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[Asin]

The screen in question belongs to my HP Pavilion dv6000 with a 15.4 inch widescreen display and resolution of 1,280x800.

Any tilesets that won't be too big or too small?

[Taffer]

Quoting myself from elsewhere:

The difference is just how small or how large tiles look on the screen. Tiny sizes are good for showing you most (or all) of an embark at once, which is why I prefer them. Monitors with resolutions significantly higher than 1920x1080 will not display small tilesets well.

Some claim that certain tileset sizes work better than others for different screens, but that's inconsequential. 16x16 doesn't evenly fit onto a 1920x1080 screen, for example (1080/16=67.5), but Dwarf Fortress will just fill the remaining space with black. My tilesets don't evenly divide into my 1330x768 laptop screen, and I've never noticed or cared about the extra millimetre of black space.

How big (physically) is your monitor, and how far away are you sitting from it? My computer monitor and my large television are both 1920x1080, but I use my 10x10 sets for the former and my 20x20 sets for the latter. Are you trying to play adventure mode and want to pay careful attention to what's happening with your character, or do you just want to build a fort than relax and watch things play out?

Just use what looks best to you. If it's too zoomed then find something smaller. If it's too zoomed out for you, find something larger.

Only way to know is to try some out for yourself. Whatever other answers people may give you, there is no correct answer. What looks good varies wildly from person to person and is based on more than just monitor size and resolution. Do you play adventure mode or fort mode, for example? Do you want to see an entire embark, or do you want to focus in on the details? Preferences vary, so what's small to one person will be large to another, even on the same screen. Note that it doesn't matter if a tileset "evenly divides" into your resolution or not, the game will display it properly anyways and you're not likely to notice the extra millimeter of black space. I never do.

EDIT: It's important to remember, though, that Dwarf Fortress needs a minimum size of 80x25: if your tileset width multiplied by 80 is greater than your resolution width, or your tileset height by 25 is greater than your resolution height, then the tileset is too large.

[burned]

Note that it doesn't matter if a tileset "evenly divides" into your resolution or not, the game will display it properly anyways . . .

No. It won't.

Quoting myself from that same thread . . .

Gridsize still matters if you want the character tileset to display as intended; resizing the the window via the SDL version alters that gridsize.

Yes, preferences vary, but take a look at your default 10x set versus your default 20x set both displayed with a 1280x800 resolution.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I understand that the black space doesn't bother you when a set is smaller than the intended resolution, but the SDL version will distort your pixel perfect hard work if used on the wrong grid size. In other words, Asin should NOT use anything larger than 16x16/16x24 if he wants the set to display as intended.

My impression of your work is that each pixel should matter. But, all your hard work focused on that ideal is thrown out the window if it's displayed on the wrong resolution.

You are right that there is no correct answer to preference, but there definitely is a right and a wrong grid size for specific resolutions.

Of course, if one doesn't care about possible distortion then feel free to use whatever set you want regardless of grid size. ;]

[Asin]

The problem is that some of the tilesets, when I get them to work, they make the window too big and I can't minimize or see some of the screen!

[burned]

@Asin In those cases, you're using a tileset that is designed for a grid size you can't display properly.

The black space Taffer mentioned only occurs when the tileset is designed for a lower resolution than what you're using (which you could display properly with black space) - you're experiencing the effects of when a tileset is too large for your resolution. Hence, why grid size matters. Aside from full screen distortion, windowed mode (as you mentioned) can't fit on your screen.

For your resolution (1280x800) you want something with a width of 8 or 16  pixels - height is preferential. Anything over 16 pixels wide won't display properly with your resolution. Based on the tileset repository, you have plenty of options.

[Asin]

Just realized something... I meant to say GRAPHICS SET, not tileset...

Dang... Got them mixed up.

[burned]

@Asin the same principles still applies. Whether you meant character tilesets, creature tilesets, or graphic sets, or whatever. And, hopefully it's obvious in this discussion that you should use a character tileset alongside a creature tileset with the same gridsize ratio.

[Taffer]

No. It won't.

You're right, I forgot about the minimum of 80x25. So 20x80 and 20*25 mean 1600x500 is the minimum resolution for 20x20 sets.

Apologies, Asin! I usually stick with small tilesets, so I don't run into that issue.