Skins in fullscreen video/game

[Ingan121]

a normal window full screen you could layer it on top so no need for it ...to do it like that... only with games...

I’m not using 1920x1080 for better fps, but borderless mode doesn’t support changing screen resolution in almost all games. So I have to change system resolution whenever starting game or switching to desktop, which is too lazy to do. So I use fullscreen in 1600x900.

Video players’ fullscreen are just borderless in most cases, so this patch is unnecessary. If it uses real fullscreen, this method won’t work as Microsoft doesn’t support fullscreen optimization for non-game fullscreens.

And I mute the in-game background music and listen to music that I love, with volume that doesn’t interfere with hearing dialogue/effect sounds.


(Well..... I just found out that there is custom background music support in GTA5... so I don’t need the music widget when playing it... but still needed for games without such feature and I still love the clock/battery/CPU temperature thing)

[Yincognito]

I’m not using 1920x1080 for better fps, but borderless mode doesn’t support changing screen resolution in almost all games. So I have to change system resolution whenever starting game or switching to desktop, which is too lazy to do. So I use fullscreen in 1600x900.

Video players’ fullscreen are just borderless in most cases, so this patch is unnecessary. If it uses real fullscreen, this method won’t work as Microsoft doesn’t support fullscreen optimization for non-game fullscreens.

And I mute the in-game background music and listen to music that I love, with volume that doesn’t interfere with hearing dialogue/effect sounds.


(Well..... I just found out that there is custom background music support in GTA5... so I don’t need the music widget when playing it... but still needed for games without such feature and I still love the clock/battery/CPU temperature thing)

Well, that's quite interesting, for sure - I might take a look at the whole process some day and see if it works and when it works (I'm talking about which games work with this, not about Rainmeter, as you stated that the latter works already). That being said, I already have a "skin" similar to a couple of my Rainmeter ones made in the MSI Afterburner + Riva Tuner Statistics Server combo which also works in games, records stuff, capture screenshots and all that, not to mention providing Rainmeter with the temperature and other hardware monitoring data, so it's probably not going to replace that, but it's good to know there is a way of having all your actual Rainmeter skins displayed in games, not just the data from monitoring the CPU, GPU, RAM or FPS that MSI AB + RTSS provides.

[Yincognito]

Has any of you guys actually succeeded in making their own skins in a certain video game?!

Not for me - but then, as I mentioned, I use the MSI Afterburner + Riva Tuner Statistics Server combo to display things like FPS, CPU, GPU, RAM usage in games when I want to, and this is more or less what a part of my skins do as well, when in Windows desktop. I tried Ingan121 method for Fifa 09 and Euro Truck Simulator 2 and it didn't work (it was always going to be a "some cases yes, some case no" result anyway, assuming I did everything correctly as in the guide), so killall-q is correct: the only stable and always working way to achieve that is by setting your game to run in windowed mode. Of course, the game must have such an option in the first place, so we're in a way back to square one, but, well, that's just the way things work most of the time.

Bottom line, if all you want is some performance / resource indicators in a standard way of displaying, using my method (MSI AB + RTSS) will always work - the RTSS "skin" is in the top left corner of the screen:

Screenshot 01.jpg

If your skins do or show other things or they are much more "customized" or interactive visually, your only bet is for the game to have a windowed mode setting somewhere (this can sometimes be achieved by unchecking the "full screen mode" in the game settings, other times running in windowed mode is available by using "command line" arguments that can be stored in the command a shortcut uses in the Target box of that shortcut) - my Rainmeter skins are at the top of the screen:

Screenshot 02.jpg

[CamrynPotts]

Your method with MSI Afterburner and Riva Tuner Statistics Server to display FPS and other stats is a clever one, especially when you want performance info at your fingertips.
I feel you are trying different methods to create custom skins in games like Fifa 09 and Euro Truck Simulator 2. It can be a hit or miss sometimes, depending on the game's compatibility and your setup. But hey, you gave it a shot, and that's what matters.
And by the way, speaking of customizing, I'm all about CS, and I recently found this marketplace for CS2 skins. It's been a game-changer for me, adding a personal touch to my in-game arsenal.

[Yincognito]

I feel you are trying different methods to create custom skins in games like Fifa 09 and Euro Truck Simulator 2. It can be a hit or miss sometimes, depending on the game's compatibility and your setup. But hey, you gave it a shot, and that's what matters.

Well, unlike my MSI AB + RTSS method, Ingan121's method does allow more than just system related data to be displayed in games, but it's less compatible compared to mine. I tried it cause it would be nice to have both, but since non system skin data is not a priority over compatiblity for me, I sticked with my method, which has other benefits as well (like the ability to screenshot, record, overclock, plus I already use its plugin to show GPU data in my Rainmeter skins while in Windows desktop mode).

Yep, it's nice to have customizations in games. I don't normally do that for shooters like CS and others, but I did it for some strategy or sports titles.