An installer would be lovely. I don't have any experience in making installers, but if someone knows how, any help would be very welcome.

I don't have much requirements:

• Create a few registry subkeys/keys on install, delete them on uninstall
• Copy over driver files / app, install driver, on uninstall, uninstall driver , delete directory in program files
• sign the installer
• create shortcut to user app
• Important: reads env vars for the version / location of files to include in the installer (calculated from CARGO_BUILD_TARGET_DIR and PROFILE if it exists, otherwise use regular target directory)

I think nsis is a good bet for this

I can handle integration into the build system / github actions, just need a working install script I can adapt.

Reason: I require installation of a regkey in order to allow the driver to log to the event log, so users can see panics and report them. Currently, this information is lost unless debugview is open. The driver is incapable of creating a subkey, and I don't want to do this installation step using the regular app (just clunky to do it that way). The proper way is with an install package. Plus, it removes the need to manually install the driver

If you know how and want to spend a little time helping out, it would be very welcome. Please respond to this issue if so

Original merge from PR #47. References #43

• Easy to read error message if client doesn't connect - comment
  Something like

Failed to connect to driver; please ensure driver is running and working. Driver must also not be in use by any other tools, e.g. gui apps

• Make RequestState more global - comment
• Use smallest available IDs - comment
• For add/add-mode/remove-mode, allow specifying custom refresh rates per monitor mode. Making it clearer to type is also a bonus. - comment
• Deprecate mode indexes and allow selection of monitors by unique WIDTH/HEIGHT. Potentially also allow deleting only refresh rate instead of entire mode. - comment. UX TBD
• Make client connection global / always store requested state so it can be accessible anywhere. - comment
• With global state, other checks can be made smarter, such as displaying an error when user tries to remove a monitor ID that doesn't exist.

Cc @kylewlacy

I just reinstalled windows and started to reinstall the driver

Originally it started with giving an issue about the missing vcruntime140.dll

I fixed that by downloading the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable

Now all I see is the "failed to connect to driver at 127.0.0.1:23112" prompt

There's no logs or anything in event viewer so I'm assuming I'm missing another dependency. I'm no programmer though so I really don't know

Windows 10 Home

When I create and open a virtual screen and use remote software streaming connection, two cursors appear on my screen, one on the controlled side and one on the master side, and there is a slight ghost as I move. How to solve this problem? Thank you very much!

I use the app one time yesterday, today I try to start again and I only have this. I try to restart and install all again but nothing.

Please, help!

A desktop app with the following features :

• Connects to driver backend
• Allows to add/remove specific monitors on the fly
• Disable / re-enable all monitors
• Fine grained configuration of resolutions / refresh rates per resolution for each monitor

Persist config to registry as usual, store entire state (enabled/disabled) in the driver instead, where the control app requests the current state from the driver on startup. This eliminates any possibility of the control app state getting desynced

Currently hard coded to 16ms, which is fine for 60hz. We should share the monitor's refresh rate over and wait for the maximum of 1 frame for the refresh rate. Not a big deal right now, but could be a good optimization

It's not clear whether making such a change would result in any actual performance improvements, so this issue remains open until a resolution is found.

So far seems to be fine without any change

HDR support is coming in idd 1.10¹, which enables us to support HDR and WCG. This is only possible in Windows 11 22H2 Sept Update + however, since it is a brand new feature². This should enable more options in HDR applications for our monitor. We should be able to still support Windows 10 2004+ by using runtime checks for this, but compiling against the newest version, though the functionality will only be available in the newest version of windows.

I think there should be a toggle per monitor for this feature in the app, one for each mode.

To figure out the version for runtime checks, check against IddCxGetVersion which returns 0x1A00 (IDDCX_VERSION_SV3) for the newest update.

The main window has a visual bug. Oops!

Discussed in #87

Doable. I already put it up to 3 monitors and it seemed fine, but this needs to be inspected more so I can be sure it's optimized in the driver, e.g. 1 thread per monitor.

Prerequisites

Please answer the following questions for yourself before submitting an issue.

• I checked to make sure that this request has not already been filed

Description

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I am using Sunshine & Moonlight to stream from my desktop to my laptop and my phone. These two scripts enable me to have a near seamless experience together with virtual-display-rs, provided the resolution of my client corresponds with one of the resolutions I have set. If not, I need to find out what the resolution of my client is and set it. Ideally, I'd be able to set a resolution in Moonlight and if it were not completely uncommon, it would be set on my desktop before connecting. I could also set half the resolution to conserve power and bandwidth.

