In this post I'd like to share a small bit of Android information with you. I've discovered it while looking around at the build.prop file and did some research on it, and it turns out to be a pretty cool and powerful feature. Of course, seeing as this requires root you can probably already guess that it involves some more-than-consumer level risk, so anything you do here is your responsibility. This is not a tweak for a fairly novice user. You will need some basic knowledge on command line terminal and how to copy/edit files. I will be assuming you know how to setup and run ADB, and how to execute it and work with it in command prompt.
What's this mod do? Basically it changes your resolution (not really, but for simplicity sake we'll say it does) to a higher pixel density. What this means is everything on your screen will look smaller as if you changed your resolution on your PC to a higher setting. Now obviously we don't want to increase this too much or it will make our screen look bad and be impossible to read things, so I recommend you stick with the settings I have and only tweak it if you're daring.
Now for setup:
1: You require root access for this to work, so make sure you have it prior to doing anything else.
2: Next you will need to get your build.prop file from the /system directory. An easy (and free) way to do this is to use Astro file manager. Open up Astro, navigate to /system/ and copy the build.prop file to the sdcard.
3: Hook the phone up to your PC and enter USB Mass Storage mode. Open the drive on your computer and copy the build.prop file to the desktop.
4: IMPORTANT: make a second copy of this file, and rename it to: build.prop.BAK - accept the change to filetype and leave it alone for now.
5: Open up build.prop using notepad. Once its open you'll see a whole ton of text assuming you have Word Wrap enabled. Press Control + F and type in "density" then press enter.
6: Close out the search menu and find the number "240" to the right of "density"
7: Change the number from 240 to 200. Save the file and close notepad. (Note - higher numbers means bigger text/objects, smaller numbers means smaller text/objects allowing you to fit more on the screen)
8: Put your phone back into PC Mode, and then enable USB Debugging in Settings->Applications->Development
9: At this point I assume you have ADB setup on your PC. Copy and paste the modified build.prop file into the folder with ADB, and then open up a command prompt, change directory to wherever you have ADB installed (ex: cd C:\adb\ ), and type in "adb devices" without the quotes to start ADB and make sure your device is configured properly
10: Now you must push the modified build.prop file to your sdcard. To do so type this in:
adb push build.prop /sdcard/build.prop
11: You should see the text indicating it successfully transferred the file. Now type in "adb shell" without quotes. You should see a $: appear. Once it does, type in "su" and it should change to a #: sign.
12: Now that you're in root access, you must mount /system as read/write to copy over the new build.prop file. To do so type this in exactly as it is, making sure to not skip any spaces or use wrong letters/characters:
mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/system /system
You should see the line repeated and that means it went ok. If you get anything else like an error, somethings not right with the text you entered. Go back and double check it.
13: Now we'll copy the file from the sdcard to the system directory to overwrite the old build.prop file:
cp /sdcard/build.prop /system/build.prop
Again, you should see the line repeat below to confirm it copied it successfully. You can now reboot the phone to make the changes happen (note: for a speedy reboot, simply type in "reboot" from the #: prompt, this will drop you out of root shell and do an automatic reboot of your phone pretty neat)
Once your phone is booted back up you should notice some pretty significant changes in appearance. Everything will look smaller much akin to the changes you see on your desktop PC when you increase the resolution from say 800x600 to 1600x1200. In case you want to change it back to the old look, simply re-trace your steps using the original build.prop file, with the pixel density set to 240 instead of 200.
Screenshots for comparison. Note how lines of text are fully exposed in the new screenshots compared to the old ones, where it has to scroll/cut off text in App names etc:
http://forum.androidcentral.com/motorola-x-roms-hacks/32035-how-resolution-tweak-req-root.html
Or you can save a whole lot of time and effort and use this app. http://www.xda-developers.com/android/lcd-density-changer-application-v3-0-released/
I think that is pretty sweet bro!! Great finding
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
njfoses said:
Or you can save a whole lot of time and effort and use this app. http://www.xda-developers.com/android/lcd-density-changer-application-v3-0-released/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been using this for a few days now. It works great. They should have released the Evo with the higher resolution from the start.
Looks great in my opinion. I lowered just slightly to 220 and i used RootExplorer to just change the Build.prop file.
