Anyway to make minimizing games actually work?

[Insomniator]

Alright for as long as I can remember with PC gaming, games have very rarely minimized/maximized correctly. It is different with different drivers and on ATI/NVIDIA but really the problem has always been there for at least one game I play at a given time.

Bioshock does not minimize well at all, the game pauses and just goes to a black window covering my whole screen. even though I can access the start menu nothing can be brought to the front, I am stuck with a black screen and it wont even maximize, so the game needs to be shut down and restarted.


This is with Vista x64 and 4850 w/8.10

Can anything be done?

 

[dug777]

Vista 64 and minimising/maximising games has been an ongoing cluster-fsck for me, some games I can, some I can't, some depend from time to time

Vista 64, HD3540 and then HD4850 on my machine, latest drivers at each time (8.11 right now), and Vista 64 with a 9600GT on my better half's machine.

 

[heymrdj]

Originally posted by: dug777
Vista 64 and minimising/maximising games has been an ongoing cluster-fsck for me, some games I can, some I can't, some depend from time to time

Vista 64, HD3540 and then HD4850 on my machine, latest drivers at each time (8.11 right now), and Vista 64 with a 9600GT on my better half's machine.

Vista isn't the problem. I've had this problem on Vista like on XP like on 2000 like on 98. Minimizing DirectX games just doesn't seem to work well. Seems to be DirectX, not the OS.

 

[Zap]

Probably nothing can be done, but you can try...

Some games just won't for some reason. Some will but have problems depending on your setup. I've gotten around some problems by just running stuff in a window as opposed to full-screen, but not all games support this.

One side benefit of running in a window is that you can switch applications MUCH quicker because the video mode doesn't have to change. For instance I run WolfET and WoW in windows, and I can even alt-tab between them pretty much instantly.

 

[masteryoda34]

On Vista, Ctrl + Alt + Del will bring you to that screen where you can click Start Task Manager. That usually will get you back to the desktop at least.

 

[AmberClad]

Out of curiosity, what games are you guys having trouble minimizing in Vista x64?

I alt-tab in and out of games all the time, and the only game I recall having trouble with is TF2, where it takes a long time to restore back to the game.

 

[CP5670]

I remember having this issue with Bioshock too, but it's the only recent game that I have seen it in. Older games have problems with this a lot more often, especially when using a different resolution from what Windows is set to. Quake 4 and UT99 are two I can think of. The Nvidia and ATI drivers have different games that they have trouble with, although among the stuff I play the Nvidia ones have been better with this. The problems don't depend on the OS directly but are often affected by driver changes.

Actually, now that I think of it, Mass Effect also had some problem with this. I think it worked there but it took forever to get back into the game. That might suggest an Unreal engine 3 issue, but UT3 works fine.

 

[dennilfloss]

Oblivion needs C-A-D too in XP. Wish I could just minimize it, do something else and return to the game but I have to close it.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
Out of curiosity, what games are you guys having trouble minimizing in Vista x64?

I alt-tab in and out of games all the time, and the only game I recall having trouble with is TF2, where it takes a long time to restore back to the game.

Me, too. I alt-tab w/Bioshock, Crysis, Far Cry, etc w/no problems. Running an 8800gt.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

It's a bug with ATI's drivers and UT3 engine games. More info here:
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33928406

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: CP5670
I remember having this issue with Bioshock too, but it's the only recent game that I have seen it in. Older games have problems with this a lot more often, especially when using a different resolution from what Windows is set to. Quake 4 and UT99 are two I can think of. The Nvidia and ATI drivers have different games that they have trouble with, although among the stuff I play the Nvidia ones have been better with this. The problems don't depend on the OS directly but are often affected by driver changes.

Actually, now that I think of it, Mass Effect also had some problem with this. I think it worked there but it took forever to get back into the game. That might suggest an Unreal engine 3 issue, but UT3 works fine.

Interesting, obviously with the CRT I almost never run the same res and refresh rate on the desktop and in games (1280x960/85hz desktop/usually 1600x1200/75hz for games).

I don't have many new games either, so all my problems are older games.

I also had similar problems with XP, I guess it's other compatibility issues I've had with Vista 64 that have clouded my vision with a red mist

 

[chizow]

Have you tried Alt-Enter instead? I don't get lock-ups with Alt-tab although some games won't go fully to desktop. In those cases Alt-Enter works as it will minimize the game to a window. You can also try messing with the Full screen vs. Windowed resolutions in the game settings. I'm able to minimize Bioshock np with Alt-Enter and didn't have any problems with Alt-Tab in Mass Effect (it may take a while, just let it sit though).

 

[brandonb]

The problem is that when you alt-tab, your video resources are flushed from video card memory. When you go back into the game, it's supposed to detect it losts its resources and reloads them from system or disk back into video memory.

Thats why alt-tabbing always has that noticible delay.

In DirectX10, this is handled automatically by DirectX. Before it was up to the App to handle. Most App's don't code well for losing resources or alt-tabbing because they are lazy developers. Or in some cases some 3rd party tool like speedtree'(for example) or something might not handle the loss of resources and crash.

In alot of cases, with these hybrid DX9/DX10 games, is that the app programs in loss of resources with both versions of directx because dx9 can't handle it.

It's not a directx problem, anybody who reads the SDK and programs properly will not have any issues with alt-tabbing. Its just bugs in the App.

 

[JaBro999]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
I alt-tab in and out of games all the time, and the only game I recall having trouble with is TF2, where it takes a long time to restore back to the game.

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who has trouble with TF2 in this respect.

It does seem to be worse with Vista than XP, at least in my experience.