I'm making a 2D RPG for Linux (see sig) that uses a tiled graphical construct (ie, older Final Fantasy games). I have a question about graphics programming, which I've never done before although I have about 4 years programming experience in multiple languages.

So lets say I make a bunch of 80x80 pixel tiles and I want to use those to construct a map. If the screen resolution is set at 800x600, does that mean that the screen will display 8 tiles a the cross and 6 tiles up? What about if I set it to 1024x768? Will that the screen is 12.8 tiles wide and 9.6 tiles up? I know its a simple question and probably has a simple answer, but I wanted to clarify this somewhat ambiguous notion of tiles and screen resolutions. Thanks! (If it matters, I'm using the SDL libraries for this game)

Simple answer: No 800/80 = 10

Assuming you meant 640x480 as your first example (instead of the 800x600 listed), yes. If you have 80x80 tiles, the screen will only be able to display a given number of them at a time.

For 640x480 - 8 tile horizontal and 6 tiles vertical
For 800x600 - 10 horizontal, 7.5 vertical
For 1024x768 - 12.8 horizontal, 9.6 vertical

I can't believe I have my bachelor's and I still make stupid mistakes like that


Ok so it is as I thought, thanks Dark_Helmet (by the way, I loved you in Spaceballs). Now I'm starting to think of having some sort of side bar because I'd like the screen to be squared, hmm.

Or have a bottom bar and make the screen evenly rectangular. By the way, is it going to be isometric? (Spelled wrong I am sure)