4k Monitor Text Size

[Mirador]

KSP Version : v0.90 Windows 32-bit and 64-bit

What Happens : Text in menus becomes too small to read at anything over 1 foot from screen

Mods / Add-Ons : Stock

Steps to replicate :

1) Attach pc to a 4k monitor or tv

2) Set in game resolution to 4096 x 2160

3) Access any menu in VAB / SPH or in flight on part

Result : The text is still at the default font size, which is so small it is unreadable.

I have looked round the forums to try and find a way to change font size, but no one seems to have an answer. I have also looked at the .cfg files to see if font size was changeable, but have not been unable to find the code. These leads me to believe the font size in right click menus and pop-up boxes is hard coded in the game. As 4k gaming is now becoming more popular this desperately needs to be changed. The font size should scale with the screen resolution size, or have an independent slider in the options to allow people to adjust it. This is not only a good idea for those with 4k compliant hardware, but will also help people who are visually impaired.

I have read some of the workarounds people have suggested, and i have tried them all. Here are findings for these 'workarounds'.

1) Lower resolution to 1080p : This isn't a work around. This is a downgrade. It DOES NOT alter the problem, which is text size in 4k resolutions. Yes it makes the text readable, but it doesn't allow 4k gaming, and also, on a 65" screen, it makes the game look awful.

2) Use the in-game UI scaler : Again this doesn't work. This affects only the in-flight HUD not the menu or pop-up descriptions. Also, it doesn't actually help with the HUD. The issue seems to be that the UI does not scale with resolution, but is again coded to a pixel count. Using the standard HUD size, it is so small the staging and toolbar buttons are almost invisible, and when scaled up to max it still takes up less screen area than standard HUD size at 1080p resolutions.

Solutions : Have the HUD, text and menus of the game coded to fill a % of the screen, not a pixel count. Then have a UI scaler which affects ALL aspects of the GUI, increase or decrease that %. Even just an option to set the global font size would help and make the game playable in 4k.

I feel it is a great shame that this has been overlooked, as in 4k this game is beyond beautiful. When just flying a craft the game becomes breathtakingly gorgeous. However, right now i have the option to have a beautiful game with almost no functionality, or a functional game that looks bad. I'm having to make do with the later, but i really want both.

[cantab]

As you've presented it, this is a development suggestion rather than a support topic.

Personally I'd like to see it resolved in 1.0 but I don't see it as a showstopper issue. Many programs, games and otherwise, have problems at very high screen resolutions and lowering the system resolution is an obvious workaround for all of them.

[Streetwind]

I'd also like to see this addressed in a future version.

Gaming is rapidly moving towards high resolutions as a replacement for antialiasing - today's deferred rendering engines really perform not so much antialiasing but apply glorified blur filters to the game, and it looks just awful (in KSP, I actually feel like image quality decreases when AA is activated). But now, dynamic super resolution / "downscaling" is a thing with both AMD and Nvidia's latest cards, and will be standard from here on out. In addition, the industry is pushing to establish 4K. Laptops have already been pushing very high DPI counts for the past two years.

Right now this is an issue that affects only a small subset of KSP players, but this is guaranteed to increase steadily. One year down the road, a good 20% of the playerbase might be on 4K or a similar 150-200 DPI screen, and another 20% are not but would like to use dynamic super resolution. And all of them will have severe issues with UI readability.

Who knows, if this requires an UI rewrite, and Unity 5 requires significant porting effort, it might be a good idea to combine these two, whenever Unity 5 rolls around. Sometime after 1.0 I reckon

[biohazard15]

As WQHD (2560x1440) monitor user, I second that. It's not so bad as 4K, of course, but text in Admin Facility and some sections in part descriptions is barely readable. There is a GUI scaler present, it even works (and helps), but it affects only the in-flight GUI, not space center menus.

- - - Updated - - -

That's what I'm talking about:

[NoMrBond]

As WQHD (2560x1440) monitor user, I second that. It's not so bad as 4K, of course, but text in Admin Facility and some sections in part descriptions is barely readable. There is a GUI scaler present, it even works (and helps), but it affects only the in-flight GUI, not space center menus.

I'll add my voice/vote/request here (again) for addressing this in the space centre environs. The sidebar of the R&D building research screen (and part icons) also suffers from this.

[Bandock]

Currently, 4K is not a priority at this time, but expect to see it in the future. I know because I also made a suggestion for such a feature: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/98121-Future-Support-for-4K-Resolution

4K support will come in due time.

[wick422]

1 year later. v.1.2.2 and still not implemented.

[Z77]

Two different (but same method) guides on how to tell apps to refer to the built-in Windows scaling instead of an applicaiton's (non-existent) scaling tools:

The URL says Adobe, but this applies to just about anything with scaling issues that I've tried it on.

http://www.danantonielli.com/adobe-app-scaling-on-high-dpi-displays-fix/

 

 

[MikeZ]

Just bought this on steam and at first launch was confronted with unreadable text.  So....on build 1.30 now and 4K isn't implemented yet.

Text in options screen is all but unreadable. Scaling the UI (while using a magnifying glass....) didn't really solve the problem. It will be very welcome if the devs would work on 4K soon. Can't imagine it to be a big challenge.

[Windy]

on a 5k 27" iMac 4 GHz Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon R9 M295X

 it is even a bit worse at the native 5120 x 2800; the UI is flyspeck even at the max 1.5 UI setting

so at 1.5 UI scale I had to reduce the res to 2880 x1620 to get a useable  UI

most folks that buy a 4 or 5k machine want to use what they have bought.

1.3.0.1804 OSXPLAYER