Does setting the scaling option in windows also apply to apps (like games) and why?

[Mark Kaine]

I tried this the other day - looks great on the desktop - made my games laggy as hell though - up to *0fps*... 

 

Turned it off, games back to *rocksteady 60fps*

 

 

Are there any other options to have bigger icons and letters on desktop? (yes I know large icons, but that doesn't change the ridiculously small letters and also doesn't affect the taskbar like scaling does) 

[GoodBytes]

Display Scaling should not effect system performance.

 

Display Scaling is at the mercy of each software to support. If they don't and Windows can't inject things to scale an app (for apps using Microsoft framework), the app will be blurry (like an image you zoom in and add smoothing effect to reduce jaggies). GPU rendered games are excluded from this. The game can get the system DPI value and scale whatever it wants (API are there for devs), but again, you are at the mercy of the developers. If there is no support, then everything will remain just as small as before. Some games like Civilization 5 (not sure on v6) doesn't have high DPI support, but has a large mode that can selected in the game options, which make menu, HUD and stuff, a bit larger.

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

Display Scaling should not effect system performance.

 

Display Scaling is at the mercy of each software to support. If they don't and Windows can't inject things to scale an app (for apps using Microsoft framework), the app will be blurry (like an image you zoom in and add smoothing effect to reduce jaggies). GPU rendered games are excluded from this. The game can get the system DPI value and scale whatever it wants (API are there for devs), but again, you are at the mercy of the developers. If there is no support, then everything will remain just as small as before. Some games like Civilization 5 (not sure on v6) doesn't have high DPI support, but has a large mode that can selected in the game options, which make menu, HUD and stuff, a bit larger.

 

 

I see, hmm I wonder where the performance issues came from then though - the games weren't blurry, just kinda like a lot of input lag suddenly with the occasional drop to 10, 0, fps... (and not demanding games at all either, though I guess both use some kind of weird 'full screen but not full screen mode' maybe) 

 

so it maybe really is a developer thing? but I don't understand why windows even tries to do anything to those games, shouldn't it see they're 'games'?  just curious, because I really don't understand it.

 

PS: I mostly understand what you're saying, but I don't want the games to scale, it's just the desktop that bothers me, with the scaling option to 125% it's perfect, except then I can barely play games (because performance goes way down - for whatever reason) 

[GoodBytes]

37 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

I see, hmm I wonder where the performance issues came from then though - the games weren't blurry, just kinda like a lot of input lag suddenly with the occasional drop to 10, 0, fps... (and not demanding games at all either, though I guess both use some kind of weird 'full screen but not full screen mode' maybe) 

First, make sure your game is running full screen. See if it affects other games.

If it does affect other games (the performance issue, I mean) then the issue is most likely with your GPU drivers.

 

You have typically 3 window modes in games:

• Full screen
• Full Screen windowed
• windowed

Full screen means that the game will run under exclusive mode. This is a special mode in Windows which permits games to have more direct access to the hardware, and it makes Windows unloads stuff on the back, like the desktop environment. This is why, in this mode, games minimize the moment they are unfocused, and you can't have another window in front of the game.

 

Full screen windowed, make the game fun on the whole screen, as if you maximized the window. The desktop and everything on the back is still there. There is a performance drop as a result. Game isn't running under this exclusive mode thing. other windows can be above it.

 

Windowed mode, is like any program, you have a title bar, you may be able to resize the window.

 

37 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

so it maybe really is a developer thing? but I don't understand why windows even tries to do anything to those games, shouldn't it see they're 'games'?  just curious, because I really don't understand it.

Windows doesn't try to do anything. Only on non-high-DPI aware programs (those that don't support display Scaling) that uses a Microsoft GUI framework, such as Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), or Windows Forms (WinForms). Typically, if you encounter a program which has text cut, or has alignement issue when you have your Display Scaling higher than 100%, then it is because of this (or the devs simply didn't care to spend time fixing the layout)

 

[Mark Kaine]

Ok, thanks, I guess I'll try some other games 

51 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

You have typically 3 window modes in games:

• Full screen
• Full Screen windowed
• windowed

right, there's also "exclusive full screen" 

 

But still it shouldn't affect games like that - one was Bloodstained for example, in full screen 1440p, but it's really not a demanding game, the fans of my gpu don't even turn on. but I do have a feeling it's maybe faking the "full screen", some games do that seemingly ... 

[Mark Kaine]

On 3/1/2021 at 10:12 PM, GoodBytes said:

Full screen means that the game will run under exclusive mode. This is a special mode in Windows which permits games to have more direct access to the hardware, and it makes Windows unloads stuff on the back, like the desktop environment. This is why, in this mode, games minimize the moment they are unfocused, and you can't have another window in front of the game.

So I tried with Monster Hunter World, no noticeable issues, unlike the other games I tried... 

 

I do believe they're actually not running completely in full screen, even though they're set to it... but this needs further testing. 

 

I'm not going to say something is messed up with my windows, but it's certainly quite inconsistent with these full screen apps... 

for example some games (interestingly MHW is such a game) will show the volume slider when I press the volume buttons on my keyboard, while others don't - and generally those that don't have more issues too (generally). 

 

And I guess that kinda implies MHW would not run in true full screen - but it does, because when I set it to "windowed" image quality and performance take a huge dive immediately.

 

There are more weird behaviors similar to this (for example 'preview screen' of minimized apps sometimes shows a moving picture, sometimes doesn't, which seems to change weekly / randomly) 

 

I'm not sure what to make of it, but I'll just test a couple of more games, but I sure wish there was a simple option to make things *on the desktop* bigger, natively, not 'scaled'... 

 

 

Oh, also I tried the 'let windows fix apps so they're not blurry' thing, which made my desktop and everything on it instantly very blurry and kinda fuzzy...!

turned it off again immediately obviously - tho I thought it was worth a try anyways.