Alt+Tabbing out of the game makes it freeze

[Emeraude_98]

Since the last patch update (2.06F), if I alt+tab out of the game then come back, the game freezes but the audio continues to play and I can still hear my character walking or using the multitool. Am I the only one with this problem?

[carnespecter]

i have the exact same issue, pressing the start key also makes it freeze while continuing to play audio. havent found any fixes yet

EDIT: okay, so i use discord. my overlay was turned on for NMS. i turned it off and it no longer freezes. try that if you have discord running

[Remnar]

Same problem here. The game was in the main menu when I alt tabbed back into it, and the mouse wasn't working in game. The game mouse icon just froze while my windows icon still moved around. Nothing worked. Had to Alt-F4 out of the game.

[ChillQuest]

Originally posted by carnespecter:

i have the exact same issue, pressing the start key also makes it freeze while continuing to play audio. havent found any fixes yet

EDIT: okay, so i use discord. my overlay was turned on for NMS. i turned it off and it no longer freezes. try that if you have discord running

Thanks for your post I manage to fix the issue thx to you.

[BasePillage]

Had the same issue when playing in 4k after the last patch. Dropped down to 1920x1080 and that fixed the issue. I can hit the windows key as many times as I like without the game freezing up with audio playing in the background.

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by Emeraude_98:

Since the last patch update (2.06F), if I alt+tab out of the game then come back, the game freezes but the audio continues to play and I can still hear my character walking or using the multitool. Am I the only one with this problem?

No, this has been a problem for many for a long time. The game by the way is fully active behind the frozen graphics screen. If you can blindly find your ship you can create an autosave so you don't lose progress before restarting. Alternately, if it's been a long time since you saved and you are desperate to recover the game time you just spent, you can start shooting at things and try to get the sentinels to come to you and kill you. You also get an autosave when you die. I did that once and saved 3 hours of base building.

[xxseawulfxx]

I figured it out, for me at least, I hope I figured it out for you too. I bought the game from GOG on sale (sorry steam their price was half off of yours at the time I wanted to buy).

Try going to the games actual directory. Right-click NMS.exe inside the Binaries folder and create a new shortcut, and send the new shortcut to your desktop. This is causing my game to open by itself WITHOUT my GOG Galaxy client opening its overlay with it.

Both shortcuts point to the same target file. The only difference I've seen between the shortcuts is the "Start in:" field is pointed to my GOG Galaxy install after the update where in my new shortcut I just made, its "Start in:" field is pointed to the actual game directory and game launch .exe file.

Updates may be altering your shortcut to "Start in:" a different location than it did before is my guess.

If Steam uses an overlay(i believe it does) similar to GOGs overlay, I bet it's the overlay causing the alt + tab problem. Figure out how to get rid of the Steam overlay, and I bet you'll fix the issue. If it's still happening and you don't use discord anyway.

That's how mine got fixed.

[Ahlos]

I messed around alot with this issue, if i play in fullscreen, i have this issue, but not in borderless fullscreen mode.

[Lazarus Long]

This is one of those rare Linux Gamer moments where I get to gloat:

Alt+Tab has always worked for me running NMS on Ubuntu.

[Kongol]

It's 2023 and this is still a problem

[Finaryman]

Originally posted by Lazarus Long:

This is one of those rare Linux Gamer moments where I get to gloat:

Alt+Tab has always worked for me running NMS on Ubuntu.

windows user here without alt tab issues...

[Zak]

Not a single problem Alt-Tabbing in over 400 hours on Windows 11. I Alt-Tab out of NMS all the time.

[bugc TRUMP2028]

Personally Alt Tab is fine,

But it's the Windows key that causes the game to drop from 60 fps to 10 unless I restart .
Not an issue as long as I avoid that key

[Darth Cervantes]

it doesn't freeze my game but it renders my controller useless and only accepts PC controls until I restart the game (hate that mouse and keyboard business, I don't know how you guys do it )

[STATIK]

neither windows key nor alt-tab give me any issues whatsoever.

On my old outdated setup, alt-tabbing was a big no-no. Perhaps it's performance/hardware related.

[Zak]

Originally posted by Darth Cervantes:

it doesn't freeze my game but it renders my controller useless and only accepts PC controls until I restart the game (hate that mouse and keyboard business, I don't know how you guys do it )

I'm the opposite: keyboard and mouse for over 20 years! I hate controllers. I had the original Xbox once and hated it. I have no idea how people can play games with those clumsy contraptions, LOL:)

Originally posted by Bug:

Personally Alt Tab is fine,

But it's the Windows key that causes the game to drop from 60 fps to 10 unless I restart .
Not an issue as long as I avoid that key

I've just tried that too: no problems whatsoever using the Windows key. I wonder if this might be a graphics driver issue?