Windowed or Fullscreen?

Which mode do you usually game in?

 

Easy choice. Fullscreen.

I got my laptop with a 17" screen for a reason, so I want to use it.

But there are some games I don't play fullscreen on, like Diablo II. But for the most part, I always play on fullscreen.

 

As long as the game fits (without stretching) into 16:9 ratio well, I will play it in full screen. Full screen seems more complete and I'm less distracted by other activities. Otherwise I will play in windowed mode.

 

Fullscreen is better for performance since it preempts the OS from rendering the GUI; in other words in fullscreen the game is the only thing rendering to the screen.

 

Fullscreen is better, it keeps the mouse from going off game, it gives the maximum performance benefit.

Especially in dual card configurations, usually the 2nd card wont even work unless your in full screen.

As far as stretching that is not a problem ever, all games fit just choose the proper resolution, and make sure you have your video card drivers set for aspect scaling rather than stretch to fit.

The only reason to use windowed mode is for things like debugging or panning a game across multiple monitors where it would normally not support it.

 

Oh fullscreen No reason why I can't.

 

Fullscreen for most of the games, only with a few puzzle games (or minesweeper) I play in windowed mode

 

How do I do this through CCC? I've been trying to figure it out for months and I can't seem to find it anywhere.

 

Fullscreen. Don't want to be bothered by other stuff when playing.

 

Usually it's in game. For 1920*1080p for example would be 16:9 or 1920*1200 would be 16:10. It's probably not enabled for your native screen, unless you are connecting it to external monitor for CCC. In that case it's under displays, then configure the external monitor. As long as you choose the correct resolution you should be fine, just don't be dumb.

 

No, I mean I have a couple old games which only run at 4x3 resolutions, playing on a widescreen monitor. My understanding of scaling is that it will force it to maintain the 4x3 aspect ratio and not stretch to 16x9. However, I cannot seem to enable this and am thus forced to play my games stretched.

 

You need to find drivers for your gpu that enable aspect scaling. Im using leaked drivers right now on my G73 so the option is greyed out for me.

However I know on WHQL drivers in the past I could turn it on.

Its in a different spot for Nvidia cards but they have the option as well.

You may have to change your desktop resolution to a 4:3 resolution first and then let the scaling do its thing, and then after go boot the game.

 

Yes, but having huge black bars where I could have my messaging program open doesn't seem like an effective use of screen real-estate to me. I prefer to have applications that don't scale (old 2D games) in windowed mode so that I can see them in their full glory (ie no stretching or scaling) and use my entire screen. For those kind of games, I don't think rendering the desktop environment is going to hinder the performance.

 

but say you have a 24'' wuxga monitor, a game like diablo 2 would look tiny if you don't scale it up.

 

Depends on which game..

Typically i use Fullscreen, and if theres windowed i use it without borders so it seems like fullscreen :3

 

I only play fullscreen if the game supports 16:9 (I have a few that actually don't work with it, but a lot more that do).

The only time I don't is when I'm multitasking or something like that~

 

I'm on a 16.4" 1920x1080 screen most of the time. Things are very tiny sometimes... But I prefer to see the original pixels (unless it can scale from a origin pixel to 4 output pixels with no color blending or sub-pixel voodoo). I just prefer to play games in windowed mode if they do not look good in full screen, stretched and blurred is not good.

(This is why I keep a 17" 1280x1024 monitor handy)

 

i use full screened always.. obviously... ur abnormal lol if u use windowed...

 

^Fixed.


But, yeah, full all the way for the complete immersion experience. Except EVE where I go windowed to run two accounts simultaneously.

 

Excellent thread choice OP.

I prefer Windowed Mode, just like the look better and I still have immediate access to the desktop just in case something happens. I also at times pause the game and hit the Net.

 

pretty sure there has been a few of these threads before.... but still

fulscreen ftw.

 

Fullscreen always for me. Except when playing Street Fighter IV on my laptop

 

Always fullscreen. Except for Eufloria.

Btw, offtopic but related: know of any app that will let you set the x,y position and width, height of a window? I ask because I don't browse maximized - 17" 16:9/10 is much too wide for most websites. I still browse in an approx 4:3 window because, otherwise, reading becomes like watching tennis (from the side). Watching tennis that way is fine but not reading

 

Fullscreen!

 

I pretty much always run fullscreen. I can't think of the last time I ran any game in window mode.

 

I think 3D Analyze allows you to do that. Also check and see if the game includes a customizable config file.

3D ANALYZE V2.26 - Graphics Card Emulator - Applications | TechEnclave

 

Thanks, I'll check it out. I don't require an app for adjusting position and size of games windows, rather, just regular windows of any application which doesn't always involve gaming (like the Firefox browser window).

 

Fullscreen. Always. I didn't get a 24" WUGXA screen for nothing, I want to take advantage of it. And when your notebook has a screen resolution of 1280 x 800, you don't want to lose any resolution.

Plus, when you have it fullscreen, transparency is disabled, getting you slightly better performance.

 

It depends, some games I like fullscreen but nowadays I'm actually more inclined to use windowed mode if it's available.

I've been playing a lot of MW2 online in windowed mode and it's great to have some IM windows open, web browser etc. and just read through those in the intermission.

Otherwise hide inside some building, alt-tab and IM while the enemy has a chopper gunner

 

It's fullscreen and native resolution or nothing!

 

Depends on the game, I can't stand QL in fullscreen, but I doubt HoN is even playable in a window, with the extensive GUI and all.

 

My thoughts exactly... i've seen the enligtenment of native res..