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How do you *suspend/resume* games on PC?

All those years playing ps4 and I never actually used the feature while a game was running, only when I was downloading games overnight.

Does it actually work well to resume games like this?
 
I hate when my PC can't do something I will never want to do. It's probably hard for console gamers to understand since they've been loading their games off HDD or -gasp- optical for years whereas PC gamers have been loading them off of SSD.
 
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So now it's trolling to ask about a feature that's ubiquitous on every gaming platform besides this one? Especially when the advantage of PCs is often touted to be the ability to play games however you want to? Even if for whatever reason it's not technically feasible on PC, there's nothing wrong with wishing that wasn't the case.

This feels like the new "comfy couch".
I enjoy PC gaming and the gaming platforms in the PC ecosystem, but I'm not PCMR personally. Suspending games was the biggest feature that separates the current gen consoles from the last gen IMO and the reason they can do it is because they are totally dedicated hardware. I remember showing a friend when she was upgrading to PS4 mid gen and blowing her mind that a ton of the pain of booting up or putting down your game was now gone.

I thought it was trolling because I understood it to be an obvious, huge advantage over PCs that was well known by the gaming community.

I personally prefer my consoles because they are dedicated to gaming. There are a ton of advantages, but this is one of the easiest because there isn't any objective response. Others are more along the lines of... Ever had to battle your Switch because the operating system came in and blew away a custom driver and now you have to spend an hour trying to figure out why your game is suddenly crashing when you never had a problem before? Nope lol, but someone will argue, "never happened to me so it isn't a real disadvantage".
 
It's a great feature on the PS4 and it's long loading times, but I don't think it would make any real difference on PC. Nowadays you can load the Windows and a game in less than a minute if you have it installed on a SSD. It'll probably be useless the on PS5/XSX as well.
 
It's a great feature on the PS4 and it's long loading times, but I don't think it would make any real difference on PC.
Has suspending/resuming games gotten any faster on PS4 since they introduced it? I only tried it back then, and it was so slow that I could quit and restart Dark Souls 2 several times over on PC in the time it took to suspend and resume Bloodborne.
 
All those years playing ps4 and I never actually used the feature while a game was running, only when I was downloading games overnight.

Does it actually work well to resume games like this?

I also never used it and no it doesn't work well with a bunch of games
 
This thread, man! :messenger_tears_of_joy:
The high horse responses.

People can't even simply reply:
"You can't."

OP you are the real MVP!
Single handed shown the superiority complex PCMR has with a simple question.
 
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This thread, man! :messenger_tears_of_joy:
The high horse responses.

People can't even simply reply:
"You can't."

OP you are the real MVP!
Single handed shown the superiority complex PCMR has with a simple question.

people don't even use it on console because it works like crap and is almost useless.

this has nothing to do with PC preferences
 
people don't even use it on console because it works like crap and is almost useless.

this has nothing to do with PC preferences
And you good sir helped me prove my point. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Have you ever used it on PS4? It works just fine. Can't say on XOne as I skipped MS this gen.
 
see guys the difference between consoles and pcs is that Consoles play games, maybe have a web browser app, youtube, spotify, whatever, but 99% of their power is focused on making games work. PCs have to be able to do basically everything else in this day and age and seriously why are you leaving your PC on for weeks?
 
sorry we've never felt the need to suspend a game for weeks on end. do you guys have literally 0 minutes of free time? ffs

Neither have I

I have felt the need to suspend for a couple of hours or more though, which is very useful.

Again, no need to be sensitive over something your platform is inferior in
 
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Games can't really suspend and resume in PC, i do it all the time on the consoles tho, kinda wish Steam or other stores had a similar feature.
 
People can't even simply reply:
"You can't."
They can't reply this because thats not the answer. You can do what OP said but its not a reliable solution since not every game behaves properly in that situation, and there are safer ways to do this that don't require leaving your game running (like, you know, saving the game)
 
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They can't reply this because thats not the answer. You can do what OP said but its not a reliable solution since not every game behaves properly in that situation, and there are safer ways to do this that don't require leaving your game running (like, you know, saving the game)

In short

You can't
 
people don't even use it on console because it works like crap and is almost useless.

this has nothing to do with PC preferences
I've beaten most games on PS4 and switch mostly suspending and resuming since you skip every menu option and load screen by doing so. Do you even play on consoles to be saying this stupid shit?
 
They can't reply this because thats not the answer. You can do what OP said but its not a reliable solution since not every game behaves properly in that situation, and there are better solutions that don't require leaving your game running (like, you know, saving the game)
So there is no consistent solution, huh?
Like on consoles, where there is a dedicated function that. you know, works... :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
Just put windows to hibernate or sleep mode when the game is running in background or do alt-tab to do other things, and if your pc has enough resources you can run multiple games in background, technically, this work the same as consoles
 
Just put windows to hibernate or sleep mode when the game is running in background or do alt-tab to do other things, and if your pc has enough resources you can run multiple games in background, technically, this work the same as consoles
Not Technically. Technically consoles do it very differently by actually suspending the game. This obviously also could be done in PC too but it just isn't there yet as a feature in games.
 
