Alt+tab out of fullscreen game

Right now I'm running Trine, which is a game using OpenGL running in fullscreen, in Ubuntu 10.10.

What I would like to be able to do is Alt+Tab out of the game to be able to browse the web, check any IM messages, etc. while paused.

However, just Alt+Tab'ing doesn't do anything, so I have to quit the game every time I want to check something.

Is there any way that I can minimize a fullscreen game? I know I can probably run it in windowed mode, but then I would have to hide the panels when playing - since the game would otherwise be hidden underneath. Plus, that's just an ugly solution.

You can move to another desktop by clicking CTRL+ALT+→ or ←.

It will not minimize the game, but it should move you to another desktop where you can surf.

If you run it in windowed mode, you can set it to always on top and the same size as your desktop so the panels are not showing, but allows easy alt+tab. This is essentially borderless windowed mode.Try wmctrl. Something like:

#!/bin/bash
trine &
#resize to 1024x768 (or whatever size you want)
wmctrl -r 'Trine' -e 1,0,0,1024,768
#make it on top
wmctrl -r 'Trine' -b add,above
#activate it
wmctrl -a 'Trine'

Start it in new x-server, and switch desktop by keys CTRL+ALT+F7 or CTRL+ALT+F8.

Type xinit /path/to/the/game/executable -- :1 into a terminal.