Alt Tab and Win XP

[[XR]SUE52]

Hi

:help: Does any one know of a solution to a small problem I have i.e. when running NFSPU on Windows XP it would be really good to be able to Alt Tab back to desktop and run other programs or select another music track to play etc. but when ever I try, XP gives me an error message and closes down NFSPU asking me if I want to submit a report to the Microsoft site.

I have submitted the report but it didn't identify any thing I needed to do. I am sure there must be a setting I can alter to achieve this Alt Tab functionality.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated, thanks for taking the time to read this.

Best wishes

[XR]SUE "Hugs to all nice pit peeps"

:slap:
ps Just in case "peeps" is slang for People and "pit" is of course the NFSPU racing pits.[COLOR=deeppink]

[DC_Tox]

Sorry I have no idea how to fix your problem.

Nevertheless, it could be interesting to add another problem I (often) get under WinME: when using ALT-TAB, I "lose" the wheel after re-entering NFS-PU. You can notice it at the next race...:( or just seeing that the green led on the wheel is switched off. I have to go to "dead zone calibration" to re-gain the green led lights on the wheel and its full functionality...

Also the audio volume gets screwed up after alt-tabbing.

It's like NFS-PU has some sort of problems with task switching and ALT-TAB...

C U

[MATT]

PU alt+tabs fine for me in XP. Maybe you just need some new video drivers... seriously!

[[XR]SUE52]

Hi Matt, I updated the video drivers this morning from the Creative site for our GeForce 3 (thank God my Dad loves me), I think their latest is earlier than the detonators we had been using but it was worth a try. It did not fix the Alt -Tab problem. I think it is going to be one of those service type flags that you can turn on or off in sysconfig. I think I will leave well alone before I mess something up as the pute has been running really sweetly lately - "if it ain't broke don't fix it" seems to be the order of the day.

Thanks for the suggestion though


[XR]SUE

[DC_Tox]

Originally posted by [XR]SUE52
I think I will leave well alone before I mess something up as the pute has been running really sweetly lately
You copied this instruction from the "Microsoft advanced set-up instruction" for XP, didn't you? :D
"if it ain't broke don't fix it" seems to be the order of the day
Another satisfied MS customer...:)

Thanks again for the fair and good races yesterday night. Hey, I passed you by 6 positions and 106 points on DR stats...;)
I Know, I know, it's just because you changed persona...:D

I'll train some new track offline in the next days (Auvergne and Normandie), so you can catch me up...in the meanwhile ;) See you in few days online.

[MATT]

EA Games and Nvidia cards don't get along very well (and sometimes is the case outside of EA as well. The makers of the venerable Linux media player (MPlayer) also bitch about the quality of nvidia cards). As has been the case several times with NFS games, the newest drivers aren't going to necessarily be the best for PU...

I'm a 3dfx Voodoo owner still and proud of it! heheh

[DC_Geezr]

Hi Sue! I get the exact same problem with winXP and alt tabbing.I tried alt esc too and get the same @%$#!! error message.This means I can no longer easily use Dirty Harry while in a pit;which kind of defeats the pupose of checking for cheats. Does anyone have any way around this??:help:

Ric ;)

[RodDog]

Hey Corrado, does your wheel plug into your soundcard, if so it could be your soundcard having a problem with Alt-Tab. You might check for updated soundcard drivers. Might be worth a try for the XP users also. Also in Xp, isn't there a way to run a program in Win9x compatibilty mode. Hope this helps someone.

[[XR]SUE52]

Hi Ric sorry to hear you have a similar problem it would be great if someone could find a solution.

Also thanks for your suggestion RodDog I do run PU in compatibility mode seems to make no difference though. Oh by the way for sound I use a Hercules Game Theater sound thingy which has extra game and USB ports it is a cool bit of kit and does relieve the PC of most of the sound processing work I think. The drivers are XP compatible.

Best wishes to all

[XR]Sue

[RodDog]

Can anyone Alt-Tab with PU and XP? Some other things to try perhaps are to change your game resolution and color depth to match the the settings on your desktop or enable/disable 3d sound.

[MATT]

If you read my post above, you'll find that YES, I CAN alt+tab in XP w/ PU. Although Glide mode never wanted to Alt+Tab before in any version of Windows I ran in, but I edited my registry to run my Voodoo 5 in Direct3D mode for my own various reasons (I like the way it blurs naturally and also the gamma is a lot better for some reason... brighter. at least if I start up RtCW first (an opengl game.. weird, I know, but whatever)).

