Re: [GD-Windows] Alt+Tab in fullscreen with no other apps running

[George G. <ge...@ba...>]

There are also a number of other elements that could affect your game's
alt-tab response:

- Window Style and Window StyleEx flags (during create/adjust window)
- SetWindowPos parameters
- Use of SetForegroundWindow() and LockSetForegroundWindow() calls

Also, alt-tab settings can differ not only in different OSes (2000 vs XP vs
Vista) but also different service packs (especially of XP).  And there's
also some registry OS tweaks that change response and how 'sticky' the
topmost window is.

Microsoft seems to perpetually adjust this as new apps find new ways to
'steal' focus and need to be dealt with.  (Interestingly, some of the most
notorious 'stealing' apps are made by Microsoft themselves, such as their
outlook and MSN 'notifications' etc).

The moral of the story is to test on as many different systems as possible,
including multi-mon combinations as well.

-- George.

- Lead Programmer, BattleGoat Studios
- www.battlegoat.com



-----Original Message-----
From: gam...@li...
[mailto:gam...@li...] On Behalf Of
Oscar Cooper
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 11:05 AM
To: gam...@li...
Subject: [GD-Windows] Alt+Tab in fullscreen with no other apps running

Hi,

Does anyone know if there's something I have to do (or avoid doing) to make 
my game minimise when the player hits Alt+Tab whilst running in fullscreen 
with no other apps running?

My game isn't minimising in pre-Vista versions of Windows, but other games 
seem to do so. Windows isn't sending me any WM_ACTIVATE or WM_ACTIVATEAPP 
messages. I am getting WM_NCACTIVATE and WM_CANCELMODE, and I'm passing 
these on to the default WndProc expecting it to handle any necessary 
plumbing.

With other apps running the Alt+Tab behaviour is correct in fullscreen, but 
in this case Windows is sending me a completely different sequence of 
messages.

Thanks in advance,

Oscar Cooper
Lead Programmer
Frontier Developments Ltd