[Bug 49674] New: Feature Request: Restoring previous resolution upon an app crashing

[WineHQ Bugzilla]

https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49674

            Bug ID: 49674
           Summary: Feature Request: Restoring previous resolution upon an
                    app crashing
           Product: Wine
           Version: unspecified
          Hardware: Other
                OS: other
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P2
         Component: -unknown
          Assignee: wine-bugs at winehq.org
          Reporter: s.maddox at lantizia.me.uk

So this has been a bit of a bug of mine with Wine for a while, but you may
think it's not really a problem Wine should deal with - which may be a fair
point.

But I couldn't find anything clearly asking for this as a feature request... so
lets see how well it fairs.

# The problem

Lets say you open up a Windows executable which changes your screens resolution
(e.g. a game) and it either...
a) freezes
b) is broken enough that its UI (if any appears) can't be used to nicely ask it
to quit
c) crashes and quits differently to how it'd normally do so upon user request

With a) and b) you likely need to kill that process, which ultimately leaves
you in the same situation as c).

But however it happens... you're likely to find your resolution now stuck to
whatever it set.  If that is an incredibly low resolution (like 320x240 or
640x480)... then with the desktop environment of today (especially with HiDPI)
you're likely going to struggle finding the proper option to fix it.  Worse you
might resort to a terminal (or switch TTY) and mess around with the xrandr
command for a stupid amount of time trying to find the names of screens and
such.

# Expected Behaviour

Well I'm not sure what actually does this.  But in actual Windows (e.g Windows
10), when this same circumstance occurs... the resolution is always restored
back to what it was.  This leaves me to believe that Windows itself has
something for this eventuality.

# Research

Well I've been searching around for solutions to this one for years and the
best I always come across... is someone saying you're better off with a script
(usually calling xrandr) mapped to a hot key or something for this eventuality.
 Which is fine if the number of displays you've got connected and their
resolutions are always consistent... but often for laptop users moving between
docks and such - it isn't.

A quick chat on the #winehq IRC channel had someone mention that Proton can now
scale games to the resolution you're already using instead (when the app
requests a resolution change)... and pointed out these patches...

https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/blob/master/patches/proton/proton_fs_hack_integer_scaling.patch
https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/blob/master/patches/proton/valve_proton_fullscreen_hack-staging.patch

That's fine, and it's a welcome feature.  But I do wonder if this is a
universal fix for any request for any resolution change... regardless the age
(and compatibility with which version of Windows it was meant for) of the game
and the way it draws on the screen (e.g. SDL, OpenGL, DirectDraw, Vulkan,
etc...).

However it *may* give some hope for people wanting to run older windowed-mode
games from the early Win 3.1/95 era which refuse to be re-sized/re-scaled...
but that's a topic for another feature request :)

# Conclusion

I've not got any.  

Should this be the job of Wine to restore the prior resolution if the app/game
fails to?  Like Windows somehow does?  Or is this something the OS (whatever
that may be, Linux/macOS or even Windows) should be doing separately from Wine
for any process?

Also if this is a dupe, feel free to mark it as such... I've looked and
couldn't find anything that is quite so specific - at least with the points
raised here.

Thoughts?

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