Widescreen Gaming Forum

Not sure if anyone could find use for this tutorial, but here goes:

This tutorial will teach you how to setup borderless fullscreen windowed (16:9 1080p) mode for Blood Omen 2 on Windows 10.
The tutorial should, in theory, work in higher aspect ratios and resolutions than 1080p, however this is untested and I invite anyone to give it a try.

Step 1. Install Blood Omen 2 on your PC (don't install it on the C drive, especially if you're using Windows 10).


Step 2. Download & install the Blood Omen 2 Windows 10 fix here: https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/wiki/Legacy-of-Kain-Blood-Omen-2


Step 3. Download DxWnd here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/files/latest/download. For this tutorial I used the latest (2.05.14 build) of DxWnd.


Step 4. Make a folder for the application inside of your Blood Omen folder. Name it what you like. I named mine BorderlessWindowed.


Step 5. Open DxWnd.exe and drag your bo2.exe (the Blood Omen 2 exectuable file) into the base of the window beneath the tool bar. It will open a window titled "New". Go ahead and configure your desired setting here, and you can experiment if you like, but I found that these settings worked well for me (I will only list the settings I have checked for each tab, most of these are at defaults but I can't remember which ones I changed so I will list them all):




Step 6. Once configured, press okay and DxWnd will build your profile for Blood Omen 2, it will appear in the window as a shortcut. Now, you can manually open Blood Omen 2 each time right here from DxWnd with your profile settings, or if you're like me and you hate having to open an ugly launcher just to play your game, and you prefer a single shortcut or file to use to automatically launch using your Blood Omen 2 using the DxWnd profile, continue to step 7.


OPTIONAL
Step 7. Install AutoHotkey (its a light-weight scripting engine that allow you to automate tasks easily) https://www.autohotkey.com/


Step 8. Once you have AHK installed, you'll need to create three files. First, inside your DxWnd folder that you created inside your BO2 install folder, create a batch file (I named mine LaunchBloodOmen2.bat) with the following code:

This batch code will make your DxWnd.exe launch the first game it finds inside of its .ini file (which is BO2 since we didn't add any other games).

Still inside of the same folder, right click and select new -> Autohotkey Script. Name it what you like. I named this one launchHandler.ahk
Open the script file with Notepad or Notepad++, or whatever text editor is your favorite and add the following code underneath the code that should be added at the top by default when you create the script:




In this code where you see "LaunchBloodOmen2.bat", replace that with the name you chose to give for your batch file we created before at the start of step 8.


So "launchHandler.ahk" (or whatever you named it) now reads as follows:



Where "LaunchBloodOmen2.bat" is the name of the batch file you created before. If you used a custom name for any of these script files, you will have to update the names manually; however I have provided the names I used for each of the files here, so you can easily replace mine with yours.


Right click this AHK script and select "Compile Script". It will turn it into a .exe for you.


Step 9. Go back to the Blood Omen 2 install directory and right click, create a new AutHotkey Script here and name it what you like. I named mine "Launch Blood Omen 2.ahk"

Paste the following code inside:




Where, on the line "Run, "%A_ScriptDir%\BorderlessWindow\launchHandler.exe",," you replace the folder name "BorderlessWindow" with the name you chose for your DxWnd folder back in step 4, and replace "launchHandler.exe" with the name of the AHK script you created and compiled inside the DxWnd folder at the end of Step 8.

After your changes are complete, right click and select "Compile Script" and you will now have "Launch Blood Omen 2.exe" or whatever you named it. Double click this file / shortcut to this file to launch BO2 in Borderless 1080p Windowed mode. Refer below for an explanation summary of the script system used here.

For an explanation of this system:

Launch Blood Omen 2.exe is first going to run the compiled script (launchHandler.exe) that we made inside of the DxWnd folder (which will run BO2 with your DxWnd settings), then it is going to wait for bo2.exe to be found in your current processes. Once the game is opened by the other script, Launch Blood Omen 2.exe is going to wait a few moments and then it will Alt-Tab, and then re-focus the game again (to avoid a bug where the game takes a moment to register with DxWnd - if this bug still happens to you all you must do is manually minimize the game and re-maximize it; you may see a DxWnd splash when you do this, that means it worked. If you did not see a DxWnd splash when the game launched, or even after the automatic Alt-Tab, then manually minimize with windows key and maximize. You will see a DxWnd splash. This means you are now in Borderless Fullscreen. This bug is pretty rare, though.) and the script system will automatically raise the process priority of the game to High. Then the script exits. All of this happens silently and seamlessly for a more stream-lined launching experience with 1080p Borderless Windowed mode.

Let me know here if you have any questions / comments / issues on anything. Thanks.

-xdcy

_________________
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." -Albert Einstein