firstly, does running in windowed mode reduce FPS? I almost always run my games in full screen because of this. I also like to have the graphics go up to the edge of my monitor to get rid of the border. but...

i like to use MSN Messenger but I find when I have LFS in full screen mode I cant hear or see any messages.

is there a way to force LFS to allow background to show through, so when I see someone log on and the window on the task bar (above the clock) pops up, itll appear in the game for a split second?

Then i will know if someone has logged on, or sent me a message and i can shift F4...

Stupid request i know but my friends think im ignoring them when im playing.

Running in windowed mode shouldn't really affect your fps, if you're keeping the resolution the same as in fullscreen, there shouldn't really be a difference.

About on-top windows being on-top of lfs, i don't think there's a way of forcing this, and i don't think it would be a good idea. There is some IM called x-fire i think, which can overlay messages over direct3d screens and let you respond in-game, but iirc it contains spyware

I dont really need to respond in-game. I just need to hear the "ding dong" of when someone logs on or sends me a message

thats because when you maximize a game or something like such.. MSN goes to busy, and the sound for it turns off

Quote from richy :

firstly, does running in windowed mode reduce FPS?

To answer this one, I get a 10-15 FPS drop when in window mode.

Quote :

Stupid request i know but my friends think im ignoring them when im playing.

Tell them to get use to it. That's what I told my wife .

pretty sure msn continues to work as usual if you maximise the lfs window, it only goes busy if lfs switches to full screen mode

Quote from Takumi_Project.d :

pretty sure msn continues to work as usual if you maximise the lfs window, it only goes busy if lfs switches to full screen mode

yeah but the pop up box still shows during other games, its probably a glitch but it used to let me know if someone logged on or sent a message still. then i would Alt Tab and speak to them.

I will try turning off the auto busy thing and see if it has any effect.

If I'm driving in LFS, with the screen maximised as it always is, MSN does show me as busy.

But dammit.. I AM busy! Bug me later! I'm in the middle of a race, FFS! Does Kimi write SMS messages to his buddies while he's chasing the pack around the track? NO!!

So what if someone IMs you.. you've got stuff going on. Let them leave a message and you can pick it up when you get back down off the podium.