In all versions of NL so far, when in-game and using full screen mode, the displayed game area is the largest
integer multiple of 320x200 that will fit on the screen, which is then centered. This almost always results in some amount of screen space being unused and simply taken up by black borders. How severe this is depends on the user's resolution; 640x480 would have almost no black borders (only 40px above and below the game area, none on the left/right), while the resolution that suffers the most - which is also one that is
very commonly used - is 1366x768, which has 84 pixels above and below, and 203 on the left and right), partially due to that this resolution is
very close to being able to use a 4x zoom factor, but the height is slightly too small.
Some discussion came up in the release topic, suggesting that a change should be made in this case to make use of the black border area. Due to the need in many cases to tell exactly which pixel is which, resizing by non-integer multiples is probably not practical. The alternative option is to use this extra screen space to display a larger portion of the level area.
Some questions that arise from this are:
1. There's no logical reason that such options should be restricted only to those who use NL in full-screen. Why can't a windowed user who uses a 960x600 window, instead of having a 3x zoom, choose to have a 2x zoom and display a larger portion of the level in that window? But, how should such options be presented?
2. What should be done about the skill panel? Simplest option is to resize as normal, and center it while still leaving some black border area to the sides of the skill panel. Alternatively, as long as the aspect ratio is kept, non-integer scaling of the skill panel will not present the same issues as non-integer scaling of the gameplay area. There might still need to be some degree of black borders to the left and right of the skill panel. A more complex option may be simultaneously displaying both a minimap
and the extra buttons if space allows.
Some existing discussion can be found starting from Nepster's post in the release topic:
http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=3110.msg62505#msg62505