System Display Type "Console", "Desktop", "Mobile", "HMD"

[SDLBugzilla]

This bug report was migrated from our old Bugzilla tracker.

Reported in version: HG 2.1
Reported for operating system, platform: All, All

Comments on the original bug report:

On 2015-06-27 01:38:03 +0000, wrote:

Currently there is no way for an application to know what type of interface it should display.

Up until now applications have mostly been separated by their operating system.
Mac/Windows/Linux for Desktop, Android/Vita/PSP/IOS for Mobile and PS3/PS4/XBOX for Console. However with systems such as SteamOS and Ubuntu phone an application can no-longer rely on being compiled for one specific layout type.

Two possible solutions:

1. Add a screen size (in mm) and user distance (mm) or scale.
2. Add a display type enum for "Console", "Desktop", "Mobile", "HMD".

The first solution seems most robust allowing applications to adjust the interface as the user distance changes. But currently I do not know any systems which actually report this value so a fake value for each system type would need to be picked. e.g. Console 2 meters, Desktop 0.5 meters, etc.

Some situations this might be difficult todo such as looking in some WM specific settings or looking for Steam Big Picture env vars.

I think it would be best to add these values onto the window rather than the display mode and allow it to change as a window event. The user may have attached a Monitor and HMD and then move the window from the Monitor to the HMD. It seems easier for an Application to deal with display type changes per window than having to constantly check window position and then lookup the display. But either situation should work.