ZBrushCentral

Return to fullscreen in Vista?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

ZBrush starts out maximized (i.e. fullscreen) when I launch it (Vista SP1, 32 bit), but if I ALT-Tab out to another program, it goes into a windowed mode and refuses to return to fullscreen. Hitting the maximize button seems to do nothing other than move the window a little to the left.

Is this a known problem, and if so, does anyone know of a fix or a way to get ZBrush to go back to fullscreen mode? Older versions of ZBrush used to return to fullscreen automatically. It’s not a huge issue, but I do lose a little screen real estate in windowed mode, and the window borders are a little distracting.

#2

I haven’t heard of this one before.

Here’s what I’d like you to do. Go to the following folder: F:\Program Files\Pixologic\ZBrush3\ZStartup\ConfigFiles

Locate the ZBrushWindowStartupSize.cfg file and delete it. Then launch ZBrush.

Hopefully that will sort your issue.

#3

Nope, that didn’t fix it.

I did realize, while messing around with it, however, that my initial post wasn’t completely accurate. As far as I can tell, it’s not actually alt-tabbing that is causing this behavior, but rather the “minimize” button in the upper right corner of the ZBrush interface. It seems that I can alt-tab to other programs no problems–even to the desktop (which minimizes ZBrush automatically)–and then return to a fullscreen ZBrush. If I minimize ZBrush with that button, though, there seems to be no way to return to fullscreen short of quitting out and restarting. So I guess the workaround is simply to make sure to never use the minimize button in the ZBrush UI when I want to switch to other programs.

I’m not sure of this button is bugged just for me, or for everyone. Here’s an example of what I am talking about:

ZBrush when launched:
http://www.odditorium.net/zbrushwindow01.jpg

ZBrush after using the minimize button and then maximizing again:
http://www.odditorium.net/zbrushwindow02.jpg

you can see the Vista window border around the edges of the second image; even though the program automatically stretched to fill the screen, it won’t return to a true fullscreen mode no matter what I do. Like I said, not a huge deal–I’ll just try to avoid using the minimize button in the future–but perhaps it’s something that the support team could look into.

#4

Ack! Scratch that! Alt-tabbing does it too, though not all the time. It seems more likely to leave fullscreen mode (permanently) if you alt-tab out while ZBrush is doing something (like rendering), but that could just be my imagination.

#5

hey i had this problem also so i think i may be able to help what i did was went to program files and right clicked my zbrush.exe file and went to properties and clicked on compatibility and make sure disable desktop composition and disable display scaling on high dpi settings are checked and then click apply and press ok then next time you restart your system it should fix the white border problem you are having.

hope it works for you.

#6

Yep i got it here too. Drove me crazy.
I didn’t really “fix” it but the problem was solved by adding a second screen (can’t live without 2) and having the start bar as well as all my windows on the second screen.
Then i just never minimize ZB lol.

Let me know if troy1617’s solution works. But with two screens now i don’t need to minimize Zb if its open, other apps can always open over the top of it.

#7

I also have this issue exactly as described, on Vista 64 Ultimate with Nvidia GPU. The program always starts fine, but if you leave the window and come back for any reason, the issue is as above. Fresh installs, no plugins.

#8

there is a similar issue in XP, but if you hit the restore button a few times it will go fullscreen again, hitting it once however does nothing.
“the number shall be three, five is right out”

#9

troy1617 thanx man, it works!

#10

I had this same problem also…
Thanks to Troy, i was able to fix mine the way he described.
Once you get Zbrush back into fullscreen mode just Store Config.
And then change the compatible settings back to normal.
This still happens everytime i minimize or Alt-Tab but restarting Zbrush
fixes it back into Fullscreen.

Looks like to me the only time Zbrush gets bugged out of Fullscreen even after
restarting is when the Config file has been Stored while this error/bug is happening.

#11

This has been bugging me for over a year!
THANKS A MIL FOR THIS!

~MAH~