Fullscreen doesn't work for me (Linux) [KINDOF SOLVED]

[zment]

EDIT: Feral support suggested alt-tabbing and back when having a black screen with fullscreen at start, and that seems to fix it. So, whatever causes this, is still there, but at least I can enjoy the game in fullscreen.

I get either a black screen, or if starting from a windowed mode and I change the game to fullscreen from the settings, a crash that requires forced reboot to resolve.

Windowed mode works okay though, but I'm relaly not accustomed to playing games in windowed mode (well, some perhaps, but not this kind of immersive game). Perhaps I could use some method to manage the window decoration to effectively make a borderless fullscreen. Any idea how?

I'll gladly take a proper fix for fullscreen though, if there is one available so I don't have to mess around too much.

Running on Solus with
AMD RX480 on Mesa 17.1.6
and Linux kernel 4.12.8

[tukkek]

Works fine for me. I'm on Debian with a NVidia GPU, Linux 4.11.

[zment]

Originally posted by tukkek:

Works fine for me. I'm on Debian with a NVidia GPU, Linux 4.11.

I meant for me, not in general. Post title changed to reflect this intention.

[CZBGR Icepick]

In general, maybe you chose an incompatible resolution either through the monitor or the in game settings.

[zment]

I'm quite sure my monitor can handle standard resolutions, such as 720p or 1080p. What's with the hostility guys? I'm asking for help here, not starting a war.

[CZBGR Icepick]

Just to make sure you know, 1080p is if you're using a height resolution of 1080 pixels. 720 is 720.

[zment]

Sure. I just used the standard abbreviation of the 1280x720 and 1920x1080 resolutions. It's usually quite hard to choose the wrong resolution from a game these days, as they usually (yeah, sometimes the detection doesn't work right, but usually) only populate the list with resolutions the graphics card and the monitor support.

Also, even though the black screen at the start COULD be a symptom of unsupported resolution (no picture, but sound and no obvious crash), the fact that the game freezes the whole computer when going to fullscreen in the menu (and mind you, I didn't seem to mention this in the original post), the graphics are stuck on the screen - it's like it tried to go fullscreen, but it froze instantly after.

Kinda feels like Feral is doing something different with fullscreen mode compared to their other titles on Linux (like Mad Max and Shadow of Mordor), something that Mesa 17.1.6 doesn't like and it's actually the driver that freezes and not the game. I'm not that adept at debugging drivers, even though hmm...

I might go and clone the Mesa git and compile the bleeding edge driver's by hand to see if that helps...

[CZBGR Icepick]

Originally posted by zment:

It's usually quite hard to choose the wrong resolution from a game these days, as they usually (yeah, sometimes the detection doesn't work right, but usually) only populate the list with resolutions the graphics card and the monitor support.

I find that hard to believe. They usually have a certain set that is "supported", but don't make the mistake in believing there is any detection. You can always choose a different resolution and it is not always one that is compatible.

For example, even my monitor and graphics card both can display two different sets of resolutions, and few, if at all, have the same resolutions. For one set, the maximum resolution I can have is at 16:9. My monitor can very well display up to 16:10, fitting the other set. I'd have to choose one or the other. Some resolutions won't display at all, losing the signal. Its the fault of either the bad detection of the card or the monitor itself. Its weird, but it does happen.

Also, you described having to change the window size, which either could be forcing a resolution it can't handle, or it's the CPU processing that is the issue. One, the other, or the combo of both is clearly experiencing failure at some point.

[zment]

I did mention that sometimes the detection doesn't work right.

However, I know for a fact that all resolutions that are listed as supported by XRANDR actually work (these have been tested), and that the resolution that is used when starting Life is Strange fullscreen is infact supported by both the graphics card and the monitor, if for no other reason that you cannot set the X resolution to something that hasn't been modelined to the configuration either automatically or manually (this is simply how X works in Linux).

Also, my monitor doesn't say anything about being out of sync or not being able to show the current screen - infact, if I check the info on my monitor, it says it's a 1080p 60Hz mode that is coming through. The screen is either black or frozen with graphics. I'd say with a 99% percent certainty this problem has nothing to do with incorrect fullscreen resolution.

I'm more inclined to believe it's either a driver issue or an application issue, favoring a combination of both.

[zment]

This doesn't really fix the cause, but I can live with this: Feral support gave a suggestion to alt-tab and back at start of the game when running fullscreen when I have nothing but black showing up, and that seems to do the trick.