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Canvassize - Running an experiment created with 1920x1080px with a smaller screenresolution

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By ziska59 - 6/30/2017

Hello,
I used Inquisit 4 to create an online experiment for my Bachelor Thesis.

When defining the positions on screen of all the elements in my experiment, I  worked with a screen resolution of 1920x1080px.
But as I expect many ob my subjects to use smaller screen resoultions, I will have to set a default canvassize of 1280x800px.

At the moment, reducing the screen resolution leads to an unacceptable chaos as the relative positions of the elements get messed up.
Is there any possibilty to reduce the screen resolution  without having to define new positions for every single element? Since the positioning plays a crucial role in my experiment, it would be very work-intensive to fix this.

The 1920x1080px-version of the experiment can be found here: http://research.millisecond.com/scarabis/fe.web

Thanks a lot four your help!
Franziska
By Dave - 6/30/2017

ziska59 - Friday, June 30, 2017
Hello,
I used Inquisit 4 to create an online experiment for my Bachelor Thesis.

When defining the positions on screen of all the elements in my experiment, I  worked with a screen resolution of 1920x1080px.
But as I expect many ob my subjects to use smaller screen resoultions, I will have to set a default canvassize of 1280x800px.

At the moment, reducing the screen resolution leads to an unacceptable chaos as the relative positions of the elements get messed up.
Is there any possibilty to reduce the screen resolution  without having to define new positions for every single element? Since the positioning plays a crucial role in my experiment, it would be very work-intensive to fix this.

The 1920x1080px-version of the experiment can be found here: http://research.millisecond.com/scarabis/fe.web

Thanks a lot four your help!
Franziska

Ideally, you should not specify a fixed canvas size at all. If you want consistent results with respect to relative sizes and positions across varying screen resolutions, you should specify all sizes and positions in percentages (not fixed pixel values) and impose a specific /canvasaspectratio in the scripts' <defaults>.

1280 x 800 pixels is a 16:10 aspect ratio, while 1920 x 1080 pixesl corresponds to a 16:9 aspect ratio. I.e. if you want to preserve the original aspect ratio you worked with, you would specify

<defaults>
/ canvassize = (100%, 100%)
/ canvasaspectratio = (16,9)
</defaults>

and revise the various stimulus elements sizes accordingly / convert them to percentages, i.e.

<picture Bild1>
/items = Bild1
/ size = (800px,600px)
/position = (50,45)
/select =noreplace
</picture>

should become something like

<picture Bild1>
/items = Bild1
/ size = (42%,56%)
/position = (50,45)
/select =noreplace
</picture>
By ziska59 - 6/30/2017

Thank you very much for the fast answer!
I think will be able to fix the problem now :)