Game on one monitor, Use another program on another?

Squanchy · October 12, 2019

Hey all,

Have a weird scenario... So I am trying to see if I am able to game with a controller on my TV from my PC, but while I am gaming have another person use the same PC and do something else on the other monitors while I am gaming and leave the TV as a active display?
I have somewhat achieved this, for example from what i've tried I am able to pop destiny 2 into windowed fullscreen and use it on my TV with a controller while using other programs on my other monitors at the same time. It works. Great. However, where I am getting stuck at is the TV display is not the 'active' display... which pops destiny 2 down to 30 fps. Anyway to go around that? I know some games have a background FPS limiter... Some don't, like destiny 2... Is there any way around this?

Thanks!

Princess Luna · October 12, 2019

27 minutes ago, Squanchy said:

Have a weird scenario... So I am trying to see if I am able to game with a controller on my TV from my PC, but while I am gaming have another person use the same PC and do something else on the other monitors while I am gaming and leave the TV as a active display?

It is possible to do this but not with the TV as active main display but the monitor rather.

Here is how you do it, you set your game to the TV in fullscreen mode (exclusive or not), the game must be configured to use a controller/game pad... and you need to be on "extend" mode with your monitor.

Now once you're in the game and all is good simply alt+tab to move to whatever application running on the other monitor, since the game it's set for full screen it is continue to show up on the TV and even if the Windows focus isn't there the game will continue to pick up the game pad signal and you can literally keep playing seeming-less while you gain full control of mice and keyboard on your monitor.

Some games might require you to disable "pause when focus is lost" like GTA V but every game I've tried works like a charm.

If Destiny 2 in special has performance issues when not in focus then there's nothing I can do to help you out but games I had working perfectly with this method were GTA V, The Witcher 3 and Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

Squanchy · October 12, 2019

2 minutes ago, Princess Luna said:

It is possible to do this but not with the TV as active main display but the monitor rather.

Here is how you do it, you set your game to the TV in fullscreen mode (exclusive or not), the game must be configured to use a controller/game pad... and you need to be on "extend" mode with your monitor.

Now once you're in the game and all is good simply alt+tab to move to whatever application running on the other monitor, since the game it's set for full screen it is continue to show up on the TV and even if the Windows focus isn't there the game will continue to pick up the game pad signal and you can literally keep playing seeming-less while you gain full control of mice and keyboard on your monitor.

Some games might require you to disable "pause when focus is lost" like GTA V but every game I've tried works like a charm.

If Destiny 2 in special has performance issues when not in focus then there's nothing I can do to help you out but games I had working perfectly with this method were GTA V, The Witcher 3 and Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

Awesome, Thank you. That is basically what I have done.. I just tried it on GTA and it indeed did work as what I wanted. Destiny 2 is just a special case then. Thank you