Pausing with the Resource Monitor, is it a good idea?

[Nicolas]

Probably the most important thing that keeps me from enjoying this game is the general inability to pause the simulation, especially on very long activities. There is a way that involves doing a right click on the upper border of the window to open the window menu, but it prevents from doing any other thing with the PC. Because as soon as you un-click the menu, the simulation resumes. It only works for very specific situations, like going to the toilet or checking something on your phone.

I looked if there is an alternative solution, and I found out about the Resource Monitor of Windows 10. With this built-in utility, it's possible to pause the game (I've tested it) and do other things while the game is paused. And unlike pausing with the right click on the window border, it also silences the game sounds as well. But I would like to know the opinion of the Metro Sim devs, if this could cause problems within the game.

[Termatenjohan]

currently the best way to put the game on 'pause' is to press the C key with that you activate the AI ​​mode of your vehicle and you don't have to drive for a while

[Nicolas]

I'm aware of that, but I like to drive myself and not miss out any part of the journey.

I did further testing with Resource Monitor, I couldn't get the game unpaused after an extended period of pause. The game shows a grey screen like when you start it; I can hear trains going on in the background, but the game itself never shows up.

[brozma]

You're not alone Nicolas. I've tried that aswell, but unlike for you, when I "unpause" it, the Metrosim restores itself completely. No gray screen, nothing like that. It just continues, where it was. IDK, why this causes gray screen for you, but for me, everything is fine.

@everyone: "Pausing" the metrosim by using resource monitor is more efficient, than right clicking the upper part of Metrosim's window. I'll tell you how to do it. Note: this procedure is only valid for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. If you have another OS, you're on your own.

1st: right click the taskbar and select "Task Manager," or press Ctrl+Alt+Del and then select "Launch task manager"

2nd: in task manager click on "performance" tab and then click on "Launch resource monitor." This will open resource monitor

3rd: find the Metrosim process and right click it, then select "Pause this process." You may get warning, that if you are trying to pause a system critical process, you can cause BSOD or OS instability, just click "yes," because pausing metrosim doesn't affect OS in any way. Now you should see, that metrosim is "paused," and now you can do something else on your PC.

4th: If you are done with something else, and want to return to Metrosim, repeat the procedure in 3rd step and click "Resume this process." You may get warning, that if you are trying to resume the process paused by someone else, it can cause data loss. But again just click "yes," because resuming Metrosim doesn't affect OS in any way. Now the Metrosim should restore itself, and continue, where it was.

[Nicolas]

Today I tried again. I decided to do a 3 hour activity (Afternoon 226 Ealing branch) and have a pause in the middle to go watch some video and then have lunch. When I reached Ealing Central in the middle of the activity, I minimzed the game, opened the Resource Monitor, paused the Metro Sim process and left it as it is, untouched for a while. Like an hour later I came back, opened the Resource Monitor, unpaused the process (while still minimzed), then brought back the game and it worked perfectly. I think the important bit is not messing with the Metro Sim window while the process is stopped, I did that on my first time while trying to pause for an extended period. When I went to continue, the game showed me a grey screen with nothing I could do. Not this time, though.

[Nicolas]

I'm doing further tries. Yesterday I decided to pause the game a few more times during one session, and there was a moment where it wouldn't work anymore (it was marked red in the resource monitor, and not blue when the process is suspended). Today I'm trying again but I want to keep the amount of pauses at a minimum, like I did on September 1st. I can't say for sure yet, but I think pausing the game with the resource monitor is possible, although it should be kept to a minimum because it can cause Metro Sim to stop working. Either way, it would be nice if future versions could implement an official pause option.