3 ms·

I wish there was a backwards compatibility option to give applications a “virtual display” which runs in a window, for old programs which only know how to run f

by ls612 3y ago

I wish there was a backwards compatibility option to give applications a “virtual display” which runs in a window, for old programs which only know how to run fullscreen at 1024x768.

swozey 3y ago
I can't find it right now, and no idea if it'd work on older things but there's some 3rd party app for Windows that will put a full screen game/app into a stretchable windowed mode.
- akx 3y ago
  DxWnd (https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/) comes to mind.
colejohnson66 3y ago
Does the built-in "compatibility mode" not work? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/make-older-apps-or-programs-compatible-with-windows-783d6dd7-b439-bdb0-0490-54eea0f45938 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/make-older-apps-...
smoldesu 3y ago
Wine does this, it's a lifesaver for older games like Diablo 2.
- account42 3y ago
  Proton (Valve's Wine version) does it even better - it runs windows without a an emulated desktop but transparently scales fullscreen applications to your native resolution so that there are no mode changes needed.
evmar 3y ago
Working on https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32 https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32, I disassembled one old demo that wouldn't run on my native Windows machine -- turns out it was requesting 320x200 fullscreen resolution and aborting if it couldn't get it. (Not sure why the Windows machine wouldn't do it...)
Dwedit 3y ago
I once made a program (Intended for Games only, doesn't support standard windows controls) that allows you to stretch an otherwise fixed-size window. Uses D3D9 and Pixel Shaders to draw the upscaled window. https://github.com/Dwedit/GameStretcher https://github.com/Dwedit/GameStretcher
- Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
  Oh, where was this when I really needed it a few years ago... I was playing an old MMORPG called The Realm. It's been live since 1995 and ran until just a couple months ago. It only knew how to run in 640x480. I tried to write a program that would create a scaled up version, but it didn't work well, especially since the game would create child windows for certain UI elements. I was writing it in C, which isn't my strongest language, simply so I could call Win32 APIs more easily.
bombcar 3y ago
This is why I ran a virtual machine for windows even when I was running windows. Virtual machines almost always support having a different virtual resolution vs actual.

by ls612 3y ago

I wish there was a backwards compatibility option to give applications a “virtual display” which runs in a window, for old programs which only know how to run fullscreen at 1024x768.

swozey 3y ago

I can't find it right now, and no idea if it'd work on older things but there's some 3rd party app for Windows that will put a full screen game/app into a stretchable windowed mode.

akx 3y ago
DxWnd (https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/) comes to mind.

colejohnson66 3y ago

Does the built-in "compatibility mode" not work? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/make-older-apps-or-programs-compatible-with-windows-783d6dd7-b439-bdb0-0490-54eea0f45938 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/make-older-apps-...

smoldesu 3y ago

Wine does this, it's a lifesaver for older games like Diablo 2.

account42 3y ago
Proton (Valve's Wine version) does it even better - it runs windows without a an emulated desktop but transparently scales fullscreen applications to your native resolution so that there are no mode changes needed.

evmar 3y ago

Working on https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32 https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32, I disassembled one old demo that wouldn't run on my native Windows machine -- turns out it was requesting 320x200 fullscreen resolution and aborting if it couldn't get it. (Not sure why the Windows machine wouldn't do it...)

Dwedit 3y ago

I once made a program (Intended for Games only, doesn't support standard windows controls) that allows you to stretch an otherwise fixed-size window. Uses D3D9 and Pixel Shaders to draw the upscaled window. https://github.com/Dwedit/GameStretcher https://github.com/Dwedit/GameStretcher

Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
Oh, where was this when I really needed it a few years ago... I was playing an old MMORPG called The Realm. It's been live since 1995 and ran until just a couple months ago. It only knew how to run in 640x480. I tried to write a program that would create a scaled up version, but it didn't work well, especially since the game would create child windows for certain UI elements. I was writing it in C, which isn't my strongest language, simply so I could call Win32 APIs more easily.

bombcar 3y ago

This is why I ran a virtual machine for windows even when I was running windows. Virtual machines almost always support having a different virtual resolution vs actual.