A Quick Note for Linux Users with Multiple Monitors and TwinView

[SilasMortimer]

I have dual monitors, a 1280x1024 on the left and a 1920x1080 on the right (apparently a common setup) and use nVidia's proprietary driver. On startup, Dota 2 seemed to get a little confused and opened fullscreen in the left monitor, but believing it had the dimensions of the right monitor. The following is what I did to get it to work correctly, in case it can help someone else. I use KDE, so if someone can post the relevant equivalents of the KDE-specific steps for others, it'd be appreciated.

First, I opened the settings via the button on the upper left part of the screen - a convenient place for it considering that finding things to the right of that with your mouse takes a little work and is impossible if you want to reach anything on the right side of the screen. Move the mouse around until you see where it *actually* points to by seeing where the buttons light up. Change it from fullscreen to windowed (don't use the windowed without borders, because you're going to move it) and change the resolution to 1920x1080 (or similar), then find the "apply" button and hit it. You'll wind up with a squished little window that seems to ignore your resolution. That's okay. Don't worry about it yet.

Now the KDE-specific part: right click on the titlebar and select "configure window behavior". When the control module pops up, select "window rules" on the left. Click on the button that says "new", then in the new window, click on "detect window properties". Your mouse cursor will turn into a plus sign. Move that plus sign over the squished game window and left click. I selected "secondary class name", though "window title" might work (but I don't suggest it). After you hit OK, click on the "size & position" tab, put a checkmark in the "position" box, then change "do not affect" to "force". In the text box, I put in "1280,0" (without quotes). I did this because my left monitor's resolution has a width of 1280 pixels. If your smaller monitor's resolution was, say, 1024x768, you would instead put in "1024,0". Click OK. The window will suddenly be tossed to the left edge of the right screen (assuming a setup similar to mine, where the smaller resolution is on the left) and look even more squished than before. That's okay. Use xkill (from the command line or using a key combo - KDE's default as well as a few other plain jane WMs' is ctrl-alt-esc) and kill Dota2, then restart it. At this point, it will start in the right screen, at the correct resolution, but it'll still be windowed. But now your mouse will act normally. Change it to fullscreen. This will still foul up because the game will take up only the lefthand side of the screen. It's all right. It has the right settings now, you just need to kill it again (if you don't have a key combo, you might want to switch to a virtual terminal and ps and kill if you know how) and the next time you launch it, it'll work beautifully.

[The Grifter]

hi!

in case anyone using openbox is having this problem, you can add an application ruleset to your rc.xml:

<application name="dota_linux" class="dota_linux" title="DOTA 2 - OpenGL" type="normal">
	<position force="yes">
		<monitor>1</monitor>
		<x>0</x>
		<y>0</y>
	</position>
</application>

then reconfigure openbox

openbox --reconfigure

if that doesn't immediately work, try a different monitor (monitor 1 should be the primary monitor) and also check your <placement> block (toward the top of your rc.xml):

  <placement>
    <policy>Smart</policy>
    <center>no</center>
    <monitor>Any</monitor>
    <primaryMonitor>1</primaryMonitor>
  </placement>

good luck!

edit: you might have to get the proper window name/type etc.:
start the game, then run in a terminal:

obxprop | grep "^_OB_APP"

then click on the game window and the values should be printed in the terminal window

[Blinkme]

Thanks I have exactly the same setup 1280x1024 on the left, HD on the right and KDE, It worked perfectly for me I was tired to have to go in mono screen before playing and and resume dual screen after...

[SilasMortimer]

Glad it helped, Blinkme.

Thanks for the openbox instructions, The Grifter!