I'm currently doing some game development and I've been curious about this situation for many years.

Let's say your game has two resolutions: 640x480 and 800x600 (using small numbers just for simplicity). I have an image that I want to, no matter, take up 1/4 of the screen. For 640x480 resolution, it would be 320x240; while 800x600 resolution, it would be 400x300. There's a few ways I think of that this could be accomplished:

1. Make the image 320x240 and scale it up on the larger resolution (will look pixelated)
2. Make the image 400x300 and scale it down on the smaller resolution (loss of detail)
3. Create two separate images for each resolution (size bloat)

Just for 4:3 aspect ration, you probably have 5-6 resolutions that are commonly found in more professional games; plus additional ones for 16:10 and 16:9. Creating separate assets for each aspect ratio makes sense, but doing it for each resolution sounds like overkill and a huge size jump.

How do developers normally handle this sort of situation?

Thanks!

I'm currently doing some game development and I've been curious about this situation for many years.

Let's say your game has two resolutions: 640x480 and 800x600 (using small numbers just for simplicity). I have an image that I want to, no matter, take up 1/4 of the screen. For 640x480 resolution, it would be 320x240; while 800x600 resolution, it would be 400x300. There's a few ways I think of that this could be accomplished:

1. Make the image 320x240 and scale it up on the larger resolution (will look pixelated)
2. Make the image 400x300 and scale it down on the smaller resolution (loss of detail)
3. Create two separate images for each resolution (size bloat)

Just for 4:3 aspect ration, you probably have 5-6 resolutions that are commonly found in more professional games; plus additional ones for 16:10 and 16:9. Creating separate assets for each aspect ratio makes sense, but doing it for each resolution sounds like overkill and a huge size jump.

How do developers normally handle this sort of situation?

Thanks!

UPDATE: This information would be used for a 2D platformer.

Part of the reason that I'm interested in this is trying to keep a "level playing field" for all players no matter what resolution they are at. I don't want the 800x600 resolution player to be able to see more of the level than the 640x480 player can.

Additionally, since I really have no graphics experience, I'm not sure how much the resolution changes would affect the integrity of the images.