RDR2 only opens in small window, cannot get to full screen

[hongtizzle]

The first time launching the game, played just fine full screen. Then every time after that, just goes to a small window and can't manage to go make it full screen again. It's the ONLY game that is experiencing that problem. Anyone else encounter this and can assist on a fixing it? Thanks in advance!

[Bad 💀 Motha]

grapidx님이 먼저 게시:

None of this works on Lenovo Legion laptop with GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card. Tried all of this and plenty of other troubleshooting steps across the web. Help. Would love to run at 1920x1200 full screen for a significantly better frame rate instead of 2560x1600 which is the only way full screen actually works for me right now. :(

So when your game launches, what happens? It's in a small window?

[Wolfpacktoxic]

Same

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Cause you are probably just clicking to launch the story mode.
Go into Settings first and configure all of that.
Especially the Graphics settings; setting game to Borderless Window + Native Screen Res.

Once you make all your changes in Settings, exit the game properly to ensure it saves them. Then relaunch the game again and play.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

grapidx님이 먼저 게시:

None of this works on Lenovo Legion laptop with GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card. Tried all of this and plenty of other troubleshooting steps across the web. Help. Would love to run at 1920x1200 full screen for a significantly better frame rate instead of 2560x1600 which is the only way full screen actually works for me right now. :(

Well this is why Laptop users need to be more careful. Don't buy a Laptop with a 1440p or 2160p screen if its not going to have a good enough CPU + GPU to run all your games at the native screen res. Stick to 1080p Laptop screens.

Many laptops, you can customize them before you purchase them online and select what you want for the specs and the screen. Depends where you buy and what base model laptop you are looking at.

Never run RDR2 in Full Screen.

If you want to use 1920x1200, then first set your OS Desktop to that Screen Res. and highest available refresh rate. That way when you run a game in borderless window it will use the correct res + refresh; as you've set by the OS Desktop.

[Nap'oholic]

Bad 💀 Motha님이 먼저 게시:

Cause you are probably just clicking to launch the story mode.
Go into Settings first and configure all of that.
Especially the Graphics settings; setting game to Borderless Window + Native Screen Res.

Once you make all your changes in Settings, exit the game properly to ensure it saves them. Then relaunch the game again and play.

I'm having the same issue on my PC. Redid the settings and still ends up opening as a small window in the top left. When I launch from steam, Rockstar launches as full screen then RD2 will open into a top left window

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Set these to Run As Admin

Steam.exe
Launcher.exe (Rockstar Games folder)
PlayRDR2.exe (RDR2 game folder)
RDR2.exe

When you change the properties for PlayRDR2 and RDR2 exe files, also tick option for "Disable Full Screen Optimization"

Launch Steam
Then X it out once it loads up.
This will minimize Steam to Tray.

Launch Rockstar Launcher
Enter you login, but also tick Remember Me + Auto before clicking to sign in. On the Rockstar Launcher, orange=enabled, black=disabled as far as the clickable boxes goes.

Once the Rockatar Launcher loads up, check the settings and if needed change these. Start with Windows = Disabled; Hibernate after game launch = Enabled

Launch RDR2 from Rockstar Launcher. Always launch it this way.

If you launch RDR2 from Steam it will be relying on a login cookie for the Rockstar Launcher, which expires after a while and may cause login issues or game launch issues as a result. Use Steam simply to install and verify RDR2. And then later if needed, it's available Steam Community features such as achievements, discussions, screenshots, artwork... etc.

If game loads up in a smaller window for some reason, press ALT+ENTER to make it full screen. Once at the main menu, double check settings > graphics for screen res and display mode.

[jcl793]

I was able to play on Full screen by setting the screen to maximum (1920* i forgot) and then no more problem. I tried everything else before

[Yunalesca Darkfold]

I saw a youtube vid suggesting you change the windows setting in display to 1690-900 under windows - settings - display resolution then use same setting on the game. It worked for me so worth a try to.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

No, all you ever have to do is if the game launched in a smaller window just press ALT+ENTER as that is the true way to toggle between Windowed vs FullScreem for both GTA5 and RDR2

But yes it will help that before you launch any game, that you first have the OS Desktop set to native screen res + refresh rate. But games don't always go by certain settings on first launch. If you must use ALT+ENTER to force the game into full screen, once in-game simply go to Settings > Graphics and change the screen res to be correct for you. ONLY AFTER that is changed should you then maybe make other changes to the graphics settings.

RDR2 can be a little tricky at times if you are lacking VRAM. For example when I first played it on GTX 980, because of the 4GB VRAM I could not enable 1920x1080 + Ultra Textures at first. I used the graphics preset slider and switched to Balanced and applied that first. Then changed screen res to 1920x1080 + Borderless Window. Do not apply Fullscreen. As this auto switched to Borderless Window anyways should you ALT+TAB out of the game at any point.

Avoid any use of ALT+TAB or WINKEY+TAB while the game is on the loading screens. Same goes for using the Steam Overlay.

[CHILLY]

guys i found the solution if u have an NVIDIA GEFORCE EXPERIENCE you can launch it there an it should full screen

[Donaldo Trumpado]

Alt+Enter

[Bad 💀 Motha]

NEWBIE SORRY}님이 먼저 게시:

guys i found the solution if u have an NVIDIA GEFORCE EXPERIENCE you can launch it there an it should full screen

No one need that crap.

First off the game launching in a Window is normal.
Wait until you reach the main menu, then go to Settings > Graphics and change to the correct Screen Resolution. You can switch the game between Full Screen and Windowed Modes using ALT+ENTER. However do not do that in an area of the game where "enter" would click or confirm something, as the game will take you pressing ALT+ENTER as just pressing enter. So for example you don't want to do this at the main menu where Enter would be to "Start New Game" or "Continue Story" or it will start to load that. You can do the toggle while in a settings menu for example. Or once loaded into the game world.

[KingLV5050]

Don't use optimization for windowed games ... Solved

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Game exe > Properties > disable full screen optimization. Done.

Launch both Steam and Rockstar via Run As Admin (right click option)

Then launch RDR2 from Rockstar Launcher

[w-I-z-DO-m]

how to fix being force to play in safe mode as soon as you open the game? its diff than windowed mode, iv been having this issue since a year and never been able to fix it.