How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

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LisaXL
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How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by LisaXL »

My laptop has resolution of 1366x768. When it runs Basillisk II, the drop down menu font is so tiny, I can hardly read. Even the check box is too small to select. My notebook at work has resolution of 1920x1080, but everything looks larger. How can I scale the display so everythng is larger. I tried lower resolution but it just show a smaller screen area. I can't find where I can modify it from the control panel.

I am a novice, so please give detail instructions.

Is there some code I can add to "basilisk_ii_prefs" to make the scaling happens?

Thanks a lot.
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adespoton
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by adespoton »

First, a few questions:
Are you asking about the resolution of Basilisk II itself, or the OS running inside it? The menus and check boxes... are those in the preferences window?
Are you running Basilisk II on Windows, macOS, or some other host OS?
LisaXL
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by LisaXL »

adespoton wrote: Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:25 pm First, a few questions:
Are you asking about the resolution of Basilisk II itself, or the OS running inside it? The menus and check boxes... are those in the preferences window?
Are you running Basilisk II on Windows, macOS, or some other host OS?
Hi, thanks for the reply. I am running Basilisk II on Windows. The text, icons, and everything just become very tiny. I think it is because it is running at 1366x768 resolution. That's the native resolution of my screen (which is also my Windows' resolution). It doesn't matter if I am running in windowed mode or full screen. Text, icons, and graphics are all very tiny. In Windows, you can scale the display larger so that the text and graphics is larger. I wonder if you can do that with Basilisk II.
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by adespoton »

LisaXL wrote: Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:43 pm
adespoton wrote: Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:25 pm First, a few questions:
Are you asking about the resolution of Basilisk II itself, or the OS running inside it? The menus and check boxes... are those in the preferences window?
Are you running Basilisk II on Windows, macOS, or some other host OS?
Hi, thanks for the reply. I am running Basilisk II on Windows. The text, icons, and everything just become very tiny. I think it is because it is running at 1366x768 resolution. That's the native resolution of my screen (which is also my Windows' resolution). It doesn't matter if I am running in windowed mode or full screen. Text, icons, and graphics are all very tiny. In Windows, you can scale the display larger so that the text and graphics is larger. I wonder if you can do that with Basilisk II.
So you're talking about the scale of the emulated OS, not the scale of Basilisk II's UI itself?

This thread should provide what you need: viewtopic.php?t=11088 - using the scale_nearest and scale_integer options in basilisk_ii_prefs
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by LisaXL »

Thanks a lot for the reply.
Last edited by LisaXL on Sat Nov 20, 2021 8:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by LisaXL »

adespoton wrote: Fri Nov 19, 2021 11:14 pm
LisaXL wrote: Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:43 pm
adespoton wrote: Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:25 pm First, a few questions:
Are you asking about the resolution of Basilisk II itself, or the OS running inside it? The menus and check boxes... are those in the preferences window?
Are you running Basilisk II on Windows, macOS, or some other host OS?
Hi, thanks for the reply. I am running Basilisk II on Windows. The text, icons, and everything just become very tiny. I think it is because it is running at 1366x768 resolution. That's the native resolution of my screen (which is also my Windows' resolution). It doesn't matter if I am running in windowed mode or full screen. Text, icons, and graphics are all very tiny. In Windows, you can scale the display larger so that the text and graphics is larger. I wonder if you can do that with Basilisk II.
So you're talking about the scale of the emulated OS, not the scale of Basilisk II's UI itself?

This thread should provide what you need: viewtopic.php?t=11088 - using the scale_nearest and scale_integer options in basilisk_ii_prefs
Thanks a lot for the reply. Actually, what I want to do is exactly the opposite of what the given thread. To bee more exact. I want to set the full screen resolution to 1024x600. But have Basilisk II to scale it to full screen(1366x768) so everything will appear larger. I hope there is a way to do that.

