Alt-tab out of fullscreen leads to a DirectX error and game closing.

Any PC setup, any OS, any time.

There is no crash when alt-tabbing in windowed mode, so the crash in full screen is obviously unintended.

Please fix it! There are many people who suffer a performance drop when running the game in windowed mode because the PC has to not only render the game but also the background programs/windows GUI.

There are unofficial methods to fix it but I'd rather have an official solution.

This has been the bane of FFXI for its entire existence (and still remains unpatched to this day!). Possibly the biggest failure on behalf of SE I've ever seen out of any of their games ported to the PC.

Windower and its wide array of plugins for FFXI originated directly out of that lack of alt+tab support. It is a simple fix but offers a great increase in basic functionality. Never understood how this went completely unaddressed for the entire life of either game so far.

Here's a longer thread on the issue:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ab-out-of-game

There has to be some reason that they haven't developed a Pseudo-fullscreen mode... probably something RMT/bot related.

It's pretty basic programming. But I've yet to hear an explanation from the horse's mouth.

Hmm, didn't think a bug would land in tech support... oh well.

The whole bot/RMT reasoning is nonsense.
Why? Simple: If they don't want us to be able to alt-tab to another application, why is the game not crashing in windowed mode? What stops someone from running FFXIV in windowed mode and use any unauthorized software that way instead of full screen?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Soukyuu

Hmm, didn't think a bug would land in tech support... oh well.

---

FFXI was designed this way, and FFXIV is designed the same way.. therefore it is not a bug. It's just a feature that was excluded for whatever reason. Either that, or SE knows nothing about PC programming (no offense).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Soukyuu

The whole bot/RMT reasoning is nonsense.
Why? Simple: If they don't want us to be able to alt-tab to another application, why is the game not crashing in windowed mode? What stops someone from running FFXIV in windowed mode and use any unauthorized software that way instead of full screen?

---

That's what you would assume, right? But who really knows? I don't use bot programs or anything of the sort, so I don't know what difference it actually makes.

FFXI didn't even have a regular windowed mode until many years after release. And I don't remember hearing an explanation for that, either.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Grit

FFXI was designed this way, and FFXIV is designed the same way.. therefore it is not a bug. It's just a feature that was excluded for whatever reason. Either that, or SE knows nothing about PC programming (no offense).

---

It is not... a feature. From what I heard, it's only an issue about not loading the textures back into video memory after returning to fullscreen, which just causes the program to crash.
Since you don't have to unload them when alt-tabbing from windowed mode, the game doesn't crash there.

Quote:

---

That's what you would assume, right? But who really knows?

---

That would kinda imply SE is too stupid to think of anyone using windowed mode to bot instead of the crashing fullscreen mode... i really don't think they are that naive.

Please SE.

create a Windowed Fullscreen mode that allows alt-tab.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Soukyuu

It is not... a feature. From what I heard, it's only an issue about not loading the textures back into video memory after returning to fullscreen, which just causes the program to crash.
Since you don't have to unload them when alt-tabbing from windowed mode, the game doesn't crash there.

---

You're implying that after 10 years of MMO experience, SE still doesn't know how to make a full-screen mode that doesn't crash when minimized.

Not impossible, of course. But I'll be waiting to hear from SE on this issue, since it seems to be a very popular topic.

I'm implying that SE still doesn't know how to program for the PC efficiently. They might be good on consoles, but looking at FFXIV and what I heard from FFXI, they'd be better off staying console only - at least when it comes to the FF games. The saddest thing about this being a very popular topic is that SE never ever mentioned anything about it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Soukyuu

I'm implying that SE still doesn't know how to program for the PC efficiently. They might be good on consoles, but looking at FFXIV and what I heard from FFXI, they'd be better off staying console only. The saddest thing about this being a very popular topic is that SE never ever mentioned anything about it.

---

I bet we'll be hearing about it pretty soon.

Either that or they'll ninja-fix it and not say a word. :rolleyes:

Supposedly it's to prevent botting, but if that is really the case couldn't a botter just play in windowed mode?

please SE let us change windowed mode in-game!

It is a shame they have yet to learn how to make a full screen that you can tab out and get back to. I have lost so many leves to popups on my computer. Not to say that every time I needed to make adjustments to my second computer, I had to log all the way back out to fix the settings. Guess the only way to play this game with the least amount of hassle is buy a console, or just don't play at all.

Second post, I know it may not be considered to be proper edict doing so in the fourm world, but I just want to make sure these topics stay its corse.

Ive grown tired of the repetetive music playing ingame. so I prefer paying my own music, and due to this I cant play in fullscreen, because whenever I try to change a song the game closes out.

I play my own music, look up information about in game items/quests in my browser, as well as browse the internet(and read these forums) while playing, I cannot and will not play a massive time sink game like this without having access to my PC.

Not to mention it is impossible to make use of my second ATI card in crossfire because I would be locked out of my PC while playing(requires full screen).

Honestly I would be surprised if SE replies with any type of comment about actually fixing this, or even replies at all, can always hope though...

Hello everyone!

I apologize for the trouble and inconvenience the game crash error has been causing. We will be happy to forward this concern so that it is looked into. We appreciate all your feedback! As we continue to look into this, any updates will be posted within the forums as they become available. Thanks again everyone!

Greetings, Soukyuu!
Thank you for your patience with the wait for a response to your report. After thoroughly inspecting this matter, the development team has found what you have describe to be the proper function of hitting the ALT+TAB keys at this time. However, they are currently looking into addressing this function in the future, so I highly recommend consulting http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/ for any further developments. Thanks again for the heads-up!