In my SDL2 program, I would like to enter fullscreen, but I'm on a desktop with multiple displays and I would like to enter fullscreen on any specific display.
I know this can be done with SDL_SetWindowFullscreen(window, SDL_WINDOW_FULLSCREEN_DESKTOP).
However, I want to use SDL_WINDOW_FULLSCREEN (without _DESKTOP), instead. The reason is that it has less latency. But when I do that, it will enter fullscreen on display 0 exclusively, even if the window was on another display when I called the function.
Can I use SDL_WINDOW_FULLSCREEN on other displays, or is it strictly limited to display 0? I am doubtful because SDL_SetWindowFullscreen does not take an argument specifying which display to pick. Is that maybe why the other fullscreen mode is called _DESKTOP? Thanks.
Here's a little more context, if you like.
I am using Windows 10, though I don't think that matters much.
I am using SDL 2.26.2, but I've used the same code with an older
dll (2.0.16) and had the same issue.
Why FULLSCREEN_DESKTOP is slower, and I would rather use FULLSCREEN
FULLSCREEN_DESKTOP is a kind of "fake" fullscreen which is really just a resized window positioned perfectly, so it takes up the whole screen, whereas "real" fullscreen actually changes the video mode of the display. It says so in the docs for SDL_SetWindowFullscreen.
SDL_WINDOW_FULLSCREEN, for "real" fullscreen with a
videomode change;
SDL_WINDOW_FULLSCREEN_DESKTOP for "fake" fullscreen
that takes the size of the desktop;
As such, I've noticed that both windowed and fake fullscreen (which we know now are essentially the same thing) have a little more latency than real fullscreen. I made a little sprite that follows my cursor, and it lags behind noticeably more in fake fullscreen than it does in real fullscreen. Presumably because fake fullscreen still renders the desktop behind it and real fullscreen does not.
Related
I am trying to draw on top of another process while it is in immersive full-screen mode.
I know this is possible using GDI and I have 2 questions:
Is it possible using a top-level transparent window ? (on top of the immersive process)
Is there a higher level API witch I can use instead of GDI?
Thank you :)
In Windows, you have two possibilities for creating a fullscreen window:
A full-screen application with exclusive drawing rights to the display.
A borderless window that extends to the full desktop resolution.
The first option allows you to change display properties like resolution, bit depth and refresh rate, while the second option is bound to use the same options here as a normal (windowed) desktop application.
Overlaying a fullscreen window with a top-level window is only possible if the fullscreen application is implemented with option 2. In that case however, any code that is able to create a transparent top-level window will do (be it pure WinAPI/GDI, or something more sophisticated, like Qt).
With option 1, as the description suggests, the fullscreen application has exclusive drawing rights to the display. Attempting to bring another window in front of it will either minimize the fullscreen application or force it into windowed mode.
There are some hacks how you can still get an overlay in this case, but they are rather invasive. For example, with a fullscreen application based on D3D, you can hook into D3D's Present routine and have D3D draw your overlay before displaying the back buffer. The important point here is that the code for drawing the overlay is executed from within the process of the fullscreen application, as that is the only process that is allowed draw to the screen at that point.
Note that some applications (in particular video games protected by anti-cheat software) do not like it very much if you inject code into the process this way.
Note that the Win API also provides an interface for so called hardware overlays, which allow drawing on top of exclusive fullscreen applications. Unfortunately, this mechanism is not widely supported on consumer hardware and might not work depending on which graphics card you are trying to run it on.
When I switch one of my monitor to fullscreen mode, sometimes the other monitors just become black and won't show anything. Did I do something wrong or it is just some bug?
I created a window, and then created a swapchain binded to that window. And I called the swapchain's SetFullScreenState with first parameter true, and second parameter the IDXGIOutput object of the monitor I wanted to switch fullscreen. Sometimes it works fine, but sometimes all the other monitors are lost (with only the fullscreened one showing things).
My graphics card is Radeon HD6750, and driver version is 12.3.
I found the MulitMon10 sample has the same problem, while some games don't. Or do Skyrim and The Tales of Monkey Island use D3D or OpenGL...?
This question is two years old. I just came across it.
I had a similar issue with DX11, sometimes happening in debug version, systematicaly in release version.
In my paradigm, the primary monitor hosts a console and an optional 'press buttons' GUI. The secondary monitor (one among available ones) is the fullscreen application window where 2D professional images are displayed and GPU transformed using 1D and 3D lookup tables.
Having the primary monitor going blank was a show stopper. All needed dialogs are childs of the console window (thus, opening on the primary monitor). The secondary monitor is a motion picture digital projector .... enough 'blabla'.
So, my solution was to create the swapchain in windowed mode while the targeted window was already in fullscreen mode.
Do not ask me why. It works for me. Here is a bit more:
First, my display window is set to fill the entire monitor surface ( no border, no everything).
Second, I create the swapchain for this window with “windowed = true”.
In facts, even if it looks fullscreen, it is windowed. With no border, it works the same as far as displaying/rendering 2D images is concerned. Feeding directly the backbuffer works too.
Then, and only then, you can switch the backbuffer to real administrative fullscreen. Since this operation is extremely brutal for the eyes, I tend to only do it when absolutely necessary. In effects, Win7 will reset the entire desktop (thus, all monitors, all windows) and create multiple light flashes.
When going real fullscreen after the backbuffer is created, I never experienced the desagrement of being stuck in the midle of a desktop reset (back to the original question).