I found if I set the screen solution to 1024x600 at full screen using the BasiliskIIGUI,it will just create a black border around screen(my screen's native resolution is 1366x768). It will not scale the screen to full size. Looking at the BasiliskII_Prefs, it set the screen type to "dga". I hope someone can tell me how I can set the screen to scale to full size.
Thanks.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Do you use the latest BasiliskII build for Windows (the 02-09-2021 build) posted in this forum?
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by LisaXL »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote: Sat Nov 20, 2021 10:20 am Do you use the latest BasiliskII build for Windows (the 02-09-2021 build) posted in this forum?
Yes, I use the latest version.
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

On OSX/macOS BasiliskII will scale the window content when set to full screen. Apparently the Windows version does not do that.

To set BasiliskII to full screen, you can choose in the GUI for full screen and Maximum for the resolutions. But that does not solve your problem.

What you can try:
- Choose (enter) in the GUI resolutions that are half (or a little less) than the size of your screen. For instance 680x380. (Must be even numbers.)
- Start BasiliskII and adjust in the Monitors control panel the resolutions accordingly
- Close BasiliskII
- In the prefs file add and save this line:

Code: Select all

mag_rate 2
- When BasiliskII is started again (directly, not from the GUI !), it should appear double the size.

Note that each time you run the GUI, the added line will again be removed.
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by LisaXL »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote: Sat Nov 20, 2021 11:09 am On OSX/macOS BasiliskII will scale the window content when set to full screen. Apparently the Windows version does not do that.

To set BasiliskII to full screen, you can choose in the GUI for full screen and Maximum for the resolutions. But that does not solve your problem.

What you can try:
- Choose (enter) in the GUI resolutions that are half (or a little less) than the size of your screen. For instance 680x380. (Must be even numbers.)
- Start BasiliskII and adjust in the Monitors control panel the resolutions accordingly
- Close BasiliskII
- In the prefs file add and save this line:

Code: Select all

mag_rate 2
- When BasiliskII is started again (directly, not from the GUI !), it should appear double the size.

Note that each time you run the GUI, the added line will again be removed.
Thanks Ronald for the instructions. It almost worked. It does rescale to the full size screen without black border. The only problem is everthing looks "blocky". So it will not work. I am wondering for the screen option, is there other optons than "dga" and "win"? If there is, maybe it's worth a try.

I am looking into another direction. If I can just enlarge the fonts on the menu bar, it will be okay for me. Is there way to do that? Like using the Resedit? I need experts to help out here.

Thanks.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

LisaXL wrote: Sun Nov 21, 2021 6:45 amThanks Ronald for the instructions. It almost worked. It does rescale to the full size screen without black border. The only problem is everything looks "blocky".
That is inevitable. When enlarged to double size, each pixel will be replaced by four pixels on your screen. The inherent "blocky" appearance in these old OS versions will be more visible.

I am wondering for the screen option, is there other optons than "dga" and "win"?
There are no other options.

I am looking into another direction. If I can just enlarge the fonts on the menu bar, it will be okay for me.
In System 7.5.3 you can change font and font size of file names and such in Appearance control panel, in MacOS 8.1 in Finder preferences, but the font size in the menu bar cannot be changed.

I am surprised that you complain about the size of the font in the menu bar (Chicago, or possibly Charcoal if you run MacOS 8.1), which is relatively large. It is the other system font's default size (Geneva 9 or 10) that some people have problems with.
Could there be something wrong with your System/MacOS installation? Can you show us a screen shot?


Is there way to do that? Like using the Resedit? I need experts to help out here.
That should not be necessary if the menu bar font has its normal appearance.
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by LisaXL »

Hi, maybe I used the wrong word "Blocky". But basically all the words break up, so you can't really read what the text are. Here is the screen shot.
https://ibb.co/68fTW5z

Now, there is a function on Basilisk that will scale the image with anti-aliasing. It should solve my problem.

If I set the scale 1:1, all the text are clear. But the text has become very tiny. That's why I want to find a way to increase the menu size. Here is the screen shot of 1:1 scale.
https://ibb.co/JQYbvf8

Thanks again.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Yes, that is the "blocky" I was referring to. But it looks much worse than needed. Maybe you still have scale_nearest true and/or scale_integer true in your prefs file? If so, remove these lines (or change true to false). They make things look worse instead of better. (They are intended for high resolution screens, which your screen is not.)

