Ahnenerbe WideGui 1920 x 1080 Final Alt-tab Issues.

[FreierVogel]

Hello all!

As the title suggests, I'm having a problem with SH3 not letting me alt-tab to a different window while using this mod.
Since I currently only have one monitor, this is a rather annoying issue.

Is there any fixes or solutions to this? I couldn't find any notes of this in the mods thread.
Hopefully its something simple, but not being the most fluent with coding or computers, I'm rather lost. Id hate to have to not use this mod.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

[XenonSurf]

All SH series (SH3,4,5) don't like ALT-TAB. You will get keyboard commands not working anymore, grafic glitches and strange crew behavior. If you are underwater your sub may get damaged. Etc.
The remedy is: if you really want to go to desktop, save game before ALT-Tabbing. Reloading game will get things to normal again.

[ThePrody]

This is strange, i use Ahenenrbe or ARB Widegui ( it is built on top Ahnenerbe mod) and i can ALT-TAB without any issues . I pause the game before doing it , Windows 7 os . The only issue i have noticed - if i ALT TAB a lot, like ten times or so, i might get a SH3.exe not responding error at the end, when exiting the game, otherwise nothing unusual.

[XenonSurf]

SH3 is less prone to errors when ALT-Tabbing compared to SH5,4, but it depends which mods you have loaded, some will make problems. I always pause game before. With SH5 I need to go to main menu to avoid problems (thus saving the game before.)

I have to ask, do you have another window open where alt+tab to from the game?

[FreierVogel]

It seems to show that its switching the tabs, but the game stays in front of everything else, not letting me access anything. Is this some kind of glitch?

[XenonSurf]

Instead of using ALT-TAB, use WIN_Key+D. This will go directly to desktop and not to the next open app. But I doubt it will resolve jerkiness in SH3...

[FreierVogel]

Originally Posted by XenonSurf

Instead of using ALT-TAB, use WIN_Key+D. This will go directly to desktop and not to the next open app. But I doubt it will resolve jerkiness in SH3...

This doesn't seem to work either.
The game is still staying on-top of everything. Even if I use the task-bar to select, for example, chrome.
It registers I've selected it, but its like it pulls up behind the game, and clicking only goes back to the game.

[XenonSurf]

Originally Posted by FreierVogel

This doesn't seem to work either.
The game is still staying on-top of everything. Even if I use the task-bar to select, for example, chrome.
It registers I've selected it, but its like it pulls up behind the game, and clicking only goes back to the game.

Maybe it's because your grafic options are set to Windowed Mode filling all your screen? I don't remember if SH3 has such a setting, but try to change the setting to Fullscreen in that case. (In order to start SH3 at all on my Win7x64 system I must lower the resolution on desktop first, else I get a 3D error, and because of that I'm not ALT-Tabbing out very often, so I don't know all the finesses).


Then, the general troubleshooting notes for SH3 say that you also should put your grafic scaling option to the 2nd one in the Nvidia Panel, 'Vollbild' in German (don't know in English, sorry.). There must be a reason for that, so do it and try again.

[FreierVogel]

Originally Posted by XenonSurf

Maybe it's because your grafic options are set to Windowed Mode filling all your screen? I don't remember if SH3 has such a setting, but try to change the setting to Fullscreen in that case. (In order to start SH3 at all on my Win7x64 system I must lower the resolution on desktop first, else I get a 3D error, and because of that I'm not ALT-Tabbing out very often, so I don't know all the finesses).


Then, the general troubleshooting notes for SH3 say that you also should put your grafic scaling option to the 2nd one in the Nvidia Panel, 'Vollbild' in German (don't know in English, sorry.). There must be a reason for that, so do it and try again.

I tried this and Im still having the same problem.
The tabs say they switch but the game stays ontop of everything else, not letting me click anything other than the game.

Is there anything else I can try or I am missing?

[XenonSurf]

In your main game folder, The Widescreen Gui will add 2 files, d3d9.dll and d3d9.ini.


Check the d3d9.ini , it should have these values:


------------------------
[GLOBAL]
DebugLog=true

[ENGINE]
DisplayWidth=1920
DisplayHeight=1080
Refreshrate=false

[LOADSCREENS]
tx=0.044
ty=0.0205
sx=0.04
sy=0.02
maxscale=true

[EFFECTS]
Ocean=false
------------------------


Additionally, your SH3 shortcut must have these compatibility modes: Compatibility WinXP Service Pack 2, Launch program as Admin. (2 checkboxes ticked).

[FreierVogel]

Originally Posted by XenonSurf

In your main game folder, The Widescreen Gui will add 2 files, d3d9.dll and d3d9.ini.


Check the d3d9.ini , it should have these values:


------------------------
[GLOBAL]
DebugLog=true

[ENGINE]
DisplayWidth=1920
DisplayHeight=1080
Refreshrate=false

[LOADSCREENS]
tx=0.044
ty=0.0205
sx=0.04
sy=0.02
maxscale=true

[EFFECTS]
Ocean=false
------------------------


Additionally, your SH3 shortcut must have these compatibility modes: Compatibility WinXP Service Pack 2, Launch program as Admin. (2 checkboxes ticked).

Everything checks out.

Could it be because the mod is in the MODS folder, activated by JSGME?
Or is that the correct way.

[XenonSurf]

Originally Posted by FreierVogel

Everything checks out.

Could it be because the mod is in the MODS folder, activated by JSGME?
Or is that the correct way.

Yes, Ahnenerbes' GUI is activated via JSGME, you should have it on the right side of the JSGME window if activated.

If you have done all this, and still have the same problems, then something on your OS prevents the window switch, I cannot tell what it is. I hope someone has better ideas...

[Comet701]

After trying to fix this problem unsuccessfully for several days I found another, unrelated thread that suggested that ARB WideGui 1920x1080 for SH3 has problems with desktop resolutions that are higher than 1600x900.

I found that simply changing your desktop (not game!) resolution to less than 1600x900 before starting SH 3, will allow you to ALT-TAB as much as you want from within the game.

Hopefully this can be of help to others who need to be able to switch to desktop while playing.

[Aerowaffle]

Originally Posted by Comet701

After trying to fix this problem unsuccessfully for several days I found another, unrelated thread that suggested that ARB WideGui 1920x1080 for SH3 has problems with desktop resolutions that are higher than 1600x900.

I found that simply changing your desktop (not game!) resolution to less than 1600x900 before starting SH 3, will allow you to ALT-TAB as much as you want from within the game.

Hopefully this can be of help to others who need to be able to switch to desktop while playing.

Thanks for the info! I had the same problem, but your solution helped me.
As Comet said, you need to switch your desktop resolution to 1600x900 or less before starting SH3. After the launch you can switch your desktop back to the original resolution and alt-tab all day.