Describe the solution you'd like
If there was an option to just add most modelines to my virtual monitor with one click, that would be great.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Theoretically, the script author might integrate with virtual-display-rs more tightly and set the resolutions directly. That would be most ideal, but given the simplistic nature of the project, I believe that's rather unrealistic.

Obviously, I can just add all the modelines myself, this is not a huge inconvenience to me, but it is one. Alternatively, a list of common modelines to choose from would also be practical. It could have an "add all" button, maybe.

Work is ongoing at the wdkmetadata repository to get the metadata bindings done, and ultimately into windows-rs. Once enough of it is done, we can ditch all the manual binding crates here and fix up the driver code to be even more idiomatic. 😃

Tracking issue microsoft/wdkmetadata#49

Another to keep track of: https://github.com/microsoft/windows-drivers-rs and microsoft/windows-drivers-rs#13

I'm Mark, the creator of Blur Busters and TestUFO.

I noticed you have a virtual display driver capable of custom refresh rates -- maybe you want to make minor modifications to meet an existing Blur Busters source code bounty?

For those not familiar with me -- I'm an indie-turned-business, and the Internet's biggest advocate for high refresh rates, and I am in over 25 peer reviewed research papers and I have an easier Coles Notes research portal Area 51 on BlurBusters.

TestUFO is my free display-testing/display-demoing website used by over 500 content creators (reviewers, youtubers, bloggers) that tests displays. Two of the biggest content creators are RTINGS (which uses my invention) and LinusTechTips (which used the pursuit camera in some tests).

I've been looking for a good open source virtual display driver as a base to produce drivers that can implement algorithms such as testufo.com/blackframes (software BFI) and testufo.com/vrr (simulated VRR on non-VRR displays), as well as hundreds of other fantastic temporal filters.
Even if not all filters are possible, a virtualized display driver with temporal-processing capabilities, would unlock a lot of neat capabilities for a lot of communities.

It could also be used to add subpixel-awareness for OLED displays (odd pixel structures) by scaling things in a custom-subpixel-pattern way, it was also posted here in ClearType improvement thread, but I'm posting here since I've now discovered this project:

$2K Bounty for a Virtual Display Driver capable of Temporal Filters

Which I crosspost here:

**Jason-GitH ** commented May 11, 2023 •

Yes, that's another option as an alternative.

I mention this already at microsoft/PowerToys#25595 (comment)

A USD $2000.00 bounty already offered for this open source driver project

Blur Busters currently already offers a $2K bounty for this -- a subpixel-aware downscaler would allow everything to be "ClearType'd" including graphics, and not just text. This can even be done as a third-party Windows Indirect Display Driver, which I already offer a USD$2000.00 source code bounty for something under MIT or Apache. Contact me at mark[at]blurbusters.com

Basically, a Windows IDD that virtualizes a simulated monitor at a simulated resolution at a simulated refresh rate (can be higher or lower Hz than real display) -- we have some important uses cases for this), and runs all the frames through plug-in GPU shaders, to display on an existing physical monitor.

In addition to solving this problem -- plug-in GPU shaders can enables shockingly creative stuff such as:

• subpixel-aware downscaling, etc.
• custom developer refresh rate testing on monitors not owned (e.g. test refresh rates that your monitor does not support)
• easier software developer testing with displays that aren't in the QA lab, by simulating a display
• easier hardware prototyping and engineering of future displays, by simulating a display
• simulated interpolated VRR (www.testufo.com/vrr algorithm) on displays that don't have VRR
• software based BFI OLED motion blur eduction (www.testufo.com/blackframes#count=3)
• streaming / headless use cases (without needing to be in a game nor open Remote Desktop)
• software based overdrive algorithms
• custom spatial filters (e.g. HLSL CRT filters for retro simulation / preservation).
• custom temporal filters (e.g. simulate a CRT electron beam, complete with rolling scan and phosphor fade simulation, by using 8 digital refresh cycles per CRT Hz, on 480Hz display that windows thinks it "sees" as a 60Hz CRT tube), for even further improved retro simulation / preservation / education / history education.
• add frame generation (e.g. reprojection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvqrlgKuowE for 500fps UE5)
• Other plug-in GPU shaders (that can modify, adjust, scale, process, merge, blend, etc history of buffered "refresh cycle" frames)

The $2K bounty doesn't have to include these custom shaders, but needs to include a plug-in shader system, and end users need the ability to share shaders/profiles with each other (e.g. a sharable modular file-based format, possibly JSON or XML) that loads settings such as shader module (compiled or uncompiled), input Hz, output Hz, constraints if any (outputHz = Formula(inputHz)). It could be a single-file format or a composite (.zip) that includes shaders and settings for a custom filter/processing. Such as shaders that require actual display output Hz to be integer multiples of the virtualized display Hz. The bounty requirements are negotiable (contact mark [at] blurbusters.com), but it needs to meet the needs of the open source community, the retro community, the blur busters fan community, and the commercial community (e.g. display prototyping), as I do work with display manufacturers. As you know, I am the inventor of free display tests used both by indies and manufacturers...

