Whenever I run a fullscreen SDL app (my own, and others it seems) it mucks about with the windows on my desktop, i.e. they get moved around and sometimes resized. I'm pretty sure this has something to do with how SDL changes the video mode for fullscreen (which in turns causes a "resize" of the desktop) and I'm afraid I simply won't be able to do anything about this (without modifying SDL or dropping it). I've definitely not experienced this in the DX9 SDKs (though did remember it happening with OpenGL/GLUT). I expect that D3D9's exclusive mode is "smarter" about going into fullscreen, but can't really find any info online to confirm this. Anyone else encounterd this? [Edited by - Simagery on March 15, 2006 7:26:42 PM]

I had this same problem with my game. To solve it, right before exit I set the screen back into windowed mode. The user will not know the difference and Windows is unaffected.

Under further inspection, I suspect it may be Ultramon (a multi-monitor utility) being "helpful" and preventing windows from spanning monitors when the primary monitor gets "resized." The reason I suggest this is because the desktop icons are completely unaffected, and the windows don't actually change size (just position).

I have definitely encountered the desktop icon jumbling thing in the past and that's what I thought I was encountering again. But, looking through SDL's DirectX code (which is what I'm assuming it's using on my WinXP machine when I don't pass in then OpenGL flag) it looks like it's doing the "right thing" with DX and the OS should cooperate.

I guess I should try it with a DirectX title...

Okay, test with DX9 Feb 2006 samples... identical response... window moving was related to Ultramon "saving/restoring" desktop windows. Whew... good, I continue using SDL! [grin]

That's good to know! Sounds like something that belongs in a universal "caveat" knowledgebase for games (and game customer support peoples! :) ).