Forcing [non-fullscreen] games to fullscreen for G-sync

Talk about NVIDIA G-SYNC, a variable refresh rate (VRR) technology. G-SYNC eliminates stutters, tearing, and reduces input lag. List of G-SYNC Monitors.
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nimbulan
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Forcing [non-fullscreen] games to fullscreen for G-sync

Post by nimbulan » 26 Jan 2014, 01:04

I'm not sure if this is possible, but is there any way to force a game into fullscreen when it does not have an option for it (or if the fullscreen option just does borderless windowed mode)? I have a couple games here that refuse to go fullscreen and will not respond to alt+enter.

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Re: Forcing [non-fullscreen] games to fullscreen for G-sync

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 26 Jan 2014, 01:35

There must be a way to write a wrapper that redirects a windowed game to full screen mode, to take advantage of GSYNC. There was previously no market for such a utility, but now with GSYNC, this utility would be quite useful. Theoretically, all you'd simply do capture the frames in a windowed 3D application and redisplay them in full screen Direct3D mode.

Perhaps some enterprising programmer reading this, could do such a deed?
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Re: Forcing [non-fullscreen] games to fullscreen for G-sync

Post by nimbulan » 26 Jan 2014, 03:10

G-sync isn't the only reason to do so. Many hardware configurations (such as mine) experience lower framerates and/or stuttering in windowed mode and this has been true for as long as Windows games have been around. It's only been recently, since there have been so many gamers asking developers for borderless windowed mode support that some who don't seem to understand the benefits of fullscreen mode have actually replaced it with borderless windowed in their games.

I've been trying to test out two simple 2D games that are limited to 60 fps to see how 144 Hz G-sync will work, Risk of Rain and Don't Starve. Unfortunately both of these games have a fullscreen option that is actually borderless windowed mode, and I experience constant stutter in both due to this despite how little they stress my system.

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Re: Forcing [non-fullscreen] games to fullscreen for G-sync

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 26 Jan 2014, 03:18

Also, for some games, borderless windowed mode may actually run a little smoother (but possibly slightly laggier) if you enable Aero (rather than use Classic / Basic).
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Re: Forcing [non-fullscreen] games to fullscreen for G-sync

Post by nimbulan » 26 Jan 2014, 03:27

Chief Blur Buster wrote:Also, for some games, borderless windowed mode may actually run a little smoother (but possibly slightly laggier) if you enable Aero (rather than use Classic / Basic).
Aero does seem to be the culprit here. I get pretty regular and large (but not constant) stutters in the game with Aero on, and with Aero off I get what looks like microstutters due to screen tearing, though it may be due to the game rendering at a very low resolution and not allowing partial pixels, so it creates aliasing errors in camera movement. I hate turning Aero off though, it looks so nice compared to the old Windows theme or that ugly solid blue color it gives you if you try to use the new theme without Aero.

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