A method to properly Full-screen MapleRoyals - Magpie

Are you unsatisfied with the in-game full-screen mode? Or are you unable to tolerate distorted and flattened images of different aspect ratios?

Here's an introduction to a useful tool that you can use to:
1. Fullscreen and upscale the image maintaining the proper aspect ratio and near-zero input latency.
2. Faster scaling than the in-game(Alt+Enter) method and can be utilized in any window-mode game.
3. To enjoy the fancy, classic, retro original Maplestory 2D art that's more clear and without distortion.
4. I'm too old to blame my presbyopia or shortsighted. Just need a larger field of view to enjoy the game.

This tool is called Magpie and you can find the download link and info via this link:
https://github.com/Blinue/Magpie

Magpie is a lightweight window scaling tool that comes equipped with various efficient scaling algorithms and filters. Its primary purpose is to enhance game graphics and enable non-fullscreen games to display in fullscreen mode.

You can download it by clicking the Releases


Unzip it click Magpie.exe and bring up the first page

First, set your hotkey or you may want to use Delayed scaling.


Set up your default profiles(or you may want to create one for Maplroyals) and choose Scaling mode.

Here, I choose FSR for lower latency and fine picture quality.


Remember to set the Cursor speed correction to match up upscale game


We know that Mapleroyals client gives an option (Alt+Enter or set Fullscreen in setting menu) that may flatten your game like the picture below


Compare the former to Magpie's upscale screenshot (FSR for instance)


You can turn on the in-game overlay to check upscale latency which is acceptable


If you want better quality and trade off some latency
Can choose Anime-4k





Beware this tool is Not supposed to be used as:
1. Duo attack, since you have only 1 client available. If you want multiple windows with different sizes, you can check this thread: https://royals.ms/forum/threads/resize-mapleroyals-window-mode-with-resizeenable.130391/
or if you simply want to fix the small window in a large screen resolution problem, you can check this thread: https://royals.ms/forum/threads/how-to-play-mapleroyals-in-a-bigger-client-size.146299/
2. Enlarge the horizontal view of the screen, you can't take that advantage in this software anyway.
3. You hate the black border bar on each side of the screen (which is unavoidable if you play Maplroyals in 16:9 monitor)

Claim:
This software doesn't do game inputs nor directly communicate with the client. So I guess it's legit to use in-game(Need admin to confirm tho).

 

I press alt F1 but nothing happens

 

Alt+F1 is my hotkey setting; you can define it or use the default I think it was 'Windows + Shift + A'.

 

Incredible, thank you so much for sharing this amazing tool! You are great

 

tysm!

 

I just downloaded the program. This is much more enjoyable and convenient than alt+enter. Thank you for the guide!

 

I would like to give this thread a bump, a recent update of this tool made it able to use windowed mode scaling, which solved an issue troubled me for many years because other tools like sizer will make royals looks really awful, and this tool allows you to change the scaling algorithm so you can have kind of any effect you feel most comfortable.

See the difference of bad(left) and good(right) algorithm of up-scaling here(about 4 years ago I post and didn't get solution):


The left is sizer(it could be the default algorithm of GPU using) and the right is Windows OS' DPI setting to scale it. We can see only the DPI scale doesn't distort this pixel game. However the DPI scale is really inconvenient to change and has so many side effects, also you have to face some really stupid issues with the Windows compatibility assisstant, like it will disable your DPI scale automatically when you accidently change to fullscreen mode.

And now Magpie offers a really good option to up-scale royals with almost every possible filters, here I use Lanczos as demo:

The left is after up-scaling, and the right is the original size(800x600). This filter looks really similar to Windows DPI scaling, but you can also change to other filter or even a mixed one.
The red circle option only appears in the recent versions, and there is no released version yet with this feature so you have to download it from github and manually compile it
(This may be a bit hard for those people don't touch the computer too much, feel free to DM me if you need a compiled one as long as you trust me not prividing you a malware)

Many people may had been using Lossless Scaling, which doesn't provide windowed mode and neither do all the other programs. Although this mode is a bit buggy at the moment and still many features looks incompleted, like when you drag the window to resize it it doesn't allow you down-scaling and you can't even get any smaller than the default size(which is slightly bigger than the original size), at least I feel we finally have something feasible for average royals players.
(Stop telling me buying another monitor and use fullscreen scaling)

 

I just tried compiling the windowed-mode version of Magpie. It's been a long time since I last used VS Code and built a compiling environment .

Followed github guide and set up the environment variable path

Indeed, the windowed mode is a very neat feature and won't cancel the scaling while switching between windows.

Although I found this version misses some functions compared to the current version.





BTW, I also tried Lossless Scaling too. It can do the trick same as windowed mode but with no scaling(do like a bug). Enable "Resize before scaling" and exit scale mode will stuck at windowed-mode.



I think Magpie will be more practical in scaling a 2D pixel game and more flexible to adjust. Looking forward to the GitHub owner updating this neat function.

 

Thank you for bringing this program to my attention can't play without this now <3

 

how do i get this version magpie??

