mute the game while alt-tabbed

[aka13]

Is this feature really that hard to implement?.. Many games have it like Path of Exile, Dota 2, even saw it in Darkest Dungeon... If I didn't knew, I would bet everything that Factorio is one of the games where it definitely should have been as I think many people often stay AFK... As for me, every time I play Factorio there is a volume mixer next to it, and sometimes I'm too lazy to switch and play without sound which does reduce experience from game... :<

If you afk while playing factorio, you are doing it wrong

[ssilk]

Is this feature really that hard to implement?.. Many games have it like Path of Exile, Dota 2, even saw it in Darkest Dungeon... If I didn't knew, I would bet everything that Factorio is one of the games where it definitely should have been as I think many people often stay AFK... As for me, every time I play Factorio there is a volume mixer next to it, and sometimes I'm too lazy to switch and play without sound which does reduce experience from game... :<

Well, it had been moved to “won’t implement” by the devs. See back in this thread. Starts about here viewtopic.php?p=539151#p539151 and goes for two pages till viewtopic.php?p=552090#p552090

Mainly, because there are either operating system tools to mute sound of not focused windows or there are free tools that do it. You need to go back in thread to find them.

Nonetheless I struggled hard to not move it back to suggestions because I think it’s a legitimate and clear suggestion (it would be nice, if Factorio does it, not some tools) and I don’t see or understand the technical reason not to do it. I see of course, that it is in concurrence to the other suggestions and has a low chance of implementating it. But that’s a completely different problem.

[ptx0]

well, other OS like MacOS and Linux have this functionality built-in. Complain to Microsoft? Run WSL2 on Windows with the KDE environment and finally have quick mute icons on the taskbar buttons?

[Optera]

well, other OS like MacOS and Linux have this functionality built-in. Complain to Microsoft?

Why not complain to both?
Most other game developers realized that shortcoming of Windows and added an option to mute on loosing focus into their game.

Run WSL2 on Windows with the KDE environment and finally have quick mute icons on the taskbar buttons?

.. or run Factorio through Borderless Gaming

PS: How does that feature in MacOS and Nix work?
Do you have to click on a mute symbol in the taskbar after tabbing out? That'd be even worse than what we have on Windows.

[ptx0]

PS: How does that feature in MacOS and Nix work?
...
That'd be even worse than what we have on Windows.

ah, but at least it works.

[danbopes]

Is this feature really that hard to implement?.. Many games have it like Path of Exile, Dota 2, even saw it in Darkest Dungeon... If I didn't knew, I would bet everything that Factorio is one of the games where it definitely should have been as I think many people often stay AFK... As for me, every time I play Factorio there is a volume mixer next to it, and sometimes I'm too lazy to switch and play without sound which does reduce experience from game... :<

Well, it had been moved to “won’t implement” by the devs. See back in this thread. Starts about here viewtopic.php?p=539151#p539151 and goes for two pages till viewtopic.php?p=552090#p552090

Mainly, because there are either operating system tools to mute sound of not focused windows or there are free tools that do it. You need to go back in thread to find them.

Nonetheless I struggled hard to not move it back to suggestions because I think it’s a legitimate and clear suggestion (it would be nice, if Factorio does it, not some tools) and I don’t see or understand the technical reason not to do it. I see of course, that it is in concurrence to the other suggestions and has a low chance of implementating it. But that’s a completely different problem.

Looking at the thread, and seeing the other threads that have also been merged in, I'd say this is a fairly popular issue. This was one of my pain points too, as I often alt-tab to chrome or other windows while playing Factorio, and it would be nice to simply have the option in game, than to find some alternate solution to mute audio when Factorio loses focus. Lot's of other games have this option, which has also been mentioned in this thread, and I would argue that this isn't "outdated". The devs did not specifically say this wouldn't be implemented, so I'd argue that this is still a valid suggestion, and shouldn't be sitting in the "Outdated/Not implemented" section.

[danbopes]

Just to follow up on this again, found this thread posted a month ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... _of_focus/

[nuhll]

currently in holiday playin some seablock (on laptop)... ive enabled/disabled said hidden function, but it no longer works, im on windows 11, is there a way to force direct sound? And while were at it, you asked for usggestions for 2.0.... please add it

BTW this thread has nearly 50.000 VIEWS!!!!


EDIT: It still works

1 In menu press alt + strg and while pressing click on options
2 then select "the rest",
3 there u need to disable "direct sound global focus" and
4 set audio backend to allegro (that was the part i was missing before)

USE AT OWN RISK, I NEVER HAD PROBLEMS, BUT IT MIGHT DESTROY WINDOWS, EXPLODE YOUR PC, MAKE YOU BLIND AND CRASH YOUR CAR