Resolution and Particle Issues

Games
1

Hello everyone,

I’m thinking about going back to using Solar2D. I like the engine because it’s simple, fast, and has a very straightforward workflow. However, I ran into two issues the last time I developed a game with it:

1 - Resolution

The scaling modes didn’t work well in practice:

  • letterbox : keeps aspect ratio but adds black bars
  • zoomEven : fills the screen but crops content
  • zoomStretch : fills everything but distorts
  • adaptive : tries to adapt but is inconsistent

Also, on full-screen smartphones (with a front camera cutout), I ended up leaving some areas unfilled. This draws attention and hurts the overall look of the game.

2 - Particles

The particle system feels outdated. I tried different blend modes (add, multiply, etc.), but the results weren’t good — colors and effects looked unsatisfactory.

Is there any plan to improve these areas? A 2D game without good particle effects loses a lot of visual impact.

Thanks!

2

Letterbox.
Then it’s up to developer to make the game look correctly on all screens with safe positioning logic etc etc.

At least thats how I do it :smiley:

I guess even ChatGPT free version can make a working template!

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3

I can’t comment on the particle issue because I’ve never used it, but regarding apps, I use adaptive mode. However, with it, you have to create components with variable sizes based on the screen, not a fixed size. This approach has always worked for me when building apps. However, since yours is a game, letterboxing is recommended. Regarding the black borders, you practically have to solve it with an if-else statement; when you have black borders at certain screen sizes, change the aspect ratio to a larger one, so you’ll fill the rest of the screen.

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