Is there a non windowed, windowed mode, lol?

[Guest]

Hi all,

Sorry if it is a weird question, but I can't think of another name for it.

My monitor resolution is 1280x1024. It is a standard LCD 5:4 screen. So, when I make movies, I change the resolution to 1280x720, for the sake of Youtube.

It looks perfect when rendered, but horrible whilst actually playing, as obviously 1280x720 in 16:9 does not fit on my screen.

Anyway, running in windowed mode is a great way for me to play the game in the resolution I need to record, and for it to also look completely normal in terms of aspect ratio and actually fitting on my screen.

But this is my issue. Being able to see windows running in the background is kind of immersion breaking, and a little annoying. Is there any kind of way to run windowed mode, in such a way, that I can get 1280x720, but instead of seeing windows in the background, just seeing a black border on the top and bottom?

Much like a widescreen movie, if you get what I mean.

Sorry if nobody gets what I mean, I am not very good at wording these things. :p

Also, sorry if this is the wrong place, it's not really hardware troubleshooting, or technical issues, just a general query.

Many thanks!

[SPC.Spets 21]

change your background to black (?)

[dm 9]

Much like a widescreen movie, if you get what I mean.

Sorry if nobody gets what I mean, I am not very good at wording these things. :p

What you want is a letterbox mode

;)

[Guest]

What you want is a letterbox mode

;)

Indeed!

But would there be a way to run Arma 2 letterboxed?

And if so, would it be 1280x720p, and the rest of the screen is black, or would it be 1280x1024 but with black borders, to make it appear to be 1280x720, when it actually isn't?

The latter is basically just the cinema border script for Arma 2, which is not what I want lol.

Cheers!

[maddogx 13]

I believe you can do this in your graphics drivers (at least for NVidia, not sure about AMD). Go to the driver control panel, change the resolution to 1280x720, then go to that screen size adjustment thingy and adjust the size appropriately. Finally, switch back to your usual resolution (should restore your normal full screen goodness).

I'm fairly sure the driver will remember the display setting for 1280x720 and swtich back to it when you change the resolution in game, effectively giving you a letterbox mode. :)

[dmarkwick 261]

Is the issue that you don't wish for the non-windowed mode to fill your high resolution monitor with the lower resolution game, that you don't wish for the stretching?

If not, you can simply have two desktop shortcuts, one windowed, one not. And I also believe you can specify a different config (for the different resolutions) for each shortcut?

[rundll.exe 12]

I briefly tried it with my laptop, and with the Nvidea control panel you can change the resolution without stretching. Under "display" there is an item "change flat panel scaling" and I set that to "Do not scale". Now when you change the resolution to something lower than your native resolution, the borders will be black and the screen still runs in its native resolution, without any stretching.

Dont have a AMD/ATI card to try that, but im sure they have a similar option.

[Guest]

Thanks for all the help guys.

I have looked up flat panel scaling, and it appears you can not use it if you are connected via VGA. At least not with an ATI card.

It seems my problem is unsolvable until I get a new monitor, no biggie though!

Cheers!

[=wfl= sgt bilko 10]

If you manage to run this way, I have a vague feeling that the recorded (fraps ???) video will also contain the black areas. Meaning that you will have to crop the movie in post-production.

[rundll.exe 12]

If you manage to run this way, I have a vague feeling that the recorded (fraps ???) video will also contain the black areas. Meaning that you will have to crop the movie in post-production.

Im quite sure this is not the case, as the OS reports the resolution just as you set it.

VGA (D-sub) may indeed not support this, since they are analogue, and only support "full-screen" images I think.