Other options include integration of SweetFX/Reshade/etc into the virtual display driver, including possibly open source or third party lagless frame generation algorithms (e.g. https://www.blurbusters.com/framegen ...) or whole-desktop SmoothVideoProject, etc. So this ideally should be supported too, although it cannot support the entire scope needed. However, the capability for output refresh rates higher AND/OR lower AND/OR variable than the refresh rate visible in Control Panel for the said virtualized display. In other words, the real Hz displayed on real display, is a processed version of the virtualized Hz visible to Windows,. e.g. 60Hz in Windows, but is outputting 240Hz+BFI with persistence adjustability (similar to https://www.testufo.com/blackframes#count=4&bonusufo=1 as one example). Or variable frametimes (I can help you understand how to control VRR).

I really would like to see a driver package capable of running custom shaders at refresh cycle granularity. And enough example dummy shaders to demonstrate successful virtualization of resolution AND refresh rate (both higher and lower than actual physical display(s) connected to computer). INCLUDING of course, variable refresh rate capability which is simply asynchronous timing of Present() that may not be related to timing interval of the refresh cycles. I am OK with the constraint of a fixed-Hz virtualization (just VRR output virtualization).

Although not needed for subpixel processing filters and input=output Hz filters (shader-process-only filters)..... for certain temporal refresh rate filtering tasks I'll need extremely accurate timing of output-frame Present()'s, which MAY require a separate CPU thread that busyloops right before Present() of the composited frame to the actual output display. So an ultra-high-precision presentation timing thread will be mandatory here, I can help assist you -- I have lots of experience via [url=https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?t=4213]Tearline Jedi[/url] raster-interrupt-style beam racing of VSYNC OFF tearlines).

Keep in mind that this is a refresh-cycle-granularity processor, not a frame-granularity processor. For many reasons, it has to process every refresh cycle independently of underlying framerates of the application running within the desktop on the virtualized display). Be noted, frame presenting timestamps do need to be made available to the shader run once every refresh-cycle (for certain shaders like VRR simulating shaders, which requires refresh cycle granularity processing while also separately knowing the frame presentation timestamps of the underlying application).

Except that it would work on everything in Windows, not just in a test. Reshade/SweetFX/SpecialK/etc does something similar in some ways, but not for many use cases. The other drivers have the problem of being frame-granularity (as frame Present() hooks) which means they are not refresh cycle granularity. Many algorithms need to process at Hz-granularity independently of the underlying frame rate, for successful operation. And being a Windows IDD, means desktop applications are included, not just games.

For qualifying for the bounty, some changes needed may include:

• Support replacing an existing monitor with the virtualized monitor (or some compromise), ala #19
• Adding support for a loadable settings/shader system (to allow the temporal processing)
• A relicensed fork (if that's an option) to Apache/MIT.
  (legal if you're the only developer, or all devs/contributers of 100% of the source code retroactively agree)
• Bounty requirements can be negotiable (contact me privately), with requirements confirmed into stone before agreeing if necessary;

Example (of hundreds) of possible benefits....

• End users who want to reduce display motion blur by adding software-based BFI
• End users who don't have VRR that want to add software-based VRR
• Adding software-based superior LCD overdrive to cheap monitors (that performs better than manufacturer 17x17 LCD OD LUTs), like superior versions of the old "ATI Radeon Overdrive" system from 15 years ago;
• Game developers stuck at 60Hz, can finally QA-test on higher refresh rates (virtualized), with the extra Hz's being blended together one way or another (alphablend, or simul-vrr, or tiled, or other).
• Manufacturers can prototype future-Hz displays like 1000Hz displays
• Improved SDR/HDR adjustability (e.g. using HDR for SDR content as a brightness booster for BFI like Retrotink 5K).
• Future CRT simulators for retro community (electron beam simulators in a shader, using 8 refresh cycles on upcoming 480Hz OLED to create 1 simulated 60Hz CRT refresh cycle)
• etc.

Some possible catches

• It may not be able to play DRM content (e.g. Netflix)

Question: Are you the only developer, @MolotovCherry?
Note: It could even be a fork of this project if this is too dramatically different. The original project can remain GPL3, just the fork qualifying for the bounty would need to be one of the permissive licenses to support both the indies and businesses, as per above. Can even backport the Apache/MIT version to your GPL3 fork (one-way compatibility), if you want -- all good.