My resolution is slightly lower in PU than my desktop settings, both are 32 bit colors, however. But this shouldn't be an issue anyway, as the only time you should alt+tab is in the menus, which is actually 640x480! So you'd really have to turn down your desktop to match up those resolutions (XP doesn't like running that low either, it'll give you warnings against it like you won't be able to view everything in your start bar.. etc).

[RodDog]

You are correct about menu, but let the me clarify the Alt-Tab question. Can anyone using a GF3 or perhaps any Nvidia video card Alt-Tab in PU on XP. If so, what version of drivers do you use. Also since SUE got updated drivers from Creatives website, they may not be the most recent XP drivers for Nvidia based cards. You could try the most recent reference drivers directly from Nvidia's website.Nvidia Drivers (http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=windows2000)

[DC_Tox]

Originally posted by RodDog
Hey Corrado, does your wheel plug into your soundcard, if so it could be your soundcard having a problem with Alt-Tab.

Thanks for the suggestion, but the gameport is on the motherboard, with the sound chip as well, btw. I fear it's a sort of cable/synchronisation problem of the wheel (it's a very old borrowed one). It sometimes disappears also during normal playing (quite annoying indeed...)

c u

[MATT]

After this Microsoft USB wheel I've got, I'm never going back to serial ports! USB all the way!

[The Dude]

Okay, I also have the tab prob. BUT I also have another prob. I can't feel road effects with my shiny new MS Sidewinder FF. I feel collisions but not the 'road' or gras or the wooden bridge for example. In Win98 I feel everything in XP it's only half of it. Any suggestions???

Thanx,

Greetz,

The Dude

[RodDog]

You might have already tried this, but under the controller settings (in game), there is a force feedback tab. You can use this to set the strength of force feedback.

[The Dude]

Thanx, but I have FF, but just no road effects and engine effects, collisions are fine.

Greetz,

The Dude.

[RodDog]

It has a seperate intensity setting in there for each of the different effects. Thought the road effects on might need to be turned up.

[The Dude]

All 100%. This is very weird imho.

Greetz,

The Dude

[[XR]Pale]

I use the windows key located between alt and cntrl keys. It brings me right to the desktop.

[[XR]SUE52]

Thanks [XR]Pale , tried that Window key and you are correct it brings me back to the desktop.................but it still crashes the game.

What I also tried was changing the resolutions around like Matt was suggesting, I could'nt get a combination to work that would let me Alt-Tab though.

But and I am very grateful to Matt :beer: because I think I have found a nice combination now that appears to give better responses while playing online and I have managed a number of improved lap times in the last couple of days, (of course I hope my skills are improving too!!) Any way I now have the destop set to 1024x768@16 and the game running at 800x600@16 with the ingame display set to wide screen (apexs seem a bit easier to see) Seems a bit of a waste of the GForce 3 card but hey it works for me and I like the look.

Best wishes

[XR]SUE

[DC_Tox]

Originally posted by [XR]SUE52
I think I have found a nice combination now that appears to give better responses while playing online and I have managed a number of improved lap times in the last couple of days, (of course I hope my skills are improving too!!) Any way I now have the destop set to 1024x768@16 and the game running at 800x600@16 with the ingame display set to wide screen (apexs seem a bit easier to see)

I also use the same combination (except for the 32bit color depth in desktop) and think 800x600@16 is the smoothest play in PU (AMD Athlon 1.2GHz and an old NVIDIA TNT2 32MB). If I use another resolution it seems that the game is a bit more "nervous" and steering control gets worse, like lap times :)

I just don't find improvements in widescreen mode, it's like they just cut the top/bottom out, without giving more lateral visibility... :confused:

C U

[DC_Geezr]

I tried that Windows button too;same thing,no joy there.I've also tried alt+esc and get the same %$%^#@!! error report for Microsoft thingy. Changing resolutions on the desktop didn;t help either.=((

Sue,I also have a GEforce 3 card,and I set my resolution for PU to something like 1200x1078x16,or whatever it was,and my framerates are still smooth,even using full screen.I had to use widescreen on the old PC because it was so slow,and the blackened areas at the top and bottom meant less picture for the PC to draw,therefor you would get increased framerate.Perhaps your card has 4xAA(Anti-Aliasing) enabled.that would really hit the framerate in order to improve visual quality.

Ric.;)