Blackbar Overlay – Game Optimizer

Game overlay tool that simulates 4:3 aspect ratio on widescreen displays with customizable black bars, performance optimization, and hotkey controls.

PythonPygameTkinterPsutilPywin32

GitHub

Game Overlay & Optimizer — Black bar settings, shortcuts, and performance controls

System Architecture

Overview

A game overlay tool that creates adjustable black bars to simulate narrower aspect ratios with built-in performance optimization.

Problem Statement

Competitive FPS gamers often prefer 4:3 aspect ratio for a narrower field of view, but most monitors are widescreen.

Solution & Approach

Pygame-based overlay with Tkinter GUI. Black bars render on top of the game window with adjustable width. Psutil manages process priority for performance.

Key Features

Adjustable black bar width to simulate any aspect ratio
Performance optimizer: high-priority process settings, GPU mode switching
Customizable hotkeys for toggling overlay during gameplay
Background app management recommendations
Works with any fullscreen game, not just Valorant

Results & Impact

Provides competitive advantage through customizable aspect ratio without monitor limitations.

Lessons Learned

System-level overlays require careful process priority management to avoid impacting game performance.