Bundle Magpie with PWO Installation for official Full-Screen support.

[thunderclap]

Magpie is a free, full-featured, open-source utility that turns any window into Full-Screen.

It's under a GPL-3 license which allows distribution/modification without restrictions as long as:
-we provide a link to Magpie's source code
-we provide a link to Magpie's license agreement

Currently it's a bad solution for most users since you have to compile the source yourself. There is no executable download. But this would be bypassed if it was included in PWO's install. Both of the above requirements could be easily met by providing links in the installer and/or welcome screen.

Magpie is superior to IntegerScaler because it has advanced scaling algorithms (eg. Anime4k) that don't look pixellated. And it's still being actively developed, while IntegerScaler has been on hiatus for over a year, is closed-source, and doesn't allow distribution. It's just as good as 'Lossless Scaling' except it doesn't cost money, plus it's open-source; the only downside is the lack of installer.

We get a lot of new players every day and I think the reason some of them leave is because there's no full screen.

And of course, I appreciate all the work and efforts of PWO's staff. Thanks for reading.

 

[Jinji]

This suggestion is impractical because the system requirements for Magpie are actually higher than that of PWO's; meaning we would be bundling software with PWO that may not be usable on some people's PCs, even though PWO itself is fully functional.

 

[thunderclap]

This suggestion is impractical because the system requirements for Magpie are actually higher than that of PWO's; meaning we would be bundling software with PWO that may not be usable on some people's PCs, even though PWO itself is fully functional.

This is easily solved with an information screen during the installer which we'd want anyway. Something along the lines of:

"[Optional download] PWO recommends installing Magpie for full-screen support. Magpie is a third-party lightweight open-source freeware utility and is not affiliated with PWO. Magpie may affect your game's performance while in use. We recommend this software because it is good; there is no advertising deal or sponsorship in place. Click here to view Magpie's source code. Click here to view Magpie's GPL-3 Licensing Agreement. Click here if you want to install Magpie."

Magpie is pretty lightweight. The resources demanded by Anime4k are higher than the other algorithms, but it's easily configurable and I don't think anyone will have trouble unless they're using garbage hardware.

Edit: one major downside is it's Windows 10/11 only. The installer could just grey out the Magpie info/options if an older version of Windows is detected?

 

[thunderclap]

Update: Magpie no longer requires you to compile it yourself and it's very easy to set up. Added instructions here: https://forum.pokemon-world-online....inutes-new-version-works-for-everybody.38869/

It would still be great if Magpie was bundled with PWO. It is a great solution, now more than ever. Should be easy since there is a "portable" mode option (which moves the config file to the same folder as the .exe) so it could be pre-configured with a profile for PWO and all settings. Just extract and run. This would also save users from having to download it from a webpage full of Chinese text.