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Glossary:Borderless fullscreen windowed

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Revision as of 17:08, 3 October 2022 by Aemony (talk | contribs) (→‎Linux: revamped whole section -- removed all the duplicated unnecessary stuff)

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For a list of games, see List of games that support borderless fullscreen windowed.


Borderless fullscreen windowed refers to a mode where the game presents the rendered image in a maximized window without borders making it cover the whole monitor. This is opposed to a regular window that uses window decorations around the contents of the window, or fullscreen exclusive mode where the game takes control over the output device and where each application switch required a display mode switch to occur.

This feature is known by a lot of different names between games, such as borderless mode, maximized window, fullscreen window, or any combination thereof. Some titles might also refer to it using less common names, such as scaling or even fullscreen if the game does not support exclusive fullscreen mode.

Key points

Borderless fullscreen windowed offers similar benefits as normal windowed mode, but with a fullscreen-like appearance.
Native feature in many modern titles, and can often be forced in the majority of older titles.
Can sometimes be used to enable wider or higher resolutions via resizing the game's viewport.[1][2]
Seamless task switching with no risk of crashes or freezes with a minor loss in performance.
Eliminates screen tearing on Windows (only on Vista and later) due to Vertical sync (Vsync) being applied for all windows by the Desktop Window Manager (DWM)..[3]
..but will subsequently cause additional input lag as well, due to the aforementioned vertical sync. It is possible to disable the vertical sync, however it requires either disabling DWM (only possible on Vista/7) or by using a certain presentation mode and flag.[4]
Games that crash or become unresponsive in will often continue to present themselves over the top of task manager making termination (aka force quit) difficult. Using the hotkey alt+o brings up the options menu when task manager is selected, even if it isn't visible, and then pressing A selects the option to always display task manager on top. Unfortunately this obstruction also frequently affects bug reporting tools too, in which case it is recommended to switch away from borderless display mode while trying to reproduce the issue.

Windows

Borderless Gaming

Instructions
  1. Download Borderless Gaming and install it.
  2. Navigate to the Borderless Gaming installation path and run BorderlessGaming.exe
  3. Run the game in a Windowed mode, then Alt+Tab ↹ to the Desktop and open Borderless Gaming again.
  4. Select the game's executable from under the Applications field, then push the first Right Arrow button located at the top.

Notes

Restart the game if the borderless mode isn't working, keep Borderless Gaming open.
If the game crashed after Borderless Gaming was launched then restart the game, keep Borderless Gaming open.
Requires UAC elevation to run.

Special K

See Special K for instructions.

GeDoSaTo

Supports DirectX 9 and 32-bit games, with more advanced support for Unreal Engine 3 games where it can force windowed modes for games without it.
Instructions
  1. Install and run GeDoSaTo.
  2. Edit settings and find the following line in GeDoSaTo.ini. 
    forceBorderlessFullscreen false
  3. Edit the value from "false" to "true" to force this mode.
  4. Add the game's executable name to the user whitelist.
  5. Run the game in its normal fullscreen mode as opposed to windowed.
Updater/installer may crash. From an administrator command prompt, run REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319" /v SchUseStrongCrypto /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /reg:32[5]

Simple Runtime Window Editor

Allows manipulating the size, position, and styles of a game's main/child windows.
Instructions
  1. Download SRWE and run it.
  2. Run the game in windowed mode, and switch back to SRWE.
  3. Select running application and open the game.
  4. Use the Remove borders and Fake fullscreen buttons.
  5. Save the profile to the same folder as SRWE.

Fullscreenizer

Instructions
  1. Download Fullscreenizer and run it.
  2. Run the game in windowed mode, and switch back to Fullscreenizer.
  3. Click on "Show All", select a game and click on "Add".
  4. Use the Fullscreenize button.

Windowed Borderless Gaming

Instructions
  1. Download Windowed Borderless Gaming and run.
  2. Run the game in windowed mode, and click to icon in tray.
  3. Use "Add window (F3)" button, go to game and click F3.
  4. Restart the game.

AutoHotkey

See AutoHotkey for instructions.

Linux

Most Linux window managers allow fullscreen applications to natively run under a borderless mode by default.

General instructions

This applies to Gnome, KDE/Plasma, Cinnamon, Mate, Pantheon, and most likely other desktop environments as well.
Instructions
  1. Look through the system settings/control center of the desktop environment for a section where keyboard hotkeys or shortcuts can be set.
  2. Look for the option labeled Toggle fullscreen mode or similar.
  3. Set a hotkey for the option, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+Home.
  4. Start the game in windowed mode.
  5. Move it to your preferred monitor.
  6. Select the game and enter the hotkey, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+Home.

i3

Instructions
  1. Start the game in a windowed mode.
  2. Move it to a new virtual desktop by using ⇧ Shift+⊞ Win+Number.
  3. Switch to the virtual terminal with ⊞ Win+Number then go into fullscreen mode by pushing ⊞ Win+F.

Run Steam games in a separate X server instance

Games can also run in a separate X server instance which may improve performance and stability and allows for switching between the game and desktop using keyboard shortcuts.[Note 1]
Some games such as Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor may run into glitches using this method.[6]
Run Steam game in new X server instance:
  1. Run Steam
  2. Edit the launch options for the game as follows:
xinit %command% :1
  • For non-Steam games, replace %command% with the full path to the game executable.

Windows troubleshooting

Game crashes on startup

Certain borderless applications have to be started before the game itself and not while the game is running.

Window constantly resizes itself

After applying the borderless mode simply restart the game itself, while keeping the borderless application open.


Notes

  1. ↑ Typically Ctrl+Alt+F7 and Ctrl+Alt+F8 though buttons may differ; might be any of F1 through F12.

References