DisplayMode and Fullscreen

[Cornix]

Hi there,

just a quick question, does the width and height of a displayMode have any impact on fullscreen?
I dont think so, and I couldnt think of any reason why, but I just want to make sure.
Who knows what kinds of magic are hidden behind the API.

Thanks in advance!

[Fool Running]

The width and height of the DisplayMode is the resolution used when in fullscreen. So a DisplayMode of 640x480x32 will change your monitor to that resolution and bit depth when going fullscreen.

[Cornix]

Okay, I see.
I dont quite understand, but I see.
Thanks for the answer.

I mean, fullscreen is fullscreen. Its still going to be the same number of pixels, and the resolution is supposed to be set via the modelview-matrix, right?
I could understand, that this is going to affect mouse coordinates, but how could it affect the graphics that are drawn?

[Fool Running]

The display mode set the number of pixels that are actually shown on screen on the monitor. Setting a display mode of 640x480 can not show more pixels than that. Setting up the modelview matrix just sets how many pixels you want OpenGL to behave like it has. If this is set differently then the actual screen resolution, then OpenGL will scale it to fit.

One thing this can help with is computers with slow graphics cards which don't handle high number of pixels (fill rate). Setting the display mode to a lower resolution will ease some of this burden, but you can still make OpenGL think it has the same number of pixels so it looks the same when stretched.

I'm terrible at explaining, but hopefully that helped a little.

[Cornix]

Well, yes, it helped.
I guess I can live with that explanation for now, maybe I will experiment with it a little and see if I can develope a feeling for it.

Thank you very much.