Rainmeter automatically enabling "Game Mode" whenever desktop is not shown

[Flex4249]

Is it possible to have rain meter automatically enable "game mode" whenever the desktop is not shown? I use a laptop and doing this would greatly improve my battery life as my APU is already sucking back 10+ watts only having edge open with all of its stuff set to privacy and maximum power savings. Lively wallpaper already does this an I have Translucent11 so I can see when my wallpaper pauses and it's whenever I have a window maximized. That same application (Transluscent11) has an option for maximized windows just incase you wanted a different taskbar look when a window was maximized. This would be very helpful for rainmeter and I hope to see it in a future update

[Yincognito]

First, you'd have to define what you mean by "desktop not shown". Is it when any program is maximized, or when it's opened?

Generally speaking, I'm pretty sure the equivalent of both can be done through a proper AutoIt / AutoHotKey script, since they can return to Rainmeter if some window exists / is maximized or not:
https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=21785
https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=42450&start=20#p215590
but then that would be a bit overkill to adjust the above to do what you want.

If it's about programs being opened, this can already be achieved by ticking the Additional Process List checkbox in the Game Mode tab, and adding such a list of programs in the box below that checkbox:
https://docs.rainmeter.net/manual/user-interface/manage/#GameModeTab
though I have the feeling that you're talking about enabling Game Mode when programs are being maximized.

If it's about maximized windows, I suppose you can post a similar suggestion in the Bugs & Feature Suggestions section of the forum. Or, I could move the topic there to avoid duplicate posting, whatever you prefer.

[sl23]

My skins monitor processes and activate deactivate skins depending on the app that's running.

Never use game mode, but can you activate and deactivate game mode in this way?

Or to start stop other apps when running certain apps. So when launching vlc for example, it closes any apps normally running in order to save power, then starts those apps when vlc is closed.

Vlc is just an example, change that to any app name you want.

Use these to control !Manage bangs to start stop game mode when games or apps are open.

[balala]

My skins monitor processes and activate deactivate skins depending on the app that's running.

Never use game mode, but can you activate and deactivate game mode in this way?

Game mode can activated or deactivated manually or by some events, but at least so far as I know, you can't activate and deactivate it through a skin (unless I'm missing something). There is no bang for this.

[jsmorley]

Game mode can activated or deactivated manually or by some events, but at least so far as I know, you can't activate and deactivate it through a skin (unless I'm missing something). There is no bang for this.

Correct. You can manually load and unload Game Mode with the mouse, and it will react to either a full-screen game being loaded / unloaded, or any of a list of processes you define being loaded / unloaded.

There is no way to have a skin set Game Mode. We purposely wanted the execution of this to be entirely in the control of the actual end user, not a skin author.

[sl23]

Ok, I see. I was basically saying that the user could set up a fake Game Mode as I have.
Using the Process Monitor for certain programs, which would activate or deactivate skins to achieve the same result I assume that's what's wanted.

[jsmorley]

Ok, I see. I was basically saying that the user could set up a fake Game Mode as I have.
Using the Process Monitor for certain programs, which would activate or deactivate skins to achieve the same result I assume that's what's wanted.

You absolutely could. You would need to be careful not to get into an "endless loop" by ensuring that the skin that was actually doing the "monitoring" isn't loaded / refreshed each time the event is fired.

[balala]

Ok, I see. I was basically saying that the user could set up a fake Game Mode as I have.
Using the Process Monitor for certain programs, which would activate or deactivate skins to achieve the same result I assume that's what's wanted.

Yep, most probably (in fact for sure) this is possible. You (or anyone) can for instance, have a program which you/he don't/doesn't use normally, but which when launched, activates a proper layout. This program might be used to start the Game mode with the proper settings and to stop it. You can do both, launching and closing the program from a skin, and accordingly you can control the Game mode and the related layout activation from the skin.
Good idea!

[jsmorley]

Yep, most probably (in fact for sure) this is possible. You (or anyone) can for instance, have a program which you/he don't/doesn't use normally, but which when launched, activates a proper layout. This program might be used to start the Game mode with the proper settings and to stop it. You can do both, launching and closing the program from a skin, and accordingly you can control the Game mode and the related layout activation from the skin.
Good idea!

I think if you do this to load a "layout", you will find yourself in the endless loop I described above.

[Yincognito]

I think if you do this to load a "layout", you will find yourself in the endless loop I described above.

Yep, that would be a bit delicate to achieve - probably some variable would need to be !WriteKeyValue somewhere and checked when refreshing the monitoring skin, to avoid the said loop. One other things related to such an approach would be that the typical Game Mode reaction "on start" would be to unload all skins, including the one supposed to monitor for the program(s) being launched / closed and such. In such a case, you'd probably avoid the loop but not being able to replicate a "true" Game Mode reaction either.

That being said, I still think the OP referred to maximized windows, since that's when it's certain that the "desktop is not shown", as mentioned in his post. We'd probably need some clarification on that, if he's still interested in this.