I still do not really understand why you find the menu bar font so small.

All other fonts/text can be enlarged if you wish so.

There is no anti-aliasing in BasiliskII.

Does Windows have settings that can change the displayed resolution to smaller values? That could possibly give better results. But first try without the scale_nearest and scale_integer settings in the prefs file.
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

BasiliskII with "mag_rate 2", and without the "scale" entries, should look similar to this:


Image
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by LisaXL »

Hi Ronald, thanks a lot for your help. You sure know your Mac stuff, very professional.

I discover my notebook at work has native resolution of 1920x1080. But the Basilisk runs Mac OS at 1280x720 full screen using the default settings. And it is not blocky. Therefore, all the graphics and fonts look the correct size. I wish my notebook in the home can do the same. The tex and graphics at my home notebook are tiny in comparison.

Maybe I will downgrade my Mac System from 8.1 to 7.5.3. So I can set the menu bar text to larger size.

Best regards.
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

You cannot change the menu bar font size in System 7.5.3. Only the other system font size (for file names and such) can be changed, in 7.5.3 in Appearance control panel and in 8.1 in Finder preferences.
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by adespoton »

Well, using ResEdit or Aaron or Kaleidoscope he can change the menu font. The only thing that has to change is a different bitmap font needs to replace Chicago in the system file.

Kaleidoscope is probably the best way to manage this, as it's non-destructive, has a friendly UI, and IIRC can also do anti-aliased TrueType fonts. There is, of course, a performance pentalty.
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by LisaXL »

adespoton wrote: Mon Nov 22, 2021 9:05 pm Well, using ResEdit or Aaron or Kaleidoscope he can change the menu font. The only thing that has to change is a different bitmap font needs to replace Chicago in the system file.

Kaleidoscope is probably the best way to manage this, as it's non-destructive, has a friendly UI, and IIRC can also do anti-aliased TrueType fonts. There is, of course, a performance pentalty.
Wow! Using Kaleidoscope really works! Thanks a lot. Now I can change the Menu bar text to my prefered size.
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by mabam »

If performance is an issue, you might try Big Menu.

We used it on a Quadra 950 with a 21" Radius CRT screen back then.

From Mac User February 1988 (see p. 264 for screenshots):
There is a shareware product called Big Menu that enlarges the menu bar (and its pull-down menus) to either 14- or 16-point type. Installing Big Menu usually results in larger print in dialog boxes and window titles, too. The pointer, however, stays its normal size. For users who do not need all parts of the screen enlarged, this inexpensive program (which works as an INIT resource) might be the ticket.

[…]

Once you install Big Menu, the menu bar, menu items, window titles and even some dialog boxes are enlarged to 14- or 16-point Chicago. This beefed-up type can cause havoc in some dialog boxes, where there may not be enough room to display the whole contents anymore.

[…]

Big Menu actually installs two jumbo sizes of Chicago into your System file, which you can then select and use just as you would any other font size in any other application.
Last edited by mabam on Wed Nov 24, 2021 9:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
LisaXL
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Re: How can I enlarge the screen scale on Basillisk II?

Post by LisaXL »

mabam wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 7:33 pm If performance is an issue, you might try Big Menu.

We used it on a Quadra 950 with a 21" Radius CRT screen back then.

From Mac User February 1988 (see p. 264 for screenshots):
There is a shareware product called Big Menu that enlarges the menu bar (and its pull-down menus) to either 14- or 16-point type. Installing Big Menu usually results in larger print in dialog boxes and window titles, too. The pointer, however, stays its normal size. For users who do not need all parts of the screen enlarged, this inexpensive program (which works as an INIT resource) might be the ticket.

[…]

Once you install Big Menu, the menu bar, menu items, window titles and even some dialog boxes are enlarged to 14- or 16-point Chicago. This beefed-up type can cause havoc in some dialog boxes, where there may not be enough room to display the whole contents anymore.

[…]

Big Menu actually installs two jumbo sizes of Chicago into your System file, which you can then select and use just as you would any other font size in any other application.
Thanks a lot. The only issue is it doesn't support OS 8.1. Otherwise, it appears to be a better solution.
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