OOTP 18 on a Surface Pro 4

rudel.dietrich · 05-09-2017, 10:23 AM

I will have an i7 equipped with 16 GB of Ram and 512 GB HDD arriving on Friday or Monday.
I very much plan on running OOTP on the system along with some other less intensive games like Football Manager, Battle Brothers, some war games, Motorsport Manager, Eastside Hockey manager and other games that do not require intensive 3-D hardware.
I might try some older games like Civ V or Dragon Age and Left for Dead 2 see how they run.

In any event, I will report back with my findings.
I know we have had threads on this before with how to scale the screen and how the controls work.
I will try some small (30-60 teams) leagues and some larger (150-240) team leagues and see how the performance is.
I will also try the options to generate all Facegens and uniforms/hats at once and also use the option to save every box score and game log and see how that impacts performance.

Look for this thread to expand as I receive my machine and test.
If you have any specific questions I would be happy to answer or test.
And maybe in the future if this becomes popular enough we can get expanded touch screen controls or more touch functionality.

I am really excited! I have wanted a Surface Pro for 3 years now and finally found a deal that worked for what I was willing to pay on an i7 equipped device.

If I can get the scaling issues down then I think it should run really well for OOTP and having OOTP on such a portable device will be a real advantage for my playing.

Orcin · 05-09-2017, 10:46 AM

I will be following this with great interest. I have considered buying a Surface Pro specifically to run OOTP. My concern over the scaling issues has prevented me from pulling the trigger so far.

Please give some information about the general graphics settings as you report the tests. Also, what is the screen size and native resolution of this machine?

rudel.dietrich · 05-09-2017, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orcin

I will be following this with great interest. I have considered buying a Surface Pro specifically to run OOTP. My concern over the scaling issues has prevented me from pulling the trigger so far.

Please give some information about the general graphics settings as you report the tests. Also, what is the screen size and native resolution of this machine?

12.3" screen and native resolution is 2736 x 1824

OOTP most likely will not be ran at native resolution. Not because it cannot, but because the text and UI would be so tiny.

OOTP 17 did not scale well at all unless you had Windows scaled to 100%
It was annoying to have to change it to 100%, launch OOTP and then go back to 125% upon exiting.
I don't know if 18 has done anything about this.
I hope future versions are more friendly with high PPI displays.

xmason99 · 05-09-2017, 12:10 PM

I'll be interested in what you find out too.

I have a Surface Pro 4 and have been running OOTP 17 and 18 on it for about 6 months. There have definitely been some challenges/limitations:

If you let the OS scale the game, it will be very "rough" looking with jagged fonts (even at the smallest font size), and at a low resolution that doesn't show much information on the screen.
If you run at native resolution (without scaling), the interface is very "clean" looking, but is unreadable (for me, even with the font set at the largest size) due to the small (physical) display. In other words, the same issue a lot of people with Hi-DPI (or Retina) type screens have.

The work-around I am using requires changing the screen resolution when I run OOTP18 to 1900x1200 (native resolution is 2736x1824). This sacrifices a tiny bit of screen real estate for readability, because the Surface Pro 4 has a screen ration of 3:2 (15:10) and the 1900x1200 resolution is a 16:10 ratio, so you get a little bit of a "letterbox" effect (black bars on the top and bottom of the screen).

Because I am a geek, I wanted to be able to do this without going into the control panel every time, so I scripted up a couple of batch files to make it easier:

Download this command-line utility to allow a screen resolution change from a batch file: http://tools.taubenkorb.at/change-screen-resolution/ and install it wherever you prefer (I just installed it in the root of my C: drive)
In the application settings for OOTP18.exe, check the "Override high DPI scaling behavior" box and select "Application" under "Scaling performed by". This will show OOTP on your screen without any scaling by the OS.
Create a batch file (I called mine ootp_launch.bat)to call the utility and launch OOTP:

c:\ChangeScreenResolution.exe /w=1920 /h=1200 /d=0
"c:\Program Files (x86)\Out of the Park Developments\OOTP Baseball 18\ootp18.exe"
Create a second batch file to call the utility and return to a normal screen resolution (I called mine normal_res.bat):

c:\ChangeScreenResolution.exe /w=2736/ h=1824 /d=0

Now, when I want to play, I double click on my ootp_launch.bat file, and when I'm done, I double-click my normal_res.bat file.

This works, but it's definitely not ideal, and I would love to see OOTP handle high-DPI displays better (at least in the Windows world), since they are becoming more commonplace. I have never run OOTP on a Mac, so I don't know if the native Mac OS scaling works better.

I hope this is helpful -- I'm typing most of this from memory (silly work won't allow me to play OOTP on the job!

), and if anyone wants screenshots or anything, let me know and I will post when I have my SP4 in front of me.

schreck · 05-09-2017, 03:08 PM

I've been playing on my SP4 with i5 and 8gb RAM and it runs great. Haven't run into any hiccups at all. I don't make any changes to settings, it seems to look just fine to me. I have only played a few games out, tend to sim each day and make adjustments, but the handful I have went smoothly. I'm still a novice at this game though, so I may not be taxing the system as much as some of you.

