Surface Pro 3 fullscreen games in lower resolusion issue

[surfdock]

Grumpy, what DX11 issue is that? Is it something in the release notes on intel.com?

Here is a video of Watchdogs working on the SP3 Core i7 version although even with reduced quality settings (specific settings shown at around 0:45) it is still only achieving about 15-20FPS - but is playable at least:

 

[grumpy]

Grumpy, what DX11 issue is that?

I am referring to the fact that DX11 games will not automatically scale to use the full screen when a resolution lower than the desktop resolution is selected.

 

[surfdock]

I am referring to the fact that DX11 games will not automatically scale to use the full screen when a resolution lower than the desktop resolution is selected.

I see. I don't think that's a limitation of DX11 though - you can actually change that behavior with the full Intel.com driver to have a lower-than desktop resolution stretched to take up the full screen if you want to avoid black bars due to the different aspect ratios.

But the way this is rendered really depends on the game developer. If you take an extreme example of one gamer with an ultra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio screen say 3440x1440 vs one with a regular 16:9 ratio like 1920x1080, how should the same scene be rendered on one monitor vs the other? If you render more content to fill the wider screen, that could give the player a competitive advantage. If you stretch or warp the same content, that might look weird. Is the best approach then to have black bars thus squandering the extra pixels on expensive monitors? Or render other stuff like health stats and chat windows off to the side? Anyway, I believe the developer can choose how to do all this stuff by setting the appropartite parameters in the DXGI_MODE_DESC1 structure before calling SetFullscreenState.

 

[grumpy]

I see. I don't think that's a limitation of DX11 though - you can actually change that behavior with the full Intel.com driver to have a lower-than desktop resolution stretched to take up the full screen if you want to avoid black bars due to the different aspect ratios.

I am not talking about differences in aspect ratios. It is a DX11 issue. Try a game that lets you choose between a DX9 renderer and a DX11 renderer. The DX9 renderer will scale whereas the DX11 one won't.
This has been discussed here before. Also, a discussion on Intel's forums.

 

[ptrkhh]

If you take an extreme example of one gamer with an ultra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio screen say 3440x1440 vs one with a regular 16:9 ratio like 1920x1080, how should the same scene be rendered on one monitor vs the other? If you render more content to fill the wider screen, that could give the player a competitive advantage

That's actually whats happening.
Have you ever heard about multi-screen gaming?
If you are fortunate enough to own 3 monitors and a supporting GPU, then yes, you have a huge competitive advantage. Money is the most important thing, everywhere no exception.

 

[surfdock]

ptrkhh, yeah multi-screen gaming is awesome especially in flight-sim and racing games like the Dirt 3. For first person shooters, some developers will render more content and some don't.


Grumpy, regarding the scaling thing, I still don't think this is a limitation of DirectX11 at all. It is the way the developer designed the game and the options that Intel allows in their driver. On my SP3, for example, when I use the latest driver from intel.com (3960 driver), the Intel control panel presents three options for scaling:

• center image
• scale full screen
• maintain aspect ratio

I can save these settings for any of the dozens of resolutions available in the control panel that are lower than the native resolution. So, for example, if you want to play Civ in 1024x768 for performance reasons, goto the Intel control panel, choose 1024x768, then select the "Scale full screen" option, save. Then run Civ and choose 1024x768.

If it doesn't work, then there is either a bug in the Intel driver or the game itself. In that case, to avoid manually setting the resolution each time you want to run a game, a workaround would be is to run a powershell script that:

• captures current screen resolution state
• sets preferred desktop res for the game
• runs game
• sets res back to previous

Scripting this might be a little tricky for games that use multi-mon but these resources may help:

• http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscrip...onitor-resolution-via-windows-powershell.aspx
• http://www.amandhally.net/2013/01/02/setting-display-resolution-using-powershell-v3/
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7967699/get-screen-resolution-using-wmi-powershell-in-windows-7

 

[grumpy]

In full screen mode, the resolution should automatically change without needing to manually change the desktop resolution via the graphics control panel.
Civ 5 - DX9

Civ 5 - DX11

The DX11 behaviour is incorrect and due to a driver issue.

 

[lukas108]

@up

I have exactly the same behaviour of DX11 games. The only way is decrease a resolution of desktop screen. Then, DX11 game jumps into "stretched" full screen, in demanded resolution.

 

[tybo]

I have a similar problem, and all the solutions given are not working.

I play for now old games like Pharao, Zeus, Knights of the Old Republic, Pirates!
In fact with my current default drivers there are black parts each side of the screen.

But all the games can be played

When I updated the drivers with the link above all went worse ...
All the games are displayed like if my SP3 was a part of a 4 screens videowall (the top left one)
BUT not the clickable parts.
I dont know how to explain properly because it's strange : there is a gap between where the buttons are and when i have to really click with the cursor...

All the games I am talking about are old DX9 ones played @1024 x 768

I tried to set up differents resolutions, update the drivers, but each time it was a waste of time... the SP3 doesnt know how to handle fullscreen games @lower resolutions