Alt+TAB and fullscreen games

[Ishayu]

Okay, so I've always had this problem where it's impossible to alt+TAB out of fullscreen applications. Most applications that are native to Linux use SDL, which overrides it anyway, but Wine doesn't for example, so let's look at that.

If I alt+TAB, all that happens is that the screen flickers a little bit, the game still overlays the screen but if I click anywhere, the OS behaves as if the window I wanted in front is in front, so clearly only a display issue.

I had pretty much accepted this problem. It would never go away I thought.

But then, today, magically, it went away.

2 hours later, it came back.

So now I want to ask what the hell I did. Maybe someone knows exactly how to make it work, persistantly? That would be great.

Reason why I'm posting here?
I use FGLRX, and I do not have this issue with the MESA-drivers. (They, however, just perform terrible. )

[Schmaker]

If window you alt+tab to isnt maximised, everything works as expected. Im using it with Heroes of Newerth all the time

[Ishayu]

In this case it was with World of Warcraft. The setting was "Windowed (Fullscreen)" which, on Windows, allows you to alt+tab and even have the game behaving exactly like a window, but with no border and filling up the entire desktop area. Panels and other windows can go on top, and other windows can be behind.

Yesterday I had this working as well on Linux. Gnome-Panel and the windows I wanted overlayed the game itself. (Unless I was tabbed into the game, then the game overlayed everything) The game could be minimized and tabbed between and so on and it was great. Then I had to restart the game (because Wine's performance slowly degrades for some odd reason) and I got the bug again.

The bug is that any attempt to bring the game out of focus will actually do so, but visually the game is still in focus, and the animations that result from attempting to alt+tab only result in flickering and may even crash the program.

[Schmaker]

You misunderstood me i guess.. Just run HoN in fullscreen then do alt + tab switch.. Screen flickers, youre switched to desktop. Hold alt, left click and drag somewhere. Window would get unmaximized and you should see desktop just until another maximized window got focus.

[Ishayu]

You misunderstood me i guess.. Just run HoN in fullscreen then do alt + tab switch.. Screen flickers, youre switched to desktop. Hold alt, left click and drag somewhere. Window would get unmaximized and you should see desktop just until another maximized window got focus.

Yeah, that's how it's supposed to work.

It doesn't.

That's why I made this thread.

I haven't misunderstood you at all. You've misunderstood me.

[Ishayu]

Stupid edit time-limit!

Plus alt+tab doesn't even do anything at all in HoN. SDL-application. It blocks everything, including desktop shortcuts and everything on the fn-key - annoyingly enough. I dunno how you got it to work. I can't. Ubuntu 10.10.

[Gps4l]

I game on windows, and only would like to add, that most games crash when I try to alt tab.

From my experience most games dont like alt tab on windows either.

[RealNC]

All games I play on Windows work correctly with Alt+Tab. They get minimized. And it was like that since the Windows 95 days. On Linux, it's always problematic. And always has been. And I've no idea why this problem exists or can't get fixed. As soon as you Alt+Tab from a fullscreen game, everything can happen; from your desktop getting fucked up, to a total crash.

But that's OK; I don't intend to play games on Linux.

[Ishayu]

I game on windows, and only would like to add, that most games crash when I try to alt tab.

From my experience most games dont like alt tab on windows either.

Some games do.

Most games don't.

On Linux, all games do. Recall also that Windowed (Maximized) is essentially supposed to work like a windowed application without borders.

All games I play on Windows work correctly with Alt+Tab. They get minimized. And it was like that since the Windows 95 days. On Linux, it's always problematic. And always has been. And I've no idea why this problem exists or can't get fixed. As soon as you Alt+Tab from a fullscreen game, everything can happen; from your desktop getting fucked up, to a total crash.

But that's OK; I don't intend to play games on Linux.

While I agree with the first part if this post, I question your presence on a Linux gaming forum given your second paragraph.

[RealNC]

While I agree with the first part if this post, I question your presence on a Linux gaming forum given your second paragraph.

This is not a Linux gaming forum.