Alt+Tab, Windowed Mode, and Me.
- Thread starter Amnestic
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I've always assumed that it's because games are such a resource dump, but when you alt-tab you take priority away from them and screw with the process order (as in game functions are secondary to firefox, whatever) which would cause major problems for complex games.
Except you're pretty much stuck with the size of the window denoted by the resolution then; I mainly use full screen so I can play on lower resolutions.AlphaOmega said:
I wonder if it's even possible to stretch it in a window...
Windowed mode is awesome when you have two monitors. I cover the first screen with the game (which is set to slightly smaller than the screen so that I can see the taskbar) and use the other for web browsing and IRC.
Step 2: Alt + tab out of Fallout 3.
Step 3: Do whatever you were going to do.
Step 4: Alt + tab back to Fallout 3.
Step 5: Continue playing.
Works perfectly for me.
Step 1: Press esc.Amnestic said:
Step 2: Alt + tab out of Fallout 3.
Step 3: Do whatever you were going to do.
Step 4: Alt + tab back to Fallout 3.
Step 5: Continue playing.
Works perfectly for me.
Team Fortress 2 Window Mode is annoyingly fuck all useless.
I alt-tab to watch a video about TF2?
I come back. BAM. Frozen.
EDIT: 12000[sub]th[/sub] post.
I alt-tab to watch a video about TF2?
I come back. BAM. Frozen.
EDIT: 12000[sub]th[/sub] post.
I have noticed that - in the case of FO3 - if I get 'interrupted' while playing (something pops up and steals my window) it does let me back into the game, but if I try to alt+tab out myself, it does not.Kajt said:Just tried it and it worked perfectly. How odd.Amnestic said:I actually recently started playing FO3 again and I can confirm that this does not work for me
*sigh* Dammit Bethesda. I hope Obsidian does better.
For some reason things like MineCraft run MUCH faster on windowed mode for me (although it runs smoothly on both modes there is a noticable difference) but ALL valve games of mine are worse in windowed mode, meaning to access things like the internet (steam overlay sucks) I have to use my laptop (going into windowed mode from fullscreen tends to make it crash).
I communicate with friends by smoke signals; while which do interupt gaming, avoid having to use Alt+tab.
/agree, but I would imagine that the engine the game runs on would impact performance to a significant extent, rather than simply lazy coding.Amnestic said:
Regarding architecture, for example, WoW's engine is largely "draw on demand" (as I understand it) whereas iirc, the Source engine preloads a significant amount of geometry/texturework - hence requiring a longer time to resume the state that it was in... perhaps.
Fingers crossed someone knowledgeable in this field comes along, since you do raise a good point.
All Valve games (that I am currently playing) have the option for "Borderless windowed mode", which seems to pretty much fit exactly what you described in your WoW section. To activate it, put "-noborder -sw +r_hunkalloclightmaps 0" in the games launch options.
