Original Post
I've noticed that in some games there is a pause window, that you can produce, by some shape or form in the game, usually a dedicated button. The same goes for general menus, while in-game. My question is, what exactly occurs? I've figured that in your game loop, you will likely have some sort of states; such as GAME ACTIVE, or something, and corresponding with that when pressing the input key, you will toggle to perhaps a GAME PAUSE, where you can likely stop whatever is going on from happening. Do you create a separate "window" for those menus? or is it just a quad drawn on the screen? Is it perhaps true that it is a static window, at which interactions toggle the return to game? ieie. changing settings, from this "menu" perhaps, can be done in this state, but the game can remain active. "The only problem I see with a secondary window, is what happens if the game is fullscreen and you are showing this other window on top of the current window - wouldn't the game window lose focus and therefore act as if you were alt-tabbing? Technically, I am also assuming that you would not change anything from your graphics calls, and all the gameplay is under this game state. After this whole jumbled mess of a post, my only real concern was the question about if the window that comes up is an actual quad just drawn on the screen or a static second window, where you just toggle the visibility. Thanks.