Shouldn't this be in general? This is like dpi in windows lol... not resolution
rawdikrik said:
Looks great in my opinion. I lowered just slightly to 220 and i used RootExplorer to just change the Build.prop file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, root explorer is fantastic. it even creates a backup for you after you edit the file.
The interesting part about this is, I made a thread about the density change back when the EVO first launched and nobody cared lol
Just changed to 200 with the aforementioned app, the only problem I have is the main status bar and most of the popup menus and stuff look like crap. Hoping we can find some higher resolution (or whatever) pieces to use. Might be because I'm using Manup's theme.
bdoople said:
Just changed to 200 with the aforementioned app, the only problem I have is the main status bar and most of the popup menus and stuff look like crap. Hoping we can find some higher resolution (or whatever) pieces to use. Might be because I'm using Manup's theme.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i noticed that too....so i just went to like 215. 200 was looking good though
ro.sf.LCD_Density=240
Is that the proper value to change in root explorer?
Right below it, there is another value of 160, that's why I ask. I'm on an Evo
Poor resolution has always bugged me. On such a big screen, that number of pixels really isn't enough. This will be a great mod, just don't wanna mess it up.
Thanks.
see there's an easier way to do everything, by that i mean there is an app for that, lol.
scottspa74 said:
ro.sf.LCD_Density=240
Is that the proper value to change in root explorer?
Right below it, there is another value of 160, that's why I ask. I'm on an Evo
Poor resolution has always bugged me. On such a big screen, that number of pixels really isn't enough. This will be a great mod, just don't wanna mess it up.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The line below it (With the value of 160) has a # in front of it as that is the default value if none specified. Change the 240 to 200 or 220 or 210 or 190 etc depending on your preferences. Again, appelflap has an awesome application to easily do this for you and it provides a boot monitor as well that will check to make sure you can see the screen, and if you can't it will revert back to default setting in case you mess something up. It costs approximately $1 and is well worth it.
On my evo I am using the app and I set mine to 180. Everything looks fine so far. I don't recommend using it with the sense launcher at this level though.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Appreciate all the feedback. When it comes to system tweaks like this, I've always preferred to do them manually. Makes it easier to keep track of changes, and, if you know what's goin on 'behind the scenes'. Even with winmo, I always would opt for tweaking via registry editor, rather than some blind, hands-off tweak app.
Thanks all, though.
Edit: ok, foot in mouth. So I opened root explorer, found build.prop, opened it clicked the mount R/O toggle, but can't seem to edit it no matter what. NVM, found editor
Also, I checked out the app on the market, looked at comments and saw lots of people say that density broke certain apps, and can't get back to normal, broken phones, blah blah blah
Anyone speak to this?
Exposes lame apps
Worked great on rooted EVO running CM6.2.
Need to increase the power of my bifocals now!
Also exposes lame apps that display set screen resolutions, such as WeatherChannel. Poopnoodles!
Very cool find, not one I will be keeping though. The taskbar icons get a bit blurry, and the widget/icon spacing looks ugly.
njfoses said:
Or you can save a whole lot of time and effort and use this app. http://www.xda-developers.com/android/lcd-density-changer-application-v3-0-released/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried that. Was able to make a few changes with no problems. As soon as I tried to go back to the stock settings my phone would no longer boot past the white EVO screen. Doing a restore now
And of course the restore isn't working properly for some reason. Argh.
yeah
Yeah, I read the thread by Appleflap, about his app, and it really sounds like there are a lot of issues from doing this (at this point), some of which cannot be recovered from. And at the very least, there are apps and icons that won't scale properly, and there's no fix for that but to find new ones (from the horses mouth).
Things to be worked out by some real sharp devs.
I'm not totally convinced that this makes things anything beyond just smaller. I've been testing this a various resolutions and am not sure it really adds any new pixels...aren't "pixels" more hardware related? If it were just a software thing wouldn't everyone do it?
Is there a way to change/increase resolution of tablet running the vegan 5.1?
I love the high resolution which comes with the gingerbread build?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Try LCD densitychanger from the market. Its free and doesnt survive a reboot, There is a paid version that will make it permanent. You can do a search of this forum and the instructions for changing it permanently manually are around.
rob_z11 said:
Is there a way to change/increase resolution of tablet running the vegan 5.1?
