What is full screen mode?

Question

I know that you can fake full-screen mode by expanding the window and eliminating the title bar, status bar and other things, I do not care, I want to know about the "real" full-screen mode (I don’t know, t know how to call it another way) like in games.

What is full screen mode? What benefits should I use to achieve this? Can this be used to play movies in full screen? I know that the Windows media player uses a fake full screen because I can "cut" it and see the desktop (using win-api regions). can I "cut" through a "real" full screen, as I am through a window (using win-api regions), is this a direct access to video memory, and there is nothing "under"?

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you want to make games on Windows in full screen mode, the best option is XNA . This uses DirectX from the bottom, but hides a lot of implementation details and plumbing, so that the developer can easily start working on his game.

XNA is free to download and has good documentation.

XNA Game Studio 4.0 can be downloaded here .

Answer 2

If you do not want to use DirectX, create a window and call ChangeDisplaySettings with the CDS_FULLSCREEN flag. OpenGL applications use this method for full-screen viewing.

Answer 3

... and you can support the "fake" full-screen mode in addition to the "real" full-screen mode - this is very good for those of us who run systems with multiple monitors.

Answer 4

For the user, full screen is just when the window is full screen, so that they no longer see the borders of the window or other desktop.

As you know, not all full screens are created equal.

The “correct” full screen is where the program controls the screen. When a game uses this mode, it can change the screen resolution. If you have ever played an old game and existed to see how your icons are messed up, it is; during the game, the game on the desktop was lower.

with "borderless full screen", the program window alternates with any borders, title bar and frame, etc. and is just a rectangle of pure rendering. If you set the same size for this visualization context as your desktop, you get the full screen effect.

Fulfillment of unlimited boundaries is usually more convenient for users these days, since it is easier to “lay out”, since other programs are still on the chart. The “correct” full-screen mode gives you full control over the equipment, so theoretically you have more options for your program, but that means you have to wait for something to be reinitialized when you choose.

what you do with the rendering context is up to you, so yes, you can use it to play the video. It would not matter if you are in the “correct” full-screen mode or not, the rendering code would be the same.

As for cutting through the correct full-screen windows, I'm not sure, but I think that nothing else will be visible, there is only your program.

as for win-api, there is only one windows api, but I think you mean which window library; since this is already a long answer, I’ll just say that it depends on what you want from it.

Please feel free to leave comments if you need to clarify or expand any points.