Difference between revisions of "Glossary:Borderless fullscreen windowed"

Revision as of 12:59, 24 February 2012

Play StarCraft II and World of Warcraft side by side in fullscreen

Borderless fullscreen windowed is the display option of having a game run in a window but appear to be running in fullscreen. Also known as borderless windowed fullscreen, maximized windowed fullscreen, or fake fullscreen. On PCGamingWiki we will refer to this feature as 'borderless fullscreen windowed'

Borderless fullscreen windowed is a feature well supported by certain developers, including Valve whose modern Source engine supports the -noborder -windowed launch option. Similarly, Blizzard have included this option in their games since World of Warcraft, where the feature is known as Fullscreen (Windowed). However, most other game developers have neglected to add this feature into their games. Fortunately, fullscreen windowed can be hacked into almost any game using a combination of Windows utilities.

Considerations

Borderless fullscreen windowed mode appears just like a fullscreen game, and usually has fewer issues with alt-tabbing and multitasking.

Benefits

Less prone to crashing from using alt-tab.
Alt-tab and multitasking is seamless and quick.
Game is still immersive as window borders are obscured.
Run more than one game at once.
Run a browser or an FAQ alongside a game.

Disadvantages

Performance decrease, normally around 15% slower.
Potential stability decrease for certain games.
Only works by running at native desktop resolution, which may result in slow performance.
Not supported or implemented by most game developers.
ATI cards do not support Crossfire in this mode.

Requirements

All methods require the game to be run in windowed mode at the native desktop resolution, or maximum resolution of the Windows screen.

ShiftWindow

This utility was originally developed by grismar for the EVE Online community. ShiftWindow sets the size and position of any windowed game so that the borders are forced off the screen, giving the appearance of a fullscreen window.

Download ShiftWindow on grismar's website

Method

Set a game to display at your display's native resolution and in windowed mode.
Run ShiftWindow, and trigger it to resize the game window so that the borders overflow off the screen.

A step by step guide to making any game run in borderless fullscreen windowed is available on Shiny Hacks.

Issues

Incompatible with a number of games that do not allow for their window title bar to be forced off the screen.
May result in Windows' taskbar displaying over the game window.
- Tweak for this issue is available called DisableTaskbarOnTop, which allows the game to display over the Taskbar.

AutoHotKey

This method uses AutoHotKey and a script to set the game window size and position, and strips out the native Windows border style.

AutoHotKey_L or AutoHotKey Basic is required to use the following scripts.

AutoHotKey script by briankb

briankb's script appears to be the earliest implementation of this method from February 2011.

Script available at gaming.stackexchange.com

AutoHotKey script by XunAmarox

Script available on the Nexus mods website.

Another AutoHotkey Script

Simple AutoHotkey Script

This script will full screen the currently active window onto your primary monitor with the F12 key

F12::
WinGet, WindowID, ID, A
WinSet, Style, -0xC40000, ahk_id %WindowID%
WinMove, ahk_id %WindowID%, , 0, 0, A_ScreenWidth, A_ScreenHeight
return

Full Screen Toggle AutoHotkey Script

More complicated script which will toggle between full screen and windowed modes

F12::
WinGet, TempWindowID, ID, A
If (WindowID != TempWindowID)
{
  WindowID:=TempWindowID
  WindowState:=0
}
If (WindowState != 1)
{
  WinGetPos, WinPosX, WinPosY, WindowWidth, WindowHeight, ahk_id %WindowID%
  WinSet, Style, ^0xC40000, ahk_id %WindowID%
  WinMove, ahk_id %WindowID%, , 0, 0, A_ScreenWidth, A_ScreenHeight
}
Else
{
  WinSet, Style, ^0xC40000, ahk_id %WindowID%
  WinMove, ahk_id %WindowID%, , WinPosX, WinPosY, WindowWidth, WindowHeight
}
WindowState:=!WindowState
return

To make this into an Autohotkey script file:

In Windows Explorer, File -> New -> AutoHotkey Script
Open the newly created file in a text editing program
Append the code to the end of the file
Save the file and run it

GameCompanion

BUDA20 developed this utility which, amongst other features, allows games to be run in 'FF mode' or 'Fake fullscreen' mode.

Utility available on the Nexus mods website.

@@ Line 53: / Line 53: @@
 === Another AutoHotkey Script ===
-This script will full screen the currently active window onto your primary monitor with the F12 key:
+===== Simple AutoHotkey Script =====
+This script will full screen the currently active window onto your primary monitor with the F12 key
   F12::
@@ Line 61: / Line 62: @@
   return
-Here's a more complicated one which will toggle between full screen and windowed modes:
+===== Full Screen Toggle AutoHotkey Script =====
+More complicated script which will toggle between full screen and windowed modes
   F12::