I love the high resolution which comes with the gingerbread build?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
{from a secret bunker somewhere in the canadian rockies}in /system/build.prop there's a line that says ro.sf.lcd_density=xxx the default android density is 160. The actual pixel density of the gtablet is ~120. Since xxx is really only a UI scaling factor relative to 160, you should get reasonable results with a number between 120 and 160... 120 will make things smaller. 140 seems about right to me.
If you use RootExplorer, navigate to /system, mount it as r/w, select build.prop and open in text editor... edit the line, save your changes, and mount the directory as r/o... and reboot.
If you don't use RootExplorer, edit the file elsewhere and push it back using adb.
bittrix said:
{from a secret bunker somewhere in the canadian rockies}in /system/build.prop there's a line that says ro.sf.lcd_density=xxx the default android density is 160. The actual pixel density of the gtablet is ~120. Since xxx is really only a UI scaling factor relative to 160, you should get reasonable results with a number between 120 and 160... 120 will make things smaller. 140 seems about right to me.
If you use RootExplorer, navigate to /system, mount it as r/w, select build.prop and open in text editor... edit the line, save your changes, and mount the directory as r/o... and reboot.
If you don't use RootExplorer, edit the file elsewhere and push it back using adb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you both for your help, and I think 120 is too small, and 140 did the trick for me which is the nice combination of the workspace and not too much strain on eyes.
I am sorry to report you Bittrix, but down in Florida temperature is gong to hit 60 and may be 68 tomorrow, so enjoy the cold weather in Canadian rockies
I use 120 for my tablet on all roms. I used 140 for awhile when starting to use lcd density, but eventually went to 120 because of app issues. 120 and 160 seem to nativly supported in android, and numbers in between its hit or miss as to whether they would work or not, even with compatibility turned on. (Some would only take up 3/4 of the screen instead of full or not open at all)
My build.prop does not have a line ro.sf.lcd_density=xxx and am running the latest Vegan build...
Any ideas?
EDIT: Added the line and no issues - just dont like it that small.. reverted back. Thanks
bittrix said:
{from a secret bunker somewhere in the canadian rockies}in /system/build.prop there's a line that says ro.sf.lcd_density=xxx the default android density is 160. The actual pixel density of the gtablet is ~120. Since xxx is really only a UI scaling factor relative to 160, you should get reasonable results with a number between 120 and 160... 120 will make things smaller. 140 seems about right to me.
If you use RootExplorer, navigate to /system, mount it as r/w, select build.prop and open in text editor... edit the line, save your changes, and mount the directory as r/o... and reboot.
If you don't use RootExplorer, edit the file elsewhere and push it back using adb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Moved to general
halo
i don't see so well and the Resolution in the one s is to high to me
i raise the DPI Through rom toolbox to 260
but i get some error of the system ui "Unfortunately system UI has stopped"
for example when i enter to "recent up" i got this erorr and i can't enter there....
there is a way to fix it ??
thanks
If I'm not totally wrong raising the resolution will result in smaller letters. You should lower it instead. So please try it.
And you can change letter size within settings -> display & gestures -> font size. By default it is medium, so you can change to large or extra large.
At least under accessibility there is an option named TalkBack, which will activate a spoken feedback to what you touch, choose or activate. I hope your ability to see is not that bad!
rootrider said:
At least under accessibility there is an option named TalkBack, which will activate a spoken feedback to what you touch, choose or activate. I hope your ability to see is not that bad!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just checked that out.
What's with the notification about it "collecting" info? Collecting it where? And what? I didn't go any futher.....
Tomney,
I am not sure if this will actually work but if you have root you can edit your build.prop file. In that file there is a line that refers to ro.sf.lcd_density. By adjusting that number up or down you can change the dpi of the screen. Now that does not necessarily mean that all of your apps or even the Sense UI will work correctly, but it might be worth a try.
If you want to easily do this I would download the BuildProp Editor app from the market.
Haven't tried it on this phone, but at least on every sense Rom I've used for the hero changing LCD density has always messed up everything. One of the reasons I allways used aosp
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA
usrbrv8 said:
Tomney,
I am not sure if this will actually work but if you have root you can edit your build.prop file. In that file there is a line that refers to ro.sf.lcd_density. By adjusting that number up or down you can change the dpi of the screen. Now that does not necessarily mean that all of your apps or even the Sense UI will work correctly, but it might be worth a try.
