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Do you play your games windowed, or non-windowed?


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Hey guys

 

I saw this coming up a few times in some other threads, and I just wanted to understand the basics here. When choosing to play a game in windowed mode...does that use less or more resources than playing it non-windowed?

 

Which is best way to play a game so that we can easily switch to a browser or something else?

 

I've found lately that playing in a non windowed mode makes it super easy for me to jump out of Requiem and check out the forum and then jump back in.

 

I'm just curious as to how the two mods affect users with small or more powerful computers.

 

Cheers!

 

:)

 

gogo

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The only game I play windowed is sacred. Its great to switch back and forth with the forums or using a guide for a complex quest but I notice after a while I get a bit of lag and my fps drop like a lead balloon. (and not like the one on that episode of mythbusters) I end up restarting sacred to get the memory to free up all the way. I think though thats a sacred issue not a windowed mode issue.

otherwise the only games I play are guildwars. Windowed mode doesnt make any sense as it minimizes easily for what I need to look up on the web while playing and my browser games are wndows to begin with *g*

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Window mode for any game that is a resource hog when it comes to minimizing... Valve games are a prime example of that, you lose about 2-3 pixels off the top and bottom but by moving it properly it uses up the full screen and only that bit at the top and bottom because you can't lose the entire title bar.

 

Some games minimize well, Sacred doesn't, nor does TF2/CSS. However DMC4 runs fine full-screen and then minimizes instantly. Of course then there's the resolution question, for games like Sacred I can't take advantage of my screen, so I need windowed mode to not have everything stretched.

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I generally play most of my game windowed regardless of it being a resource hog. If I am searching for something fast I don't wanna have to try to fight with alt tabbing. I rather just move my mouse over real fast get the info and move on.

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Framerates are all important to me, hence I never play games windowed.

 

I also never like to have anything else running when I play a game so playing in a window is pointless. :4rofl:

 

stubbs

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o.k. give this noob an explanation of what you mean by windowed mode?

are you talking about playing on-line using a browser or playing a game off a cd?

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Windowed as in non-Fullscreen. Rather than use up the entire screen with your game it's a box in the middle. Fullscreen would be the "Maximize" option on most windows applications.

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I play full screen. I get a bigger picture. My monitor won't run 1024 x768 unless an application forces it. In a Window, Sacred would uses less than half of my screen (40% of 1600 x 1200).

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windowed, mostly due to people sending im's at innoprotune times while playing sacred. easier to switch back and forth to regain control of sacred in case im window wants to take over windows.

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Question

 

If we don't play the game Windowed, and we press the Window key... does it take more resources to jump the game out of game mode and let us use the comp?

 

I'm just wondering if it's necessary to actually play the game in windowed to actually make it get out of game mode. I've tried it a few times with games now, and it seems to work... but not as easily as if it were chosen to play in windows mode first.

:)

 

gogo

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Gogo, some games crash outright when you alt-tab or win-key. Or they'll take 5 hours to get out then back in (exaggeration but it feels that long). In windowed mode it does it slightly more instantly, and if you can still adjust the resolution of the game you can often end up with the screen more or less exactly the same size regardless.

 

If I know I won't jump in and out of the screen while I play I'll leave it fullscreen, or if it minimizes efficiently I'll do it as well, but some games just refuse to minimize without hogging every resource it can... not fun when you want to do other stuff fast then get back in. It's a question of habits and choice really, I'll often just open my laptop next to me and save that hassle entirely.

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Ew ew ew, full screen of course :)

I just find that the toolbar ruins the effect of the game, this bright blue or silver toolbar going across the bottom of the screen...

Just doesn't do it for me!

:)

~Doom

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Then get a custom theme... easy enough to end up with a black toolbar (can even do so manually I believe)... or have it auto-hide the toolbar, you don't have to see it. Of course there are other disadvantages, but you can always find ways around them if you have a reason to use it windowed instead.

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Then get a custom theme... easy enough to end up with a black toolbar (can even do so manually I believe)... or have it auto-hide the toolbar, you don't have to see it. Of course there are other disadvantages, but you can always find ways around them if you have a reason to use it windowed instead.

Both of those I dislike (anyway for black I can use Zune)

However the toolbar isn't the only reason, it also affects FPS and sometimes image quality

:)

~Doom

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  • 1 year later...

I always play mine fullscreen, although I found early on that switching with the windows key was not a good idea. using alt + tab will switch quicker and usually more efficiently for me on both my laptop and my desktop.

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  • 5 months later...

Not to necro old threads, but as I was snooping around and saw this it made me wonder if many of the crashes I had from the human region onward are due to this since I play on higher settings. I play on fullscreen but I pause the game before I alt tab to something, which to me seemed like it helped load the game up much faster when I alt tab'ed back. From your posts I assume playing it on Windowed mode would resolve some of the crash issues I guess, I'll try that today~

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Always fullscreen when I'm playing, only time I have played in windowed mode was when Sacred 2 was freezing all the time and I needed to click outside the game to un-freeze it.

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Always always always always ALWAYS play windowed now...with vista it`s so awesome... you can cycle all the screens through like a merry go round. Who cares how much resources it takes lol... with two screens it`s so useful.

 

k...when``s third screen gonna be availableÉ

 

:blush2:

 

gogo

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With the same account? I thought if you tried to log in when you are already in logged you get a error that the account is in use.

 

 

no three different accounts. furian and I have 3 between us.

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