Trying multiple monitors only one is a TV (S-video)

[Delirious]

So I want to try to use my computer screen for games and junk and try to at the same time use my TV as a browser/AIM screen. I am running an S-video from my TV to my computer video card (Ati Radeon x1600PRO AGP) and I have my TV at 800x600 (other resolution available is 640x480) and monitor at 1280x1024. I tried running doom 1 for example and it kind of blacked out the TV but I couldn't use the mouse to do anything on the TV like browser/AIM stuff.

I also tried Audiosurf and it lets me keep the TV at proper display but when I move my cursor over to the TV and click say on an instant message, it alt-tabs out on my computer screen; although I can now instant message. It won't let me do both instant message and play the game.

Unreal Tournament 2004 keeps the TV display as it is but it won't let me mouse over at all (obviously trying it when the game is in a menu not when I'm in-game shooting) I'm sure alt-tabbing would be the only way to do so.

I'm sure there's a simple explanation to all this that I am not getting but I just don't see it in front of my eyes. Any help appreciated like always.

 

[Picc84]

I'm going to say no... When you give yourself two monitor's, Your actually just increasing visual desktop space. Not so much making your computer act as two computers separately. Why it keeps alt Tabbing you is because on the inside, your computer believes your monitors to be one big wide screen monitor (not how their displayed, but how it thinks).

Kinda follow me?

 

[Eric.]

I'm going to say no... When you give yourself two monitor's, Your actually just increasing visual desktop space. Not so much making your computer act as two computers separately. Why it keeps alt Tabbing you is because on the inside, your computer believes your monitors to be one big wide screen monitor (not how their displayed, but how it thinks).

Kinda follow me?

Eh...while it CAN do that (and its how Windows itself would configure it with display properties), its not the only way. The Nvidia control panel allows for a few multiple monitor setups. As far as I know, its not possible to be able to have a game running full screen and be able to do other stuff on the other monitor(s), unless there is something in Catalyst (is ATI's manager still called that?) that works differently. It seems like videos could only be played on one or the other as well with some weird limitation.

 

[wfooshee]

Games don't like being the background process, and if you click out to something on the other monitor, that becomes the foreground, putting the game into the background.

A turn-based game, or something like SimCity, maybe, but a real-time first-person shooter, or a driving game or flight simulator, no way.

If you can window the game, then maybe, but it still has to become a background process when you do something on the other display.

As said before, two monitors is not two computers.