GUI Ultra Res skins

[gothfather]

Are there any skins for the game that allow you to scale the UI for ultra resolution monitors? I find the game very hard to play because I don't use a 1080p monitor.

Has anyone made a skin with 2k/4k monitors in mind?

[LeoLionxxx]

I find the game very hard to play because I don't use a 1080p monitor.

Not the solution you've requested, but you can lower the in-game resolution which will increase the size of your hotbars and icons.

That's under Options -> Graphics -> Resolution

With my (1920 x 1080) laptop screen, I'm very comfortable running DDO at (1360 x 768).

[gothfather]

Not the solution you've requested, but you can lower the in-game resolution which will increase the size of your hotbars and icons.

That's under Options -> Graphics -> Resolution

With my (1920 x 1080) laptop screen, I'm very comfortable running DDO at (1360 x 768).

The difference between 1080p and 4k is vast. Down scaling from ultra resolutions to 1080p makes the image fuzzy. It is terrible.

Are there seriously no solutions for modern hardware?

[Ladius]

The difference between 1080p and 4k is vast. Down scaling from ultra resolutions to 1080p makes the image fuzzy. It is terrible.

Are there seriously no solutions for modern hardware?

https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/510346

There was this I found, but it didn't work for me. Maybe it'll work for you for some reason as by the screenshots, it worked for someone.

[Eantarus]

The difference between 1080p and 4k is vast. Down scaling from ultra resolutions to 1080p makes the image fuzzy. It is terrible.

Are there seriously no solutions for modern hardware?

My solution was to move the hotbars down to the bottom-middle of the screen. You can increase the size of text in the chat windows. That's it.

Hiw big of a 4k monitor are you using? The mistake a lot of people make is they buy a 4k monitor that's only 27 inches. Even with scaling you won't get any better image-quality than on a 1080 screen. If you really want the benefits of 4k you need at least 43".

[HumbleFriar]

We are aware that playing in 4k can be difficult. My suggestion (for now) is to play in 1440p instead. Sometimes you do need to enable the monitor scaling (they changed the default to off) so that the image scales up to 4k using your tv's scaler (this is what's used for 1080p images, will look even better w/ 1440p).

[Eantarus]

We are aware that playing in 4k can be difficult. My suggestion (for now) is to play in 1440p instead. Sometimes you do need to enable the monitor scaling (they changed the default to off) so that the image scales up to 4k using your tv's scaler (this is what's used for 1080p images, will look even better w/ 1440p).

Is it really that difficult for you guys to implement some basic UI scaling? Or even just make the buffs bar free-floating? That last one is the only change I really need to play comfortably.

[Captain_Wizbang]

The difference between 1080p and 4k is vast. Down scaling from ultra resolutions to 1080p makes the image fuzzy. It is terrible.

Are there seriously no solutions for modern hardware?

Using AMD gpu? Their software has upscaling. I use it on my Samsung Odyssey G7. Running in "2K". Hot bars are the only thing that doesn't take full advantage of it, but it's not noticeable after a few minutes of playing.

[R1ncewind]

We are aware that playing in 4k can be difficult. My suggestion (for now) is to play in 1440p instead. Sometimes you do need to enable the monitor scaling (they changed the default to off) so that the image scales up to 4k using your tv's scaler (this is what's used for 1080p images, will look even better w/ 1440p).

have you guys experiment with using AI to upscale the artwork to 4k? maybe use it at first and then correct any mistake made by it with the art team, that could reduce the work A LOT

[Eantarus]

have you guys experiment with using AI to upscale the artwork to 4k? maybe use it at first and then correct any mistake made by it with the art team, that could reduce the work A LOT

AI is not a magic potion. The cost in both dollars and dev time to purchase, train, and then learn how to operate an AI all for the purpose of upscaling a few dozen art assets is a very poor value proposition.

Easier solution: just stretch the stupid things. They already don't look great, just stretching them to fill the larger sizes would not hurt the overall esthetic of the game.

[Oliphant]

Adobe AE has detail preserving upscaling, using AI to let you upscale images. Also exists other AI that add details as you upscale. Seems like something cookie cutter like that would be good enough. Just get all your UI assets in one spot then have a loop go through the list and upscale everything.

