > Load window.

Thanks,
Rushad

[Hardy Heinlin]

Your 4K resolution for Java/PSX is probably scaled by factor 2 on the monitor hardware. This is fine as it increases your frame rate. Also, this way you need no microscope to read the Instructor pages.


Regards,

|-|ardy

[pilotwannabe1]

Thanks Hardy,
Rushad

[Zapp]

Hi, something strange is happening to me as well: I have a new 3840 x 2160 monitor, but the Setting page in the Layout section says "Physical screen size available 2194 x 1234" , and the characters are visibly distorted.
If I try to load a large layout (3840 x 2130) it complains in red "too big for this screen (will be shifted and cropped)". It seems there is something wrong.

Andrea

[Hardy Heinlin]

Hi Andrea,

PSX indicates the size values that your operating system sends to PSX. The values exclude any desktop border pixels, like menu bars, for example. E.g. on an iMac the vertical size value excludes the OSX menu bar.

Anyway, if your OS provides just 50% of the hardware size to PSX, then PSX will consider this value the limit. The monitor hardware may scale it up by 200% or whatever software resolution is currently selected in your OS.


|-|ardy

[asboyd]

I noticed recently after the Windows 2004 update, that my scaling was out on parts of the screen, noticeably the Nav and PFD are now larger than they were, so if I zoom in my brake gauge no longer lines up with my cutout...

Don't know if that is related

Cheers,

[Will]

Hardy,

Is there anything strange about the various layouts inside this 9pack having different resolutions? Everything looks perfectly fine on the monitor.

I ask because the 9packs that shipped with PSX all seem to have the same resolution for every layout.

[Hardy Heinlin]

If you see different values on the table while all 9 layouts do fill the screen, then you have maximized your PSX frame. In maximized mode, your layouts are not shown as intended, unless you programmed them while they were in maximized mode. When another user loads your layout files, and the user has not maximized the PSX frame, the user will see the sizes indicated on the table.

You can quickly copy just the frame size from one layout to the other 8 layouts:

1. Go to Instructor > Layout > Setting
2. Click the Copy mini menu and select "frame size"
3. Click the ... of mini menu and select "layout 9" (or whichever has the good size)
4. Click the ... to mini menu and select "all layouts"
5. Click Copy now

Now you may check in non-maximized mode whether all layouts have the desired size. Fine adjustments might be necessary. When all is good, resave this 9-pack file.


Regards,

|-|ardy


On the iMac, 1418 is 1440 minus 22 (22 is covered by the menu bar at the top).

[Zapp]

[...] PSX indicates the size values that your operating system sends to PSX. [....] if your OS provides just 50% of the hardware size to PSX, then PSX will consider this value the limit. The monitor hardware may scale it up by 200% or whatever software resolution is currently selected in your OS.

Thank'you Hardy, to give more details, I am running Windows 10 PRO; video card is an RTX 2080 TI. Windows is set at 3840 x 2160 natively. So the question is: who is telling lies to PSX/Java?

On a different track: considering that I have a 27" monitor, my current DPI is 64: is there a DPI limit in JAVA? I ask because the mathematician in me couldn't help noticing that 2194x1234 on my monitor would give a dot pitch of 36 DPI, a highly suspicious value.

Bye

Andrea

[Hardy Heinlin]

There is no "lie", it's just that the GUI of PSX is based on the technology of the time when 4K resolutions were not the standard yet. Many objects on the Instructor screen are bitmaps that refer to non-4K systems; if they were displayed in their original resolution they would appear half as big on a 4K screen, and the associated font objects would be smaller as well and you couldn't read them anymore. Therefore the software scales it up by 200% in order to fill the hardware area. I don't know if the DPI value could be a limit. I developed PSX on a 144 DPI iMac.


Regards,

|-|ardy

[Zapp]

The same mathematician also sees that DPI means dots per inch, so I should not divide pixels by centimeters :-)

So much for the "suspicious" value: now my monitor's dot pitch is 162.5; the question is: maybe JAVA has an upper bound at around 92-93 dpi?

Thank'you

Andrea

[Hardy Heinlin]

I'm not sure what you mean by "DPI limit". DPI is a hardware related value referring to the amount of pixels within a paper area or within a screen metal area. In the PSX/Java software there is no paper and no metal; there are just pixels along x/y axes. What the hardware will do with these pixels is controlled by the hardware drivers (printer drivers, graphic card drivers).


|-|ardy

[Zapp]

Ok, so let's see if there is a solution: main problem here is that PSX is not seeing the resolution halved: if I load a 1920x1080 layout it occupies much more than the expected upper left quarter of my monitor. If I save a layout which covers the full screen, I see in PSX 2194x1234

What I really do not understand is why PSX believes the screen resolution to be 2194x1234 (which is still a 16:9 proportion). Where does it take that information from?

Thank'you

Andrea

[Hardy Heinlin]

PSX doesn't believe; it indicates the values it receives from the Windows OS or Apple OS. To get these values from the OS, the Java classes provide, among other things, two functions: getScreenSize and getBounds

I'm not at my work desk at the moment, but I think PSX uses getBounds if "Allow frame stretching across multiple monitors" is selected on the Preferences page, else it uses getScreenSize.

You may experiment with the "Allow frame stretching across multiple monitors" checkbox (PSX restart required). Are you using multiple monitors on a single computer?


|-|ardy

[Zapp]

Thank'you for your answer Hardy, no, I am using a single monitor on a single computer.

This is really puzzling.

Andrea

[Zapp]

Eheh ... found it! I obviously have Windows fonts scaled at 175%. For some reason, PSX obtains the screen size in terms of system fonts (I saw it happen with a python app), so it "correctly" believes that the vertical span is 2160/175*100 = 1234 pixels, and the horizontal span is 3840/175*100 = 2194

Cool!

Now, what is the suggested solution?

Andrea

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

PSX as far as I know does not use fonts in the main graphical flight deck, but only on the Instructor display.

It could be possible to never run the Instructor on your big monitor, only on a side screen that has less resolution. But PSX does not know that you want to do this. Hence if you reduce Windows font scaling to 100% (I believe you cannot get less than 100%) you will probably end up with a great display of the flight deck but too small fonts for the IP on your main monitor.

Hoppie

[Will]

If you see different values on the table while all 9 layouts do fill the screen, then you have maximized your PSX frame. In maximized mode, your layouts are not shown as intended, unless you programmed them while they were in maximized mode. When another user loads your layout files, and the user has not maximized the PSX frame, the user will see the sizes indicated on the table.

I see.

For now, it's more convenient for me to use my custom 9pack as-is... I created it in maximized mode, so if I ever share it with anyone I'll just include that information. As I said above, in maximized mode everything looks great.