PI 01.08.04.1195 scaled retina display OS X

[Joe DePasquale]

I've seen some posts about this but no real answers. Is there going to be support for scaled "More Space" resolutions on retina displays? I've been holding off on upgrading from 01.08.03.1123 because of this. I always run in "More Space" mode and PI just looks awful at this resolution (the splash logo is half cut off, and the interface is all super-sized).

One workaround that I've found is that if I switch to the default resolution for the display, then open PI, then go back to the scaled resolution, PI will follow and scale accordingly and it looks beautiful! I just wish it would open that way by default without jumping through display hoops.

I'm running PI on a 15-inch mid-2015 MBP on El Capitan 10.11.3

Thanks!

***

I should add that I'm giving a talk to a bunch of astronomers next week to drum up support for a PI mini-workshop so, naturally, I want it to look great during demos! 

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Joe,

I cannot reproduce this problem on OS X 10.10.5 and 10.11.2. Are you running version 1.8.4.1195 of PixInsight?

For example, I have just tried with my iMac 5K in "more space" mode, and PixInsight runs nicely at 3200x1800 scaled resolution (although, as expected, everything is very small and screen drawing is quite slow compared to native resolution).

[Joe DePasquale]

Hi Juan,

 Thanks for looking into it. I'm testing version 1.8.4.1195 but usually run version 1.8.3.1123 because of this scaling issue. I've included links of screen shots of both versions that I just took at full screen resolution in scaled "More Space" mode. You can clearly see the differences between 3.1123 and 4.1195 (besides the issue with the logo). The whole user interface is much larger in 4.1195 for me when compared with 3.1123. Maybe this is intended? 

v 3.1123:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1360537/PI/Screen%20Shot%202016-02-08%20at%201.18.34%20PM.png

v 4.1195:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1360537/PI/Screen%20Shot%202016-02-08%20at%201.19.08%20PM.png

This last link shows what 4.1195 looks like if I first open it with the screen set to "Default" scaling and then change it to "More Space" while PI is still open...only then does it appear to scale correctly. 

v 4.1195 (after opening in Default and rescaling to More Space):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1360537/PI/Screen%20Shot%202016-02-08%20at%201.24.35%20PM.png

[Juan Conejero]

Scaled video modes work perfectly on our iMac machines with 1.8.4.1195, so this is really strange. I don't know why this happens, just that it cannot happen, in theory. Most likely this is a Qt bug, which doesn't surprise me too much on OS X, actually.

Fortunately, you have found a workaround by changing to a scaled display mode while the application is running, so stick with it!

Or you can try the following: EDIT > Global Preferences > Core UI Resources > Automatic UI scaling (disable option). Make sure that UI scaling factor = 1, then press F6 to execute globally. Exit PixInsight, select a "more space" video mode, and run it again. Perhaps this will work.

[Joe DePasquale]

Juan!!! This worked! PI now "remembers" how to render the user interface in the scaled "More Space" resolution! Here's what I did for anyone else having this problem:

1. set the display resolution to Default
2. open PI
3. EDIT > Global Preferences > Core UI Resources > Automatic UI scaling (disable option). Make sure that UI scaling factor = 1, then press F6 to execute globally.
4. reset display resolution to scaled "More Space" (not sure if this is necessary but it's what I did, and it worked)
5. exit and restart PI and it should stay scaled to the "More Space" resolution.

It looks great! Thanks (and just in time for my presentation in 5 minutes!!)

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Joe,

Glad to know it has worked. Actually, I was almost sure this would be a solution, but experience has taught me to be cautious with these things.

Does it work without step 1? I mean, do you really have to select the default resolution before changing preferences?

[Joe DePasquale]

I tried enabling the Automatic UI scaling option again and testing how it works. Sure enough, the interface was very large at the scaled More Space resolution. Disabling the setting again (without changing any resolution preferences) brings the interface back to normal. So, to answer your question, Juan, no the first step is not necessary. Anyone who is experiencing this problem just needs to disable Automatic UI scaling and restart PI. 

thanks again!