Ren'Py When you render your scenes, do you export it as 4k or same resolution as your Ren'py game? (Usually 1920x1080)

[Niffmeil]

Greetings. Simply wanted to ask a question regarding the direction of what other developers do. I export my renders in 4k, but due to the most used resolution for PC games, 1920x1080p still remains the most used resolution for games. This is why I'm using 1080p as the base resolution for my game.

I have a problem now in which I am forced to use Ren'py's transform-:

transform scale_to_fit:
    zoom 0.5

-to scale it back down to 1080p. This makes it so that it perfectly fits the resolution, as well as keeping the 4k option for players who has a 4k monitor.

The problem with this so far is:

• Large amount of files for 4k resolutions.
• It scales it down to 1080p which can lose some image quality. I'm not sure about Ren'py's scaling settings.

Should I just give up on rendering in 4k and just stick with 1080p?

 

[Winterfire]

Stick with 1080. It doesn't lose "image quality" in any meaningful way, if anything, downscaling makes the render prettier in my experience.

Also, I am not too sure about your scale_to_fit usage... What happens to the other aspect ratios?

The correct way to handle this (which is done by other devs) is to either:
1- Make a 1080 game, and offer a "patch" (pack) of 4k CG which the user can drag & drop in the folder as a Patreon Reward (or free).
2- Make a 4k game, which in case you didn't know, would automatically scale for any other resolution (down or up) without doing any weird workarounds like you're currently doing.


-edit-
I personally suggest 1. However, doing 2 is perfectly acceptable and done by other games as well.

 

[Niffmeil]

Will stick to 1080p then definitely. I didn't know other aspect ratios would be affected by my janky implementation since I never thought of it. Elegant solution, thank you for the quick response, was unexpected.

 

[Midnight Prophets]

Will stick to 1080p then definitely. I didn't know other aspect ratios would be affected by my janky implementation since I never thought of it. Elegant solution, thank you for the quick response, was unexpected.

Keep us posted, I'm curious now.

 

[Winterfire]

Will stick to 1080p then definitely. I didn't know other aspect ratios would be affected by my janky implementation since I never thought of it. Elegant solution, thank you for the quick response, was unexpected.

I don't know either, it was a legit question. You can probably test it yourself by trying the game in different aspect ratios. 1920 x 1080 is 16:9, so try 16:10, 4:3, etc. My guess is that it would break it down, but perhaps I'm wrong on this.
Either way, it's not ideal.

 

[MissFortune]

If you've got the hardware, absolutely render in 4K. Always. You should use it irregardless of whether you use them in the final product or not. Either way, downscaling from 4K to 1080 will retain some of the smaller details created by rendering in 4K in the final 1080p copy of it.

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

As already mentioned, you can downscale the renders for the base copy of the game and then offer the 4K renders as a DLC/downloadable extra. Assuming you're already doing postwork in 4K (you should be), you'd just save the 4K version > do for all renders > mass downscale to another folder with something like XnConvert.

 

[no_more_name]

Note that is mostly a concern when using 3DCG (or real photography and adjacent), as drawings style (NPR rendering and adjacent) have not enough pixels variations for algorithms to deteriorate in a harsh manner.

Renpy's upscales are not really problem, at worst you will get a slighty blured image. It can be quite visible and especially if user has a large screen but generally kinda allright as a price to pay.

Renpy's downscales can get really more problematic as both GL2 (OpenGL) & Angle2 (DirectX) handle the sharpened output with a hammer. Angle2 is significantly better than GL2 for downscale but Windows only.

A very old exemple (4k to 1080), but still:



It get worse indeed if the picture is in motion (simple parallax, put in full screen):

View attachment zzzzzzz2.mp4













Non-denoised image (or any grain) aggravate the output further, which is problematic because Daz has no buffers (albedos, normals) for denoising.

 

[Turning Tricks]

AFAIK, when you make a game in renpy for 1080p resolution, and then drop 4K images in, it will result in the renders being shown centered at 1080p resolution, so much of them will be cut off. Unless you make a full 4K game with all UI elements and backgrounds, etc, in 4K - and your config/options are set for 4K - then don't bother putting those renders in your game.

Also, the VAST majority of players still use 1080p. In fact, according to the most recent

You must be registered to see the links

, 54.44% use 1080p while only 4.59% use 4K.

Render BIG, produce SMALL