anyway to automatically change resolution for a game/app?

Hi,

I'm trying to play Machinarium on my Dell XPS 12--which has a resolution of something like 1920x1080 on a 12.5 inch screen. Machinarium only has a resolution of something like 1280x800, so it looks really small on my screen. I'd rather not have to manually change the resolution, run the game, and then restore the resolution every time. Is there any way to just automatically and temporarily change the resolution whenever I run the game?


Thanks.

hi, first thing not a gamer, but I have played a few in my years of computing ,is this an online game or one you have installed and run from windows , I will guess that this will have to be done by the game itself ,there could be a setting somewhere in the games preferences ,video setup or something like that where you can select different resolutions .good luck

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, it's not possible within the game [which is installed, btw]--the same topic has been discussed at length on the game's message board. So is there any way to automatically change the resolution when I run the game? It seems to me this sort of functionality should be possible...

i guess it could be possible with a batch file maybe ,but i don't know for sure as i don't do code stuff .

just found this someone doing it here so i guess it possible
.bat file to change my screen resolution

are you saying that the game occupies only a small part of the screen in the middle, with a big black area around it?

what is your graphics card? go into your graphics card's settings/control panel and check for a scaling option. ATI, Nvidia, and sometimes Intel has that option. You'll have to play with the options as sometimes the wording is a little confusing in the settings.

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I meant there are black borders all around the display--I've amended the first post to show that.

Graphics card is an integrated Intel HD 4000. The scaling option is stuck at "maintain display scaling" at the native 1920x1080; other options (such as scale full screen) only appear if I reduce the resolution. I did a quick search and it appears others have noted that as well, so I'm assuming that's normal. The hotkey (Ctrl-Alt-F11) also only works if it's not at the native 1920x1080. So pretty well useless.

So is there really no way to automatically change the resolution for an app or game, directly through Windows 8, without downloading something else?


Thanks.

directly through Windows 8, without downloading something else?


I would say not to that, its in the game somewhere if anywhere


edit . I just installed the demo ,its only a Flash game so it might be limited to the resolution that it show at.

also mouse over the bottom edge ,there are option to run at 100% or 80% and also full screen off and on.
and try right click on the icon to start the program' and go to properties and check off to "run" maximised

if it's a flash game, I have no idea how to fix the problem.

with my Nvidia/ATI cards, I've been able to scale regular desktop games from game resolutions like 640x480 to fit the entire 1920x1080 screen just through the control panel by playing with the scaling options. maybe the scaling options don't work with flash games.

Thanks for the replies. I downloaded a utility (from 12noon) that automatically changes the resolution and then restores it. I'm just surprised Windows doesn't include a means of doing that.

icedawg said:

Thanks for the replies. I downloaded a utility (from 12noon) that automatically changes the resolution and then restores it. I'm just surprised Windows doesn't include a means of doing that.

Click to expand...

I tried the utility from 12noon, seems a bit complex and there are apparently some stability issues.
There is also a utility called RC which has a much simpler interface.
Examples of its use are described in the link from post #4:- .bat file to change my screen resolution

Now all I need to know is how to set things up so that when I open a video a bat file is invoked which runs RC to change the resolution, starts VLC for the video and then runs RC to reset the resolution when the video ends.
Help please.