OutS|der · 05-10-2017, 02:22 PM

As xmason99 has said the resolution can be an issue but when I had my SP4 with those exact specs I had no problems running Football Manager, BMotorsport Manager, Eastside Hockey manager and OOTP. It did run hot at times but other then that it it ran them ok.

I've always hated Windows DPI settings, it can really make stuff tiny on the SP4

rudel.dietrich · 05-10-2017, 02:26 PM

Mine should arrive tomorrow

Software update to the newest version of Windows 10, install Steam and games and other software and then I will be able to test in depth.

fcabanski · 05-11-2017, 02:20 AM

You think the game won't perform well on a SP4?

I have a less powerful laptop. The game performs fine.

rudel.dietrich · 05-11-2017, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fcabanski

You think the game won't perform well on a SP4?

I have a less powerful laptop. The game performs fine.

I never said this.
I just know that this is a common topic since these are becoming more popular. I want to see how well the game performs and how well the games UI does on this screen.

I have no doubt that even the base Surface Pro with an M3 processor would do well with the game.
OOTP will pretty much run on anything built in the last 8 years or so.

I just want to do some testing to see how the game does on this device.
And I also hope to draw attention to this topic and show Markus that future updates might want to offer increase support for high DPI screens.
A higher market share of machines sold have these types of screens and it might be worth the effort and resources to make sure OOTP is meeting those needs.

I would also love to see OOTP offer increased touch screen support.

BaseballMan · 05-11-2017, 07:00 PM

If you SIM a bunch if seasons at a time I would check your surface for heat. I lost a surface 2 and 3 after simming. Not saying it was ootp. I'd blame Microsoft but both tablets would never start again so I had to get replacements. So I don't play ootp much on my surface.
It could also just be bad luck.

rudel.dietrich · 05-11-2017, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BaseballMan

If you SIM a bunch if seasons at a time I would check your surface for heat. I lost a surface 2 and 3 after simming. Not saying it was ootp. I'd blame Microsoft but both tablets would never start again so I had to get replacements. So I don't play ootp much on my surface.
It could also just be bad luck.

Both the Surface 2 and 3 had problems with heat. The new design dissapates heat better.
I won't be running stress tests, but running the system under load for extended periods should not damage it.

Mine did come today. I spent my night installing updates and software.

BaseballMan · 05-12-2017, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

Both the Surface 2 and 3 had problems with heat. The new design dissapates heat better.
I won't be running stress tests, but running the system under load for extended periods should not damage it.

Mine did come today. I spent my night installing updates and software.

Hopefully it will work for you. Agree with not running stress tests. That's Microsoft's job or a professional reviewer. Not a customer's responsibility.
Still you might increase your sim years gradually till you know for sure it can handle it.
You know the saying never trust Microsoft.

Orcin · 05-25-2017, 10:05 PM

Any update on this?

Garrett67 · 06-30-2017, 12:56 PM

I'm curious as well on how the Surface worked out.

rudel.dietrich · 06-30-2017, 03:00 PM

Real life and some family/personal issues go in the way.

However, I did purchase OOTP from the website for the summer sale.
I immediately took my Steam Key and have it downloaded.

The next step is to play the thing and report back.
My plans are for the traditional real world set up with opening day rosters, full minors and non US leagues.
I will also create a 24 team fictional league with four levels of minors and two foreign leagues, one in Cuba and the other in Japan.

I want to see how the hardware handles large leagues.
I will do my utmost to do some testing this weekend things have gone off the rails for me the last 3 weeks or so.

05-09-2017, 10:23 AM	#1
rudel.dietrich Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Zürich, Switzerland Posts: 8,608	OOTP 18 on a Surface Pro 4 I will have an i7 equipped with 16 GB of Ram and 512 GB HDD arriving on Friday or Monday. I very much plan on running OOTP on the system along with some other less intensive games like Football Manager, Battle Brothers, some war games, Motorsport Manager, Eastside Hockey manager and other games that do not require intensive 3-D hardware. I might try some older games like Civ V or Dragon Age and Left for Dead 2 see how they run. In any event, I will report back with my findings. I know we have had threads on this before with how to scale the screen and how the controls work. I will try some small (30-60 teams) leagues and some larger (150-240) team leagues and see how the performance is. I will also try the options to generate all Facegens and uniforms/hats at once and also use the option to save every box score and game log and see how that impacts performance. Look for this thread to expand as I receive my machine and test. If you have any specific questions I would be happy to answer or test. And maybe in the future if this becomes popular enough we can get expanded touch screen controls or more touch functionality. I am really excited! I have wanted a Surface Pro for 3 years now and finally found a deal that worked for what I was willing to pay on an i7 equipped device. If I can get the scaling issues down then I think it should run really well for OOTP and having OOTP on such a portable device will be a real advantage for my playing. Last edited by rudel.dietrich; 05-09-2017 at 12:30 PM.

