mute the game while alt-tabbed

Gergely · Post by **Gergely** » Fri Dec 29, 2017 8:46 pm

I think neither of us really like the fact that the main menu plays a music then.

MarvinCZ · Post by **MarvinCZ** » Fri Dec 29, 2017 8:53 pm

Gergely wrote:I think neither of us really like the fact that the main menu plays a music then.

To be honest, I don't care if there is or is not menu music, because menu isn't place where you would stay any long time.

Asanda_Nima · Post by **Asanda_Nima** » Sat Mar 17, 2018 6:59 am

I don't want to create a duplicate topic, so I push this up.

This option is pretty common in games that have the "borderless window mode".
Sometimes I simply want to have the game run in background to achieve some progress, while watching some movie or doing other stuff, but don't want to listen to all the sounds is creates.
And always disabling the sound before it, is annoying.

Please give this idea some love!

Thanks

MarvinCZ · Post by **MarvinCZ** » Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:26 pm

I am bumping this up, because it imo should not be too much difficult to develop and it would definitely increase factorio's gameplay experience.
Or at least to have keyboard shortcut would be enough for start. Please, devs, please.

nuhll · Post by **nuhll** » Tue Mar 26, 2019 10:49 pm

Hey, i love to run factorio in the background, but i would like to dont hear it then, could u add that option (many games have it)

Thanks!

Post by **Koub** » Wed Mar 27, 2019 5:48 pm

[Koub] Merged several topic with same suggestion.

wraithjuggler · Post by **wraithjuggler** » Mon Jul 15, 2019 1:15 pm

It would be a really nice addition. It is a good quality of life addition that won't take anything away from the game.

mrvn · Post by **mrvn** » Mon Jul 15, 2019 2:31 pm

It would go nicely with minimizing the window when loosing focus. There could also be an option to pause the game at the same time.

Vatharian · Post by **Vatharian** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 6:38 am

What ?

Option to mute audio when game (or game window) loses focus.

Why ?

Sometimes player may want to let the game run in the background, when some other task needs to be performed, yet game sounds and background music distracts.

It is easy to go to options and lower master volume to 0%, but it's distracting to do it every time.
This should remain a toggle (probably default by off), since i.e. peaceful games may be okay, but not hearing alarms of impeding doom on biter attack would be bad.

Optera · Post by **Optera** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 6:52 am

I use BorderlessGaming for making Factorio behave better in fullscreen. Side benefit it mutes on focus loss.

Post by **Koub** » Mon Sep 09, 2019 7:50 am

[Koub] Merged topics into older thread with same suggestion.

xng · Post by **xng** » Wed Apr 29, 2020 8:40 am

I agree to this thread, it is really annoying to have to close factorio down entirely every time I just want to alt-tab to another app that has sound, like the browser, mediaplayer or other game.

Factorio already have an event hook for minimizing the window on focus loss, so I'm sure the devs knows how to solve this, it's all about willpower and wanting the best for their players now 7 years after the original request. =)

I've yet to see an reasonable argument that it would be bad to have that option.

MarvinCZ · Post by **MarvinCZ** » Wed Apr 29, 2020 8:43 am

For this very reason I nowadays play factorio completely without sound.
It was tiresome to go to settings to mute sounds every time I wanted to keep factorio running in the background.
I pretty much got used to it.

MarvinCZ · Post by **MarvinCZ** » Fri May 22, 2020 5:52 pm

Can we please have this feature for 1.0 release? This one little option in settings would have made a great impact to quality of life of the game.

nuhll · Post by **nuhll** » Wed May 27, 2020 12:42 am

why is this still nota thing? I dont get it xD

Is it hard to implement it?!

i dont know i first suggested this like 190823713 years ago, many others did also request it, and like i said, many games have it, nothing sp ecial so far..

MarvinCZ · Post by **MarvinCZ** » Fri May 29, 2020 1:20 pm

I don't get it either. I can't think of any reason why not to have this optional feature.
But I still hope that some day it will get to Factorio. But until then I am forced to play the game on mute most of the time.

nuhll · Post by **nuhll** » Sat May 30, 2020 7:01 pm

I thought some more, it would be cool if you could set it to mute when alt tabbed (and optional) to hear the "global sounds" (alerts)

MarvinCZ · Post by **MarvinCZ** » Fri Jun 26, 2020 6:43 pm

bumpity bump...

SharkCK · Post by **SharkCK** » Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:28 pm

bobingabout wrote: ↑Mon Jul 24, 2017 8:11 am I've noticed this in a lot of games. Some force it, rather than being an option.

Some games that force it, I would want the sounds to play in the background, because I'm listening out for certain alerts.

But some sort of option for it in factorio, yes, I would like to see that.

I agree. If anything, this should be an option and not forced. I hate games that when they lose focus, I cannot hear them anymore. Makes multitasking with 3+ monitors rather annoying/difficult.

aft3rgl0w · Post by **aft3rgl0w** » Fri Jan 08, 2021 4:03 pm

New to the game, late to this thread, but yes, please make this an option! Further, the having the option to mute all sounds, or JUST the background music when focus is lost would be greatly appreciated. That way we could still hear alerts from the game but disable the music, which does get in the way when you are alt-tabbed out

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