[SOLVED] How to set windowed game to be "Always on top" in C#?

Debugging and testing network games using Unity on a single laptop makes a lot of mouse clicking and dragging. I thought of simplifying this by having windowed builds of the game be set to "Always on Top".

Does anyone know how to do this in C#? Or there's a setting I can set in Unity editor?

Thanks.

 

Unity doesn't have such an option, unfortunately. If, however, you're building for the Windows OS alone, you can use code from within user32.dll to achieve this.

 

Is this how I need to do it?

 

Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it I'd offer to put together a working example for you, but I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment, so it would have to be later. In the meantime though, you can probably glean the important usage bits from the following thread where I was trying to get a transparent, always-on-top window to work. Hope it helps!
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/so...dow-with-opaque-contents-lwa_colorkey.323057/

 

Don't worry, I mimicked the codes in the links above.

1. First thing I did was to find System.Drawing.dll from
   Code (csharp):

   1. %Unity Installation Directory%
   and do a quick search.
2. Then I put the copied DLL into the Assets/Plugins folder in the Unity project.
3. And then I added the reference to the DLL in the Unity solution and adding an entry in the References node in Solution Explorer in Visual Studio 2013.
4. Finally, I used the following code below:

Code (CSharp):

1. #if UNITY_STANDALONE_WIN || UNITY_EDITOR_WIN
2.  
3. using UnityEngine;
4. using System;
5. using System.Collections;
6. using System.Collections.Generic;
7. using System.Drawing;
8. using System.Diagnostics;
9. using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
10.  
11.  
12. public class AlwaysOnTop : MonoBehaviour {
13.     #region WIN32API
14.  
15.     public static readonly System.IntPtr HWND_TOPMOST = new System.IntPtr(-1);
16.     public static readonly System.IntPtr HWND_NOT_TOPMOST = new System.IntPtr(-2);
17.     const System.UInt32 SWP_SHOWWINDOW = 0x0040;
18.  
19.     [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
20.     public struct RECT {
21.         public int Left, Top, Right, Bottom;
22.  
23.         public RECT(int left, int top, int right, int bottom) {
24.             Left = left;
25.             Top = top;
26.             Right = right;
27.             Bottom = bottom;
28.         }
29.  
30.         public RECT(System.Drawing.Rectangle r)
31.             : this(r.Left, r.Top, r.Right, r.Bottom) {
32.         }
33.  
34.         public int X {
35.             get {
36.                 return Left;
37.             }
38.             set {
39.                 Right -= (Left - value);
40.                 Left = value;
41.             }
42.         }
43.  
44.         public int Y {
45.             get {
46.                 return Top;
47.             }
48.             set {
49.                 Bottom -= (Top - value);
50.                 Top = value;
51.             }
52.         }
53.  
54.         public int Height {
55.             get {
56.                 return Bottom - Top;
57.             }
58.             set {
59.                 Bottom = value + Top;
60.             }
61.         }
62.  
63.         public int Width {
64.             get {
65.                 return Right - Left;
66.             }
67.             set {
68.                 Right = value + Left;
69.             }
70.         }
71.  
72.         public static implicit operator System.Drawing.Rectangle(RECT r) {
73.             return new System.Drawing.Rectangle(r.Left, r.Top, r.Width, r.Height);
74.         }
75.  
76.         public static implicit operator RECT(System.Drawing.Rectangle r) {
77.             return new RECT(r);
78.         }
79.     }
80.  
81.     [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
82.     private static extern System.IntPtr FindWindow(String lpClassName, String lpWindowName);
83.  
84.     [DllImport("user32.dll")]
85.     [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
86.     public static extern bool GetWindowRect(HandleRef hWnd, out RECT lpRect);
87.  
88.     [DllImport("user32.dll")]
89.     [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
90.     private static extern bool SetWindowPos(System.IntPtr hWnd, System.IntPtr hWndInsertAfter, int x, int y, int cx, int cy, uint uFlags);
91.  
92.     #endregion
93.  
94.  
95.     // Use this for initialization
96.     void Start() {
97.         AssignTopmostWindow(CONSTANT_WINDOW_TITLE_FROM_GAME, true);
98.     }
99.  
100.     public bool AssignTopmostWindow(string WindowTitle, bool MakeTopmost) {
101.         UnityEngine.Debug.Log("Assigning top most flag to window of title: " + WindowTitle);
102.  
103.         System.IntPtr hWnd = FindWindow((string)null, WindowTitle);
104.  
105.         RECT rect = new RECT();
106.         GetWindowRect(new HandleRef(this, hWnd), out rect);
107.  
108.         return SetWindowPos(hWnd, MakeTopmost ? HWND_TOPMOST : HWND_NOT_TOPMOST, rect.X, rect.Y, rect.Width, rect.Height, SWP_SHOWWINDOW);
109.     }
110.  
111.     private string[] GetWindowTitles() {
112.         List<string> WindowList = new List<string>();
113.  
114.         Process[] ProcessArray = Process.GetProcesses();
115.         foreach (Process p in ProcessArray) {
116.             if (!IsNullOrWhitespace(p.MainWindowTitle)) {
117.                 WindowList.Add(p.MainWindowTitle);
118.             }
119.         }
120.  
121.         return WindowList.ToArray();
122.     }
123.  
124.     public bool IsNullOrWhitespace(string Str) {
125.         if (Str.Equals("null")) {
126.             return true;
127.         }
128.         foreach (char c in Str) {
129.             if (c != ' ') {
130.                 return false;
131.             }
132.         }
133.         return true;
134.     }
135. }
136. #endif
137.  

