Ubuntu

how to switch from a fullscreen game to a deskop application

Asked by ionvasili

I preffer playing games in fullscreen mode when possible. However from time to time I need to use a desktop application, a browser...
How do I quickly switch between them, without closing the game? Say the boss is coming and I have to look like I am working. I do not wish to close the game like this: navigate the game menu, save, exit the game server, exit the game application. I want to keep the game running (paused, if it is supported) and switch back to the game later on.

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Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄 (popey) said : 		#1

Problem is some games monkey around with the X-windows screen resolution so when you ALT+TAB you'd get a messed up display.

One way you could do it though is to logon twice with different users - one for work, one for play. Logon once and start all your "serious" applications, then when you want to play a game, logon again (click the shutdown icon and choose "Switch user" then login with the second account. To switch between them use CTRL+ALT+F7 and CTRL+ALT+F8. As they are two separate X servers the game under one should not affect the display of the other.

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ionvasili (ionvasili070529) said : 		#2

Problem is still not solved for OpenArena Globulation2, and many fullscreen games.
With Savage (http://newerth.com) though everything works just fine: I can switch between applications, I come back and everything continues smoothly.
The difference i noticed is that savage is launched via a shell script, while the others have launch ELF executables directly. But that should not matter, right?!
I assume it has to do with video drivers - but...

Revision history for this message
ionvasili (ionvasili070529) said : 		#3

Problem is still not solved for OpenArena Globulation2, and many fullscreen games.
With Savage (http://newerth.com) though everything works just fine: I can switch between applications, I come back and everything continues smoothly.
The difference i noticed is that savage is launched via a shell script, while the others have launch ELF executables directly. But that should not matter, right?!
I assume it has to do with video drivers - but...