4k resolution (UltraHD) support? Retina Macs?

[nagromme]

Great to see UT back on Mac! Seems to work very well for the most part. But are retina displays supported?

I have a D700 Mac Pro (Yosemite) with a 24" Dell UP2414Q 4k display: 3840x2160. The Mac OS sees this display as a retina display, just like a MacBook Pro or retina iMac, and Mac System Preferences defaults to a size that is equivalent to 1920x1080, but with 2x2 pixels for every one. (Sharp "retina"/high-DPI text.)

Maybe that's why UT does not offer the full resolution? The UI only offers as high as 1920x1080.

When I edit GameUserSettings.ini to force a higher res, such as full 3840x2160 or 2560x1440 (which this display also supports, scaled), it does work: the game DOES use that resolution. So far so good!

Except: only the top-left 1920x1080 of the screen will receive mouse clicks. The mouse will MOVE everywhere--and the rollover highlights even work--but clicks are ignored along the bottom and right side. So you can't click Play, for instance.

So there's a bug report, for what it's worth

[mjw]

I am using a retina macbook pro 13" at the default resolution (2560x1600 looks like 1280x800). UT fills the screen fine*, but I was having the same issue with the mouse. Was able to get a game going (the pointer seems to work properly in the menus) but couldn't click on the right half of the top menu bar, for example, to quit a game and return to the menu. I think this is because I had first started the game at 1680x1050 but then turned off scaling. Once I restarted the game, it was fine.


*OK, it looks blurry, it is running at 1280x800, but I don't know if the Iris is up to running UT at full resolution. So it is definitely supported, and I even figured out how to break the pointer like you have I wonder if there are multiple places in GameUserSettings.ini that must have the resolution set?

[nagromme]

It would be great if UT eventually understands retina Macs and will offer the full high-DPI resolution without editing an .ini--and even double the UI fonts accordingly.

But during Alpha Time, I do have a workaround I found!

You can trick a retina Mac into thinking it is NOT a retina (2x) Mac—just a Mac with a very big (1x) display. (This should apply to a retina MacBook Pro, retina iMac, or any Mac with an external display seen as a retina display—which AFAIK is only 24" 4k displays, of which Dell makes the only two I know of, and 5k displays which I have no experience of. 27" or larger 4k displays have pixels too big for "retina" use, and I believe OS X sees them as traditional native 1x, avoiding any retina confusion.)

Here's how: before gaming, just open System Preferences (shortcut: Option-F1, no need to hold Fn). Option-click the Scaled choice at the top to toggle "retina mode" (shows a row of little screenshot samples) vs. "traditional mode" (shows a list of numeric resolutions).

Now you can choose any resolution numbers for the system. Then, next time you launch the game (no need to relaunch the Epic app, just UT), it will offer all those other choices--and clicking will work. You can have full 3840x2160 (which bogs down my D700s somewhat—dual GPUs must not be enabled in this game yet). Or choose various other sizes that are lower, but still much higher than the 1920x1080 limit the game was limited to previously. (2560x1440 seems like a nice balance of speed and detail on my Mac Pro. All settings on Medium since I can't tell a difference—except Post set to Low—and I'm trying Temporal AA, just because it sounds efficient to me). Looks terrific!

Then you can change your res back in System Settings after playing--otherwise your Mac menus remain tiny.

(There's even a checkbox to show pixel-doubled "low-res" modes in the list. But I doubt you'll want those sharp square pixels for gaming. Better to let the game do the scaling: then the scaling is done softly, like LCDs usually do for non-native resolutions. Imagine the difference between 720p gaming scaled up softly to fill the display, vs. scaled sharply with big retro bathroom-tile pixels. I like soft better.)

This "traditional resolution mode" is very useful even if you don't want to go above 1920x1080. Because in normal "retina" mode, all resolutions are rendered at 1x and then pixel-doubled sharply by the game. You get super-sharp 1920x1080 pixels, or a bit less sharp if you're scaling from some smaller res—but still stair-stepped. (Obvious if you zoom in with the Control key.)

But in this hidden "traditional" mode, when you choose the same lower resolutions, the system scales them softly. So even low resolutions look better once the game realizes you have a 4k display. Try it and compare.

[srmojuze]

Hi here's a summary of "forcing" full resolution on Mac: http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/18/3-way...ve-resolution/