Some of you – only a tiny fraction, but enough – have experienced a problem with Desert Bridge where the window is resized but the hotspots aren’t. Beta-tester boo_boo recently posted a comment about this, and I thought I’d repost it for everyone to read:
did some research, and found that changing windows DPI setting (http://www.lawfirmsoftware.com/support/change_dpi_settings_xp.htm) to something other, than default “96 DPI” causes “desert bridge” window to be scaled up (including game hot spots), while bitmaps remains unscaled. looks VERY similar to the problem in question!
And indeed it does look very similar, and I believe this may be the solution to the problem. Well, not exactly a solution, more of an explanation really – but at least we have some idea what’s happening.
boo_boo
/ February 19, 2009apparently, dialog windows are DPI-dependent by design, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms969894.aspx
so it seems there are two ways to deal with this (mis)feature: to scale bitmaps when DPI differs from default 96DPI, or to avoid DPI-scaling at all by using pixel units instead of dialog units.
Jonas
/ February 23, 2009Thanks. Trying to make this work, but it seems almost impossible now. None of the settings available in VB, including ScaleMode, seem capable of fixing the problem. Since the graphics are currently located in the Picture property of the form, that seems to mean that the only way of making them scale properly would be to place them somewhere else. Which would be a lot of annoying work, and would probably look shitty. I am a terrible programmer, and VB is not exactly brilliant at handling graphics.
slartismum
/ March 4, 2009Jonas
Have just started Desert Bridge and I am enjoying the game, doing a bit at a time. Unfortunately the Save button does not seem to be functioning and I have to re-start when I finish. Is it me, or was this intentional? Please advise. Thank you.
Jonas
/ March 4, 2009Not working? In what sense? What does it do when you click on it?
slartismum
/ March 6, 2009When I click on the save button it shows the date and the time. When I leave and return, nothing shows in the inventory and I have to go through all the stages again. I believe that the conversations still show, though, as they did not all show when I first started.
I only do a bit at a time so hence the delay. Thank you for replying.
slartismum
/ March 6, 2009I have just re-checked and not all of the conversations show. I had a word with the flower previously and it asked for magic fertilizer. That does not show now. Stripes is still asking to send a message to the turtle and we have had those conversation a couple of times now back and forth.
Jonas
/ March 6, 2009That is… bizarre beyond words. Could you send me a copy of the following files from the game’s folder: P1.dat, P2.dat, P3.dat, D1.dat, D2.dat, D3.dat, Thingy1.dat, Thingy2.dat, Thingy3.dat?
slartismum
/ March 6, 2009I would willingly send you the files if I knew where they were. In the All Programmes folder I have: Jonas Kyratzes, License, Manual, Troubleshooting, the game itself and an uninstall. As you see I am not very computer literate.
I notice that you also made Broken Memories. I loved that game.
Jonas
/ March 6, 2009They should be in the folder where the game is installed. Something like C:\Program Files\Desert Bridge. Which probably isn’t helping you much… hmmm…
slartismum
/ March 7, 2009Found this file while looking for something else. I tried to copy and paste the file to you but it will not let me. The items inside have no icons next to them, just a white square with coloured dots on it. The only items with icons are the music files, the actual desert bridge/uninstall files and the pdf file.
Does this explain my problem at all?
slartismum
/ March 7, 2009Additionally, when I click on the files without icons, just the result of a Spybot scan is shown with “nothing detected” on it.
slartismum
/ March 7, 2009Sorry for the multiple posts but had to say that the images which accompany the music files are fascinating and beautiful.
Jonas
/ March 7, 2009Images? I’m sorry to say I have no idea what you’re talking about…
As for the files – if you can find them, attach them to an email and send them to me. My email’s on the about page, and also in the manual.