 

Fantastic! And thanks so much for posting your code! It will be a great help to anyone (myself included) who'd like to know more about how to do this, and to incorporate external DLLs in general. So glad you got it working!

 

I get:
error CS0234: The type or namespace name `Drawing' does not exist in the namespace `System'. Are you missing `System.Drawing' assembly reference?

From unity but not from visual studio. Visual studio has no error but Unity insists that it does. any ideas?

 

It's been a while, and I haven't touched Unity for at least half a year ago.

Follow this checklist:

1. Are you creating a game for Unity Player / Unity WebPlayer / Unity HTML5 / Android / iPhone / other non-PC systems?
2. If #1 is yes, loading DLLs are not supported.
3. If #1 is no, check to see if the System.Drawing.dll is directly from Unity's installation folder. This DLL uses the Mono C# implementation that Unity recognizes.
4. If #3 is affirmative, check to see if the DLL is referenced from within the Unity Editor itself, such as the DLL is placed inside the Assets/Plugins folder that the Editor can see.
5. If #4 is affirmative, check to see if your project configurations allow you to load the DLL into the project.

I think that's all there is to it. If you still have any more problems, keep posting here, with more, detailed, information of what's going on, even if you don't know anything about it.

 

It does sound like you might be using the wrong DLL - I've been running the code on 5.4.2p4 and it works really well. I got the DLL from:

Program Files\Unity542p4\Editor\Data\Mono\lib\mono\2.0

 

Did this work on Windows 10? Windows 10 seems to ignore most Window calls that I have tried...it just flashes the icon in the taskbar instead of bringing it to the front.

 

hey
I have this errorn on unity 5.5.2
could you fix it pls
Assets/AlwaysOnTop.cs(100,23): error CS0103: The name `CONSTANT_WINDOW_TITLE_FROM_GAME' does not exist in the current context

 

You need to replace 'CONSTANT_WINDOW_TITLE_FROM_GAME' with the name of your game project so it knows which window it runs in. For example, if you run your standalone build and at the top left of the window it says "My Game" then that's what you need to replace it with.

 

Woow thank you , that work and its epic

 

Yeah, I thought it was apparent enough for coders to rename that constant variable.

 

I know this is quite old, but anyone was able to make it work with windows 10 ?
I can't make the window stays on top ...

 

me too;; i changed not start, be awake. put it when first scene awake. but it can't be stay on top...

 

Bumping this because, for me, in W10, it works, but it won't bring the window to the front. By that, I mean, when it starts, it stays on top (this is a menu program). Once it runs another program and I toggle it off, it doesn't stay on top. That's fine. When the other program ends it reactivates the Stay On Top, but I have to manually restore it. Once I manually restore it, it stays on top, but it won't restore it from minimized or behind other windows.

 

On windows 10 with Unity 2018.3.4f not work for me, can anyone help me?

 

F.Y.I. Works for me on Win10.

 

AssignTopmostWindow(CONSTANT_WINDOW_TITLE_FROM_GAME, true); on update?

 

Which Unity version are you using? I got this error when I try to build my project with 2019.3.6f1.
Build completed with a result of 'Failed'
UnityEngine.GUIUtilityrocessEvent(Int32, IntPtr)

 

Sorry... I did not read your question and I did not write the unity version to my post ... I'm 70% sure I tested it with unity 2019.1.2f1

 

Use this guys works perfectly for me
https://brighterguide.com/labnol-always-on-top/

 

This isn't a programming solution it's a Windows utility program.

 

It works on 2019.4 Windows 10.

I also need the window to be focus, so Unity takes all the graphic resources possible. Is it possible to do that with that dll?

 

Sorry, it doesn't seem to work.

 

Indeed, getting the focus seems required. I tried a bunch like:

Code (CSharp):

1. BringWindowToTop(hWnd);
2. SetForegroundWindow(hWnd);
3. SetActiveWindow(hWnd);
4. ShowWindow(hWnd, SW_SHOW);

But it seems like the creator of the Unity player window must have focus before this is really allowed.

 

I am also interested in this, did you solve it? This is my website. FNF

 

I solved it by just downloading system.drawing.dll and adding the file into the project files, its working now well for me
Heres the download link : system.drawing.dll descarga gratuita | DLL‑files.com (dll-files.com)

 

i have posted the solution now