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wkSuperFrontendHD 0.4.4 released [With HD graphics!]

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StepS:
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It has been a while, but it's finally here! This is by far the largest update of the module ever. The development started in October 2015, while playing with the idea of adding support for higher-resolution packages. Some notes about that were previously mentioned in the v0.3 release overview. I'm happy to say that after a year of working on the module, the goal has finally been accomplished. This update is specific in that, unlike with updates for other modules that hadn't had updates for many months, work on SuperFrontend continued regularly throughout the entire period. Day by day, week by week, graphics kept accumulating, and the packages growing. Sometimes, entire folders of graphics had to be redone. It was ensured that work into SuperFrontend would be invested at least once each two weeks. Given that I'm not really an artist, it took a while. Especially given that I care about the quality of each image. Now that it's here, the module is sure to appeal to a much wider playerbase (as well as make life easier for worms streamers, of course).

Click for the full changelog

So, let's see what we have new in terms of graphics in the update.
The update introduces two graphics packages: x720 (x1.5 - for resolutions with heights of 720 and above) and x960 (x2.0 - for 960 and above). The appropriate package will be selected according to your screen resolution (the lowest available will be used). There's no x1.75 (840) package at the moment, so users of 900p (1600x900) resolutions are a little bit out of luck here. That goes without saying but there is no package for 4K, and although I do have a portion of graphics ready for 4K (from vectors, etc.), I will not continue working on this for obvious reasons...



So yeah, that's pretty big. Now let's look at some more distinctive features of the graphical additions in the update.

New font sizes

There are now 6 new fonts, in addition to the 4 already existing in the game. The game uses Tahoma Bold, and that's what everything is in, except for some small fonts.
[*]Micro (6x6) - this is a super-tiny font which is only used in place of the Small font when running in 320x240. More details about 320x240 near the bottom of the post. The font is original pixel art.
[*]Mini (8x8) - another small font, Std font for 320x240 or small for 480x360. Note that this font uses grayscale, but ideally it shouldn't due to its size. However, as an intermediary solution, Tahoma Bold is also used here. I might make a new pixel art font later.
[*]Huge (48x50) - used as Big with x1.5, or Medium with x2.0.
[*]Giant (64x66) - used as Big with x2.0.
[*]Ludicrous (96x100) - one of the 2K/4K fonts.
[*]Insane (128x132) - this is the largest font that you will only ever see in place of Big while running in 4K.
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Updated WormNET flags

Of course, HD bitmaps also mean HD flags. Most of these come from Wikimedia, adapted, palettized and adjusted for the game's style. Feel free to use these in snoopers, etc. Note that I didn't keep unpalettized versions of these strips, though I do have unpalettized vector versions of the flags themselves.

And much more: strips, animated frames, buttons, etc. You can see for yourself when you launch your game with the module.

So now, you might ask, how was this all accomplished? The packages are a mix of three types of graphics:
[*]Remade from scratch (vectorized) - these are a relatively small group, but still quite distinct e.g. in the Game Options screen. Since I don't have too much experience in vectorizing or drawing, I did it slowly but well. This is best quality.
[*]From freely available higher-resolution graphics, downscaled with modern algorithms - these form another distinct group, and they're especially visible in the Weapon Editor. The game itself had higher-resolution versions of its smaller graphics, and those were adapted when working with the x2.0 resolution package. The quality is very good.
[*]Assisted upscaling with the use of neural networks - these were made bigger using modern neural network algorithms; then manual retouching, most of the time pixel-precise, was performed on each image. This is probably the largest group here. The quality is good, in particular of the bigger images.
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Now let's not forget that we're still in 256-color mode. Color limitations! This was another issue I faced, as each image had to be palettized, and ultimately I found how to it best (might not apply to some graphics made earlier in the process of making). It should be noted that most (if not all) graphics here use compatibility palettes. This means that the unused blue-background and star/spanner palette cells are removed from them, and they are not used. Most original graphics did not use the debris cells anyway. This, in particular, is to allow palette mods (both existing and future) to be freely used with the module, without fearing that glitches will appear due to the full palette usage by each element. Note, though, that this doesn't extend to the Weapon Options screen, and the WormNET flags. Using palette mods with those might result in minor glitches (it's understandable given how they struggle already).

