What is DisplayMagician?

Updated

DisplayMagician is an open-source Windows tool that automatically configures your displays and sound for a specific game or application, then launches that game from a single shortcut. It is designed for people who need different display and audio setups for different games — for example, a sim racer who runs one title across a triple-screen NVIDIA Surround window and another across four individual screens. You set up a display profile and audio device once, attach them to a shortcut, and DisplayMagician applies those settings when the game starts and reverts them when you close it.

What it actually does

Different games often require your displays configured in different ways, and some setups also depend on extra helper applications running alongside the game. DisplayMagician addresses this by letting you:

  • Configure and save multiple display profiles.
  • Use those profiles to create Game Shortcuts that start your game or application exactly the way you want.
  • Automatically switch to a different audio device for a single game, then revert that change when the game closes.
  • Start extra programs before launching the game.
  • Reset things back to how they were once you close the game or application.

The project describes itself as changing your display profile, changing audio devices, starting extra programs, and then running the game or application you want — with the reset handled for you afterward.

How you use it

The workflow described on the site is:

  1. Create and save a Display Profile to be used within future shortcuts.
  2. Create a Game Shortcut that ties that profile (and any audio device or extra programs) to a specific game or application.
  3. Launch the game from that shortcut — or even from a hotkey — and DisplayMagician applies the configuration.
  4. Close the game, and DisplayMagician reverts your settings to the previous state.

The site gives concrete examples of this flexibility: running Dirt Rally 2.0 on a single NVIDIA Surround window across triple screens while running Assetto Corsa across four individual screens (a triple plus one above), or starting SimHub when you play iRacing but starting Twitch when you play Call of Duty.

Who it is for

DisplayMagician is aimed at Windows users who repeatedly switch between display and audio configurations depending on what they are playing. The author describes being a sim racer who needed a lot of additional helper applications, and finding the repeated manual changes annoying enough to build a better way. If your setup is fixed and you never change display modes or audio devices between games, the tool has little to do for you.

Availability and a note on past versions

DisplayMagician is open source, and the latest version is available for download via the project's release page. The site includes an important note for anyone who tried it before and found it didn't work: there has been a complete rewrite of the NVIDIA, AMD, and Windows video manipulation libraries, and it is now able to track and manipulate nearly all possible display configuration settings. If an earlier attempt failed on your hardware, that is the stated reason to try again.

The site also points readers to the README for current and planned features and for issues you may encounter, and invites bug reports and feature requests through the project issue tracker.