Proper Full Screen Play Solo in Roblox Studio

Feature Requests Studio Features
, ,
#1

As a developer, it’s too difficult to rapidly iterate on the user experience in Roblox Studio in a way that’s not influenced by Roblox Studio’s tool windows.

If this issue is addressed, it would improve my development experience because it is quicker to iterate on games through play testing.

As a player myself, I usually play games in full-screen mode so that the task bar and title bar don’t distract me from the game. I assume most other PC players do the same thing, so I’d like to be able to replicate this in Roblox Studio when testing my own games.

However, it’s impossible to do so because there are panels that cannot be hidden. I can get close, but I cannot make it function the same as the client. This means I must upload the game to the website and then play it from there to test the game in full-screen mode.

The problem mainly affects game testing in dark areas, as Roblox Studio’s panels contrasts against the darkness of the game, creating a distraction and affecting the feel of the play test experience.

Let’s use my cabin world as an example, and let’s say I want to play test it.

Here’s how it appears in a normal Play Solo session:

image
image1366×768 711 KB

And here’s how it looks on the Roblox client:

image
image1366×768 1.19 MB

In Roblox Studio, I would like to play it in full-screen, so what can I do currently?

I close all the tool panels, but I still have a few bars across the sides:

image
image1366×768 1020 KB

Then I press F11 to put Roblox Studio’s window in full-screen mode. This removes the task bar and title bar, however, it still has a few toolbars, including the bright blue border surrounding the game view:

image
image1366×768 1.07 MB

So then I try the other option, which is to drag out the viewport and double-click the title bar to maximize it. However in-game keys like Esc are disabled regardless of the “Respect Studio shortcuts when game has focus” setting. This is the absolute closest I can get to full-screen mode on a game running in Roblox Studio, but it’s hacky, and still leaves the title bar visible:

image
image1366×768 1.13 MB

As a side note, old versions of Roblox Studio responded to a -build command line option, which did hide all the panels while you interacted with the game, mostly to use the stamper tool to place prefab blocks in a world. However, it’s been removed long ago.

104 Likes
#2

This is a heavily needed feature. Having a full screen mode with help so much with UI designing!

I tend to make my UI too small for most computers, because I am designing the UI on a laptop within roblox studio’s small preview/workspace screen.

35 Likes
#3

When I am working on a game, it’s hard to tell what it will actually look like without playing the game from the website (especially with UI). I often have to go back and forth between Studio and the website, publishing after every change, to make sure things look right. Adding a full-screen mode to Studio would be a huge time saver, and would make it possible to play the game exactly as it would be played normally.

I noticed that there’s a full screen button in the View tab, but it doesn’t actually work. It just makes the window full screen, not the game.

image
image1920×1080 256 KB

21 Likes
#5

I found something that’s not a full solution, but it is a quick fix. Go to the test tab, then set the device to 1920x1080 desktop. Make sure the scaling is set to Actual Resolution, then open OBS Studio. Make a new Game Capture in the Sources section (not Window Capture, as that captures Studio itself instead of the preview.) Set the game capture to capture Studio and you now have a preview of your game, even if it is cut off in Studio. If it is too big or too small in OBS, right click in the preview area and select Resize Output (Source Size) to set the preview’s size to Studio’s preview size. To have a fullscreen preview (which is where this method really shines,) right click and select Fullscreen Projector (Source), and select your monitor. You now have a full-size, full-resolution preview of your game, and you can even move around by using the cut-off part of your game in Studio on another monitor.

In Studio

image
image1920×1080 146 KB

In OBS

image
image1920×1080 140 KB

7 Likes
I can no longer undock the viewport in Studio
#6

This is a good solution you’ve come up with, but how would you test the game in studio while looking at OBS? You could move OBS to your main monitor and move roblox studio to another monitor, but then you would have to move it back when your done testing.

2 Likes
#7

This is getting even worse with how you can’t even detach the viewport window anymore. I used this to have something that sort of resembled fullscreen, usually to take high resolution screenshots.

8 Likes
#8

I agree! Roblox should remake it. But you can also script it. But also it would be easier if it was an update.

2 Likes
#9

I don’t think you can script it, but if you know of a way then I’m sure many people would love to know how.

the enunciations with Bold are hurting my brain lol

7 Likes
#10

I created a workaround with AutoHotKey to allow closing and reopening all widgets easily:

3 Likes
#11

I want this too. It’d also be cool if I could drag the viewport window to a second monitor and test fullscreen there.

2 Likes
#12

This is certainly needed
I hate having to publish and then play on roblox just to see if my ui is too small or not

1 Like
#13

After 3 years, I still want this feature. Especially for UI work. Would be incredibly useful

5 Likes
#14

also for making trailers / thumbnails / icons so you can move around stuff and add effects and such without having to publish or use f9 console

1 Like
#15

Sorry for the bump. But as of a recent update that did some minor changes to the studio docking layout. THIS HAS BEEN RE-ENABLED!

Simply drag the game window and double click it!

image
image1920×1080 202 KB

image

13 Likes