Stealing Focus - Vista and Alt-Tab part 2

Couple months ago I posted a thread asking if Alt-Tab was a safe thing under Vista, and it was determined that it isn't, based on how Vista handles Alt-Tab and invariably causes a UE and death.

What I've found is that, at least when running fullscreen, if anything steals focus from T2, be it a dialog box or, in my case, a printing status thing popping up, attempting to return to T2 causes a fatal UE no matter how I try to get back in (clicking taskbar, alt-tab, etc).

My wonder is if there is a way to give Tribes 2 "always on top" status, so that windows can't pop up and steal focus from it, and if setting something like that would prevent focus-stealing in the first place.

Of course, if there was a way to safely Alt-Tab without it crashing, that would be a better solution, of course.

[EDIT] Have included a check in my launcher code to grant Always on Top status to the Tribes window when it appears. Looks like it does the trick so far.

Comments

  • I have this exact same problem (well nothing is causing me to alttab out, but when i need to like to reconnect to teamspeak or something, i get the UE). I really wish I could figure out how to get back in without the UE. The game runs flawlessly with 250+ framerates with every setting maxed out, this is the only issue I am seeming ot have. IF you have any other thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
  • Hmm. Well, my always-on-top check doesn't exactly work properly, as far as I can tell. It may be that when the Tribes2 process is started that the window doesn't appear in the same instant, so the code that sets always-on-top might be firing at the wrong point. Haven't done much tweaking on it; instead I just make sure there isn't anything running that will try and steal focus.

    Of course all these issues only occur in fullscreen mode, for me. Windowed mode alt-tabs flawlessly. Unfortunately I don't use it because I bought a 17" widescreen monitor for a reason, not to relegate the game to a small porthole in the middle.

    On rare occasion I mistakenly hit the alt-tab combo (with different keystrokes to do different things I tend to have brain misfires) and am able to return to the game without a UE. Whether this is a case of alt-tabbing again before focus and control has been given to the desktop (or whatever was in line) or just plain luck for that instance, I dunno.
  • Yes, I'm noticing that windowed mode is flawless too. Luckily I have a 23'' monitor so playing in window mode will be the approach ill take so that i dont crash in teh middle of a scrim or something. Thanks for offerring your advice above.
  • Due to my multi-tasking nature and all that jazz, I've been running in windowed mode and I just can't go back to full-screen due to the bugs. Sucked at first but I got used to it.
  • The issue would most likely be client specific. I run my Tribes 2 fullscreen and regularly alt-tab during the game, in the menu, etc on my Vista system without any trouble. Maximizing the game back up is instant and I've yet to experience a single UE of any nature (fingers crossed) on my current desktop. No issues so far -- the game has been running extremely well I must say -- better than my old system.
  • Just out of curiosity, what version of video drivers are you running and what video card (ati or nvidia)?
  • Just out of curiosity, what version of video drivers are you running and what video card (ati or nvidia)?

    I have a pair of nVidia GeForce 280 GTX 1GB running Forceware 182.50 drivers in SLi on Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit.
  • nice, im running 181.22 so maybe ill try going up to 182 and see what happens, thx for the dialogue...Cid
  • Couple months ago I posted a thread asking if Alt-Tab was a safe thing under Vista, and it was determined that it isn't, based on how Vista handles Alt-Tab and invariably causes a UE and death.

    What I've found is that, at least when running fullscreen, if anything steals focus from T2, be it a dialog box or, in my case, a printing status thing popping up, attempting to return to T2 causes a fatal UE no matter how I try to get back in (clicking taskbar, alt-tab, etc).

    My wonder is if there is a way to give Tribes 2 "always on top" status, so that windows can't pop up and steal focus from it, and if setting something like that would prevent focus-stealing in the first place.

    Of course, if there was a way to safely Alt-Tab without it crashing, that would be a better solution, of course.

    [EDIT] Have included a check in my launcher code to grant Always on Top status to the Tribes window when it appears. Looks like it does the trick so far.

    I don't think it's just Vista. I recall having that problem on my older computer that ran Windows XP. I believe.. SP 1.
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