I would love the option to be able to automatically disconnect all other monitors other than the ones created by this application. That would help with which desktop is presented when connecting with Parsec or similar applications. Thank you for creating such an awesome application!

Prerequisites

Please answer the following questions for yourself before submitting an issue.

• I checked to make sure that this request has not already been filed

Description

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I have a very cheap, thin, portable monitor in a teleprompter with a beam splitter. Teleprompter software can flip its own content, but other software like PowerPoint presentations won't flip. I can only rotate the display in Windows 10, not flip it.

Describe the solution you'd like
I would like there to be an option in the new control panel to flip the virtual display. Then (hopefully) the flipped display could be cloned onto the teleprompter with other software.

Describe alternatives you've considered
The most popular alternative is to use OBS to capture a screen/window and flip it with the preview window on the teleprompter's display. This works, but I would prefer a more polished option that leaves OBS available for other things, like streaming different content to a virtual webcam or external server.

Another alternative is a hardware device that flips the image (they generally run around $400+) or a different monitor with built-in flip capability (also more expensive and thicker - so it won't fit in the tablet holder of the teleprompter as well).

There are limited commercial software options, but they seem to either flag for a trojan in virus total or haven't been updated in years, which are both cause for concern.

Error message windows log:
日志名称: Application
来源: Windows Error Reporting
日期: 2023/10/23 20:07:16
事件 ID: 1001
任务类别: 无
级别: 信息
关键字: 经典
用户: 暂缺
计算机: DESKTOP-TKVNJV6
描述:
错误存储段 ，类型 0
事件名称: PnPDeviceProblemCode
响应: 不可用
Cab Id: 0

问题签名:
P1: x64
P2: Root\VirtualDisplayDriver
P3: {4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
P4: 0000001F
P5: WUDFRd.sys
P6: 10.0.14393.0
P7: 07-16-2016
P8:
P9:
P10:

附加文件:

可在此处获取这些文件:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\NonCritical_x64_b5e1baa4902173c22f4f79fe2db5aee4baa60ba_00000000_386f4f92

分析符号:
重新检查解决方案: 0
报告 Id: 98da53ca-719c-11ee-a1f4-18dbf23e9b25
报告状态: 8192
哈希存储段:
事件 Xml:



1001
4
0
0x80000000000000

68083
Application
DESKTOP-TKVNJV6





0
PnPDeviceProblemCode
不可用
0
x64
Root\VirtualDisplayDriver
{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
0000001F
WUDFRd.sys
10.0.14393.0
07-16-2016








C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\NonCritical_x64_b5e1baa4902173c22f4f79fe2db5aee4baa60ba_00000000_386f4f92


0
98da53ca-719c-11ee-a1f4-18dbf23e9b25
8192

Each install should have 10 separate drivers, with each driver acting as a standalone copy, and coordinate that back with the control app. This seems to be the only way to truly have multi-display functionality

• Add named pipes and completely remove port functionality - pipes kind of done
• Split up into 10 driver instances with disabled process sharing
• Set up each driver to be dedicated monitor, and listen for named pipe connections
• Have client connect to all 10 monitors and turn them on/off individually

An accidental consequence of changing the serial number bytes. The checksum is no longer valid and also needs to be patched
https://github.com/MolotovCherry/virtual-display-rs/blob/master/virtual-display-driver/src/edid.rs#L27

(For anyone who sees this report, this does not affect the functioning of the driver)

Prerequisites

Please answer the following questions for yourself before submitting an issue.

• I checked to make sure that this request has not already been filed

Description

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I use virtual-display-rs in conjunction with Sunshine and Moonlight client. I have a desktop PC as host and a Surface Pro as client. I'd like to use most of touch related features on Windows (basic ones are already there) but other features like Windows Ink or optimized tablet menu bar don't show up.

Describe the solution you'd like
Register a virtual monitor as it comes from a tablet PC with digitalizer

Describe alternatives you've considered
Pretty much it's my only option asking support here

Additional context
None

• read_persistent, load_persistent, revert_to_persistent
  Originally posted by @Dampfwalze in #116 (comment)
• Sending Result and making proper error types specific to the functions
  #116 (comment)

Not hard to do, but I am unsure the method I want to go about doing this. I want to make it super easy and simple to do.

Another concern is that it would require a driver restart in order to show the changes. I'm sure this can be fixed by e.g. exposing the different resolutions/refresh rates to windows instead, but this will require some research.