If you want to easily do this I would download the BuildProp Editor app from the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as i said i did it with romtoolbox. it is the same , i raise the dpi to 260....
it makes some problems with system ui and i got some errors
i now replace the rom to miui and the dpi change doesn't Affects the system ui
dpi change can be on a rom without htc sense ui and i think even regular ice !
but..... now there is some problem with the market because Resolution Compatibility i think... there is some app i can't download .....
for now i need to come back to 240 dpi for download some apps and its Annoying
maybe if could change the Resolution to Exactly 800\480 i wouldn't get the market-app-Compatibility issue but i dont know how... maybe someone know how to do it?
my vision isn't so bad and i know the regular options aka font enlarger Etc ...
dpi change is the best choice for me .
Hello everybody, and before all, sory for my english
The main objetive of this thread is to provide a guide to increase performance on high density screen GPU bound devices, for example, the nexus 10.
The last year android devices start shiping with very high definition screens, but without the necesary GPU muscle to make them work good.
Since I was a PC gamer, I know the terrible impact of high definition on the gaming performance, and, on this screen size, this is a useless impact, since the extra resolution are practicaly unperceptible.
The past week I spend a lot of time trying to change my device's resolution (a nexus 7) and with kernel modding, it is posible, but don't are great since I only play 1/3 of the devices usage, and the 1280x800 resolution are great for chat, browsing (or posting on the forum ).
Finally I find a great program that allow me to temporary change the display resolution of my device, and with the free version I was allowed to change resolution to 720x450, and on gaming performance, that was a GREAT performance updrade, even, with the wuality sacrifice (and on a 7 inch display, this wasn't a great lose.
In order to do that, I need to disable soft keys, since they bug A LOT with the resolution change, and to use a custom launcher because the default launcher bug too (go launcher ex is my favourite and the only one I test).
So, I leave a guide on how to prepare your device to use this mod to increase gaming performance, and to provide help to everyone who want it.
First of all, you NEED to be rooted.
Now, start with the device preparing.
Wee need a soft keys replacement, I recomend this one, work great and are really simple to customize.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jun.ace.piecontrol
Now, you need to remove the soft keys in order to gain extra screen space and to protect yourself from potential bugs on the user interface.
To do that, you need to edit your build.prop with an editor or manually with a text editor and add this line.
qemu.hw.mainkeys=1
Now, on the next boot your device have the soft keys disabled.
To protect the status bar from being bugged, we need to change the lcd density of our display in order to allow a phone status bar (the phablet one bug on low resolution displays, and on tablets without sofkeys, we need a status bar.
To do that, we need to edit from the build.prop editor the "ro.sf.lcd_density" parameter and set it to something above 214 (nexus 7 have 213 and it enable the phablet interface, and on 214 it enable a full phone interface, but with small icons and more work space, you need to test and find the most usefull dpi for your device)
Now, we need to install the "magic app", and start testing resolutions and trying to find the most confortable for us, I have the paid version and use on the nexus 7 (16:10 or 8:5) 480x768 since it allow GREAT performance improvement and a good image quality for my screen size.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nomone.resolution_changer
One example of a game that work GREAT with this trick is N.O.V.A. 3, on the tegra 3 plataform it is almost inplayable, and with the trick, on my nexus 7, it looks like this.
So, start testing this, and post your results, configs and devices.
Help us resolving the screen resolution fragmentation on devices!
And mods, please, help the post with a good language correction XD
Edit: Changed the APK link, to a new one, the new app have onscreen buttons to fix the navbar problems, so, pie controls are no longer needed, I leave the link here onlfy for people to know another alternative, thx for NoMone Devs!
i am planning to buy a 7 or 8" android with high resolution and was a bit worried about gaming performance because of the high resolution.. can you post a video of the performance gain plz?
Whoa! I might give this a go when I get home. Good Job.
i am interested for feedbacks in other heavy games like modern combat 4
this!
what android device and other mobile devices lacks.
there's no setting to set the resolution!
people out there always suggest me to change the dpi, but hell no!
