Background, Foreground, Always on Top...

First, for the Window Regions option -> Always On Top: On, if a game window is foreground; Does the "game window" have to be in the same Swap Group as the region being configured? Will the region stay on top even if no game windows from the same swap group is in the Active Region but a game window in a different swap group is in its foreground (active window for that swap set)?

Here's what I'm trying to do since it's likely someone has a better idea how to do it. For performance reasons, I would like all of my alt windows to render at half the resolution of my main window.

I have one monitor at 2560 x 1600. I would like my Main Region (Slot 1) to always render at 2560.

I have 5 Alt Windows that I would like to always render at 1280 x 800.

When each region is Active (foreground, i think), they should display at their respective render resolutions. (So when Slot 1 is active, it needs to stay layered below overlapping mini-windows.)

When each region is Inactive (background), they should return to their Home Region and display at a scaled fraction of their render resolutions (640 for Slot 2, 320 for Slots 3-6).

MY ATTEMPT:

I'm working with just 2 windows to keep things simple - the main window and 1 alt window. 'Instant Swap' is on because I don't want windows re-rendered at the lower mini-resolutions. I've created TWO Swap Groups, each with it's own Active Region and Reset Region (sized at 2560 and 1280 per respective Swap Group).
I want to press one hotkey to swap the focused window to its full resolution. Originally, I tried using the Swap Hotkey option on the main Window Layout settings but quickly realized that there was no way to return windows to their smaller home regions, since there were no regions to push them out of the active region.

So, I've settled on creating a keymap that uses Window State Actions to 'Switch current window to foreground' and 'Switch all other windows to background'. So far so good although I am a bit confused about some of the terminology: background, foreground, active region, main region, etc. Everything is rendered properly and moves to the correct locations and display sizes with one hotkey. JUST ONE PROBLEM, I can't keep the correct windows on top! For example, moving Slot 1 to full resolution sends Slot 2 to a mini 640 res in one corner but it hides underneath Slot 1 even though 'Always on top' is set to 'On, if a game window...'. This leads me back to my original question: Even though Slot 1 is in the foreground, Slot 2 must think that no game window is in the foreground since Slot 1 isn't in its swap group??? Regardless of terminology, I tried reversing everything by having the hotkey send the current window to the background and all other windows to the foreground. I still haven't tried using 'Window Style Actions' to set background and foreground styles because they should be set already in the Window Layout, Region setup?

Thanks in advance for any help and especially if you have a better way to accomplish what I'm trying to do.

[lax]

It would help me to follow along to see your config. See the sticky that says "How to share your configuration for better support" for how to do that

So far so good although I am a bit confused about some of the terminology: background, foreground, active region, main region, etc.

You seem to have a pretty good handle on it. Background -> home. Foreground -> active (when swapped). Main region is the old term for "Active region". If you see "main region" or "inactive region" terms in use, tell me where and I'll take care of it.

Even though Slot 1 is in the foreground, Slot 2 must think that no game window is in the foreground since Slot 1 isn't in its swap group???

Correct. Each Swap Group operates independently from the others.

First, for the Window Regions option -> Always On Top: On, if a game window is foreground; Does the "game window" have to be in the same Swap Group as the region being configured? Will the region stay on top even if no game windows from the same swap group is in the Active Region but a game window in a different swap group is in its foreground (active window for that swap set)?

Because each Swap Group operates independently from the others, each window only tracks foreground windows if they are in the same Swap Group.



It sounds to me like you want these both in the same Swap Group, but that you want different Reset Regions. You should use a more standard Window Layout with one Swap Group, use a Window Style Action to change the Reset (Desired Rendering Size) style -- this overrides the Reset Region for a particular Target. After setting this style you will need to use a Window State Action to set it to apply the Reset state (Normal swap). Then you will need to use another Window State Action, this time with Instant Swap, to move it back to the desired foreground/background state (Active or Home region).

So.. normal-ish Window Layout, Mapped Key with 3 window related Actions to get what you want. One set of these 3 Actions to set it to resolution A, one set of these 3 Actions to set it back to resolution B. That should get you going

It sounds to me like you want these both in the same Swap Group, but that you want different Reset Regions.

Excellent! Got everything how I want it now. Thanks. I saw that Window Style Action (Reset) before but I assumed that it would change the Reset Region for the entire swap group. So I load up my 6 chars at the lower res and just adjust 1 of em to the bigger one.

Btw, I realized where the confusion over terminology was coming from. It's possible (as in my case) for a window to be in the foreground and the background at the same time! (Example: Slot 1 is in the active region (foreground) but Slot 2 (in its home region) has the focus so Slot 1 is also a background window.) It would probably be better not to use active - foreground, and home - background interchangeably so they don't get confused with foreground/background referring to window Z-positions. In particular, the Window State actions aren't changing the Z of a window but the window region, while the Window Style (always on top) action is adjusting the Z-position.