This problem has been there since Unity 2.5, and I've heard that it is directly related to the OS/browser. That was before the official release of IE8 - but it looks like they still haven't fixed the underlying issue.
Recently, users have begun reporting problems on Vista/W7 with Firefox, as well. Not full crashes, like the IE8 thing, but just that the game won't STICK in full-screen and pops right back to windowed, or even minimized in some cases.
The IE8 issue in Vista & 7 is a bug in IE8. There's a deadlock that happens when switching to fullscreen, in some interplay of D3D9 runtime and IE's multi-process model. So far D3D folks have been pointing to IE team, and IE team just ignored our bug report :(
So in Unity we detect IE8 and disable fullscreen. It's sad, but better than the browser locking up when trying to enter it.
The Firefox issue should be unrelated. Knowing Firefox version and more information (the content, repro steps) would be helpful.
Latest version of Firefox (3.6.3), always crashes when leaving fullscreen mode in all projects, including island demo.
How to repro:
download and install FF 3.6.3
----- log included (I'd think it's a bug in our code, but I'm getting this error in every other unity3d application which can enter fullscreen mode):
100513 11:26:23 ------------------------------------------------------------
100513 11:26:23 Instance starting, version 2.6.1f3_31223
100513 11:26:23 Datafile http://dev.planewars.ru/arena/theGame.unity3d
web: player version 2.6.1f3
Direct3D: Version: Direct3D 9.0c [nvd3dum.dll 8.17.11.9745] Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT Vendor: NVIDIA VRAM: 256 MB
web: load mono
web: start, src=theGame.unity3d abs=http://dev.planewars.ru/arena/theGame.unity3d
Player: init engine
web: sucessfully initialized
100513 11:26:23 loader: start ok
web: parent window change: 1504ae 1024x768
100513 11:26:23 Times: download 0.1 load 0.4
desktop: 1600x1200 60Hz; virtual: 2880x1200 at 0,0
You need to run this player from the http://www.planewars.ru/ domain to be authorized to use the caching API. (currently running from dev.planewars.ru/ )
UnityEngine.Caching:Authorize(String, String, Int32, String)
UnityEngine.Caching:Authorize(String, String, Int32, String)
ResourceLoader:.ctor(String[], String, String)
Game:ModelUpdate(Int32, Int32)
Game:FixedUpdate()
UnityMain:FixedUpdate()
[....\Runtime\Misc\CachingManager.cpp line 523]
(Filename: ....\Runtime\Misc\CachingManager.cpp Line: 523)
Long thread activation time (55 ms) for object ash_dat (TerrainData)
web: set web resolution 1024 x 768, fs=1
web: toggle fullscreen
Stacktrace:
Receiving unhandled NULL exception
Got error 2. Cannot exit at this point.
unity: Got exception
unity: Launch crash handler
100513 11:26:46 Setting error display: 'The content was stopped because a fatal content error has been detected.', details: '', link: 0
web: shutdown player
Cleanup player
web: shutdown finished
100513 11:26:46 loader: final cleanup
100513 11:26:46 loader: unload unity dll
The new Lego Star Wars R2D2 game locks the computer every time the user hits the F key to go to full screen on Win7 64-bit on IE8. :-( So apparently Unity is not properly detecting IE8 and blocking it. The only way out is to kill the game and restart.
I don't have an answer but a suggestion. Yeah! 6 months later... and this thread is probably but dead...
EDIT: see EDIT go-around at end of post
ORIGINAL starts here: I am using Google Chrome(10.0.648.204) and I am able to programmatically swap to full screen mostly without problems.
I do get a nagging problem that I am still troubleshooting:
After a simple Screen.SetResolution(y,x,true) the hovering/clicking area of a GUI button is offset downwards by a font's height distance or more.
If I try to hover the 1st line of the button no hover effect is triggered until I pass the 1st line and reach the 2nd line. I can trigger the effect by hovering the mouse cursor 1 full line height below the button's edge.
I tend to click high on buttons so at first it had me fooled having me think full screen just killed the feature, but it consistently behaves as I described.
I know the resolution change does not occur until a click has been effectuated on the content and I have checked that my y/x is exactly the resolution currently set on my display.
Manually swapping from window to full-screen using the Unity right-click drop-down before(or after) the failure may result in the correct behavior(coords).
If someone can beat me to a solution, Chrome might handle full screen.
EDIT: came up with a GO-AROUND. Since my button's background and the game background are blending thus the button does not have hard edges, I inserted a " " at the beginning of the 1st line, so now the wording on the button changes colors when mouse hovers on 1st(visible line). It's a hack, no doubt, but it does the trick.