Thread: Minimizing LOTRO

Just got the LOTRO Mac client installed on my wife's new Mac, and so far it's been successful. But she's got some basic usability questions that I can't answer because I'm not a Mac person.

Primarily, how can I minimize the LOTRO client while it's still running? I've figured out Ctrl+Tab and Command+Tab to switch to other running applications, but how can I minimize or hide LOTRO so I can see the dock?

Also, is there an equivalent to FakeFullscreen mode here that I can toggle back and forth to see how to get the best performance?

My personal favorite way to do it is to put LOTRO on one desktop and then run all my other apps on another desktop. Then I just use three-finger swipe to the left or right to get to the rest of my running apps (or even a desktop with no running apps so I can access the dock), and LOTRO still runs just fine on its desktop. The other option to get to the dock is to enable a hot corner for expose (show all running apps) and go to that corner. It will bring the dock up when you do it and you'll be able to access it.

I run in windowed mode (which is an option in the graphics settings) and manually size the window to be as large as I want. That way the dock is accessible using the mouseover as usual.

To hide Lotro completely: CMD + H

To bring it back up: Click the Lotro icon in the Dock.

Originally Posted by Eliel

Just got the LOTRO Mac client installed on my wife's new Mac, and so far it's been successful. But she's got some basic usability questions that I can't answer because I'm not a Mac person.

Primarily, how can I minimize the LOTRO client while it's still running? I've figured out Ctrl+Tab and Command+Tab to switch to other running applications, but how can I minimize or hide LOTRO so I can see the dock?

Also, is there an equivalent to FakeFullscreen mode here that I can toggle back and forth to see how to get the best performance?

The "best" solution (Your Milage May Vary) is to run in Windowed mode.

In Graphics, click the Windowed Mode button and select an appropriate screen size.
You can use a window which includes the entire screen except for the Mac Navigation bar at the very top.
You can drag the dimensions of the Window as you would any other window.

Important: Accept your settings, then quit the client and re-start it. This works around the bug in the Mac Client where you "loose focus" (cannot type in Chat, talk to NPCs, etc) when you change graphics settings.

Once in windowed mode, you can move the entire LOTRO window around the screen by dragging. And, if you really want to minimize it, click the yellow button. Be warned that minimizing may cause it to loose focus... it's random.

For details on the Mac Client see: http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Mac_Client

Thanks for all the responses. CMD+H worked great, and we may try out windowed mode.

A related question: On Windows, when I want to switch between fullscreen mode and windowed mode, I can use Alt+Enter to do so. Is there any similar keyboard shortcut to swap between fullscreen and windowed mode on a Mac? Personally, I prefer to stay in fullscreen mode until there's some specific reason I want to go to windowed mode, so being able to swap quickly is important to me.

Originally Posted by Eliel

Thanks for all the responses. CMD+H worked great, and we may try out windowed mode.

A related question: On Windows, when I want to switch between fullscreen mode and windowed mode, I can use Alt+Enter to do so. Is there any similar keyboard shortcut to swap between fullscreen and windowed mode on a Mac? Personally, I prefer to stay in fullscreen mode until there's some specific reason I want to go to windowed mode, so being able to swap quickly is important to me.

Two answers -- no... and it's bugged anyway.

If you change from Windowed to Full Screen or the reverse, you WILL loose focus. (Not be able to type in the chat window or interact with NPCs, vaults, etc.). This is a known bug. Do not try to switch!
When you change modes, you need to quit the client and restart it to regain focus.

Okay, thanks. Yuck, that chat bug is pretty nasty, now it's happened to us.

Is that an old bug? Any hope it's high on the Turbine to-fix list? Being able to swap back and forth from LOTRO to Mac OS was a major feature we wanted from this Mac client.

(I mean is it old within the relative lifespan of the Mac client?).

Originally Posted by Eliel

Okay, thanks. Yuck, that chat bug is pretty nasty, now it's happened to us.

Is that an old bug? Any hope it's high on the Turbine to-fix list? Being able to swap back and forth from LOTRO to Mac OS was a major feature we wanted from this Mac client.

(I mean is it old within the relative lifespan of the Mac client?).

It's been there since pre launch closed beta testing on RoR Bullroarer server. So ever since the Mac client has been available to test and play. The same goes for all the identified Mac related bugs.

Not one known Mac bug has been fixed since launch and, with no access to the current Update 10 Bullroarer testing for Mac users due to no Mac client being available for that server, there is no way to test or check for any fixes in Update 10.

The lack of feedback or response on several requests for some update to the situation on the known Mac bug issues from Turbine is not encouraging for anything to change in U10. I guess we just have to wait and see.

Oddly, it didn't seem to affect her ability to interact with NPCs. She specifically talked to a legendary Forge-Master and, I think, a vendor just fine after the chat bug, but she couldn't type to send an in-game mail.

Well, we'll write a bug report and hope it contributes some data that helps them debug the issue. Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by Eliel

Oddly, it didn't seem to affect her ability to interact with NPCs. She specifically talked to a legendary Forge-Master and, I think, a vendor just fine after the chat bug, but she couldn't type to send an in-game mail.

Well, we'll write a bug report and hope it contributes some data that helps them debug the issue. Thanks for the info.

Interesting... as far as I know, ALL of the in-game dialogs are handled by Awesomium -- NPC, Vault, Forge Master, Quests, etc.
However, I do not believe that the Chat interface is.

So that would make sense. One bug is fixed, the other is not.

We have just been accumulating issues from people's descriptions of them, and so far, Turbine has not acknowledged any of them or of fixing any of them.

lol. I forget to switch subs again... this is my ancient alpha sub...!

Originally Posted by Vallamar

Interesting... as far as I know, ALL of the in-game dialogs are handled by Awesomium -- NPC, Vault, Forge Master, Quests, etc.

I very much doubt that.
I think the only contents rendered by the browser component are the in-game help and the shop, because those are the ones that are
a) slow as hell
b) sometimes still don't load at all
c) stopped working with the switch from IE or Mozilla or whatever it has been to awesomium.

None of the other dialogues has been hit by any of a), b) or c) hence my assumption that those are ye olde standard controls.

SNy