05-09-2017, 12:10 PM	#4
xmason99 Bat Boy Join Date: Feb 2016 Posts: 10	I'll be interested in what you find out too. I have a Surface Pro 4 and have been running OOTP 17 and 18 on it for about 6 months. There have definitely been some challenges/limitations: If you let the OS scale the game, it will be very "rough" looking with jagged fonts (even at the smallest font size), and at a low resolution that doesn't show much information on the screen. If you run at native resolution (without scaling), the interface is very "clean" looking, but is unreadable (for me, even with the font set at the largest size) due to the small (physical) display. In other words, the same issue a lot of people with Hi-DPI (or Retina) type screens have. The work-around I am using requires changing the screen resolution when I run OOTP18 to 1900x1200 (native resolution is 2736x1824). This sacrifices a tiny bit of screen real estate for readability, because the Surface Pro 4 has a screen ration of 3:2 (15:10) and the 1900x1200 resolution is a 16:10 ratio, so you get a little bit of a "letterbox" effect (black bars on the top and bottom of the screen). Because I am a geek, I wanted to be able to do this without going into the control panel every time, so I scripted up a couple of batch files to make it easier: Download this command-line utility to allow a screen resolution change from a batch file: http://tools.taubenkorb.at/change-screen-resolution/ and install it wherever you prefer (I just installed it in the root of my C: drive) In the application settings for OOTP18.exe, check the "Override high DPI scaling behavior" box and select "Application" under "Scaling performed by". This will show OOTP on your screen without any scaling by the OS. Create a batch file (I called mine ootp_launch.bat)to call the utility and launch OOTP: c:\ChangeScreenResolution.exe /w=1920 /h=1200 /d=0 "c:\Program Files (x86)\Out of the Park Developments\OOTP Baseball 18\ootp18.exe" Create a second batch file to call the utility and return to a normal screen resolution (I called mine normal_res.bat): c:\ChangeScreenResolution.exe /w=2736/ h=1824 /d=0 Now, when I want to play, I double click on my ootp_launch.bat file, and when I'm done, I double-click my normal_res.bat file. This works, but it's definitely not ideal, and I would love to see OOTP handle high-DPI displays better (at least in the Windows world), since they are becoming more commonplace. I have never run OOTP on a Mac, so I don't know if the native Mac OS scaling works better. I hope this is helpful -- I'm typing most of this from memory (silly work won't allow me to play OOTP on the job! ), and if anyone wants screenshots or anything, let me know and I will post when I have my SP4 in front of me. Last edited by xmason99; 05-09-2017 at 03:37 PM.

05-09-2017, 10:46 AM	#2
Orcin Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Indiana Posts: 9,884	I will be following this with great interest. I have considered buying a Surface Pro specifically to run OOTP. My concern over the scaling issues has prevented me from pulling the trigger so far. Please give some information about the general graphics settings as you report the tests. Also, what is the screen size and native resolution of this machine?

05-09-2017, 03:08 PM	#5
schreck Minors (Single A) Join Date: Mar 2017 Posts: 53	I've been playing on my SP4 with i5 and 8gb RAM and it runs great. Haven't run into any hiccups at all. I don't make any changes to settings, it seems to look just fine to me. I have only played a few games out, tend to sim each day and make adjustments, but the handful I have went smoothly. I'm still a novice at this game though, so I may not be taxing the system as much as some of you.

05-10-2017, 02:22 PM	#6
OutS\|der Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: In A Van Down By The River Posts: 2,766 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	As xmason99 has said the resolution can be an issue but when I had my SP4 with those exact specs I had no problems running Football Manager, BMotorsport Manager, Eastside Hockey manager and OOTP. It did run hot at times but other then that it it ran them ok. I've always hated Windows DPI settings, it can really make stuff tiny on the SP4

05-10-2017, 02:26 PM	#7
rudel.dietrich Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Zürich, Switzerland Posts: 8,608	Mine should arrive tomorrow Software update to the newest version of Windows 10, install Steam and games and other software and then I will be able to test in depth.

05-11-2017, 02:20 AM	#8
fcabanski Minors (Double A) Join Date: May 2015 Posts: 170	You think the game won't perform well on a SP4? I have a less powerful laptop. The game performs fine.

05-11-2017, 07:00 PM	#10
BaseballMan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 6,647	If you SIM a bunch if seasons at a time I would check your surface for heat. I lost a surface 2 and 3 after simming. Not saying it was ootp. I'd blame Microsoft but both tablets would never start again so I had to get replacements. So I don't play ootp much on my surface. It could also just be bad luck.

05-25-2017, 10:05 PM	#13
Orcin Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Indiana Posts: 9,884	Any update on this?

06-30-2017, 12:56 PM	#14
Garrett67 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Union City, Michigan Posts: 282	I'm curious as well on how the Surface worked out.

06-30-2017, 03:00 PM	#15
rudel.dietrich Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Zürich, Switzerland Posts: 8,608	Real life and some family/personal issues go in the way. However, I did purchase OOTP from the website for the summer sale. I immediately took my Steam Key and have it downloaded. The next step is to play the thing and report back. My plans are for the traditional real world set up with opening day rosters, full minors and non US leagues. I will also create a 24 team fictional league with four levels of minors and two foreign leagues, one in Cuba and the other in Japan. I want to see how the hardware handles large leagues. I will do my utmost to do some testing this weekend things have gone off the rails for me the last 3 weeks or so.