"dpi" is not physical resolution, it just changing icon and other ui element to small or big.
this terms confuse many people.
they think DPI is the screen resolution.
and.... i just cannot understand the hype,
many vendors put high res 1080p on 5" device?
what the heck!? is it necessary?
what's next? ultra 4K res on 4" screen?
come on.. it's unnecesary and waste of battery.
gpu works hard to get the job done in that resolution. especially gaming.
thank you for sharing this trick for us.
google should consider to put resolution changer on the next android.
and android vendor should realize put hi-res on small screen is just plain dumb.
-----
Sent from Android device
i will try this thank you. . .:good:
It's hard to take a video without a camera, but to give youman example, on 500x800 asphalt 7 give me 60fps on the shangai track, with my 800x1280 default resolution, I have 20fps aprox with a lot of fluctutations, it's a great app, and with GMD hide buttons, is almost perfect.
Antara33 said:
It's hard to take a video without a camera, but to give youman example, on 500x800 asphalt 7 give me 60fps on the shangai track, with my 800x1280 default resolution, I have 20fps aprox with a lot of fluctutations, it's a great app, and with GMD hide buttons, is almost perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ah that indeed seems to be very nice! i have tried it on my htc desire not it does not work nothing changed
yeahman45 said:
ah that indeed seems to be very nice! i have tried it on my htc desire not it does not work nothing changed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, on the HTC Desire 480x800 display, you need to set it to something lower that it, for example, 360x600, it increase the gaming performance, this trick work great on high res display like the nexus 7 or nexus 10 displays for example, try to reduce the resoution to something that retain the original aspect ratio and be lower that 480x800, 360x600 or 240x400 make a grat change, but im not sure about image quality on this device...
Antara33 said:
Yes, on the HTC Desire 480x800 display, you need to set it to something lower that it, for example, 360x600, it increase the gaming performance, this trick work great on high res display like the nexus 7 or nexus 10 displays for example, try to reduce the resoution to something that retain the original aspect ratio and be lower that 480x800, 360x600 or 240x400 make a grat change, but im not sure about image quality on this device...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok thx i have tried to set it to 360x640 on the free version.. but nothing happens.. it just say "Display scaler free has been granted root superuser permissions" and nothing happens
Mh, maybe this is a device specific issue, have you posted a review or sended the autor an feedback email about it?
Antara33 said:
Hello everybody, and before all, sory for my english
The main objetive of this thread is to provide a guide to increase performance on high density screen GPU bound devices, for example, the nexus 10.
The last year android devices start shiping with very high definition screens, but without the necesary GPU muscle to make them work good.
Since I was a PC gamer, I know the terrible impact of high definition on the gaming performance, and, on this screen size, this is a useless impact, since the extra resolution are practicaly unperceptible.
The past week I spend a lot of time trying to change my device's resolution (a nexus 7) and with kernel modding, it is posible, but don't are great since I only play 1/3 of the devices usage, and the 1280x800 resolution are great for chat, browsing (or posting on the forum ).
Finally I find a great program that allow me to temporary change the display resolution of my device, and with the free version I was allowed to change resolution to 720x450, and on gaming performance, that was a GREAT performance updrade, even, with the wuality sacrifice (and on a 7 inch display, this wasn't a great lose.
In order to do that, I need to disable soft keys, since they bug A LOT with the resolution change, and to use a custom launcher because the default launcher bug too (go launcher ex is my favourite and the only one I test).
So, I leave a guide on how to prepare your device to use this mod to increase gaming performance, and to provide help to everyone who want it.
First of all, you NEED to be rooted.
Now, start with the device preparing.
Wee need a soft keys replacement, I recomend this one, work great and are really simple to customize.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jun.ace.piecontrol
Now, you need to remove the soft keys in order to gain extra screen space and to protect yourself from potential bugs on the user interface.
To do that, you need to edit your build.prop with an editor or manually with a text editor and add this line.
qemu.hw.mainkeys=1
Now, on the next boot your device have the soft keys disabled.
To protect the status bar from being bugged, we need to change the lcd density of our display in order to allow a phone status bar (the phablet one bug on low resolution displays, and on tablets without sofkeys, we need a status bar.
