minimize fullscreen games

xaos5 · 2006-02-02 14:24:15

I have a problem which hopefully has a simple solution. Playing games like tuxracer or ut2004 fullscreen doesn't allow me to minimize to the desktop. I've tryed alt+tab and ctrl+tab. Anybody have any ideas?

jaboua · 2006-02-02 14:53:46

AFAIK 3D fullscreen games takes completely control over your videocard so the windowmanager won't have any control.

Not a direct solution, but it is possible to run multiple X sessions at the same time, if you use KDE and KDM you can see in the kmenu -> Switch User -> Start New Session before starting the game. I have't tried it with other wm's/de's but it's probably possible.

xaos5 · 2006-02-02 16:09:57

thats kinda of stupid there is no way to even force it to minimize... starting a new session is somewhat pointless just to see if someone messaged me or something simple like that. you think alt+tab would be about to force it to minimize.

codemac · 2006-02-02 20:17:31

It's really not that stupid. If a game is "windwed," then the window manager will take care of it. If it is full screen, then it is overriding the controls of the wm. Maybe you should try the games in windowed mode, yet maximized.

xaos5 · 2006-02-03 07:58:46

well the I tryed doing it windows mode but it still didn't work right, it was pretty much the same thing but I could see part of the desktop. The mouse wasn't able to leave the window and nothing I did could make something else gain focus.

codemac · 2006-02-04 17:53:59

What game are you doing this with? Something in wine? I've been able to run WoW and CS:S windowed, and be able to switch to another window. What window manager are you using?

iphitus · 2006-02-04 22:01:13

Wine/Cedega stuff you can switch out of. Ironically its the native linux games that you cant.

jaboua · 2006-02-04 22:49:39

iphitus wrote:

Wine/Cedega stuff you can switch out of. Ironically its the native linux games that you cant.

IMO, this is good in many cases. It will center the mouse so that if you play a 3d shooting game windowed, and turn 180 degrees around, you might end up having the cursor outside the window and have to move the cursor around the window and back in from the other side of the window to be able to turn the rest. During that time, bang your dead

iphitus · 2006-02-04 23:42:09

jaboua wrote:

iphitus wrote:
Wine/Cedega stuff you can switch out of. Ironically its the native linux games that you cant.
IMO, this is good in many cases. It will center the mouse so that if you play a 3d shooting game windowed, and turn 180 degrees around, you might end up having the cursor outside the window and have to move the cursor around the window and back in from the other side of the window to be able to turn the rest. During that time, bang your dead

If you run a cedega game full screen, that doesnt happen. BUT you can still switch out. Cant switch outta full screen native games without starting a second session of X.

iphitus

xaos5 · 2006-02-04 23:58:00

codemac wrote:

What game are you doing this with? Something in wine? I've been able to run WoW and CS:S windowed, and be able to switch to another window. What window manager are you using?

I was able to do it with any cedega game with dxgrab off. the thing I don't get is why doesn't kwin (kde) take control of the fullsize game so alt+tab/ctrl+tab will minimize the game? If there is no reason for this is there a way to impliment this; at least for windowed games anyways?

smoon · 2006-02-05 00:23:33

I run all my games on a different X-Server so that I'm able to switch between the game and my desktop with Ctrl+Alt+FX:

#!/bin/sh

if [ -z $1 ] ; then
  echo "Usage: `basename $0` <game executable> [game parameters]"
  exit
fi

xmodmap -display :1 $HOME/.Xmodmap &
xbindkeys --display :1 &
xinit $@ -- :1 -layout GameLayout

shadowhand · 2006-02-05 00:52:29

Nice script smoon! How do I make use of the -layout flag though?

smoon · 2006-02-05 12:26:56

shadowhand wrote:

Nice script smoon! How do I make use of the -layout flag though?

It's for choosing a "ServerLayout" out of your xorg.conf. You can simply omit that if you don't need different settings for the X-Server you'll run your games in.

shadowhand · 2006-02-05 18:14:25

Now, another question, how do I get xinit to NOT use my .xinitrc with this script?

smoon · 2006-02-05 18:34:06

shadowhand wrote:

Now, another question, how do I get xinit to NOT use my .xinitrc with this script?

If you give xinit a client program as parameter (Note: You have to supply the full path to the executable) it shouldn't use your .xinitrc at all. See `man 1 xinit':

If no specific client program is given on the command line, xinit will look for a file in the user's home directory called .xinitrc to run as a shell script to start up client programs.

Dheart · 2008-07-29 13:36:35

Sorry to bring back such an old thread but I get really low performance out of my second x session and it is unusable for games... Any other solutions?

Arch Linux

#1 2006-02-02 14:24:15

minimize fullscreen games

#2 2006-02-02 14:53:46

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#3 2006-02-02 16:09:57

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#4 2006-02-02 20:17:31

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#5 2006-02-03 07:58:46

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#6 2006-02-04 17:53:59

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#7 2006-02-04 22:01:13

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#8 2006-02-04 22:49:39

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#9 2006-02-04 23:42:09

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#10 2006-02-04 23:58:00

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#11 2006-02-05 00:23:33

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#12 2006-02-05 00:52:29

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#13 2006-02-05 12:26:56

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#14 2006-02-05 18:14:25

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#15 2006-02-05 18:34:06

Re: minimize fullscreen games

#16 2008-07-29 13:36:35

Re: minimize fullscreen games

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