Skip to content

Initial DisplayMagician Setup

Jump to bottom
terrymacdonald edited this page May 30, 2022 · 8 revisions

DisplayMagician is designed to help make your game playing life much easier than it currently is. With DisplayMagician, you set up your game shortcuts once, and then you never have to configure them again. They just work. Game playing becomes as easy as clicking on a desktop shortcut.

If you're having some issues with DisplayMagician, have a look at the Troubleshooting DisplayMagician page to see if something there will help.

Create your Display Profiles

DisplayMagician is able to record your display settings, and reuse them at a later date. All you need to do is to use 'NVIDIA Control Panel', 'AMD Radeon Adrenaline', or 'Windows Display Settings' to set up a display layout that you want to use at a later date, and then you save that display layout within DisplayMagician as a Display Profile.

IMPORTANT - DisplayMagician is a display layout recorder/player. It can save and load display layouts, but it cannot edit or alter them. You need to make display layout changes in 'NVIDIA Control Panel', 'AMD Radeon Adrenaline', or 'Windows Display Settings', and then you need to swap back to DisplayMagician to save them or apply them.

To create your display profiles, follow these instructions:

  • Run 'DisplayMagician', and click on the 'Display Profiles' button
    • Minimise the Display Profile window
    • Use 'Windows Display Settings', 'NVIDIA Control Panel' or 'AMD Radeon Adrenaline' to configure your display(s) exactly as you would like them
    • ALT-TAB back to DisplayMagician, and you should see the new display configuration shown in the Display Profile window.
    • Click the 'Save As/Rename' button so that DisplayMagician will remember the current Display Profile so you can use it in your Game Shortcuts.
    • (Optional) Click on the 'Save to Desktop' button to save a desktop shortcut to the Display Profile. This will let you swap to this display profile easily whenever you double click on the desktop shortcut.
  • If you want to create another display layout, then you need to ALT-TAB back to the 'Windows Display Settings', 'NVIDIA Control Panel' or 'AMD Radeon Adrenaline' to change your display layout to the next one you want to save, and then repeat the steps above.
  • When you have finished creating the the display layouts you want to save, then click the 'Back' button to go back to the main DisplayMagician window.

Create your Game Shortcuts

Once you have all the Display Profiles you want saved, then it's time to set up some shortcuts for your games or applications.

To create your game shortcuts, follow these instructions:

