Wow. I like the way you think!
These are the kinds of things "I" think about and want to know when playing. The little things, quirks, how the game functions.
I just tested it out and my results say "YES". It does pause.
I loaded a lot with a sim. The sim was on one side of the lot. I gave them the command "Go Here" to the other side of the lot and unpaused it. I Alt-TAB'd and waited about 20-30 seconds and when I came back, they were still where I left them, still walking.
I play in "Fullscreen mode". I'm wondering now if it's different if you play in Windowed or full-screen? Testing...
Very interesting! Turns out, if you play in "Fullscreen" mode, it Pauses the game when you Alt-TAB out. But if you play in "Windowed" mode, it doesn't.
Kudos!
ThePsycho
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@Psychotps Interesting. I tested in windowed fullscreen and windowed modes, because many games, especially older ones, don't like people using alt-tab while in fullscreen mode. I actually watched my sim walk around behind the other windows I had open and figured that was how it was supposed to work.
I wonder though whether the pausing when alt-tabbing from fullscreen mode is Sims 4-specific, or whether it's a Windows function.
You're not wrong. A lot of games REALLY don't like it some tend to crash or just lock up when using Alt-Tab in generic fullscreen mode. Playing in fullscreen windowed mode doesn't seem to have a problem. Although Sims 4 seems to work either way. Fullscreen Windowed mode is faster though and seems to handle the switch better.
That's a good question if it's a game or Windows thing. I have no idea. I could make a case for it either way. Although I suspect its a Windows thing. Windows are designed to run simultaneously. Fullscreen games tend to take almost total control over everything. I think this would give the games better performance if multiple tasks are running. More processing power is shifted to the primary running task if it's fullscreen. Windowed mode would be more shared. I imagine if you have a virus scanner and other background tasks, you'd get worse game performance in Windowed mode.
Mine wouldn't make a difference as my system is highly optimized. No background tasks at all other than the core windows functions. Windowed or fullscreen doesn't effect game speed on mine either way.
ThePsycho
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