Tips: Resolutions,Windowed modes,Text,Swapping Speed

[lax]

In the last week or so I've gotten a bunch of questions regarding rendering resolutions in Diablo 3, with related topics involving pretty/blurry text, swapping speeds (e.g. slower than usual switching), and mouse broadcasting lining up. I spent some time this morning in the lab doing a bunch of testing to find out why.

First, Inner Space build 5750 was released just now as the latest live build of Inner Space, and it fixes an issue with Windowed Fullscreen mode, so that it should work as described below. To update to 5750, just restart Inner Space and let it patch up.

So here's some tips.

• Diablo 3 has a minimum resolution of 800x600, and also appears to choose not to list resolutions that are not close to its favorite Aspect Ratios. Note that even when you play without ISBoxer, in windowed mode, Diablo 3 keeps the Aspect Ratio as you drag an edge of the window (by moving another edge), and enforces the minimum 800x600 resolution.
• ISBoxer can override the minimum resolution and aspect ratio limitations of the game, by telling the game that your monitor is different than it really is. However, Diablo 3 chooses to ignore this information except in Windowed Fullscreen mode.
• If your Window Layout tries to set Diablo 3 below its minimum resolution, or outside of its favorite Aspect Ratios, then -- unless it is in Windowed Fullscreen mode -- the game will choose render in a different resolution than the Window Layout wants to display. This means that text will not be displayed properly. To solve this problem and get pretty-looking text, you will either need a new Window Layout, or use Windowed Fullscreen.
• If the game is in a different resolution than the Window Layout wants to display, and the game is in windowed mode (does not apply to windowed fullscreen, or fullscreen), then Swapping will not be instant even if you have enabled Instant Swapping because it is trying to match the resolution, and the game does not want to do it. This is a game-specific issue, meaning that different games behave differently. To solve this issue with Diablo 3, you will need to match the resolution yourself, e.g. via a new Window Layout or use Windowed Fullscreen (which, again, overrides the limitations built into Diablo 3 that are causing this problem).
• If you change the windowed mode while playing, re-launch your Diablo 3 game instance to refresh the Window Layout. You may just be able to Export to Inner Space to refresh it, but a re-launch will make sure there's no leftover issues from changing it...

About Mouse Broadcasting

• The game resolution MUST MATCH in every window, or broadcasting will not line up. This is the only reason that it would not line up. Also note, the in-game video options panel will only show the actual game resolution for Fullscreen Mode... In windowed mode, D3 greys out that information.
• Mouse Broadcasting processing speed is linked to your framerate (Frames per Second; FPS). The closer your game instances are in framerate, the more closely the processing speed will match. If your main window is broadcasting at a significantly faster rate than your other windows are processing them (due to the framerate), broadcasting will feel sluggish.
• Broadcasting speeds are the same regardless of windowed mode setting in the game. Mouse Broadcasting performs just as well in windowed, windowed fullscreen, and fullscreen modes, when used at the same resolution.

Translation....
The main problem people will run into is their first choice of Window Layout might be to pick one with windows lined up along the side or bottom. But this changes the Aspect Ratio, and then we run into limitations that are silently and transparently imposed by Diablo 3. If you want to do this, that's fine, but you will need to make sure you're on IS build 5750 and Windowed Fullscreen is selected in the game. This will make it so the game will actually display in the right resolution, so your text will look right, and Swapping will be Instant.




Think you've got it, but for some reason it still doesn't work? Need help troubleshooting?
ISBoxer 41.8.0608.1 (update via Help->About ISBoxer) includes a new "Capture State" button in the in-game ISBoxer Control Panel (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+G) in the debug tab. If you click this button, some info about your loaded team and the game windows -- window sizes, actual game resolution, whether the game is in full screen mode, etc -- is Copied for you to Paste. You can then paste that to us right here in a new thread for help if needed!

I just saw this update and got a quick question.

I know it's to fix the aspect ratio/resolutions and to make text more clearer, but would this be true also:

According to your post "ISBoxer can override the minimum resolution and aspect ratio limitations of the game, by telling the game that your monitor is different than it really is. However, Diablo 3 chooses to ignore this information except in Windowed Fullscreen mode."

So, if I set it to "Windowed Fullscreen mode", and set my resolution to 100x100, would it decrease the cpu/gpu usage due to it being rendered only at 100x100? Or would the usage be at its lowest supported resolution (800x600) due to the game having a restriction minimum of 800x600?

Your override feature isn't very clear to me and was wondering if it would actually truly render the game only at 100x100. Please shine some light if this is accurate =)

Thanks.

[lax]

I know it's to fix the aspect ratio/resolutions and to make text more clearer, but would this be true also:

According to your post "ISBoxer can override the minimum resolution and aspect ratio limitations of the game, by telling the game that your monitor is different than it really is. However, Diablo 3 chooses to ignore this information except in Windowed Fullscreen mode."

So, if I set it to "Windowed Fullscreen mode", and set my resolution to 100x100, would it decrease the cpu/gpu usage due to it being rendered only at 100x100? Or would the usage be at its lowest supported resolution (800x600) due to the game having a restriction minimum of 800x600?

Yes, ISBoxer is really affecting the actual rendered resolution of the game, even if it is smaller than 800x600, which is why this works to clear up text. If by "set my resolution" you mean "in the game" then I have to give you a "No" because as the post says, it'll be grayed out; but yes, the resolution will be set based on your Window Layout.

Yes, rendering a smaller resolution will decrease GPU usage, as well as CPU usage to some degree. It also reduces Video RAM usage.