10 replies to this topic

[juxstapo]

First off, I'm sure most folks in here already know this, but it bears mentioning somewhere: Alt+F4 is the hotkey combo to close the running application. Many "clever" and "classy" individuals like to respond to in-game information requests with this in an attempt to trick someone into closing the client mid-match. For example:
newbie: "Hey guys, how do I zoom? / bring up the map?/ see my teammates? / etc"
jackwad: "alt f4"
newbie: "Thanks!"
newbie has disconnected
jackwad: "lol"


Now what I actually had on the brain...
(Actually, most folks in here already know this as well. I'll specify the audience in the title)

Pressing Alt+Tab cycles through the currently running programs (well, in Windows it does). Most abused use of this while playing MWO is probably reading email and browsing the forums while waiting for the MM to find you a match*, however it has one very pertinent use in-game also:

*PGI added a great feature to assist with this very thing; the client now flashes on your taskbar when a match has been found, alerting you to the fact that you need to click back in and hit 'Ready' so your friends can be kept utterly clueless as to what you were actually doing on the web when they thought you were playing the 'See How Many Words You Can Make With The Letters From "Searching" ' along with them... wait, what where you doing? Ah, y'know. I don't want to know.

Quickly Alt+Tabbing can be used to jumpstart your client on a minor freeze.

Before using it in a match, do it in testing grounds. I've had one teammate who couldn't Alt+Tab out of an MWO match without causing the client to lock up completely, requiring a total system reboot. The culprit was inadequately updated drivers for a frankly inadequate graphics card, regardless of the why, just know that it happened and you should see if it happens to you before attempting this in a match.

Now, as the lovely Mining Collective has shown us, new maps always have some problem spots. Wonky textures and collision detection and artifacts that cause rabid archeologists to swarm your mech's legs and so forth.
Probably due to the sheer number of assets on the map, MC seems to have more glitchs than most of the maps have had in the break-in phase. But wonky latency and weather patterns and the fickle caprice of the internet gaming principalities can also cause your game to 'stick' from time to time.
Provided your graphics hardware is kosher, you can often Alt+Tab out of the client, then Alt+Tab right back in the space of a second or less. The stipulation being you need another program running in the background to Alt+Tab to, and honestly I feel that's best accomplished by having your browser up to these forums. Thusly you can research builds and tactics during dull moments in a match.

The freezes and snags I'm referring to are the ilk where everything just stops. Suddenly you're looking at stationary, often midair mechs and missles and laserbeams stuck 'ON' and so forth and you know that the match is actually happening, your MechWarrior just seems to be currently catatonic. With a modicum of effort you can learn to:
1. recognize what happened
2. Alt+Tab out
3. Alt+Tab back in
4. Continue killing the other guys
within the barest fractions of a meaningless nth of time. Having participated in a goodly number of competitive drops on Mining Collective last week I've had to put this technique to use many many times.

Now this doesn't appear to help nearly as much if you experience a freeze that blackscreens the client... properly referred to as a "lockup" I would think. (Try it anyway). But the very few times I've experienced these I had to resort to pulling up the task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del), and force closing the client. But it won't hurt to try Alt+Tabbing, might work better for you.

And on that note: I've had no luck at all with the windows key in these situations Might just be me and my poorly maintained self-built gaming rig-ish.

Oh, if you have more than one additional window running, take care you don't Alt+TabTab. Or press Tab twice while still holding the Alt key, thereby swapping between two windows and requiring you to swap back between two windows. It's not horrendously discombobulating, but it throws your rhythm off bit having to parse what you just did wrong, and it's very avoidable

Hope this helps someone.
See you on the field MechWarriors. <S>

Edited by juxstapo, 01 October 2014 - 06:52 PM.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

And Alt-Tab doesn't fire off any weapons either.

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This info is good to know for players having technical troubles.

Edited by Praetor Knight, 01 October 2014 - 07:36 PM.

[NullZeal]

It is sad that this is a "need to know thing" with this game but the alt+tab method works for the black sceens and or hard freezes, also try it when your fps drops or have high ping spikes too.

note that works sometimes...

[MadPanda]

You also need to have something to alt tab to. As in, open a browser. I find that to be annoying when I have nothing else open than the game, I must open something like a folder or commonly a browser before the game lets me alt tab.

[terrycloth]

ctrl+alt+delete to bring up the task manager unfreezes me sometimes, and doesn't require anything else open

[Darth Futuza]

A better solution: use Cryengine's built in alt + enter command to change from fullscreen to windowed mode or vice versa.

Alt tab will occasionally freeze up resource heavy applications and cause issues. Alt + enter does not.

[juxstapo]

@ darth: good to know, was unaware of that one.

[Old Bones]

Reminded me of the MW4 days when the newb question of "What button do I hit to ???" was answered with "ctrl + z" i.e., Self-Destruct!

[Bront]

Praetor Knight, on 01 October 2014 - 07:36 PM, said:

And Alt-Tab doesn't fire off any weapons either.

---

This info is good to know for players having technical troubles.

Unless you map Alt or Tab to a weapon group...

[Morgana]

juxstapo, on 01 October 2014 - 06:47 PM, said:

*PGI added a great feature to assist with this very thing; the client now flashes on your taskbar when a match has been found, alerting you to the fact that you need to click back in and hit 'Ready' so your friends can be kept utterly clueless as to what you were actually doing on the web when they thought you were playing the 'See How Many Words You Can Make With The Letters From "Searching" ' along with them... wait, what where you doing? Ah, y'know. I don't want to know.

Nice tip for all of us multitaskers to know! Thanks juxstapo

[John Wolf]

When my client freezes like that, I've had to ctrl+alt+del, then select Run Taskmanager', when it opens, close that, and it goes right back into the game without the freeze. Sometimes, my alt+tab combo just doesn't fix it. Good tip though.