Reset aspect ratio upon window swap?

[Chilkoot]

Hey guys. Nice to be back after a few years break.

Does anyone know off the top of their head if it's possible to have WoW reset the aspect ratio of a window on the fly? I'm using a picture-in-picture type setup (with HotKeyNet) and the way I have my windows tiled, the "main" window is a different aspect ratio than the 4 "slave" windows.

When I swap one of the slave toons into the main window space, it preserves the aspect ratio on both, and it looks pretty ugly. I'm hoping there's a way to use some kind of WoW console command to recalculate the aspect ratio based on the current actual screen size.



You can see in the lower picture, the windows "A" and "E" are swapped. When this happens, WoW preserves the aspect ratio, which causes me OCD spasms.

Oh, and here's my HotKeyNet script in case it helps:

//
// Rename windows, remove borders
//
<Hotkey Ctrl Alt R>
   <RenameWin World u>
   <RemoveWinFrame>
   <RenameWin World o>
   <RemoveWinFrame>
   <RenameWin World i>
   <RemoveWinFrame>
   <RenameWin World e>
   <RemoveWinFrame>
   <RenameWin World a>
   <RemoveWinFrame>

//
// Generate the tiled windows (TileWin) definitions for 4 small windows along the top third of the screen,
// and one large, wide window spanning the bottom two thirds.
//
<Command TileWin>
   <TargetWin %5%>
      <SetWinSize 480 360>
      <SetWinPos 1440 0>
   <TargetWin %4%>
      <SetWinSize 480 360>
      <SetWinPos 960 0>
   <TargetWin %3%>
      <SetWinSize 480 360>
      <SetWinPos 480 0>
   <TargetWin %2%>
      <SetWinSize 480 360>
      <SetWinPos 0 0>
   <TargetWin %1%>
      <SetWinPos 0 360>
      <SetWinSize 1920 720>

//
// Assign position of tiled windows based on hotkey (Ctrl+Alt+Numpads 1-5)
//
<Hotkey Ctrl Alt Numpad1>
   <TileWin a e i o u>
<Hotkey Ctrl Alt Numpad2>
   <TileWin e a i o u>
<Hotkey Ctrl Alt Numpad3>
   <TileWin i e a o u>
<Hotkey Ctrl Alt Numpad4>
   <TileWin o e i a u>
<Hotkey Ctrl Alt Numpad5>
   <TileWin u e i o a>

Sorry if this is a repost... couldn't find the answer anywhere. Any insights appreciated!

[Khatovar]

Run them all in the same resolution {assigned in WoW}. HotKeyNet scales the windows itself based on the SetWinRect in the script.

[Chilkoot]

Run them all in the same resolution {assigned in WoW}. HotKeyNet scales the windows itself based on the SetWinRect in the script.

Yes, HotKeyNet is doing a fine job of changing the window sizes, it's the WoW engine that's responsible for the rendered aspect ratio, though, so I need some kind of command to force the client to dynamically change the aspect ratio of the rendered scene based on current window geometry (assuming the client can read that kind of info). Restarting the client does the trick, but that's not really an option when I need a quick window swap to take over for a dead lead

Right now, the main window is 2.67:1 and the rest are 1.33:1. I can divide the screen up differently to make all the windows 1.78:1, but then I lose about 11% of my screen real estate, and that makes me sad.

[Khatovar]

Well, I went ahead and did some testing with your layout. I'm not able to duplicate the master window in first image at all using your script. The master window looks like the bottom image, it goes from edge to edge of the screen. Is that a viewport or something?






The only way I can get the master screen to look like that is by restricting the window size and position, which also makes all the slave windows swapped to the master position use the same layout.

//----------------------------------------------------------
// 	WoW RESIZE AND POSITION
//----------------------------------------------------------
//*
<Command ResizeAndPosition>
	<SendPC Local>
		<SendWinM %1%>
			<SetWinRect 130 360 1560 720>
				<SetWinRegion none>
					<SetAffinity all>
		<SendWinM %2%>
			<SetWinRect 0 0 480 360>
				<SetWinRegion none>
					<SetAffinity all>
		<SendWinM %3%>
			<SetWinRect 480 0 480 360>
				<SetWinRegion none>
					<SetAffinity all>
		<SendWinM %4%>
			<SetWinRect 960 0 480 360>
				<SetWinRegion none>
					<SetAffinity all>
		<SendWinM %5%>
			<SetWinRect 1440 0 480 360>
				<SetWinRegion none>
					<SetAffinity all>

If your master is using a viewport or something that is adding that border along the sides of the window, then your slaves need to use the same.

I also have every window using resolution 1920*1080 in WoW. There is no distortion in any of my windows upon swapping using the above script with the same resolution.

Here's a couple threads on aspect ratio that I found in the search.

http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/2...ip-script-help
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/18939-Aspect-Ratio

[Chilkoot]

Well, I went ahead and did some testing with your layout. I'm not able to duplicate the master window in first image at all using your script. The master window looks like the bottom image, it goes from edge to edge of the screen. Is that a viewport or something?

Oh my - I greatly appreciate all your effort looking into this, but I'm afraid I've done a poor job of presenting the problem... the black bars at the sides of the bottom frame in the original post are simply a result of the backround image (built into WoW) at the login screen not being wide enough to display at 1920x720 unstretched. The actual window is the width of the whole screen, and the black bars are inside the client area.

The problem is that all the windows in my setup *are* using the correct aspect ratio - until I swap. You can see in yours, the bottom one is stretched horizontally and not using the correct aspect ratio. I have the same problem with the main window unless I force the geometry *to the client* using an entry in config.wtf.

You can see how that bottom window displays various screens used by the game when the acpect ratio is actually working right:



WOW made some engine changes in 3.(1?) that forced the client to only use/save video resolutions and modes that are listed as supported by the monitor in the operating system (it didn't do this before). So now, even if you edit your config.wtf and add a line like

SET gxResolution "1920x720"

to your CONFIG.WTF file, the setting will only work for one client boot, and the next time you start, the setting will be gone.

So for anyone following this that may be having the same problem, here's more detail on the situation:

• For the main window, I've forced the client to accept geometry of 1920x720 (2.67:1) using an entry in config.wtf. At boot, the aspect ratio is correct (see screenshot above).
• For the slave windows, I force the client geometry using a similar line in config.wtf (the clients run from a different drive), with size/aspect ratio 480x360 (1.33:1).
• Once booted, everything runs like a charm and looks fantastic (until I swap windows, see below).
• When I close the client windows, the game erases the SET gxResolution lines from the config.wtf, as WoW now always defaults to one of your monitor's 'supported resolutions' as reported to the OS. This can be overcome by setting config.wtf to read-only.
• The real problem arises when I want to swap a different client into the 'main' area. The game client does not dynamically adjust the aspect ratio it's using to render the scene, so the swapped windows will look either squished or stretched horizontally, by a factor of 2 in this case - very noticeable. See top post for an image.
• This problem is something that has to be addressed by issuing commands to the game client itself. There is no setting in hotkeynet that can/will tell the game client what aspect ratio to use.

So that's the root of the problem. All the windows are setup and working wonderfully with 'unsupported' but correct aspect ratios upon boot, but I need a way to force the client to re-adjust that aspect ratio on the fly when I swap windows around. I've tinkered with the SET gxAspect command in a macro, but no dice. It always wants a client restart before the changes take effect Tricky!

Any further insights will be graciously received. I've come up with a kind of poor workaround and will post that later as time permits. It unfortunately results in the loss of about 11% of the screen real-estate.