Enumerating devices and display modes for OpenGL rendering

Question

I'm currently writing an OpenGL renderer and am part-way through writing some classes for enumerating display adaptors, devices and modes for use in drop-down lists.

I'm using EnumDisplayDevices to get the adaptors and then EnumDisplaySettings for each device, giving me bpp, width, height and refresh rate. However I'm not sure how to find out which modes are available full-screen (there doesn't appear to be a flag for it in the DEVMODE structure). Can I assume all modes listed can in-principle be instantiated full-screen?

As a follow up question, is this approach to device enumeration generally the best way of getting the required information on Windows?

Answer 1

OpenGL has not this distinction between windowed and fullscreen mode. If you want an OpenGL program to be fullscreen you just set the window to be toplevel, borderless, without decoration, stay on top and maximum size.

Answer 2

The above is actually a dumb question. By definition windowed mode must be the current display settings. All other modes must be available full-screen (provided the OS supports them, i.e. 640x480 not advisable in Vista/7).

Answer 3

Hmmph, not correct at all, and with an attitude too. You have variety of functions that can be used.

SetPixelFormat, ChoosePixelFormat, ChangeDisplaySettings.

The PixelFormat functions will let you enumerator available modes. ChangeDisplaySettings with allow you to set whatever screen mode (including bit depth) your app wants. Look them up in MSDN.