Morrowind Crashes on Alt-Tab to Desktop

[ElectroVeeDub]

Windows 10 (all updates)
Asus 970 Aura MoBo
AMD FX-8350
GTX 760 OC (latest driver)
16 GB ram

As the title says... whenever I Alt-Tab out of Morrowind to the desk top ... to check another webpage in Firefox for example... it predictably crashes everytime in fullscreen mode, but not windowed.

I hate windowed mode on games, and I'm looking for a way to run Morrowind fullscreen, but I want to maintain the ability to Alt-Tab into other apps while the game is running in the background (just like most other games allow).

I get an error message that says something about "shaders".

I have altered Regedit to get a proper 1080 x 1920 16:9 resolution in the Morrowind registry.

Anybody got any ideas that do not involve mods? (they always mess up the vanilla game).

[mafilux]

You're running the game without mods? I use distant lands so alt-tabbing is a non option for me anyway, since it makes distant lands stop working. Also Morrowind only uses a specific amount of resources hardware-wise, you could have a Titan and with enough mods Morrowind would still suffer heavy frame drops, just saying.

It may well be a resolution thing. I'd also recommend always running it as admin (Even on admin accounts, sometimes this will help if you specifically run the program as admin). Have you tried changing video settings to turn certain effects off? It could also be a Win10 thing, I know a lot of people have had trouble with Win10 and Morrowind :(

[ElectroVeeDub]

Originally posted by mafilux:

You're running the game without mods? I use distant lands so alt-tabbing is a non option for me anyway, since it makes distant lands stop working. Also Morrowind only uses a specific amount of resources hardware-wise, you could have a Titan and with enough mods Morrowind would still suffer heavy frame drops, just saying.

It may well be a resolution thing. I'd also recommend always running it as admin (Even on admin accounts, sometimes this will help if you specifically run the program as admin). Have you tried changing video settings to turn certain effects off? It could also be a Win10 thing, I know a lot of people have had trouble with Win10 and Morrowind :(

I am having absolutely no problems with framerate. The game runs beautifully.

The issue is only when I Alt-Tab during fullscreen only. Windowed there is no issue.

I'll try running it in Windows XP compatability mode as Admin.

I've tried turning every effect off yes... not that there is many :)

I remember hearing about a mod that may fix this issue... but I can't remember where I saw it before.

[mafilux]

Originally posted by ElectroVeeDub:

I am having absolutely no problems with framerate. The game runs beautifully.

The issue is only when I Alt-Tab during fullscreen only. Windowed there is no issue.

I'll try running it in Windows XP compatability mode as Admin.

I've tried turning every effect off yes... not that there is many :)

I remember hearing about a mod that may fix this issue... but I can't remember where I saw it before.

I'd also try changing the resoluton back down, though I know that's not ideal. I guess we can be happy that the game doesn't take long to load, at least ;/

[Dirty Dan]

First thing to learn about Morrowind is that as amazing as it is, it is a broken, broken game. The Alt-Tab Glitch has been around since forever, nothing to do with Windows 10. I wouldn't worry too much about it and just use the Steam Overlay for all your alt-tab needs.

[ElectroVeeDub]

Originally posted by グラッグ:

First thing to learn about Morrowind is that as amazing as it is, it is a broken, broken game. The Alt-Tab Glitch has been around since forever, nothing to do with Windows 10. I wouldn't worry too much about it and just use the Steam Overlay for all your alt-tab needs.

Ok. I'll try using the overlay like you suggested. I know Morrowind has it's quirks. As it did when it launched on Xbox. But for the amount of copies Bethesda is still selling, and for the rather high price of the game considering it's age, you'd think they'd release a quick patch to fix this.

But I'm positive I saw a mod somewhere that claimed to address this.

[mafilux]

I didn't even think of the steam overlay. If you're just tabbing out to look stuff up mostly, using the steam overlay to do that seems like the best solution right now.

[ElectroVeeDub]

Originally posted by mafilux:

I didn't even think of the steam overlay. If you're just tabbing out to look stuff up mostly, using the steam overlay to do that seems like the best solution right now.

I tried it. The overlay for some odd reason isn't working inside Morrowind. I did enable it, and I did rebind the hotkey.

So... unless I'm doing something wrong... the overlay appears to not offer any solution to the Alt-Tab issue at this point.