[thegreatcthulhu]

Adobe AE has detail preserving upscaling, using AI to let you upscale images. Also exists other AI that add details as you upscale. Seems like something cookie cutter like that would be good enough. Just get all your UI assets in one spot then have a loop go through the list and upscale everything.

That's a cool idea.

Hmm... I suspect that they also are having a problem finding the time to do deal with all the headaches of telling the game to use the "4k assets" instead of the standard 1080p ones. Something tells me that's where technical debt rears its ugly head.

[thegreatcthulhu]

https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/510346

There was this I found, but it didn't work for me. Maybe it'll work for you for some reason as by the screenshots, it worked for someone.

I got it to work (using Windows 11 Pro), here is what I used:



Nitty gritty details:

1) Change DPI settings for DNDLauncher.exe

- This should be found in installation folder I.E. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dungeons and Dragons Online\DNDLauncher.exe)
- Right click on the exe file and go to properties - > go to compatability -> select "Change settings for all users"* -> Change DPI Settings
- Check "Use this setting to fix scaling problems, blah blah blah"
- Set "Use the DPI that's set to my display" to "when I open the program"**
- Check Override high DPI Scaling behavior blah blah blah
- Set High DPI scaling override (the last drop down) to "System (Enhanced)". It doesn't work if you select application (enhanced).

2) Change the DPI settings for dndclient64.exe using the same settings I listed up above.

- This should be in the x64 folder of your DDO installation (I.E. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dungeons and Dragons Online\x64\dndclient64.exe)

3) Change the DPI settings for dndclient.exe using the same settings as I listed in 1) up above.***

- This should be in the DDO installation folder (I.E. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dungeons and Dragons Online\dndclient.exe)

* You may not need to select all users, but I usually do this out of habit in case a program for some reason runs as a different user from the one who launched it (I.E. If you run DDO as admin or if you have multiple users share your PC and they all play DDO, you may need it).
** I used this since I did not feel like restarting Windows; you may be able to leave at default.
*** You may be able to skip this third step if you do not play the 32-bit version of the game. I did it for the sake of consistency.


Now, the result -

My monitor resolution is still 4k but I am able to at least see the game with a UI that I can see without squinting:





?

I should note that what it looks like happened is Windows told the game to adjust to the DPI and DDO responded by displaying in 2k on 4k:




It seems to lock the resolution at 2k when switching back and forth between full screen and full screen windowed. In my experience this is expected:



So as some others may have pretty much said, it's a hack/work-around. I am not sure if this is what HumbleFriar was talking about, but I'll agree the game looks good in 2k on 4k.

The game still looks even better in 4k admittedly, but the small text with actual 4k DDO causes too much eyestrain (IMO). For now, I will accept this since I can now leave my main monitor on its native resolution. YMMV.

[Eantarus]

That's a cool idea.

Hmm... I suspect that they also are having a problem finding the time to do deal with all the headaches of telling the game to use the "4k assets" instead of the standard 1080p ones. Something tells me that's where technical debt rears its ugly head.

I would be perfectly happy if they just told the game to stretch the UI out. The art assets on the hotbars already look like trash, upscaling them would just make them look like upscaled trash. A few lines of code is easier than creating hundreds of duplicate art assets in different sizes.

[Arkandor]

I guess the issue isn't the art per se, you just have to make 4 high res pixels out of every low res pixel to have an exact copy of the 1080p UI art resized for 4k resolution.

The problem begins when you need to resize and move all those little invisible boxes that wait for mouse clicks, even worse when the UI is made for efficiency, not flexibility, and the devs have to manually decide what happens when the player clicks 218 pixels to the right and 98 pixels down from the window's top left corner.

[thegreatcthulhu]

I would be perfectly happy if they just told the game to stretch the UI out. The art assets on the hotbars already look like trash, upscaling them would just make them look like upscaled trash. A few lines of code is easier than creating hundreds of duplicate art assets in different sizes.

I honestly wouldn't care either if they took the shortest of shortcuts to get it to "work" on 4k. I guess it depends on as to if the shortest way is "a few lines of code" or "still a pain in the butt"...

.... the fact that the game uses QT is making me wonder if it lies somewhere in the middle or towards the upper end of the spectrum. Especially if it's using an outdated version of QT that doesn't have any baked in DPI / display awareness features...

But I have really no idea, and again, I'm with you on willing to settle for less. I am just trying to think of technical reasons as to why it has taken so long.