Trying to dual box in fullscreen - something weird going on here.

I originally posted this in Player Questions, and it was suggested that I probably should have put it here instead. So I did. I apologize for the cross-post.

I've recently been trying to finish off some of the Mayhem badges on a few of my characters (it's the only Accolade I actively try to get, since it's relatively easy and has a nice bonus.) However, I've been having a problem that I don't remember seeing before. When I attempt to use Alt+Tab to switch from one instance of the game to the other, it doesn't always work. In fact, it most often doesn't work at all.

Previously, pressing Alt+Tab once was sufficient to switch. Now, sometimes it will work. Most times it will not. If hold the Alt key and press Tab several times, sometimes I can get it to switch. Again, most of the time all that happens is the screen flashes black for a split second, and resumes running whichever client I started on.

I am running Win XP SP3. I do not have any other weird programs running - just a firewall (since broadband connection + no firewall = infested computer.) The only other thing of note is that I have the game shortcut set up with the "maxinactivefps 5" command, to reduce the system overhead of having two copies of the game running at once.

It's not essential that I get this going, but it would be useful, and any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm not quite sure when this might have started happening, but the only system changes I've made recently were to install the latest Windows updates. (Not that Microsoft would ever introduce changes that break older versions of the OS. That would be entirely unprecedented.)

I should note that I run the game fullscreen, and really don't intend to try running it windowed. I've attempted it before, and I don't like it for a number of reasons.

*Edit* My graphics card is an NVidia GTS 250 with the 196.21 drivers. Since these drivers mostly seem to work with everything, I wasn't planning to update the drivers until it's absolutely necessary - several of the recent NVidia driver releases have had what would be described as serious issues, if you were feeling charitable. (If you're not feeling so kind, there's a whole horde of more colorful descriptors just waiting to lumber forward.)

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i gave you this answer in your other thread. have you tried it yet?

all you have to do, if you don't run in windowed mode, is press the windows button. works every time. then all you have to do is select the instance of CoX you want to run.

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I have a lower end AGP card and double-box all the time. I run my game in windowed mode always...when I db, I have both instances on the screen at the same time, each talking 1/2 space. Easy to pop back and forth with the cursor. I can actually fight with both characters,

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�Many things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.�

I did see that suggestion, and I did try it. The Windows key *does* switch from one client to the other, but it does so in a slow, clunky way. With Alt+Tab (when it was working properly,) I could make one keypress and be in the other client. With the Windows key, both clients switch to background mode, which I have set to 5 frames per second. I then have to mouse down and click on the taskbar icon for the game. The system then has to switch back from "Desktop" mode to the game, which takes another few seconds.

And I really, really don't want to run the game in Windowed mode. As in, it's not an option I will even pretend to consider seriously. I appreciate the suggestion, but I don't like the way it looks, I don't like the way it runs. My monitor is *not* a huge, high resolution widescreen, so to run two copies of the game side-by-side would require that I set them to display resolutions of less than 800 X 600. That would require moving all the interface panels around, since the game does not seem to save them for a particular resolution. When I'm *not* dual boxing, I'd then have to move everything around again to play fullscreen at a normal resolution.

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Another tidbit that might help performance on your machine is to edit your CoH desktop shortcut and add the following bit to the end of the target:

-maxinactivefps 1

It will then look like:
"C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\CohUpdater.exe" -maxinactivefps 1
if you installed to the default location. The 1 is interchangable with any number except for zero (which removes the cap), and simply tells the game that, if it's not the primary window, it should limit the amount of graphics processing to that many frames per second maximum.

It's great for AFK farming and dual boxing or if you just want to run other stuff without CoH eating all of your system resources.

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Main Hero: Chad Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1396 Badges
Main Villain: Evil Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1193 Badges
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it may be a little slower but it works for now seeing as it appears to be the video drivers that are causing the problems. and if that is the case, there really is nothing the dev's can do about it i don't think.

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I'm seeing nothing to indicate that it is the video drivers causing the problem with Alt+Tab. The person who mentioned that in the first thread has an ATI card. Mine is an NVidia.

*Edit* Chad, thank you for the suggestion. I do have the shortcut setup with the "maxinactive FPS" command, though I currently have it set to five rather than one.

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