Oolite Bulletins

Sorry if this is a dumb-ass question, but I'm confused about it.

Below you find a (re-sized) screenshot of the options-screen of my Oolite:


The first game option states "Fullscreen: 1280 x 800". And that's indeed the resolution my game is running in ... in a window(!?). I am using a MacBookPro with a max screen resolution of 1440x900, so that is the maximum size window that fits on my screen. If I choose "Fullscreen: 1440 x 900" as game resolution, the game will run in a 1440x900-window, which of course wouldn't fit on my screen. I find that strange.

So my question is: How exactly are fullscreen and windowed mode implemented in Oolite for Mac? I never ever get the choice of a windowed mode in the game options. All resolutions explicitly state "Fullscreen:". But at the same time I never ever have seen Oolite running fullscreen. It is always in a window.

So I am confused. There are for instance a couple of commands only available in fullscreen mode (or in windowed mode), like SHIFT-M, mentioned in another thread. Can I use these? Or can't I? Am I fullscreen? Or windowed?

Please give me some clarification. Thanks.

Apple-F enters or leaves fullscreen mode... You'll be able to tell the difference because the menu bar won't be visible.

The fullscreen resolution setting only applies when Oolite is running fullscreen. If it's running in a window you can resize that window like any other Mac window and it adjusts its resolution accordingly.

Under OS X, the full-screen and windowed modes are entirely separate. The “Fullscreen:” preference should only apply to full-screen mode, which (as stevesims indicates) is entered with the Command-F key combination. I appreciate that this is somewhat unclear, as it’s only documented in the manual (cough, cough) ;-)

However, it seems that using the right arrow key to select a full screen mode doesn’t work properly, although the left arrow key works fine.

Ahruman wrote:

Under OS X, the full-screen and windowed modes are entirely separate. The “Fullscreen:” preference should only apply to full-screen mode, which (as stevesims indicates) is entered with the Command-F key combination. I appreciate that this is somewhat unclear, as it’s only documented in the manual (cough, cough)

Oh, there is a manual?

But, seriously, I do find it somewhat unclear, because in general I am expecting the options of a game to inform me about the status it is actually in. And this is not the case with Oolite's screen resolution option. (E.g. the line 'Sound Volume: MUTE' tells me that the sound is currently turned off, otherwise I'd see a bar indicating the current volume; the line 'Reduced detail: OFF' tells me that I am currently playing with full details; only the line 'Fullscreen: 1280 x 960' tells me something that is not actually the case.)

Anyway, thanks very much for the clarification!!!

Ahruman wrote:

However, it seems that using the right arrow key to select a full screen mode doesn’t work properly, although the left arrow key works fine.

Well, in my version the right arrow key works sometimes, but not always. There seem to be a couple of 'barriers' that it can't overcome.