Windowed mode alt-tab = Game stops/pauses until re-focused

[Vlad, Doing Snek Things]

Am I missing something somewhere, the game seems to just pause when I Alt-Tab out o the window.

I run 2 screens, and whenever the game has a loss of focus, then it goes into a 'stop' until it is refocused.

I didn't see anything about this in the options or anywhere to enable it.

Seems a bit of a shame, since it's a kind of game that you can run on a second screen (like I do) and have things keep progressing while watching it

[ƦƴѵŁ]

I'm in the same boat. I'd like to see an option to continue this while I multitask on another function. Maybe I oversaw the option, but I see nothing on how to continue the progress once tabbed out.

[Raxxis]

The game requires "focus" to function. Focus is a prgogramming term to define what the user is currently selecting. So pressing the SaveButton is a Focus of [SaveButton, GameMenu, GameScreen] (child:parent relationship) .. basically. So to Windows, it would be [GameScreen, Windows], and when that loses focus of it's parent "Windows", the game pauses until it is True again. So, aside from it possibly being a programming decision, which I have used before when designing, it is also more likely to be a game design decision, that if you aren't actively playing the game, time should not pass - which I would agree with entirely.

[Vlad, Doing Snek Things]

Originally posted by Raxxis:

The game requires "focus" to function. Focus is a prgogramming term to define what the user is currently selecting. So pressing the SaveButton is a Focus of [SaveButton, GameMenu, GameScreen] (child:parent relationship) .. basically. So to Windows, it would be [GameScreen, Windows], and when that loses focus of it's parent "Windows", the game pauses until it is True again. So, aside from it possibly being a programming decision, which I have used before when designing, it is also more likely to be a game design decision, that if you aren't actively playing the game, time should not pass - which I would agree with entirely.

I don't see why this should be a thing for a game like this. It's not a micro-management game. It's effectively an indirect-control god game, like rimworld.

Forcing a focus on the game window, while some tedious stuff is set to be done, isn't something that should require my constant attention and focus.

I can understand if it's a game where you have to manually order each person around, or an FPS or some sort of RTS, but it's a colony builder. Things require time, time should not pause if the window loses focus.

A lot of the charm of colony builders, like Banished or Rimworld, and even Prison architect, is that you can set things to be done, and not have to have exclusive focus while time passes. You can watch them, or you can actively play them.

[TehJumpingJawa]

I'm sure they'll add a "pause on defocus" toggle in the options.

[SeVerin]

We're actively working on this. Peeps complained about it even during the beta.

But thank you anyway!

[-SkorpionX-]

So.... how's the work going? :) Do you plan to change it anytime soon? Is there an option I oversaw already implemented?

[Kipster]

It is implemented. Enable "Run in the background" from the "graphics" options

[Traveller]

Originally posted by Kipster:

It is implemented. Enable "Run in the background" from the "graphics" options

Thanks! I completely missed that. Any idea when it was added?

[SeVerin]

Originally posted by Traveller:

Thanks! I completely missed that. Any idea when it was added?

5 days after this original post was made. You commented on a year-old thread :)

[-SkorpionX-]

Soooo good! Thank you, I must go find it then :) You're doing great job! :)