So yes, enough with this, you can now try this all yourself.

Downloads
[*]Download the full package (0.4.4.0 - 1 Aug 2021) - both the module and the graphics.
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Installation
[*]Download the archive.
[*]Extract the archive's contents to the game's directory. Your graphics directory should now have the _super dir.
[*]Enable "Load WormKit modules" in the advanced settings of the game.
[*]Your frontend now runs at your game's resolution (from the W:A options). If you want, you can tweak the settings using the wkSuperFrontend.ini file, enabling Desktop, to use the desktop resolution, or enable Custom, to change the resolution to any values.
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Separate downloads:
[*]the module (only use when there are no graphics updates between versions)
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Additional downloads:
[*]x240 package
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Initially meant as an internal joke for April 1st, the package was a testament to the flexibility of the module, as well as a fun little easter egg that reminds us of the Game Boy times... Note that most of this is nearest-neighbor scaled (via the module's built-in scaling feature), and there are crash-inducing bugs, so use at your own risk!
Of course you will need some support for such a resolution: in the driver if fullscreen (present mostly on laptops), or via windowed mode. Note that you can generate a x240 package on your own, if you enable "AutoScaleMissingGraphics" and set your resolution to "Custom" with 320x240, or 480x360. This makes use of the Micro and Mini fonts.

I'd like to thank all the people who helped test the module before the release. It has come a long way, but it's finally out.

Known issues
[*]■ Screenshots made in the frontend (with the Pause button) have a height limit of 480. This might be fixed in the near future.
[*]■ The map thumbnails, and the map editing area in the Map Editor are not scaled. This might be fixed at some point.
[*]■ In magnified mode with scaled fonts, the map memory usage warning text appears cut off.
[*]■ Team names are not synchronized in position with the handicap/color/worms button rows in the magnified mode. This is because, while the controls are repositioned, texts in lists still remain with the same intervals between lines. A workaround might appear in the near future. Low priority because of SuperGraphics in 0.4.
[*]■ Small graphics that accompany text lines in listboxes, are not centered to the middle of the line, and appear slightly shifted to the top with 2.0x scaled text (for example). Low priority because of SuperGraphics in 0.4.
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Fixed issues
[*]Fixed in WA 3.8 - Some font colors are not anti-aliased in higher font sizes (only white, grey, yellow, cyan, and white on red are anti-aliased). This is due to the palette limitations, with the frontend .pal files not including positions for antialiasing those colors. This might be visible on WormNET.
[*]Fixed in 0.4 - There's a rare, isolated bug which makes the inputs "transparent", with clicks going through to the windows underneath. This should be fixed soon.
[*]Fixed in 0.4 - Headers of the tables (e.g. the team list, WormNET player list. etc.) have a fixed height, and thus a 2.0x scaled text doesn't fit well. This might be fixed in the near future.
[*]Fixed in 0.4 - In non-magnified mode, clicking the bottom of the screen to minimize won't work. This only works in magnified mode because the dialog window is big enough to accept mouse input at a position like that. Low priority.
[*]Partially Fixed in 0.4 - With magnification, the arsenal door in the weapon editor is useless as it's too small to cover everything. One of the solutions is to hide all buttons that it's supposed to hide, and center the door. This might be done soon.
[*]Fixed in 0.4 {S} - When using "internal 4x3 mode", there's a rectangle wandering in the wild in the Team Editor. This might be fixed soon.
[*]Fixed in 0.4 - Support for 3.7.0.0 is poor (no fix for the arsenal door and no AdjustDebris support). This will eventually improve over time, but the priority for this is low, you should just update your game anyway. Note: 3.7.0.0r2 only. 3.7.0.0r1 (unpatched) is not supported.
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Old 0.3 release notes
Spoiler! View
wkSuperFrontend v0.3 is now available for download. This is a significant update compared to the previous test versions found on the WKB website, which never saw an official release besides there.

Let's talk about the new features introduced in this version.


Magnification of the dialogs



wkSuperFrontend is now able to scale and reposition all of the frontend's elements to any screen resolution independently on the aspect ratio. Additionally, larger fonts can be used depending on the height in the selected resolution (two font scaling levels are available, with the lesser one being enabled by default). This essentially brings the true HD mode to the frontend.


