Multiple monitor in game

[Mad Hatter]

Maybe you guys can help me here. Google wasn't very helpful or maybe I wasn't wording this right. Anyways, I got a new computer and it has 2 screens. What I want to do is use them both when I'm playing. If I hit esc I get a mouse cursor which allows me to move to the second screen, but when I click it minimizes the game like I alt+tab. SO my question is, can I set it up to not jump out of the game when I wanna use the second screen for vent, winamp etc?

 

[Crowbar]

SO my question is, can I set it up to not jump out of the game when I wanna use the second screen for vent, winamp etc?

Not if the game is running full-screen. The best compromise would be to run your game in windowed mode, if possible, and maximize the window.

I don't have any names handy, but there are some programs that try to address this issue. I've never seen one that actually worked.

 

[I-Die-Often]

Crowbar has it dead on.... as this is how I operate at my job... everything has to be in a window then you can maximize the window to one screen and still use the other for other applications... after using the dual screen set up at work for the past few months, I really want one for my house too... it is REALLY nice to operate with two screens.

 

[blizbiggy]

fullscreen doesnt allow your game to not be minimized when you flip, so like crowbar said, you need to have it windowed or it wouldnt work. The compromise with it being windowed though, is that you lose fps.

 

[Ducttape]

Just to add to what others have said ~

you can also turn on the noborder option (makes the windowed app look even less like a window).

With how many people there are using dual monitor setups, it seems like they would have made 'something' so you could have one full-screen app running on one monitor and still be able to move the cursor to the other w/o alt'tab out of game....maybe a hotkey, i dunno. Seems like it should be doable, doesn't it?

I'm a little lucky w/ my setup; I have a tv tuner card, and I watch tv on my second display while playing. My remote can pause tv, change channels, etc...without having to alt-tab out of game.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Alright, thanks everyone. Guess I'll have to alt tab. One good thing I noticed last night though is that I had vent open on my second screen and could see who was talking and joining. At least it works in real time, not like a screen shot.

 

[Passerby]

if it's a source or goldsrc(hl1) game just add these 2 things to it's launch options

-windowed -noborder

there is a small fps drop and you must be running at the displays max resolution but it does the job