Continuum Resizer, new app to that makes playing convenient

[Weasal]

http://www.subspace.co/files/file/28-continuum-resizer/

Hey everyone. I don't regularly play TW, but I do a bit of dev for various other zones. I was frustrated at how cumbersome alt-tabbing is when playing Continuum in fullscreen mode so I made a little program that makes switching buttery smooth and doesn't cause the chat window to pop up in your face everytime.

For those who like technical stuff, this app changes continuum from having fullscreen_exclusive mode (windows disables the pretty aero glass effects in this mode ) to a regular application display mode. It still draws to the entire screen by using a window that has the full screen dimensions though. So it's basically a full-screen window. This makes alt-tabbing instant. It's super cool, you can layer windows on top of continuum in the background .

[renzi]

you are #1 irl

[Mobey]

Nice idea and concept but I find it more convenient to have my chat window 'always on top' though and with this I can't seem to have that.

I know it's hosted at subspace.co but I scanned it at a multi-engine scanner anyway (for those paranoid people) and it's clean.

[paradise!]

Nifty.

[meddi]

Does this help provide better multi-monitor support? ie: will I be able to run "fullscreen" on a non-primary monitor?

[Weasal]

@Mobey i don't see any benefit, it's very annoying if i alt-tab to another app that the chat window will come to the foreground and steal focus away (in my opinion). however, if enough people voice it i can make suppressing the chat window a toggle-able option.

@meddi it should be possible to code that in but i don't have multi-monitors so wouldn't be able to test it for now. right now it will draw to the default monitor, just windowed... you can try using your secondary monitor as your actual primary (place 2 to the left of 1 in the display properties i think)... not sure.

[stark]

If you use Ultramon and set a hot key for moving windows, it will move over to your other monitor... Which is fine... But, really, what I was hoping for is the ability to continue to watch the game on one monitor while doing other things on the other one-- which you can't do. As soon as you click off the screen (I got excited because I saw my mouse on the other monitor while 'full-screened' in game), the game image will freeze until you click back on it (that's if you have ticker chat always off, otherwise it will be same scenario but with chat window popping up as soon as you click off). I'm pretty sure Meddi and I are on the same page as for what we were hoping for, anyway. Though, it DOES work if you just wanna quickly do something without missing much... Like, have Facebook open on one monitor, calling coords in your squads DD on the other... See you got a notification, and click over fast to realize that Michelle Richardson just sent you a request to give her a cow in FarmVille, then quickly click back on the game to resume doing better, real life things

Oh, and I'm moving this to SSCU Trench Wars, because General Discussion is for non-subspacey things, and most people in GD forums are people who don't even play the game anymore.

Edit: The hot key thing only works when you're using Continuum Resizer program, sorry I didn't clarify.

Also, I wish the the systray icon looked less like pnus

[Weasal]

@stark well logically the actual behavior of continuum when it's minimized in fullscreen mode is to stop drawing (since the player can't see the window anyway). that's why it freezes. to circumvent this i am modifying a boolean continuum uses to control whether it draws to the screen or not. it works on my machines, but i guess it doesn't work for you?

what early versions of the program did, is entirely suppress window_minimize messages, which means chat will never show up, but also that the game window will always assume it's shown. this way you can get what you want stark. i'll upload something soon with an option whether to enable chat support or not, so you get the behavior you want .

[Weasal]

@stark uploaded 1.1, give it a go and let me know if that works for you.

[stark]

Works great, now, Weasal... Now I can watch the game on one monitor, and browse the interwebs on the other.

If I move the (Continuum) window to the other monitor (My primary is 27" and my secondary is 21"), the screen will not auto adjust the size, so on the smaller monitor the bottom and right sides are cut off... But, still works great... nice job!

[Slum]

doesnt work.

[Weasal]

@stark It might be possible to hack it so it runs at any custom resolution, but i think in your case all you need to do is set it to run at your second monitor's (the 21" one) resolution and move it after. (you can try checking "Show Default Resolutions" in View->Advanced Options to see if one of those matches). I don't believe it's possible to switch resolutions after entering a zone (in game) so no auto adjust, unfortunately.

Edit: slum brought to my attention that it randomly stops working. i was previously aware that's an issue which occurs infrequently, but i couldn't figure out the cause or how to fix it. If that happens just relaunch Continuum Resizer (not while ingame), and whenever you launch Continuum the icon changes to the one below to indicate it's attached.

[meddi]

Thanks, stark and Weasal. What stark described is exactly what I was looking for.

When I get my home connection back online I'm going to give this application a go.

[stark]

Oh, yeah I'm an idiot. I didn't even think about the resolution I play at on my 27" (1920x1080) is far too big for my 21" monitor. However, when I change it to 1280x1024, what I used to play at when I just had my one 21" monitor, there is about a 4" gap that displays my normal desktop background (as if it's trying to fit a non-widescreen monitor), on either monitor. However, it does display everything fine (no loss of image like when I tried to move the bigger resolution to my other monitor), so that's good :-)

[Supreme]

Call me a pessimist but unless theres an option of only letting certain people pm you (with a beep) im not interested