Changes to “Force Resolution” Behavior

Update: The default "force resolution" behavior has been reverted in the new beta version of BrightAuthor: 4.3.0.13.

Before BrightAuthor 4.3.0.x, presentations would “force” the resolution of a connected monitor to the selected Screen resolution (no matter whether the monitor reports it can support that resolution or not). As of BrightAuthor 4.3.0.x, the default behavior of presentations is to negotiate with the monitor using EDID: If the monitor reports that it can display the selected Screen resolution, the player will output that resolution; however, if the monitor does not report that it can support that resolution, the player will downgrade to the highest resolution that both the player and monitor support. The legacy default behavior can be still achieved by checking the Force Resolution box in File > Presentation Properties > Main.

We made this change for two reasons:

• Negotiating resolutions with monitors is more compliant with the HDMI standard.
• With the legacy behavior, if you mistakenly select a Screen resolution that your monitor doesn’t support, publishing the presentation will result in a black screen, without any feedback about what went wrong.

The change in default behavior has caused trouble for some users. For this reason, the next Beta release of BrightAuthor 4.3.0.x will have the Force Resolution box checked by default to match the legacy behavior. This change will only apply to fresh installs and updates from pre-4.3.0.x versions; if you are updating from an earlier version of 4.3.0.x, your current preference will be preserved.