2 Box machine?

[ranaraza]

I was 2-boxing a 61 warrior with 59 shaman but earlier this year started a mage/cleric duo that is now level 59 and more fun to play.  I really like pets.  I would like to add in a beastlord with the mage and cleric for slow, pet and beast crack.

I currently 2-box using my machine and my wife's.  She wants her machine for other games so I will be ordering a new machine.  With this new machine, I was thinking of having 2 accounts on it and my old machine would run the third account.

How do you 2-box on the same machine?  I have seen suggestions for using different software for managing the accounts like EQWin.  Is the n52 keyboard/gamepad really needed?  Is it more efficient to have 2 disk drives and 2 EQ directories?   What minimum amount of RAM is needed and what video card do you suggest?

Or would it be easier to play if I just bought 2 machines and ran 3 accounts on 3 machines?

And thank you to this website and participants for recognizing multiboxers as a way to enjoy EQ!

[JillieMT]

Welcome to the board ranaraza!!

Two accounts on one machine may not be so easy anymore. EQW hasn't been maintained in over a year, and I don't believe it works anymore at all. As far as I know, you may need one machine per account.

I could always be wrong though, and there are lotsa people here smarter than I am!  :-)

[Oiingo]

First off, you certainly don't need the gampad. Those tend to make multi-machine setups easier as you don't have to keep slapping different keyboards.  If you are on one computer, it's very easy to keep your hands on the keyboard and just hit your ``switch sessions'' hotkey to start typing on the second client.

As for EQW, don't use it.  I don't know why people continue to do so.  WinEQ 2.0 Lite has been out for quite some time and is a superior product.  If you want more features, upgrade to WinEQ 2.0 Pro or Innerspace.  For what it's worth, I use the latter on a daily basis and would highly recomend them.

On the hardware specifications end, I'd say anything along the lines of a P4 2.4 or higher, or a AMD Semperon 2800 or higher with 1 gig of RAM and a GeForce 6600 GT or similar and you'd have a smoking combination.  Two drives also help, but are not a necessity.  EverQuest is more CPU-dependant than the input/output (e.g. hard drives) system.

[WildcardX]

I have recently tested EverQuest performance on a Intel P4 1.6Ghz with a ATI Radeon 9600 128MB and with 1GB of RAM running two everquest sessions. The short answer is it does run, but with all luclin models turned on, the system wants to use 1.3 GB of RAM which means lots of disk swapping to the pagefile. If I were going to try and run 2 everquest sessions with full luclin models, I would want atleast 1.5GB of RAM if not 2GB. I do agree the EQ is more CPU intensive. One of these days I will upgrade my CPU to something more modern. P4 1.6 barely runs EQ with all graphics turned on.. By barely runs, I mean it barely performs acceptably for gameplay. With my system, I need to turn off all the "particle density" settings of the graphics. When a paladin does a stun, the spell graphic effects really drop my framerate.

[Dakat]

How do you 2-box on the same machine?  I have seen suggestions for using different software for managing the accounts like EQWin.  Is the n52 keyboard/gamepad really needed?  Is it more efficient to have 2 disk drives and 2 EQ directories?   What minimum amount of RAM is needed and what video card do you suggest?

Or would it be easier to play if I just bought 2 machines and ran 3 accounts on 3 machines?

If you are running Win XP, you do not need any software add-ons whatsoever to 2 or more box on the same computer.  I 3 box constantly on my machine and depending on which zones I go to, I can and have 5 boxed. The only slowdowns I see with 3 or more boxed characters is zoning time.  With WinXP and all current updates and with the built in features that EQ has provided for us is all you need. I have not installed or downloaded any 3rd party software and my computer runs great 3 boxing, but does slow down the more instances I open.

  When in Everquest and in Full Screen mode, you have 2 options. 1.) Open options window, select Display tab, then Select the Full Screen button. 2.) Hit Return button and Alt button together. Either of these will put your game into a windows mode. Essentially placing your current EQ game in a window mode on your desktop. While in Windows mode, you can go in and change graphics settings for that window. I usually change the screen size to max my monitor can support which is around 1600x1200. Many people use this function to view Internet websites, email accounts, or what have ya. I use this way and open up a second and 3rd instance of EQ just like I did the first. To switch from any instance of a windowed EQ to the desktop, just press ALT + Shift + R + R. This will free your mouse from the current active instance of EQ. Then you can click on the EQ Patcher Icon on your desktop and start another instance.

Once you have 2+ instances up, you can use Alt + Tab to toggle between view screens. So for me, I have 3 instances of EQ up with each one covering my entire screen except the blue boundry around the window. 

As far as separate hard drives or directories, I do not see any negligiable differences if I run 3 instances of EQ using the same game patcher/directory/hard drive.  If you want to test it out yourself, try the following.  Take the Icon on your desktop for EQ and rename it something similar. Open your My Computer and go to where you see your Everquest parent directory. Rename this directory the same as your desktop Icon so you know which one is which. Once you have done this, Grab your EQ disks and Install Everquest using the setting it sets for installing. It will install everything just like before but keep the Everquest that you renamed separate.  Once that is complete you will have 2 separte versions of Everquest on the same computer. You can do the same with another Hard-Drive, but like I said, I never noticed the difference between them.

