Unity Display Info

Native plugin for Unity to get detailed information about attached displays

Feature Comparison

	Native				Plugin
	Editor		Build		Editor		Build
	Win	Mac	Win	Mac	Win	Mac	Win	Mac
Display Count	✘	✘	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Rendering Resolution	✓*	✓*	✓	✓	-	-	-	-
Reported Screen Resolution	✓*	✓*	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Native Display Resolution	✘	✘	✘	✘	✓	✓	✓	✓
Virtual Display Resolution†	N/A	✘	N/A	✘	N/A	✓	N/A	✓
Physical Screen Size	✘	✘	✘	✘	✘	✓	✘	✓
Display Bounds	✘	✘	✘	✘	✓	✓	✓	✓
DPI	✓*	✓*	✓*	✓*	✓	✓	✓	✓
Refresh Rate	✓*	✓*	✓*	✓*	✓	✘	✓	✘
HiDpi Scale Factor	✘	✘	✘	✘	✓‡	✓	✓‡	✓

* _{For main display only}

† _{Some macOS displays report a higher "Backing Store" resolution which is then scaled down to the screen resolution. This is what Unity natively reports.}

‡ _{Scale Factor on Windows is the percentage by which the UI is scaled}

Virtual Display Resolution on macOS

If you use macOS, you might have noticed that the physical screen resolution is different from the value that Unity gives you. This is because macOS renders to a high resolution buffer called the Backing Store, which it then scales down to the native screen resolution. Here's an example using a MacBook Pro:

When you set your display resolution in System Preferences, it takes that and multiplies it by a scaling factor (in this case 2) which gives the Screen Resolution (aka the Backing Store). However, this is often bigger than the native display, so macOS then scales it down slightly to fit the Native Resolution

Most of the time, everything will look fine and you won't have to worry about any of this. However, there are certain situations where the scaling/interpolation might make things look soft. For example, if you desperately wanted to fill the screen with black and white 1px lines. In this situation, you might want to change (or ask your user to change) the screen resolution to 1440 x 900 and change Unity's rendering resolution to match. Everything will then get doubled to 2880 x 1800 and will look nice and crisp.