Skype video stops when playing a game.

i have a dual monitor setup and i like keeping a Skype video call on one screen while i play a game. on most of the games i play, the Skype video will stop while i have the game on even though the call is not disconnected. sometimes, i'll be able to see the other peron i'm calling but my webcam will turn off.

i'm pretty sure this is a graphics driver issue. i have an older game that allows me to set it to OpenGL or DirectX. when i have the game set to OpenGL, the problem is not there. but if i set it to DirectX, the problem comes back.

most of the games i play are only DirectX compatible but i want to know how to avoid the Skype video from stopping?

some of the games i play that have this problem are GTA4, Rise of Flight, Assassin's Creed 2, Flight Simulator X, and Just Cause 2.

first thing i would look for is "rendering options" for skype, if they exist even if they exist in some editable configuration file.
overlay or not (not likly on second monitor)
render type Direct X or not
software renderer
something along those lines or that sounds like that.

IF you can get the skype to use a different video displaying method, chances are good that you can find one that will not conflict with the game.

sorry i dont use skype and probably shouldnt answer this, but have had the issue before with many other video renderings, and i can usually get one of the programs to switch to a different method to solve it. and it wont be the game that will budge

many things rendering video will try and snag the "overlay" when they can (for example) and the first to snag it gets it, the others will AUTOmagically shift to another method. The well written programs doing video (of various sorts) will allow the user to change the render type, just because not everyone has the same stuff or use it the same way. All the beloted junkey software out there well they have tech support to tell you it wont work

with various automagic stuff going on where a program will switch display methods, if you can not force the display method, you can at least run the conflicting programs in a specific order, like game first , then skype can pick up the leftover display method the game isnt using.

Are you playing the games full screen? You might be able to get it to work if you window the game (but you can keep it at full resolution).

Some things place nice with dual-headed setups but sadly not everything. I often stream any number of things on my 2nd monitor including: from my Orb server live TV, JTV, Webcasts, and of course just playing normal movies in VLC and MPlayer.

The newer the game/software typically the more compatable it is with such a setup. For example WoW allows you to set it to run in 'windowed' mode without any window boxes. This type of setup tends to be the best setup. It also allows for much more seamless access to your 2nd monitor.

Other games can be hit or miss and sometimes I'll have to play with my startup sequence for everything to get them to work right. For example with DiRT2 starting that up 1st then starting up what I want to stream tends to work better than trying to start up the game while I'm already streaming something.

Finally there are some games that just seem to be problematic. My fav RTS Rise of Nations often will have issues. Of course not only am I running it on a dual-headed setup but I have it on a widescreen monitor which were not very widespread when it was released.

I'd say that in your case it is likely that Skype's video programming is not playing well with such a setup. You can try starting it after you have your main window running and then tab out and see if Skype will work once your main window is up.