The Spirit Realm

Just as the subject reads .. how do you duo/trio on one machine? I have read that if you have a good computer you can run 2 different directories and whatever but how do you switch between the 2? I have a good box and a good card and duel 19 flat screens. If I start up one session it full screens to one monitor and unless I alt+enter I can't get top the other screen/desktop. Can you run in windowed mode? Is this dependant on my card? Do I have to run eqwin2?

Thanks in advance!

i run 4 toons from 1 computer and sometimes add 1 to 2 toons on anthother computer depending on a couple of factors. I can xp in most zones without problems. The real key to boxing casters is to set up hotkeys with /cast commands. i run my necro and druid like that a lot of the time.

I run three instances off of two directories on two screens all the time. My 2 toons are a shaman and bard, other toon I play the most is a warrior. I play with EQPlaynice to reduce the frame rate on the non-active characters, and all three are run at full windowed size. Most of it is in the hotkeys, for example I have a
/assist warrior
/pause 2
/cast 5 (slow)
/pause 2
/pet attack
hotkey. If the slow is resisted or fizzles, I just clicky the TA or recast. Running more than 3 becomes much more difficult with this setup though, as it's easy to get lost in the alt tabs.

One piece of advice if yer gonna multibox 2 or more accounts on the same comp. Unless you have a mount for your characters Turn off ALL Luclin models. Otherwise yer gonna lagg to all H E Double toothpicks amd back. Especially with the increased graphics imposed with tje latest expansion and PoK . Turn off advanced lighting in the advanced tab of the display options when you hit alt+O also it would help if you have your window settings to the lowest res possible which I believe is 800 x 600. May suck in regards to chats and such but that does help somewhat in regards to playablilty. Also get a program like which will help with the CPU usage of multiboxing. I actually have run 6 chars on one comp before using WinEQ but it is kinda slow even with all but the models I needed on cause I had mounts for all but my melee class.

I myself have a Nostromo Gaming Pad which I do not use. It's quite sad really, since it's quite the tool to use, only thing I disliked about it when I got it was the left-hand coordination with it heh. Oh well, it's sitting in the computer desk just waiting to be used for something but I find the way I map my keyboard a lot more efficient for my fingers.

NO SPECIAL PROGRAMS NEEDED

Steps:

1. *** very vital*** Make sure that your Everquest resolution is at the same resolution as your desktop; same with refresh. Has to be identical or you get graphic errors.

2. Start your first EQ instance. Meaning your character should be in the EQ world.

3. Load your second EQ instance. Meaning double click the EQ icon on your desktop and login with a second account. Don't do anything until this character is loaded into the EQ world.
**(for ease add a EQ shortcut icon to your quicklaunch in the toolbar, this way you only have to hit the windows key for access to EQ)

4. Congratulations!! Practice Alt-Tabbing to get the hang of switching back and forth between them.

5. If you want to login an additional character go back to step #3.


TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL MULTIBOXING:

-Practice, practice, practice ALT-Tabbing. The better your reflexes, the more successful you will be.

-Make hotkeys so that you can hit a hot key on one char and switch to the other mid-fight. e.g "hotkey" /target whoever ; pause 7; cast 1-9;

-When zoning, make sure that one char completes zoning before attempting to zone the other if it can be avoided (link death or extended zoning time may take place if both chars zone at same time, this is normal). If you zone both at same time, let one char finish zoning, then alt-tab to the other chars screen to let them finish zoning ***(this screen may be greyed out and take a few extra seconds/mins, so don't worry it's normal)***

-use audio alerts(one of the best implementations ever). I have alerts that tell me when slow is resisted, when a spell fizzles, when my bot is taking damage, just about everything to let me play if I was blind. Most importantly, when someone attempts to cyborz her.



TROUBLESHOOTING:

-Long delay when switching between instances- More than likely your EQ resolution and desktop resolution are different.

-Second character can't sucessfully /follow- Background instances of EQ run at lower framerates. If you are good at playing a bard, you can autorun one char, follow with the other, and alt-tab repeatedly to balance out the frame rate allowing you to sucessfully /follow.

-Slow zoning times / lag - If your comp can't handle the normal graphics, turn them down. First, use old world models, and turn off caching. Second, load any instance of EQ and lower your clip plane, turn off effects/shadows/sky/actor clip plane. Finally use the commands /show 1, /showspell off. When this is done, restart EQ and go to Step #1

If you prefer all EQ instances on the screen at the same time then you will use (no, it doesn't make you "WIN" EQ).
If you have compatability problems with multiple instances of EQ then you will use .
To my knowledge these programs can't get you banned; however I have never used em.


But Covi, how do you know all this?
I been 2-4 boxing since the day EQ was released.
p.s. I haven't ever used WinEQ or EQplaynice so don't ask me for help with it.
disabling journal reduces lag hit alt +j and disable it
changing dbg.txt in log folder to read only fixes aura lag

Gangbuster first post, thanks!

Well thanks. I've been on forums since before graphical browsers were for sale on floppys at the local computer store. =)

Its a Geforce7900gt OC board using the latest *beta* driver because of some issues I was having with obvilion and F.E.A.R. on the computer. Now it runs everything great, including 1 instance of EQ fullscreened OR windowed with all the junk cranked. The only time I can really lag is in PoK or raiding when I have all the bells and doo dads turned all the way up.

Yes it is a dual core (Intel Pentium D) processor, and I tried using the Set Affinity trick, but it seems like everything is cool until I start zoning back and forth to PoK and then everything gets stupid. I'm not sure what the issue is although I'm leaning twards it being a GeForce driver issue.

I was just hoping there was something I could do. Everyone on my server says to use WinEQ2, but I fear 3rd party software of any kind. I'm sure it's probably safe, but I'm not paying service fees to maintain software that allows other software I paid for (a ton of money for) to work properly unless absolutely needed.

Might just build another computer. *shrug*

--JNY

hmm, might be the beta driver /shrug.

Two friends of mine were having issues with their SLI GeForces, apprarently it's a problem with the drivers that goes back to the factory, I'll get some more solid info from him tonight and give more info.