Pocket PC and Smartphone to support higher screen resolution

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

I don't really care about a change in the aspect ratio of the display as long as the pixels are square.

If the pixels are NOT square, then there is a serious problem!

[Guest midnight]

they cant do that, to draw gfx for apps/games would be a complete nightmare (and practically impossible), videos would be stretched/compressed, and so it is a very bad idea all-round, and would go down as one of the biggest fluff-ups ever. The change in aspect ration does matter, it means that backwards compatability would be very difficult, you'd either end up with pixels missing off the sides of the display, or a large gap at the top/bottom of the display, either way, not good.

We are of course talking about different applications for the display though, you are concerned about the video side of it whereas i am talking about game development :)

[Guest Soyale]

I mean, since many Smartphone apps do not really look at the display size and assume that it is 240x176, I would think that only apps that signal that they are aware of other resolution could run in an environment when the display size is non standard.

If not, then I think many applications will just break if you run them with a different display size.

So I'd talked about a couple of backward compatibility scenarios in the session that announced this. Your application does not need to notify the system that it supports new resolutions, rather the platform detects if you're an application that expects "standard" resolutions and tries to do things to make your application work. We're working very hard on backward compatibility scenarios because we're aware that this is a significant change for Windows Mobile developers and we DO NOT want applications to break. Some examples:

Dialog applications in landscape mode Dialogs which have controls which would not be off screen when in landscape mode get scroll bars so you can scroll the "hidden" controls into view.

Apps on QVGA Smartphone Apps which expect 176x220 will be bounded by borders so no stretching is necessary.

Apps on VGA Pocket PC Where possible apps will be pixel doubled. In form based .NET Compact Framework applications you don't need to do anything because the framework will take account of the new resolution for you

Even something as basic as the paswword-protection dialog from MSFT breaks when running in Landscape mode on a Pocket PC!

We've had to do some signficant work on our own applications and platform to support new resolutions and orientations. We've been recommending in user interface sessions for some years that you shouldn't assume resoltuion/orientation, thinking about third party products such as Jimmy Landscape. Of course, we didn't listen to our own advice and hence feel developers pain.

How are applications notified of an orientation change ? What message do they receive ?

For native (C++) developers you should primarily listen for WM_SIZE and arrange your controls according to the available screen estate. You may also receive a WM_SETTINGCHANGE message with SETTINGCHANGE_RESET as the wParam.

Can you please recap the resolutions that must be supported in Landscape or Portrait orientation for both Pocket PC and Smartphone ?

I'd be delighted.

Pocket PC : VGA, Portrait/Landscape, Square, Standard (QVGA)

Smartphone : QVGA, Standard (176x220)

We have no plans for other resolutions at this time but while you're updating applications I'd encourage you to start thinking of your UI in terms of screen proportions and anchoring of controls rather than in specific resolutions. That way you'll be ready if anything changes in the future.

jp

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

[EDITED]

Thanks.

Are you aware that the change of resolution that you propose will lead to pixels that are not square on the Smartphone ?

If that was the case, this would be a real problem! (for games and video applications, which expect all pels to be perfectly square).

320/240 = 1.333333

220/176 = 1.25

This is a pretty big difference! This means that is the pixels are square with the 220 x 176 resolution, they will not be square at all with the 320 x 240 resolution covering the same display.

I'm even more concrened about what you call "Square" On Pocket PC. If this means that horizontal and vertical resolutions are the same, then the pels are not square at all!!!

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Previous post edited - yes, the aspect ratios of the various resolutions are quite different, and this will lead to non-square pels!