Game mode

[jsmorley]

Added Game mode. This will allow you to minimize (really eliminate) all CPU, GPU, Disk and Network usage by Rainmeter while you are for instance playing a full-screen game.

Game mode does the following:
* Unloads all skins and closes all dialogs
* Prevents activating any skins or dialogs
* Pauses any tray icon animations

Game mode is toggled from the Rainmeter notification area icon right-click context menu.

When Game mode is toggled on, the Rainmeter notification area context menu will be reduced to "Game mode", which will be checked, and "Exit".

When Game mode is toggled back off, all previously running skins will be loaded, and all normal behavior will be restored.

If Rainmeter is restarted, Game mode will be inactive. This is not in any way persistent.

By design, this is a function that is entirely controlled by the "user" of Rainmeter, and cannot be activated with any bang or command by a skin "author".

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[Jeff]

Everything described in the thread works perfectly on Win 7, even though it doesn't act like a shortcut for !Hide * and a smart(er) !PauseMeasure * like I expected, the current way it is rn is more than welcome.
If it ever becomes bangable, this will be a good time to add IsFullScreen in RM :P
EDIT: Changed !HideMeter to !Hide cause that didn't make sense before

[balala]

even though it doesn't act like a shortcut for !HideMeter * and a smart(er) !PauseMeasure * like I expected,

It doesn't even have to, because according to jsmorley's description:

Game mode does the following:
* Unloads all skins and closes all dialogs
* Prevents activating any skins or dialogs
* Pauses any tray icon animations

Since all skins are unloaded, there are nor meters to be hidden, nor measures to be paused, so doesn't even can act like those bangs.

[jsmorley]

Yes, this is not about some way of leaving your skins running and just hiding/pausing them. That would be a less than desirable way to do this, as it would not completely eliminate the use of CPU and GPU by Rainmeter.

What this does in effect is exit Rainmeter entirely, with just the barest of stub left running that only keeps the tray icon alive and detects mouse clicks on the tray icon.

This will never be something that can be controlled by bangs, as first, it's not something we want a skin "author" to have any control over, and second, you can't have a bang controlling things when there are no skins running.

[balala]

Yes, this is not about some way of leaving your skins running and just hiding/pausing them. That would be a less than desirable way to do this, as it would not completely eliminate the use of CPU and GPU by Rainmeter.

Agree. Not mentioning that hiding / showing all loaded skins, without unloading them can easily be done, with the [!Hide *] / [!HideFade *], respectively [!Show *] / [!ShowFade *] bangs. So, probably wouldn't worth to newly add such a feature.

[Jeff]

[!Hide *] / [!HideFade *], [!Show *] / [!ShowFade *]

enrique_rodriguez_2005 after using !Hide to hide his cutout skins (cause he doesn't know that it can be done in only one meter and neither that !HideGroup, Hidden=1 exist) after using those commands to toggle his game mode button toggle to hide and show the skin and then he suddenly shows all the hidden skins

That would be the only problem with this method that I can see (and I was expecting to be avoided with a game mode as I described earlier)

However, I will use this alternative that enrique_rodriguez_2005 also uses cause I have timer skins and using the built in game mode X_X them, I still know some people who would benefit from RM's game mode

[balala]

That would be the only problem with this method that I can see (and I was expecting to be avoided with a game mode as I described earlier)

Yep, if using any of the [!Show *] or [!ShowFade *] bang, all loaded skins are shown, even those which were hidden when the [!Hide *] or [!HideFade *] bang was used.

[Cariboudjan]

I haven't had a chance to test this, but I assume activating game mode doesn't ignore OnCloseAction bangs?

Does activating game mode count as a close/unload action?

[balala]

I haven't had a chance to test this, but I assume activating game mode doesn't ignore OnCloseAction bangs?

No, it doesn't ignore it, because:

Game mode does the following:
* Unloads all skins and closes all dialogs

Does activating game mode count as a close/unload action?

So according to the above, yes, Game mode does "count as a close/unload action".

[jsmorley]

Yes, anything you have in an OnCloseAction bang in [Rainmeter] will be executed when Game mode is enabled.

I could argue against this, but it is something we need to decide quickly, before tons of folks have the latest beta and we get stuck with backwards compatibility issues.

When Game mode is enabled, any OnCloseAction is fired. When Game mode is toggled back off, any OnRefreshAction will be fired, and the Counter function for each skin will be reset to zero. All skins are in fact unloaded and reloaded by this functionality.

For sure OnRefreshAction must be fired, as it would just "break" many skins otherwise. I could argue either way about OnCloseAction though.