To be complete, there is a difference between ‘Windowed fullscreen’ and ‘Real fullscreen’. Something you may use.
Windowed fullscreen: other windows/dialogs will overlap your 2D creation.
Real fullscreen: other windows/dialog should stay underneath (not visible, but there).
Toggling between the two modes upon need would be nice, except the desktop reset stress is an heavy penalty to live with.
We recently ported Bitfighter from GLUT to SDL. There were numerous benefits to doing this, but a few drawbacks as well, especially in the area of window management.
Bitfighter runs in a fixed-aspect-ratio window (800x600 pixels). Users can make their window any size they want, but we capture the resize event and make adjustments to the requested size to ensure the window keeps the correct proportions (using SDL_SetVideoMode).
(The following problem applies to Windows, but has not yet been tested on other platforms. What I describe below refers specifically to Windows, though I am looking for a platform-independent solution.)
Ordinarily, this works great, except when users maximze their window by double clicking on the title bar or using the maximize button. In that case, the window resize event is called with the a window size approximating the screen size (minus some pixels for window ornamentation). Unfortunately, when the window is maximized, SDL_SetVideoMode has no effect (unlike GLUT which was able to resize a maximized window). Furthermore, subsequent calls to SDL_GetVideoInfo report the size we requested, not the actual current size of the window, so it is hard to tell if the attempted resizing worked.
I am looking for a platform independent way to do any of the following (in descending order of preference):
Resize a window after it's been maximized
Detect when a window has been maximized so that, knowing I can't resize it, I can at least adjust the video to be centered
Prevent a window from being maximized (block double clicks on window title bar, use of the maximize button, and dragging the window to the top of the screen)
Bitfighter is written in C++, and we're using the latest official release of SDL.
Migrate to SDL 2.0 (which it seems you already have)
SDL 2.0 provides a better API to window management (it actually provides one). While there are still many bugs in Windows management in SDL 2.0 (especially on the Linux side), it has vastly improved since the 1.2 days.
I assume, that you use OpenGL with SDL, because you used GLUT before. I don't know any solutions for that problem, exept point 2. If you want the Video to have a specific size, just leave the SDL-Window like it is, and call
glViewport(0, 0, width, height);
with the right size with the right proportions.
With that solutions you will still have a black border in your window, but It only shows as much, as you want. (with the first 2 arguments you can also set the position of the Viewport in the window ;) )
I've seen things like this and I was wondering if this was possible, say I run my application
and it will show the render on whatever is below it.
So basically, rendering on the screen without a window.
Possible or a lie?
Note: Want to do this on windows and in c++.
It is possible to use your application to draw on other application's windows. Once you have found the window you want, you have it's HWND, you can then use it just like it was your own window for the purposes of drawing. But since that window doesn't know you have done this, it will probably mess up whatever you have drawn on it when it tries to redraw itself.
There are some very complicated ways of getting around this, some of them involve using windows "hooks" to intercept drawing messages to that window so you know when it has redrawn so that you can do your redrawing as well.
Another option is to use clipping regions on a window. This can allow you to give your window an unusual shape, and have everything behind it still look correct.
There are also ways to take over drawing of the desktop background window, and you can actually run an application that draws animations and stuff on the desktop background (while the desktop is still usable). At least, this was possible up through XP, not sure if it has changed in Vista/Win7.
Unfortunately, all of these options are too very complex to go in depth without more information on what you are trying to do.
You can use GetDesktopWindow(), to get the HWND of the desktop. But as a previous answer says (SoapBox), be careful, you may mess up the desktop because the OS expects that it owns it.
I wrote an open source project a few years ago to achieve this on the desktop background. It's called Uberdash. If you follow the window hierarchy, the desktop is just a window in a sort of "background" container. Then there is a main container and a front container. The front container is how windows become full screen or "always on top." You may be able to use Aero composition to render a window with alpha in the front container, but you will need to pass events on to the lower windows. It won't be pretty.
Also, there's a technology in some video cards called overlays/underlays. You used to be able to render directly to an overlay. Your GPU would apply it directly, with no interference to main memory. So even if you took a screen capture, your overlay/underlay would not show up in the screen cap. Unfortunately MS banned that technology in Vista...
I'm coding a short game in C++ and Win32, and I want to be able to make it in fullscreen with a fixed size. I also want the user to be able to switch focus between the game window and other windows as much as he/she wants without any weird screen glitches.
So far I know of the ChangeDisplaySettings function and creating the window with the WS_POPUP style at initialization to make it fullscreen. To detect the user switching focus to other windows by way of alt+tab or otherwise, what messages should I be handling on the window's WndProc or should I be using another function? When loss of focus is detected should I only call ChangeDisplaySettings(NULL, 0); or are there other functions I should call as well? And what method should I use to handle focus back into the window?
Also can anyone give me some info on how to make it work smoothly for different screen sizes?
Thanks for any help.
If you want an exclusive full screen window, use DirectX.
But I don't recommend it. Changing the display mode causes glitches, rearranges the users icons and so on. Whether done by you, or Direct X.
Rather create a normal window at your native res, and let the user maximize it if wanted.
You could also use the GDI+ library of Windows XP (and newer) to use hardware-accelerated stretching (draw in 640x480, let GDI+ resize it to the native resolution). Then you don't need exclusive mode of DirectDraw nor ChangeDisplaySettings.
Also drawing into a 640x480 big background buffer and bit blitting it on the drawing surface via StretchBlt can be a performant solution.