  • Click on the 'Game Shortcuts' button.
  • You will be shown your Shortcut Library window. This is where all your Shortcuts live, and where you have to go if you ever want to edit them.
  • Click the 'New' button to create a new Game Shortcut
    • Choose the Display Profile you want to use with the Game Shortcut. Make sure it matches what the game expects :).
    • Click on the '2. Choose Audio' tab, to modify which speakers you use for sound, or which microphone you use to talk into.
    • Click on the '3. Choose what happens before' tab, to choose any other programs you want to start before you start the main Game or Application. You can choose if you want to shut them down afterwards too! Click on the 'Find Examples' button if you'd like to see some example helper software and their settings for popular games.
      • Do not add any of the Steam, Uplay, GOG, Epic or Origin game launchers as a start program
      • Do not add DisplayMagician.exe as a start program
      • Do not add the Game you are trying to launch as a start program itself. This will thoroughly confuse DisplayMagician.
    • Click on the '4. Choose Game to start' tab, to choose the main game or application that the Game Shortcut will start and monitor.
    • If you want to run a Game from within the Steam, Uplay, GOG, Epic or Origin game launchers then choose the 'Launch a Game installed in Steam, Origin, Uplay, Epic or GOG' option. Choose which options you want to use:
      • Choose the Game from the list shown (be sure to click it so it has a red border), or if it's not shown in the list then select the specific game or application executable in the 'Launch a Game executable' section of the page.
      • Game Priority: The process priority that you wish to launch the game as. Options are High, Above Normal, Normal (default), Below Normal, Idle. This will tell Windows to give the game more or less time for the game when multitasking. I recommend using Normal unless you are willing to accept all other applications running slower on your computer while running the game.
      • Max Wait: How long DisplayMagician will wait for this application to start before it starts trying to monitor for it. You can increase this value if the game takes a while to load. Note: if DisplayMagician never detects your game starting, then you should try monitoring a different executable
      • Pass Arguments to Game: If you want to pass some arguments to the game then put them in here. Common arguments for a Steam game are "vr" for running the game in VR mode, or 'novr' for forcing the non-VR version of the game.
      • Game Monitor different executable: This is used if DisplayMagician fails to detect the main game executable after it's started the game. This is likely the case if DisplayMagician thinks the game was closed immediately after starting it. If this happens, then you should try monitoring a different executable.
    • Otherwise select the 'Launch a Game executable' option and fill it out as below:
      • Executable to start: This is the executable you want the shortcut to run, and monitor until it is closed. Click on the 'Choose' button to select the executable.
      • Max Wait: How long DisplayMagician will wait for this application to start before it starts trying to monitor for it. You can increase this value if the game takes a while to load. Note: if DisplayMagician never detects your game starting, then you should try monitoring a different executable
      • Pass Arguments to Executable: If you want to pass some arguments to the executable you are launching then put them in here. For example if you wanted to start notepad.exe an load c:\test.txt, then you would choose notepade.exe in the executable to start, and you would add 'c:\test.txt' into the 'Pass Arguments to Executable' text field.
      • Run executable as administrator: This will run the executable as administrator. DisplayMagician will ask your for permission to run the executable as administrator, and you will be given a User Access Control prompt to allow.
      • Executable Priority: The process priority that you wish to launch the executable as. Options are High, Above Normal, Normal (default), Below Normal, Idle. This will tell Windows to give the game more or less time for the executable when multitasking. I recommend using Normal unless you are willing to accept all other applications running slower on your computer while running the executable.
      • Wait until the executable is closed before continuing: Selecting this option means that DisplayMagician will monitor the executable you selected in the 'Executable to start' field and will wait for it to be closed before continuing.
      • Wait until an alternative executable is closed before continuing: Selecting this option means that DisplayMagician will monitor a different executable you choose rather than the one it starts. This is useful if the executable you start is a game launcher. Look here for more information.
    • If you don't want to run a game or executable at all, but you just want to change the display profile, audio, and then start up some start programs, then you can choose the 'Don't start a Game' option. Note: If you choose this option then you MUST NOT choose revert back for any Display Profile, Audio Output or Microphone options on the '5. Choose what happens afterwards page'. If you just want to change your display profile, then DO NOT use a Game Shortcut for that. Go into the Display Profile window and choose 'Save to Desktop' button to save a desktop shortcut to change Display Profiles.
    • Click on the '5. Chose what happens afterwards' tab, and choose if you want to rollback any changes made by the Game Shortcut when it runs, or if you want to keep them rather than rolling them back.
    • If the 'auto-suggest name' option is enabled then you should have a Shortcut Name already entered in automatically.
    • (Optional) You can create a keyboard shortcut (Hotkey) for this Game Shortcut. To do this, click on the 'Hotkey' button.
    • Click the 'Save' button to save the Shortcut to the Shortcut Library. If you can only see the outline of a button, then you have some missing fields you need to fill in. The Save button only shows if you have a valid Shortcut set up.
  • Once you've saved the Shortcut, you should see it in the Shortcut Library.
  • To create a Desktop shortcut file from your Shortcut, select it in the list in your Shortcut Library, and click the 'Save to Desktop' button. This will then write the Shortcut to your computer, ready to use!

Use your Game Shortcuts

You now have 4 different ways you can start your shortcut:

  • You can double-click on the Desktop shortcut you just saved to the Desktop to start your game; or
  • You can right mouse click on the desktop background, and select the Game Shortcut from the DisplayMagician pop-up menu to start your game; or
  • You can right mouse click on the DisplayMagician notification tray icon, and select the Game Shortcut from the DisplayMagician pop-up menu to start your game; or
  • (optionally) If you've set a Hotkey for your Game Shortcut, you can press the Hotkey keyboard shortcut whenever DisplayMagician is running and your Game Shortcut will run.

Have fun!

---> DOWNLOAD DISPLAYMAGICIAN <---

Donate

Buy me a coffee

Become a GitHub sponsor

Clone this wiki locally