To do that, we need to edit from the build.prop editor the "ro.sf.lcd_density" parameter and set it to something above 214 (nexus 7 have 213 and it enable the phablet interface, and on 214 it enable a full phone interface, but with small icons and more work space, you need to test and find the most usefull dpi for your device)
Now, we need to install the "magic app", and start testing resolutions and trying to find the most confortable for us, I have the paid version and use on the nexus 7 (16:10 or 8:5) 480x768 since it allow GREAT performance improvement and a good image quality for my screen size.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nexter.miniscalerfree
One example of a game that work GREAT with this trick is N.O.V.A. 3, on the tegra 3 plataform it is almost inplayable, and with the trick, on my nexus 7, it looks like this.
So, start testing this, and post your results, configs and devices.
Help us resolving the screen resolution fragmentation on devices!
And mods, please, help the post with a good language correction XD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey I bought the app and it works fine i tried most of the resolutions and even a custom one but it seems that no resolution lower than my physical one will go full screen i always get black borders do you get this too?
thanks a8 soc
I tried tweaking my resolution to a higher one yet nothing happens on my Alcatel OneTouch T10. Any fix on this?
Sory for the lazy responce, I have so much time working and other personal things I read on the store that the apk only make the new resolution use the full screen on 4.2+ so if you are on 4.1-, you have it with black borders, sory, but I cant do anything for this :/
is there any way after change resolution for fix buttom touch key(it doesnt work physical touch key)? or any idea where is touch key config file or something like that related in root?
THUNDERASS said:
is there any way after change resolution for fix buttom touch key(it doesnt work physical touch key)? or any idea where is touch key config file or something like that related in root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know, I suppose, android mao this keys as a touchscreen surface or something like that, the most easybway is using gmd hide softkeys and with it, trigger a softkeys quick navbar and play with this, I am using Paranoidandroid right now and with the pie controls I fix all my problems, and on smanager I created 2 scripts to execute the commands to change resolution, one for the 500x800 for gaming and the other to 1280x800, the default resolution of the nexus 7.
Try it and leave me a comment with your experience.
Antara33 said:
I don't know, I suppose, android mao this keys as a touchscreen surface or something like that, the most easybway is using gmd hide softkeys and with it, trigger a softkeys quick navbar and play with this, I am using Paranoidandroid right now and with the pie controls I fix all my problems, and on smanager I created 2 scripts to execute the commands to change resolution, one for the 500x800 for gaming and the other to 1280x800, the default resolution of the nexus 7.
Try it and leave me a comment with your experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanls for your reply.i have mtk quad core 6589T 1.5 ghz device with powervr 544MP1 and 1 gb ram . My screen is 1080p. i think gpu cant handle this resolution sometimes occur wierd lag and some highend games cant playable.After change resolution to 720p and 320 dpi everything perfect games performance increase %80-100 even memory consumption decreasing.(100mb).i am using with pie control but i want to using continiusly 720p i think after change resulotion touch key coordinates change over screen size.if i found that responsible cfg file or something maybe i can handle this.i am still searching..
THUNDERASS said:
Thanls for your reply.i have mtk quad core 6589T 1.5 ghz device with powervr 544MP1 and 1 gb ram . My screen is 1080p. i think gpu cant handle this resolution sometimes occur wierd lag and some highend games cant playable.After change resolution to 720p and 320 dpi everything perfect games performance increase %80-100 even memory consumption decreasing.(100mb).i am using with pie control but i want to using continiusly 720p i think after change resulotion touch key coordinates change over screen size.if i found that responsible cfg file or something maybe i can handle this.i am still searching..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, the way to go is sticking with default res for everything except gaming, as I say, I have two scripts on 2 widgets on my main screen, one with the commands
su
wm size 500x800
And the other with the commands
su
wm size reset
on jely bean 4.3 this commands set the override resolution of the screen.
on android 4.2.x the wm have to be replaced with am.
The app launch this terminal commands and override our resolution, but since I cant buy the app because of credit card and legal issues on argentina, I made my own scripts with smanager and swidgets . Quick on the fly change, and "letz rack!"
i am using this fantastic program on my thl w8s to scale resolution from 1080p to 720p during games and the speedup is fantastic...i set tasker to autolaunch the app when i click on the game icon, and once finished the game just click on fixes/reset resolution to bring everything back to 1080p . this program is great and the only one i have found...let's hope the developer doesn't abandon it and keeps making it better....and with a better integration in tasker maybe