next »

[Christian Knudsen]

Here's a question that's probably not all that technical in nature, but this still seemed like the proper place to ask it...

What's the preferred standard when launching a program/game for the first time (before the user has had a chance to set the options)? To launch it in full screen, windowed at the desktop resolution, or windowed smaller than the desktop resolution?

[Netsu]

Definitely windowed and in a smaller resolution, I don't want the game to take over my desktop when launching it for the first time and not even sure if I'll like it.

[Player Ʒ]

And if you have quality control for the visuals, be sure to set all of them on the lowest setting. Many times have I been forced to wait a while to change options because a certain developer was selfish enough to set the graphics on HIGH.

[Irock]

I agree with Netsu. It's kind of jarring whenever I launch an application and it goes right into full screen. Windowed with smaller resolution by default, no doubt.

[_Tommo_]

traditional PC AAA games used to launch fullscreen at the wrong resolution, maybe with the added plus of resizing the desktop and moving all the icons.

If you don't really need the extra performance boost of the fullscreen (which anyway on modern OSes is very small) please start windowed! And make it easy to me to change the settings whenever I want.

[Christian Knudsen]

Excellent! That's what I was thinking as well (windowed with smaller resolution). If full screen, the user can get stuck if the program crashes or freezes on first run -- and when I run in windowed mode but full resolution on my system, the WindowsXP bar will cover the bottom of the window.

I've got options for resolution settings and full screen/window mode, so the player can easily change that.

[BorisTheBrave]

I vote for full screen. I nearly always want to use my full screen real estate when playing a game, I don't see why it shouldn't default to it. But it is annoying that many games handle full screen poorly - particularly if they fuck up your desktop. But too many also just crash or hang when you alt-tab out of them, or don't interact well with multiple monitors.

An option I quite like in games is when on first startup, they popup a tiny window prompting you for just this, which never appears again. By the time the game has truly loaded, I'm excited to play it - I don't want to have to immediately dive into config settings, and potentially replay the starting sequence a billion times.

[rivon]

Fullscreen with the same resolution as is currently set on the screen. Surely not fullscreen with some other resolution. Small window is also an option...

But well, it all depends on the game. If it's some pixel art game with VGA or QVGA graphics then fullscreen is a bad idea. If it's a good-looking 3D game then fullscreen is better.

[J-Snake]

My game will start right in fullscreen. You won't need to change anything anyway.
The resolution and scaling will be done automatically properly by my software.

Personally starting in windowed mode is annoying, I want the game to go properly in full-screen right there, from there on you can still apply changes if you need it.

[Zack Bell]

It really depends on the game for me. I really don't mind as long as I can manually switch between the two. I'd say that I prefer fullscreen, but I can totally agree with what Netsu said as well.

[Pirate Hearts]

I display an options dialog on the first launch to let the user pick. Within this dialog, I default to fullscreen at the current desktop resolution.

[ThemsAllTook]

Depends somewhat on the game. Some genres I'd want to play fullscreen, some I wouldn't. Starting in a window is definitely the safer bet.

Call me crazy, but running an application in full screen mode requires a bit more trust from me than running it in a window. If certain things go wrong, it's harder to recover from a full screen state than a windowed state. I like to get a feel for the quality of a game before I give it permission to take over my display.

[Netsu]

Call me crazy, but running an application in full screen mode requires a bit more trust from me than running it in a window. If certain things go wrong, it's harder to recover from a full screen state than a windowed state. I like to get a feel for the quality of a game before I give it permission to take over my display.

That's exactly how I feel. And that's why I don't mind AAA titles starting in fullscreen because I only buy them if I'm certain I'm going to play them.

[kamac]

Make a launcher which let's the player select in what mode does he want to run it.

Small 'mockup':

[iffi]

I display an options dialog on the first launch to let the user pick. Within this dialog, I default to fullscreen at the current desktop resolution.

This. A startup dialog with basic graphics options, and preferably an "always display this dialog" or "don't show this dialog again" checkbox.

Otherwise, I prefer windowed. I only occasionally have a problem with defaulting to windowed when the minimum size is too large for my netbook's 1024x600 screen. (When the size of the game is 800x600, it only fits if it's fullscreen.)
If it must be fullscreen, at least it should be at native resolution so it doesn't screw over all my windows and icons.