No pointer capture

Software concept

An unusual omission in action games playable in a window, where the pointer is allowed to go outside the window without any restriction, possibly causing misclicks outside the game window that cause it to lose focus.

games

platforms

Alternate names: No pointer grab, No pointer confinement
Name variations: No mouse capture, No mouse grab, No mouse confinement

Gods Will Be Watching

WIN 2014-07-24

WIN 2015-12-18

WIN 2013-09

WIN 2016-01-21

WIN 2014-01-22

LIN 2012-02-19

WIN 2013-07-25

Dawn of War – Dark Crusade

WIN 2006-10-06

Deathtrap

WIN 2015-02-04

Survivor Squad

WIN 2013-04

Dawn of War – Soulstorm

WIN 2008-03-05

Stellar Impact

WIN 2011

See also: autopause on lost focus

Fullscreen games don't need this, even in multimonitor setups unless the fullscreen is faked by maximizing the game window and hiding the borders. That is, there's nowhere for the mouse to go, and true fullscreen games seem to deny access to the other monitors if they're not used by the game itself. Especially makes edge scrolling difficult.

Should only be marked in games where this can matter, so a turn-based game or similar progress-only-when-the-player-does-something kind should not be included.

There is no need for actual inclusion of the function as it's far more commonly present than not.

Most or even all game libraries that involve input and display offer a way to do this.
In Linux this can be done with XGrabPointer(), in Windows with SetCapture(), and in SDL it can be done with SDL_WM_GrabInput().

Parent group

Malfeatures

Games by year

The first No pointer capture video game was released on September 20, 2004.

Endless Loop Studios, THQ and Arcen Games published most of these games.

Platforms

Windows		33
Linux		9
Mac OS X		2

Most common companies