New options

The update adds a [Magnification] section to the settings file, which comes with some additional options:
[*]Enable - enables the magnification.
[*]CenterBitmapControls - enabled by default (and there's no good reason to disable it). Will center all of the BMP elements used in the frontend, if their size is smaller than what it'd be with the scaling applied. This also applies to the map thumbnails.
[*]ScaleFonts - enabled by default. This will scale fonts depending on the height of the resolution you've selected. Fonts will be scaled by 1.5x for resolutions with height 720 and higher, and if "LesserFontScaling" is off, by 2.0x for heights of 960 and higher. This is compatible with the "Larger fonts" option of W:A.
[*]LesserFontScaling - enabled by default. With this option enabled, the 2.0x font scaling mode will only kick in for heights of 1440 and higher, instead of 960. Lesser font scaling should appeal for most people, but if you're on a higher-DPI screen or simply want the fonts to be scaled at 2.0x and 1080p, then disable this option. It will later be changed to behave depending on the system DPI, forced, and other options.
[*]RestrictFormsToFontHeight - enabled by default. When scaling input forms and listboxes, the height of the form will be limited to the height of the font that's supposed to appear according to the current font scaling setting, and the form itself will be centered. Thus, this removes unneeded empty space from the bottoms of the input forms, in case the height doesn't coincide well with the font height (useful with the lesser font scaling mode enabled).
[*]UseInternal4x3AspectRatio - disabled. With this option on, the frontend will appear as a centered and magnified 4x3 box fitting the height on wide-screens or the width on narrow-screens. Only for esthetical purposes.
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Also added "AlwaysUseDesktopResolution" to [Misc] which will always use the current resolution of your desktop, regardless of what's set for FrontendWidth and FrontendHeight in the settings file. It is disabled by default; however, the first time you run the module (with width and height set to 0) your desktop resolution will be autodetected once and written back to the settings file.


HD bitmaps?

Graphic elements (such as BMPs) that are smaller than the expected size will appear centered. It is possible to replace graphics with their higher-resolution versions, and they'll be positioned accordingly, however if you're going to do that, you should use a different installation directory of the game (or keep backups) or wait for an update of the module that adds support for creating separate 1.5x/2x/etc graphics packs. There are some things to consider, though: the game is still limited to a 256-color palette, with each frontend screen having its own set of 256 colors. Original unpalettized versions of the graphics are not available, so the only options at the moment are either remaking them, vectorized in vector graphics software such as Inkscape, or using special 2D raster image upscaling software such as waifu2x, and then palettizing them for the frontend. However, there are some buttons that already have bigger sizes of the graphics in other parts of the frontend (such as the small buttons inside the scheme selection box in the host/join screen). Some other graphics (such as the wormheads of human teams, and the smaller lightbulbs in the list of online players) are used directly from WA.exe's resources, so are harder to replace. And there are some buttons in the scheme editor that receive an overlay with small numbers that always appear at the same position (e.g., the turn time, round time buttons). I suggest waiting for an update of the module that'll make it more streamlined to apply all sorts of graphics mods to the frontend, if you want to make and use new bitmaps.



The module is now compatible with all versions of the game starting with 3.7, but compatibility with future versions (past 3.7.2.1) is not guaranteed. Should there be an incompatibility, the module will report it to you.

Special thanks to Deadcode for pointing out workarounds for certain W:A bugs encountered in the process of making this module.

Sbaffo:
Can't download it

StepS:

--- Quote from: Sbaffo on August 04, 2015, 03:38 PM ---Can't download it

--- End quote ---
I'm able to download it; perhaps your internet provider is blocking free hosting websites. I have now added an alternative link (worms2d.info) which should always work.

Sbaffo:
Ok it worked now.

Kangaroo:
my old year 2000 laptop has only ever allowed me to have 1024x768 as my MAX resolution, will this magnification sheet help me get a larger resolution  if i play around with the WK LobbyCmd ??  In the past ive tryed every resolution with LobbyCmd,  some come close to giving me a larger resolution but they dont line up with the screen ( 1/4 of screen black ect).

A way to get larger res on smaller screens would be awsome xD

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