Is there a great need to write code for a game to play in windowed mode? They way I see it, most high power games should be left in full screen for optimal performance. In light of that, should all games implement windowed logic? Games like MMOs. There doesn''t seem to be a reason to allow windowed play. What do you guys think? Obviously, the ability to Alt-Tab in and out of the game should be there but I just can''t see the justification for allowing windowed play. Not only for speed reasons but it seems like that would be an open invitation for players to create game trainers and other cheats that wouldn''t be so easy in exclusive mode. Opinions desired, Webby

I love to be able to play a game and chat at the same time, or browse or do something else. This only holds true if the game is a slow-paced one (turn-based, or puzzle game).

I also like to be able to pause/resume a fast-paced game and move to my desktop without waiting for ~10 seconds when alt-tabbing. And staying in windowed mode allows this.

It all depends on what kind of game it is, if its something simple or a time waster game, then full screen mode is unnessery. Take a look at mindsweeper theres no need to have that run in full screen mode.


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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

i would make it an option, with the default set to fullscreen. people will circumvent your interface in order to cheat anyways. and there should be ways that you can stop them from taking unfair advantage of such an interface.

there have been times when i''ve been playing a game and have wanted it to be in a window, rather than dominating the whole screen, so i would appreciate it, but alot of people wouldn''t, so.. whatever.

It depends on the type of game. If its multiplayer only where the only possibility is to play the game, there isn''t really a need for more than one mode (windowed or not). Where windowed mode becomes usefull is when games have an editor of some kind so that players can make their own maps/levels etc. Sometimes, a malformed map(either by setting some properties wrong somewhere or by a corrupted file) can cause the game to crash. Sometimes, in full screen mode, it will freeze the whole computer. I''ve yet to have that happen in windowed mode, so when developing my own levels, I use windowed mode to prevent an error in my map from forcing a restart without save.

Ok. So full screen only for something like an MMO would be appropriate. That is what I was thinking. Allow ALT_TABing to get back to desktop if the user wants to run something else or search the web. In this case the game would have to continue, it will give up the display and stop rendering while the program is shrunk.

I realize some people don''t like full screen only games but for MMOs I think it''s probably the best way so that''s what I''m gonna go off to play with

Thanks,
Webby

just set the option for the user to decide.

if there is a chat feature, in full screen it can be hidden until it is required (whilst typing).

Just don''t make the code fixed to do one type only.

DAoC (MMORPG) allows for windowed mode, ... so you can run two instances of the game concurrently.



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// TODO: Insert clever comment here.

[edited by - drowner on October 26, 2003 12:37:29 AM]