Add option to snap to remote display dimensions

Hi Rafael

Thanks for the feature request. Indeed right now it's not supported. This feature is something Apple calls "Dynamic Resolution"; while some VNC servers and RDP have had that capability for a while it's brand new in Apple Remote Desktop 4.0 (essentially, the remote Mac and client must be Sonoma / macOS 14 or newer).

Although the ARD protocol is based on VNC, it's got a large number of proprietary (closed) extensions; our ARD implementation is based on studying the Apple binaries and network traffic. There's no documentation on the code or protocol itself. This is a difficult and laborious process, and unfortunately we haven't got any of the ARD 4.0 extensions yet.

There is a lot of interest in this feature and I've been discussing it with our CTO (who, coincidentally, was responsible for a large part of the original ARD implementation - I also believe you're aquanted with him on Twitter). So you can expect us to get to this, but given the scope of the task I'm not in a position right now to offer up a time frame for that.

Please, do let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Kind regards,

Hello again

After a little more discussion, I realize you might be asking for something else: I thought you meant you would like the remote display resolution to adjust to your RDM window, but are you asking for the reverse? For the RDM window to "snap" to the correct size so that we don't show the black bars (leaving the remote resolution untouched)?

Thanks and kind regards,

Hey Richard, thanks for the response. It's not clear we're talking about the same thing. It's my understanding dynamic resolution relates to resizing the remote based on the client dimensions. But I'm simply asking here for the reverse--that the RDM view window snap to the known size of the remote target.

EDIT: You beat me to it. You got it now. Thanks!

Hi Rafael

Thanks for the clarification.

I've brought this issue up with the core RDM Windows team. We think it should be feasible for the undocked mode. For the embedded mode, it's much trickier; simply because of the way the windowing is set up in RDM. We think it will be hard to make this work in a future proof and robust way. That is not to say it won't be done, but it's a deceptively big change and we'll have to watch for further feedback from the community to help prioritize this.

(I hate to "Feedback Hub" you, but I'm hoping the partial solution might make that easier to stomach).

Please, let me know if you have any questions or something isn't clear

Kind regards,

Hey Richard,

I also found myself wondering about the UX for the host if the docked window started snapping to the target resolution. I agree that scoping this to the undocked window makes more sense. No rush, and thank you for the quick triage!

Hello Rafael

I'm opening a ticket for that on our side and this post will be updated once there's some news. Ultimately we'd like to get to the ARD 4.0 protocol improvements as well, which I think would be a better solution (at least for supported servers).

In the meantime, please don't hesitate to post back with further questions or comments.

Kind regards,