EQW go boom!

[Karthum]

Just an FYI for all us EQW'ers, that the new patch killed EQW.  There's a fix in the works.

-K

[Lizsolo]

The main reason I was using EQW was because gamma settings worked.
Now that gamma works with the new graphics engine - even when in windowed mode - I'm not sure I'll wait for EQW to be updated.

But that's just me - again, I only used EQW because regular EQ 'windowed' was so dang dark for me.

[Rixis]

I can't dual box on one PC with Sony's version  :cry:

[Lizsolo]

I can't dual box on one PC with Sony's version  :cry:

What doesn't work?
Did you install their compatibility thingy to get alt-tab functioning (if on XP)?

[Rixis]

I've actually gotten it to work.

Usually, though, the second window will come up non-windowed at the EULA and freeze(bad one, can't get out of it).  The one time I did get it working I'd frequently lose control of the mouse or a window wouldn't accept the keyboard(I'd have to alt tab a few times to get it back).

[Sardarni]

What doesn't work?
Did you install their compatibility thingy to get alt-tab functioning (if on XP)?

What "compatibility thingy"?!?  I haven't been able to alt-tab since upgrading to XP.  I don't have EQWindows.

[Rixis]

Well!

The program mentioned is the Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit (downloadable straight from microsoft.com).

Basically, after installing, open the program and search for the EQ executable.  When you find it, right-click and disable.  There ya go, alt+tab functionality :) .

It's also featured right at the front in SOE's knowledge base if anyone needs a more thorough explanation. :

[Coprolith]

Yep, Rixis is correct, you need to download the compatibility toolkit from microsoft and disable the everquest entry. That will allow you to alt-tab back and forth between instances

Another thing to avoid while multiboxing EQ on one machine (without using EQW that is) is having to ALT-ENTER one instance while another instance is already running. This will almost always corrupt the graphics of the other instances (usually the screen goes black), and there's no way to fix the graphics of one instance without corrupting the others again.

One way to do this is making sure the line
[code:1]WindowedMode=TRUE[/code:1]
is present in your eqclient.ini. This will force EQ to start up in windowed mode. Do this for every instance of EQ you have on your comp.

While your at it, you might want to look at the following entries
[code:1]WindowedModeXOffset=nnn
WindowedModeYOffset=nnn
FEWindowedModeXOffset=nnn
FEWindowedModeYOffset=nnn[/code:1]
These position the windows on your desktop. I put all instances right on top of each other because i find it distracting to see things moving in the background instances.. The numbers nnn you can set to your own liking. When im running EQ at 1024x768 resolution while my desktop is in 1280x1024 i set them as follows
[code:1]WindowedModeXOffset=128
WindowedModeYOffset=128
FEWindowedModeXOffset=320
FEWindowedModeYOffset=272[/code:1]
This will center all the instances on my screen.

If this is too much hassle, you can let EQ do it by running a single instance, change to windowed mode, then log out and leave the program. Next time you start it should start windowed automatically.

I've succesfully run 3 instances of EQ at the same time in windowed mode on my comp (P4 @2.8 GHz, 1GB memory, GF FX5900). It's a lot more hassle then using EQW, but until EQW gets updated it'll have to do.

/hugs

[DiosT]

very nice coprolith :-P

[Dakat]

After the patch and running Everquest for the first time after, When it started loading the game, after the patcher, I got this message saying my ASUS ATI 9800 XT has recommended drivers to update and EQ would run better.  I agreed and downloaded the drivers. After I got into game I tried to bring my my second accout on the same computer. I got the exact errors that Coprolith mentioned.  So I figued crap, now I can't duo box on one machine any more.

Well, I got to thinking.  Everything was working fine before I downloaded the graphics patch. Since my card was made for Directx 9 I removed and uninstalled the cards patch.  Soon as I did, I rebooted the computer. The computer thought I had 2 ASUS graphics cards. It didn't remove or overwrite my existing cards drivers it installed a whole new different set.  After rebooting I installed the graphics card drivers, downloaded and installed Directx 9b and ran the Everquest patcher.

When Everquest came up I got that same message.  This time I selected NO on the updated driver and Everquest started running.  Ever since then I had no crashes/instant LD's for no reason or lockups.  I removed EQW as well. I was able to open up a second version of EQ and run both on the computer without incident/problems. Just like the patch didn't happen.  

The new graphics look way cool now.