Guys, you are simply failing to grasp the concept of "You can but it's not guaranteed that it will work".

You have a car, sometimes it just stops running mid trip. Is this car functional or not?
Which would be accurate to say: "the car doesn't work" or "it does, but sometimes it doesn't"?
Even better "would you buy such car?" :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
Guys, you are simply failing to grasp the concept of "You can but it's not guaranteed that it will work".
"its not guaranteed that it will work for every game"
Which can also be read as:
"It'll work fine with certain games"

Which reminds me Sunset Overdrive did have Alt+tab issues
 
It happens. Occasionally consoles achieve something before it's widely adopted by PC.

Proper smooth scrolling platformers took longer to become commonplace.
We still don't have games consistently on BD-ROM discs.
In 1983, the Famicom boasted a better color palette and sound chip. EGA, the Amiga, and Atari ST launched during the substantial two year gap between Famicom and NES.
 
people don't even use it on console because it works like crap and is almost useless.

this has nothing to do with PC preferences
The hyperbole! It's such an easy feature to use, I'd bet that 99% of current gen console owners use it regularly. It works so seamlessly I bet some casual players use it without even knowing that it's a special feature. What gave you the impression that it doesn't work well, or is almost useless?

Here's a recent example of how I've used it recently. Persona 5 is a game that sometimes has you play for upwards of 20 minutes with no save point. Sometimes when I need or want to stop playing, there's not a save point close by, so I put the PS4 in rest mode. Then I come back and pick up where I left off, be it a few hours or a few days later. Wow, such a niche use case! Why would anyone want that?
 
The hyperbole! It's such an easy feature to use, I'd bet that 99% of current gen console owners use it regularly. It works so seamlessly I bet some casual players use it without even knowing that it's a special feature. What gave you the impression that it doesn't work well, or is almost useless?

Here's a recent example of how I've used it recently. Persona 5 is a game that sometimes has you play for upwards of 20 minutes with no save point. Sometimes when I need or want to stop playing, there's not a save point close by, so I put the PS4 in rest mode. Then I come back and pick up where I left off, be it a few hours or a few days later. Wow, such a niche use case! Why would anyone want that?
It might just be me, but i absolutely cannot feel confortable playing games when i have to do stuff in such short notice that i can't wait 10 minutes to save.
 
As much as my PS4/Xbox failed to resume a game correctly I'd say it's not guaranteed to work anywhere.
 
The hyperbole! It's such an easy feature to use, I'd bet that 99% of current gen console owners use it regularly. It works so seamlessly I bet some casual players use it without even knowing that it's a special feature. What gave you the impression that it doesn't work well, or is almost useless?

Here's a recent example of how I've used it recently. Persona 5 is a game that sometimes has you play for upwards of 20 minutes with no save point. Sometimes when I need or want to stop playing, there's not a save point close by, so I put the PS4 in rest mode. Then I come back and pick up where I left off, be it a few hours or a few days later. Wow, such a niche use case! Why would anyone want that?

as I said, it works but even on console it is not perfect. there are many games that have severe performance impacts when resumed from suspend mode. (stutters, severely impacted framerate, crashes, etc.)
some games can straight up crash if suspended.

the feature is a great one in theory, but it is unreliable. if you know a game supports it without issue I get why it can be useful, but games like Persona 5 where save points are 20 minutes apart are a very rare kinda game these days.
Dark Souls for example literally saves every few seconds (granted that is made so that you don't have it as easy to cheat the system but still) other games are similar.

in the vast majority of games you do not need a suspend mode, and I wouldn't trust the suspend mode on PS4 or Xbox, or even Switch actaully, without testing it beforehand before I try and rely on it.

for most games it is just as good to just turn them off and restart them later
 
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In Linux the parent PID can be suspended in a shell via ctrl+z or TSTP sig to the parent PID. You can also renice the process to twenty to reduce load on the system. In Windows there is not an equivalent I am aware of, but I think a close approximation could be done via borderless or bordered window game pausing & minimization.
 
I am not sure how stable this is. I do not know much about Windows internals, this could cause the process or any of its children to become unstable, so it'd be best to do several test runs first.

 
what? I have

ESC Button to pause games that can be paused via menu
Alt+Tab in borderless windowed mode
hard saves. I don't even want autosave in my games. that's just one more layer of control I don't get to exert.
Hell, who exits manually through menus after saving when they can alt+F4 out of the title?
 
I honestly don't understand why you would need this? Most games it takes less than 30 seconds from double-clicking the desktop shortcut to loading up my save and continuing where I left off.
 
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