Borderless Gaming News

Hey friends,

This update fixes some issues introduced in our last two releases. My attempt to fix older Unreal Engine games inadvertently broke newer ones. Rather than playing cat and mouse trying to make everything work automatically, I've added these parameters directly to the interface, giving you full control over which fixes and behaviors to apply.

To apply any fixes to older Unreal games, you'll need to enable 'Flip Processing Order' in your game profiles. This setting is also applied by default to all Game Maker games

[h3]⚠️ Important: Unreal Engine Games[/h3]
If you apply a profile with incorrect settings to an Unreal Engine game and it fails to go borderless properly, you MUST restart the game for any profile changes to take effect. Older Unreal Engine games store their window state in memory, which can cause issues when switching between different profile settings. Simply changing the profile while the game is running won't work - a full game restart is required.

[h3]Profile Examples[/h3]

LET IT DIE:

• 'Preserve Client Area Size' - Maintains correct internal resolution
  
• 'Send Maximize' - Properly expands the game window width
  
• 'Nudge Window' - Expands height to cover the taskbar area (works whether taskbar is hidden or visible)
  

Dishonored:
This game doesn't support window nudging. You only need:

• 'Send Maximize' + 'Flip Processing Order'
  

Borderlands:
Works well with minimal configuration - just enable:

• 'Flip Processing Order'
  

Gears of War: Reloaded:
Newer Unreal Engine game that needs:

• 'Preserve Client Area Size' + 'Send Maximize' (no 'Flip Processing Order' needed)
  

Additionally, I changed the default hot key for hiding task bar to Ctrl+Shift+L

[h3]Important Notes[/h3]

• Every game behaves differently, so experiment with your profile settings if the defaults don't work
  
• Remember to restart Unreal Engine games after changing profiles if they're not working correctly
  
• To make this easier, I'm adding Steam Workshop support in version 1.1 so you can share working profiles with the community!
  

This patch builds upon the last update by introducing several new features:

- A new keyboard shortcut to toggle the taskbar, defaulting to Shift+Tab.
- Fixes for window layout shifting caused by removing the taskbar in certain games.
- A new advanced option called “nudge” that helps older Unreal games fill the available screen space after they are made borderless. This option is not compatible with all games (e.g., Dishonored), but it works well with LET IT DIE.
- All splash screens are now explicitly filtered out to prevent profiles from being double applied.
- For games that start minimized while loading assets, Borderless Gaming now detects this and delays applying profiles until the game is actually visible on screen (this fixes the issue in Borderlands).
- Toggling a profile off now correctly cancels any in-flight borderless operations.

The 1.1 update is expected in the next week or so. I will be overhauling the profiles UX/UI to make them more compact and introducing a dedicated profile editor. This will gradually reduce memory usage and make working with large profile collections easier.

Key Fixes:

• Resolves issues with older Unreal Engine games that historically haven't worked with Borderless Gaming (see details below)
  
• Fixes profiles for certain Unity and Google Play on PC games
  
• Corrects state synchronization issues in foreground tracking
  

Unreal Engine Compatibility

Many Unreal Engine 3 games from the 2010s were never designed with windowed mode in mind. As a result, each game responds differently to being resized or moved while in windowed mode, and even fewer support dynamic resizing. This update implements a new strategy that successfully enables Borderless Gaming functionality for these problematic titles. However, since these older games behave differently despite sharing the same engine, no single profile configuration will work universally.

Example 1: LET IT DIE

Recommended profile settings:


LET IT DIE properly detects when the display's working area changes and adjusts its height to fill the space left by the taskbar. It also handles dynamic taskbar restoration smoothly. The "Preserve Client Area" option should be enabled because while the game doesn't initially know how to handle window maximization, after the initial positioning it maintains borderless fullscreen without the window constantly resetting (avoiding the repeated brute-force adjustments that Borderless Gaming would otherwise apply).

Example 2: Dishonored

Recommended profile settings:


Until now, achieving true fullscreen with Dishonored (without mods) has been impossible. This is because the game completely resets its size and window styles whenever the window is moved, making borderless mode nearly impossible to maintain. Unfortunately, it also resets when the taskbar is dynamically restored. Therefore, the best approach for Dishonored is to hide the taskbar to preserve the borderless fullscreen state.

Note: If the default settings don't produce the desired results for your specific game, we recommend experimenting with different profile options until you find the combination that works best. Each game may require unique settings to achieve optimal borderless fullscreen performance.

- The “Adjust volume in background” option is removed, and the old “Mute in background” option is reinstated.
- A timing issue that caused an app to be muted, cursor unlocked, and the taskbar restored when quickly alt-tabbing is fixed.
- The custom titlebar from the main window is removed, and the system-native titlebar is used instead.
- Support for Google Play Games on PC is added, and several Unity games are fixed.

[h2]New Features[/h2]

• Smart Focus Management: Window modifications (cursor clipping, cursor hiding, taskbar hiding) now automatically restore when you alt-tab away and reapply when returning to the game
  
• "Restore Taskbar on Focus Loss" option: New profile setting that controls whether the taskbar reappears when switching away from the game (useful for games that don't handle taskbar changes well)
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed crash when setting shortcuts with unrecognized keyboard keys
  
• Fixed crash that occurred when Windows On-Screen Keyboard was open
  
• Fixed F12 key reservation conflict with debugger
  
• Improved shortcut system stability and error handling
  

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

• Enhanced support for international keyboards and special keys in shortcuts
  
• Better handling of window focus changes and alt-tab behavior
  
• Improved reliability of volume adjustments when switching between applications