If anyone has any suggestions on what you'd like, feel free to say~

Thank you for this project, I am using this project for Sunshine streaming.

I currently have two monitors, Display 1 and Virtual Display 2. I have configured the system to display only on Virtual Display 2. However, after the system goes to sleep and I try to use streaming again, I encounter a prompt indicating no video output. This requires me to manually log in to the RDP desktop and switch the virtual display.

Therefore, I hope to have a few DOS commands for a batch file to perform the display switch before login. Thank you.

How do Windows Virtual Drivers pass the HLK test and get signed by Microsoft

A common theme I've been seeing is:

Users try to install, then it fails, then they install the certificate, then try to install it again and it succeeds, but when they go back to use the control app, it doesn't connect.

If you go to device manager, you may see either multiple copies of "Virtual Display" or "Unknown Device".

To solve:

1. Go to Device Manager
2. Expand Display Adapters

If you see multiple copies of Virtual Display:

1. Right click on every other copy of Virtual Display, click Uninstall device. DO NOT click attempt to remove the driver for this device
2. Leave only 1 copy of the Virtual Display. It should work fine now
3. You might have to also click "Update Driver" and choose it from the list

If you see Unknown Device, for every one you see in the list:

1. Right click on Unknown Device
2. Click Uninstall device
3. After getting rid of them all, Uninstall and reinstall driver

Alternatively, for any of these, just uninstall the software completely and follow the instructions for manually installing the driver.

Make sure the certificate is installed properly before running the installer!

Ref #26

Hi again

I'm back with another problem :/

Like the title suggests I've been having one or both monitors flashing black and then functioning normally. There seems to be no pattern or way to replicate it.

Sometimes there's times where it will flash both monitors multiple times in a minute, other times it will only flash one monitor once without another issue for a while.

I tried recording it but only managed to catch an example of it flashing my built in monitor once. I tried to catch it flashing both but it didn't act up for multiple minutes and I didn't want to waste my phone storage continuously waiting for it to happen again.

Edit: new vid

I'm getting this error on a windows 11 VM installed in hyper-v on windows 11.

trying to use this virual display to increase the resolution of this VM created via easy-gpu-pv script.

Reboot or windows startup, seems to encounter a startup issue, but only then

Edit: Pinpointed down to winlog, RegisterEventSourceW

Hi, I cannot find any file named including "Virtual Display" in my windows 11 after installed the software. I run install-cert.bat and then run virtual-display-driver-0.2.5-x86_64.msi with admin privileges.

It seems that it did not installed successfully.

OS name: Microsoft Windows 11 64bit
OS version:  10.0.22621  Build 22621

I was testing this virtual display driver for a project to create remote workplaces using ASTER
However, out of the 10 enabled monitors only 9 monitors work.

I have tried reinstalling the driver but same result.
I am using Windows 11 Build 22631 with intel integrated graphics on intel core i5-5650U

The latest master build has a lot of features and fixes, and is stable.

Between the current stable release and latest master, these are the following feature changes:

• no admin access required for state updates to driver (cli tool, python bindings, or future gui)
• working cli tool (thanks @kylewlacy!)
• optimized performance when under high cpu load
• lots of miscellaneous improvements and fixes
• hardware cursor support (for remote desktop apps, this is a big plus!)
• up to 16 monitors (minus your only existing monitors, usable number might be slightly lower)
• complete bindings for rust, and python (python 3.12 only!)
  • examples on how to use it are here
• windows service which does the job of starting persisted monitors on boot (disable or don't install if you're not interested in persistence)
  • place vdd-user-session-service.exe wherever you want
  • run as admin .\vdd-user-session-service.exe --install to install service
  • to uninstall, run as admin .\vdd-user-session-service.exe --uninstall
  • (you must keep the exe at the same location, otherwise the system won't be able to find it. if you want to re-locate it, uninstall the service first, move to new location, then reinstall it)

Note: there is currently no gui in master release

Download here - updated 4/12/24

To install:

• uninstall the driver completely
• Follow the manual driver installation steps here (you can skip the registry file and certificate steps)

Downloaded the latest release (v0.3.1-rc1) installer zip from github and extracted the zip file. Following the README I tried to run install-cert but couldn't.

Needed to r-click on it and selecting properties then checking unlock before being able to run it. The unlocking had to be done for installer too before being able to run.

After checking that GUI of windows showing certs (mentioned at the end of readme) the Trusted Publishers were empty!.
Imported the cert manually in there then ran the installer but it failed to install and gave me this error windows:

I'm testing on a windows 10 pro.