 

You can select branches called windowed-mode. Clone git and follow the compilation guide

That should work

 

Admins approved it?
I saw a reddit post that says "Don't use this tool if you can't take the risk of being banned"

 

thanks for reply.
i got error on compilating.
would you please assist for this?

 

Just my thought, nothing official, but first of all this thread has been up for about 4 months, and it isn't the first tool of this kind, and no staff member posted anything against using this or the others.

Also, nothing in T&C mentions you are not allowed to use a program to change the border/size/scaling of the game.

If anyone knows something more accurate/certain please correct me.

 

You can watch the following two threads: ResizeEnable and How to play MapleRoyals in a bigger client size

Magpie achieves the same purpose and doesn't have to modify system (or client) files.

A similar thing, like SweetFX or so, was a post-effect to enhance visual effect.

For me, it's a useful tool to fix the original broken fullscreen function that stretches the screen ratio so hard.
Tho I think it's more legit than the other option that we currently have.

What Reddit post are you referring to?

 

In my experience, setting up system environment is a key thing. I got a bunch of errors when I compiled it falsely, too.

I'll make sure CMake, Python, and Conan are at the right version by using VS2022 console prompt. And make sure to install VS2022 correctly.

 

Hello there. First of all, thanks for sharing this amazing thing. Really appreciate it.

One thing I'd like to know is that can I scale multiple clients with this?

Tried to find the way but got no clue.

 

The idea behind the program is exactly what I’ve wanted. It scales very well and has nice post-processing effects to boot. It also made it so I don't have to manually set my monitor to 1024x768 and use Borderless Gaming. This is much better and the hotkeys work very well. Faster than ALT+Enter, no errors or visual artifacts.

The problem was that using “Fullscreen Scaling” introduced stubborn screen-tearing. I tried everything I could think of such as adjusting FPS caps, toggling G-Sync/VSync, and tweaking settings in both Magpie and the NVIDIA Control Panel. Nothing solved it. At that point, Borderless Gaming still seemed like the safer option, since at least it didn’t cause tearing.

"3D Game Mode" alleviated screen-tearing when using "Fullscreen Scaling" but prevented off-screen clicking.

After experimenting further, I discovered the trick. Don’t use Fullscreen Scaling or 3D Game Mode. Just use Windowed Scaling instead.

Running MapleRoyals in “Windowed Scaling” mode turned things around completely.

• No screen-tearing at all
• I can still click off-screen (perfect for browsing the web or managing mules)

The only trade-offs are that I can’t scale multiple instances of the game, and I need to manually resize the window. For my purposes, that’s no problem. I "maximize" my main’s window and run mules on a second monitor in standard windowed mode, just like I used to with Borderless Gaming. But now I get the added benefit of Magpie’s post-processing effects and QoL.

Makes it possible to fit 3 mules and "maximize" my main on one screen if I wanted and keep my second monitor open for a browser and/or an Excel sheet or something. Very handy.


My Preferred Scaling Settings

Create a new scaling mode (named mine "Old-School Games") and build the following stack of effects:

• Lanczos (or Bilinear if you prefer a softer look)
• Nearest → Click "Scale" → Set “Type” to “Factor” → Set "Width" and "Height" to 2

This produces a clean, sharp image if you went with Lanczos. All screenshots are 1080p.


Or a clean, "soft" image if you went with Bilinear.


If you want something closer to a CRT look, use Lanczos, then you can add:

• CRT_Hylian (adds an aperture grille-style effect without scanlines due to being loaded after the previous effects, and it alters brightness/contrast)
• ImageAdjustment → Click "Parameters" → Set "Contrast" to 1.2 and "Brightness Boost" to around 0.14 (try 0.16 if it still looks too dark or 0.12 if it's too bright)

Make sure to view this screenshot at full-size.

To me it sort of looks like a high resolution GBA screen rather than a CRT. I think it has a nice effect on the overall look of the game even if its technically "wrong" by CRT enthusiast standards. We all know the type. I'm one of 'em.

Notes:

• These brightness/contrast tweaks looked best on my display. Yours may vary. The idea is to get brightness to an acceptable level and re-introduce a little contrast.
• If using CRT_Hylian, keep Lanczos. Bilinear won’t look correct here.

Final Filter Order:

Code:

Lanczos > Nearest > CRT_Hylian > ImageAdjustment

OR

Code:

Bilinear > Nearest

Profile Setup

I created a MapleRoyals profile and set its default scaling mode to “Old-School Games.” Now my workflow is simple:

1. Launch MapleRoyals
2. Press the “Windowed Scaling” hotkey
3. Resize the game window once
4. Start multi-clienting

And that’s it. Sharp scaling, no tearing, off-screen clicking works, and I still get to enjoy Magpie’s post-processing effects.

What started off as a disappointing first impression ended up becoming a setup I prefer over Borderless Gaming. Once dialed in, Magpie is a fantastic way to run MapleRoyals.

 

This should be a pinned thread. Cannot understate how much better this makes playing. having to chose between a tiny window on my screen, or a terribly scaled fullscreen was so awful, this makes everything look SO GOOD and i can actually make the window a decent size.

 

this changed my life