Annoyances minimizing Team Fortress 2

[TmBlackFlag]

Whenever I'm in TF2 and i minimize out there is about a 10% chance i can get back in without the goddamn game crashing. And that is only if i wait literally like 5 minutes. Does anyone else experience this? It's nice to be able to tab out of a game, or if I have AIM running and a message pulls me out I can get back in.

Yes I could use my away message so I don't get pulled out but I have no issues minimizing out of other games, even L4D2 which also uses steam.

 

[coldmeat]

I haven't had the game crash but sometimes when I go back in to the game, some of the textures will be a purple/black checkerboard, but alt-tabbing out and back in fixes it.

 

[TmBlackFlag]

Yeah i can't even get back into the game after an alt+tab

 

[YoungGun21]

Same problem here with any Source game I play. I think it is the engine.

 

[pcslookout]

Whenever I'm in TF2 and i minimize out there is about a 10% chance i can get back in without the goddamn game crashing. And that is only if i wait literally like 5 minutes. Does anyone else experience this? It's nice to be able to tab out of a game, or if I have AIM running and a message pulls me out I can get back in.

Yes I could use my away message so I don't get pulled out but I have no issues minimizing out of other games, even L4D2 which also uses steam.

Try running TF2 in windowed mode then exit out of it and add -noborder to the launch options. Should fix your problem.

 

[pcslookout]

If you can't get TF2 in the game to be playable in a window instead of just full screen, not sure, then use this in launch options.

-window -noborder

 

[pcslookout]

Glad to see it worked for you!

 

[TmBlackFlag]

it works but then i'm at the mercy of my desktop brightness which is too dark. It then becomes an inconvenience to raise/lower my brightness whenever I TF2.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

TF2 and other source games don't do well at all with alt-tab.

I've had TF2 textures get screwed up and have to do the steam file check crap to get it working again..

 

[Mutilator]

Use alt-esc instead of alt-tab. Once I found that out it's all I use in every game now... much more likely to get back into the game that way.

 

[videogames101]

-window -noborder

 

[Malak]

I haven't had the game crash but sometimes when I go back in to the game, some of the textures will be a purple/black checkerboard, but alt-tabbing out and back in fixes it.

The purple/black is actually a lack of textures.

And why not just turn your AIM off if you are playing a game? If you can't focus on the game, why bother running it at all? I've never understood this. I can multitask a lot of things, but when I run a game everything else goes. If I can't focus on the game, I turn it off.

 

[0roo0roo]

long term annoyance here as well, it behaves extremely poorly. cs source, left4dead2 minimize and restore back without too much of an issue. tf2 takes forever..then if you wait too long it seems unable to handle and loses server connection or simply doesn't restore at all. they shoulda fixed this kinda stuff before adding ever more bloat to the game.

 

[Molondo]

going to menu, then shift+tab helps when alt tabbing, at least in my case.

 

[Rezident]

Never had that exact problem but when I do minimise out it always takes a while - like nearly ten full seconds - to get back into the game. Seems a bit slow alright but always goes back in alright here.

 

[Boobs McGee]

Its been said a few times, but full details:

In your Steam Library
Right Click Team Fortress 2 and select "Properties"
In the General tab click the button labeled "Launch Options..."
In the popup box type in the following (substitute your own resolution)
-windowed -noborder -novid -w 1920 -h 1200
The -windowed option makes the game run in a window rather than full screen.
The -noborder option removes the border.
The -novid is for the startup vids.
The -w and -h are your screen size the keep everything at the correct resolution and make it look full screen.

I have not had a single problem with alt+tab since I set these options.