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Idea #2205: Alt+Tab from fullscreen apps



bug This idea was marked as being not considered for implementation the 13 June 08.
closed
Closed
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Written by Psycho_zs the 1 Mar 08 at 15:04. Category: Gaming.
Related to: Nothing/Others. Status: Won't implement
Description
...and other WM behaviour must be improved:

Some fullscreen apps grab most of keyboard shortcuts under their control. Especially 3D games, Sauerbraten for example. So it is impossible to use Alt+Tab with them.
It is also not good if app uses alt+tab in own purposes, but WM overrides it. Or there is high probability of accidental key press.
There should be some way to minimize such apps. Override control over alt+tab, or/and make another shortcut, that would be accessible from anywhere.

There are also situations when popups brake normal work of fullscreen app. Especially when using compiz.

So summing all:
- WM must have *switchable* ability to override alt+tab so it will work everywhere.
- it must have *customizable* alternative hotkeys that would work like alt+tab everywhere.
- it must have ability to turn off/on (and may be override too) other desktop hotkeys in fullscreen (may be customized for different hotkeys)
- it must not interfere in work of fullscreen app if user does not want it. When in fullscreen, new windows must be created minimized, and notify bubbles must be just drawn over fullscreen. No forced minimization because of popups!
- minimization, or popups must not break the app.
- if fullscreen app's resolution is similar or greater than desktop's, it must be minimized when pressing alt+tab (or custom replacement). If resolution is smaller, it *can* be shown in own window (switchable).
- it must have ability to lock/unlock mouse focus when in some windowed app that needs to grab mouse. Do it by some hotkey, like ctrl+F10 in Dosbox. (this addition based on idea #4642)
Tags: (none)


Developer comments
It is not the wm's (neither metacity nor compiz) responsibility to offer workarounds for fullscreen-apps that do not cleanly integrate with the desktop environment they're are ported to. I'm only talking about native games. OpenSource games have to be fixed upstream to cleanly integrate with the platform they are intended to run on. ClosedSource/commercial games... well we're out of luck and only can kindly ask the developing company to improve their integration with the GNOME-desktop. As much as I recommend the "it just works"-way, I draw the line at the point where users demand workarounds to be added to games work. With that approach the game-developer will never be forced to fix the bugs in their own code-base.

I think this is mainly communicating with upstream game-developers to (either OpenSource or ClosedSource) improve their integration with the GNOME desktop and help them doing so with advice or code-contribution, than for Ubuntu developers to add workarounds to metacity or compiz to make games work cleanly.


Attachments
bug Bug #63245 : Cannot alt + tab out of fullscreen games


Duplicates


Comments
icechen1 wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 15:38
Good idea,I had to reboot each time a full screen app freezes.

Psycho_zs wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 16:01
This idea is only about alt+tab in fullscreen.
About freeze situation I wrote here: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/2067/

ethana2 wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 08:46
The super key should minimize all fullscreen apps and bring down the Applications menu.

Windows like? So. what.

Psycho_zs wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 09:29
...there also must be a way to turn override on and off, and change switch keys. For example, if the app uses some of the keys, that must not be used by anything else.

Psycho_zs wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 09:46
and handling new windows and libnotify popups when something is in fullscreen must also be improved!
When using compiz, libnotify popup or any new window forces fullscreen app to minimize. This is very annoying! And minimize process is buggy in compiz, so sometimes it is not possible to return back - app becomes entirely black or hangs.
And the metacity just draws notify popups over fullscreen app without any consequences and does not show new windows over it - the best variant! Why compiz can't do that?

Psycho_zs wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 09:57
So summing all:
- WM must have *switchable* ability to override alt+tab to work everywhere
- it must have *customizable* alternative hotkeys that works like alt+tab everywhere
- it must not interfere in work of fullscreen app when some new objects pops up, just draw notify bubbles over it like metacity does

Dreamsorcerer wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 15:25
Windows uses the Windows key to minimize a fullscreen app, we should have a shortcut like this, as I can never work out a way to get out of a fullscreen app without quitting, if I wan't to quickly check an IM message or something that I don't want to quit a game to do.

andrewfenn wrote on the 8 Mar 08 at 07:24
Not everyone has the windows key on Linux.

This idea is more to do with the individual applications rather then anything Ubuntu can do. I suggest filing bugs on the game you're having problems with.

Psycho_zs wrote on the 8 Mar 08 at 18:39
Switching tasks is a window manager's duty! It can be patched by Ubuntu developers to do it anyway: to override or bypass hotkeys stealing.

andrehe wrote on the 10 Mar 08 at 10:15
It would be best to simply copy the sensible Windows behavior for Alt-Tab. It should not be possible to override it. If the user wants to cycle through the running desktop applications, it has to be done without question.
This allows for more desktop market share, and helps in bringing more games to Linux platform. Game developers are users, too. And they get a strange impression of the platform if such a crucial functionality is missing.

Psycho_zs wrote on the 10 Mar 08 at 11:00
Simply copy would not be flexible. Example: UrbanTerror game do not steal hotkeys, but there is very high probability of accidental alt+tab push, which is not handy in the middle of a battle. So user must have options to use another hotkeys when in fullscreen, and switch off alt+tab.
But by default - yes - alt+tab should work everywhere.

aruseni wrote on the 10 Mar 08 at 18:39
Use Alt + Tab to switch to the windowed mode from the fullscreen mode. :)

aruseni wrote on the 10 Mar 08 at 18:41
Blah. I mean Ctrl + Enter.

In fact, I think it is true ideologically. Alt + Tab doesn't work because you can't switch to another window if you are not in a window (you are "over" them, in the fullscreen mode).

aruseni wrote on the 10 Mar 08 at 18:43
What a day. Alt + Enter indeed. :))

Psycho_zs wrote on the 11 Mar 08 at 16:03
Run Sauerbraten or OpenArena and try! See what happens.
In Sauerbraten - nothing!
In Openarena - wrong colors on desktop, and no mouse and keyboard release.
But in UrbanTerror every desktop hotkey works, even alt+shift keyboard layout select, which is not handy. So it is not an ideology, it is the matter of WM flexibility.

gnarlin wrote on the 18 Mar 08 at 21:46
There is a great little program that works like a charm on many (but not all) opengl and SDL games.
http://hem.bredband.net/b400150/
etswitch.

Check it out. Maybe it could be integrated into Ubuntu.

Eldmannen wrote on the 25 Mar 08 at 01:57
I hate when fullscreen apps freeze or crash...

Tulio wrote on the 19 Apr 08 at 12:17
I want can switch over to the different window without turning the game off!

Vadim P. wrote on the 24 Apr 08 at 19:00
You can do this in Savage 2. I don't know how they did it, but in full-screen mode, I can alt+tab or use the compiz screen edge (set to scale for me) just like in any other app. It's amazing.

Psycho_zs wrote on the 27 Apr 08 at 13:53
It is not amazing. It's just like it MUST BE

Vadim P. wrote on the 13 Jun 08 at 16:31
It looks like wine offers this kind of integration too.

I wonder what are games doing to steal the fullscreen like that...

brettalton wrote on the 26 Sep 08 at 02:30
The really simple way that Windows fixes this problem is that - when an application is fullscreen (or maybe even always) -the desktop acts as a window and therefore can be Alt + Tab (ed) to.


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