[Emperor Zombie]

Maybe... Borderless-Gaming[github.com] Github

http://store.steampowered.com/app/388080/Borderless_Gaming/

[Medican]

Try MGE XE and chose different resolutions, windowed mode, etc. You don't need to enable distant land or other graphic improvements, simply use MGE for the resolution options and to use alt+tab. Anyway the MGE options don't mess up or change too much the vanilla look, except to grass probably (you can disable) and maximum distant land (whatever distant land option set to more than 4-6 cells is too much to respect the vanilla "hidden landscape", but 1, 2 or 4 cells is ok). MGE helps to prevent some Windows 10-Morrowind problems.


Some examples with only MGE and Morrowind code patch, without other mods:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=952398045

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=952397968

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=952397908

The game looks totally vanilla like (in textures, animations, models, etc). only changing shadows, light, distant land or graphic "effects".

I recommend you to use Morrowind Code Patch also, isn't a mod but a patch compilation, repair many Morrowind bugs, glitches, etc.

MGE XE: http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/41102/?

Morrowind Code Patch: http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/19510/?

[ElectroVeeDub]

Originally posted by Andalucía Tribu Creativa:

Try MGE XE and chose different resolutions, windowed mode, etc. You don't need to enable distant land or other graphic improvements, simply use MGE for the resolution options and to use alt+tab. Anyway the MGE options don't mess up or change too much the vanilla look, except to grass probably (you can disable) and maximum distant land (whatever distant land option set to more than 4-6 cells is too much to respect the vanilla "hidden landscape", but 1, 2 or 4 cells is ok). MGE helps to prevent some Windows 10-Morrowind problems.


Some examples with only MGE and Morrowind code patch, without other mods:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=952398045

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=952397968

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=952397908

The game looks totally vanilla like (in textures, animations, models, etc). only changing shadows, light, distant land or graphic "effects".

I recommend you to use Morrowind Code Patch also, isn't a mod but a patch compilation, repair many Morrowind bugs, glitches, etc.

MGE XE: http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/41102/?

Morrowind Code Patch: http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/19510/?

Great ideas. Thanks for the suggestion. But now it's time for a status update:

I installed MGE XE and Morrowind Code Patch. However I did not get them from Nexus as they appear to insist on some sort of subscription fee. I got the mods from the official Bethesda forums at:

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1305729-mod-recommendations-for-new-players/

Hopefully that helps other new owners of the Steam version of Morrowind save some money.

However... the mods had no effect on the Alt-Tab crashes.

On a positive note: The above mentioned mods had quite the effect on the graphics of Morrowind. The water is much better looking, and theres been ambient occlusion added to the sun/lighting. The draw distance is much improved with the fog gone: I can actually climb a hill and see buildings in the distance. NPC's now have detailed shadows. It's all very subtle improvements that still retain the vanilla-looking nostalgia for us old guys yet modernizes the game somewhat without breaking it. And the mods were somewhat easy to install. I'm impressed.

Originally posted by Emperor Zombie:

Maybe... Borderless-Gaming[github.com] Github

http://store.steampowered.com/app/388080/Borderless_Gaming/

^^^

This just might be a viable alternative. Good idea. :)

[mafilux]

Hmm they shouldnt charge on nexusmods, that's a little odd. I have an ad blocker though so idk, it might be an ad thing.

[Logorouge]

Originally posted by ElectroVeeDub:

However I did not get them from Nexus as they appear to insist on some sort of subscription fee.

Nexus is free. Scroll past all the sub options and you'll see the "create account" button. Although the Morrowind Modding History website is a good source of mods, you'll still need to go on Nexus for some mods unavailable elsewhere.

[ElectroVeeDub]

Originally posted by mafilux:

Hmm they shouldnt charge on nexusmods, that's a little odd. I have an ad blocker though so idk, it might be an ad thing.

Yeah I guess I just mis-understood their site during the registration process. I'm new to modding, and avoided it years past due to bad experiences. There is an option to subscribe that the site pushed on me. Nonetheless the Bethesda forums have links to the same mods.

[Dollface]

I have a rather inelegant solution, but it does produce about 95% of the intended result, and it goes as follows:

1. Open Morrowind in Windowed Mode
2. Center the windowed Morrowind (at max resolution) in the middle of the screen.
3. Set Desktop Background to a pure black image.
4. Hide Desktop icons: Right Click empty space > View > Show Desktop Icons *uncheck*
5. Set the Taskbar at the bottom of the screen to be hidden in Desktop Mode: Right Click Taskbar > Taskbar Settings > Automatically hide Taskbar in desktop mode *click to On*

After these steps, you have Morrowind with black on either side, and the ability to tab in and out freely, with just its top box bar showing (95% of desired result, like I said).

[psychotron666]

All the games on this engine would crash most of the time when you alt tab out until I believe skyrim maybe fallout 3. I'm pretty sure it even says in the instruction manual not to alt tab.