Forums mIRC Help MSG displaying overtop of full screen game

I am searching for an answer to a problem I am having.

I get a lot of msg's in IRC and I play a full screen video game. I would like to be able to read the messages I get while I am in the game. I tried playing with the Tip Balloons but they do not show over my game.

Does anyone know of a solution out there for this? Specifically using mIRC and only a single monitor. I've had many suggestions for strange solutions, but the specific one I am asking for is the one that is needed.

Thank You

Do any other windows/tips of yours ever become visible above your fullscreen game? This is usually something the full screen application controls-- some games make sure nothing pops up above it (a fullscreen version of always on top). If you can see other windows pop up above it, though, it means it doesnt have such a functionality...

In that case, you'd need to write a DLL to hook on the opening of tip windows (or know when theyre being opened) and bring them to the front. You may be able to use COM scripting too, as it's a simple windows call to bring the window in question to the top. I'm not sure if mIRC does this on its own..

Well, yahoo messenger notifications would pop up, but i wouldnt be able to read them. I would just see this flicker on the bottom right hand corner, but the notification wasnt legible.

The game in question is day of defeat source. And I assume the problem would be the same for any source game. So, a solution for CSS might also work in dod:s if anyone knows one.

I will look into your suggestions also argv0, thanks much.

A lot of programs tend to try and pop something up in front of games, but games are designed to prevent it simply because most people don't want that to happen. Think about it, if a popup appeared in front of certain games where you are moving your mouse around and clicking, you may be unable to click on something until the popup went away and that may cause you to lose. Beyond that, there are a lot of games that just don't handle losing focus, whether it be from Alt-Tab or something causing it to minimize or some other program gaining focus temporarily. You can call it bad programming in the game and probably be right, but it doesn't change the fact that if popups gained focus in those games, you'd probably have to close and reopen the game to continue playing it without it giving you issues.

If you really need to know what's happening, make mIRC give audio alerts instead.

Open a program/tip or something like that would cause many programs/games to minimize, not fun while you are in the game playing

I disagree. I've had things popup in games before. in the bottom right corner, its unlikely you randomly click on it.. usually the notices are useful- I can see where he's going with this-- unfortunately, it depends on the game.

Heh. I've had it happen. Many games end up putting some kind of button down there. I've had McAfee, as an example, pop up with a "need to restart to finish update" box. It didn't technically cover the game... it showed for a second, then was hidden, but it would be on top as far as clicking went. This happened regardless of the game (assuming the game wasn't one that minimized when this happened). Until you got out of the game (at least with Alt-Tab), clicking there would just click the McAfee box and drop you out of the game rather than clicking what you had in the game. Take a game like WoW or LOTRO just as examples. Unless you change your layout, the inventory opens in the bottom right (and up the right side of the screen with multiple bags). If something is in the way, you can't click on the items in the bag without clicking on the popup. Anyhow, that's just one example for one program and just an example with a couple of games. I could rattle off a lot more games, but what's the point? I could also list more programs, but again... what's the point. These examples illustrate it enough, imo. Now, obviously, that McAfee dialog is larger than most popups, but any popup can cover in-game stuff and make it so you can't get at it without clicking on the pop up to close it or waiting for it to close on its own. The first will likely drop you out of the game and the second will make you wait until it's gone before being able to click something there. Obviously, the game has to be one that has something to click there, but there are many out there that do have things to click in the lower right corner... especially if you have games that scroll around by dragging to the corner of the screen. In any case, the problem with clicking is secondary to the popups causing various games to either become unstable or to drop to desktop. There's no reason someone can't do this for themselves, but it would *really* be bad if mIRC did it.

I understand the issues with things coming to the front over a game, but in the game I play Nettalk already does what I'm asking without a problem. The problem that I have is that I think Nettalk sucks...and I would much rather use mIRC.