I find it having 1 screen, 1 mouse, 1 keyboard directly in front of me a lot easier then running a PC to my left one to my right and one on my left knee.  Using ALT + Tab to toggle between them, 2 strokes on the keyboard to go from one instance to another.

For systems, I can only tell you what I have and what I use.  My system was top of the line self built over 2 years ago. It still runs Everquest in 3 instances perfectly. The only problems that I am starting to have now days is the graphics lag in newly renovated zones with the updated graphics models. Running a Nvideo graphics card is not recommended to have if you are boxing. You will have to change graphics setting every time you boot up. Turning off some of the Pixel boxes under the Advanced tab in the Graphics section of your Options Window. (PS. If you don't know what I am talking about here, when the next time you open your options window, click the Display tab, Take your mouse and move it to the bottom of your Options Window, your mouse will turn into an arrow. Move this bottome line down about 1 inch and you will see the Advanced Options button. Inside here will open up a window and you can adjust more settings here.)

My system:
AMD 64 3400+
1600 FSB
3 GIG Ram
2x 160 gig HD's
ASUS 9800 XT 256 meg (was top of the line back then, 2yrs. Was 700 bucks when I bought it)

My computer at the time had higher benchmarks then the P4 3.4 ghz Extreme Edition machines that were just coming out at the same time frame. I payed over 1,500 less for mine then that Extreme Edition was running.

With the new systems out now. Some can definately outperform mine. IE. AMD 64 4000+ are out now, and there are others that are even better then these, but if you are going to upgrade you might as well spend a little extra money and get everything that you want, not what you need. 

PPS.  The way I look at it, for every instance of EQ you want to run on the same machine, have 512 megs of ram for each available.  IE, 2 instances = 1024 megs of ram.

[Sorien]

I use the regular EQ Windows thing offered by Sony.  I think it comes with the game.  I haven't started using the N52 yet as I have to find the reload software for my other comp cause I seriously screwed that machine up.  lol.

On a side note, listening to all the above posters, I wouldn't take heed in much of what is needed for comp equipment. 

I run two EQ games quite smoothly on a P3 600 MHZ, 768 MB memory, 256 TYAN 9800 Radeon card.  I have about 3/4 of the toon models on atm.

I did find a little smoother performance with my other (now broken) machine that has a P4 1.7 GHZ cpu, but nothing game breaking.  I actually found more lag on this comp due to the crappier video card & lower memory.  <-- Dell proprietary memory sucks butt!!! (I would have never bought a Dell or allowed my wife to, but she got it before we got married and without my knowledge.  hehe

EQ is definately not CPU intensive.  It is more Memory Intensive or Video card intensive.  Basically, you can do without CPU power in EQ.  You can not do without memory power or video card power.

[Sorien]

As far as separate hard drives or directories, I do not see any negligiable differences if I run 3 instances of EQ using the same game patcher/directory/hard drive. 

Heh...  Try zoning both toons at once & watch yer system crash.... crash.... crash.... 

LOL

I tried this once.  I set my first toon on auto run for the zone & then Atl+Tab'ed over to the other & ran to zone...  Locked up for a good 5 minutes & then I had to power cycle the comp.  I'm guessing it's the problem with the hard drive and server/software application attempting to access and sort the same information at the same time.  Once you have a toon in the zone, the server/software no longer asks for that zone data, which I would guess, is why it doesn't crash when 2-boxin on the same hard drive.  That's the only problem I have seem with multi boxing on the same comp. :)

[Dakat]

After they started the new graphics detailing way back when, I have not been able to auto follow on the same computer. I've adapted my running to compensate. Alt Tab, Num Lock one char, alt tab, Num Lock another and so on.

That's the only downside as mentioned before about same computer operations.

[Tiroon]

If you are running Win XP, you do not need any software add-ons whatsoever to 2 or more box on the same computer. 

So true. Windows XP with all updates does not even need Microsoft's (free *gasp*) Windows Compatibility Toolbox anymore.

I just started to dabble in 2 boxing after getting a new comp and was pleasantly surprised how well 2 instances of EQ run on a good (not top) machine with 2 GB RAM, single HDD and a very good graphics card (Asus Extreme EAX800Pro).

One thing I seem to be doing differently is that I don't use "<alt> <shift< R" to free the cursor (too lazy) but rather the conveniently located Startmenu hotkey.

[Oiingo]

I did find a little smoother performance with my other (now broken) machine that has a P4 1.7 GHZ cpu, but nothing game breaking.  I actually found more lag on this comp due to the crappier video card & lower memory.  <-- Dell proprietary memory sucks butt!!! (I would have never bought a Dell or allowed my wife to, but she got it before we got married and without my knowledge.  hehe

EQ is definately not CPU intensive.  It is more Memory Intensive or Video card intensive.  Basically, you can do without CPU power in EQ.  You can not do without memory power or video card power.

Unfortunately, for the majority of the EverQuest player base, the inverse is true.  Most players will see a larger improvement by upgrading CPUs than they will through a video card, given the same settings before upgrade and after.

In my own case, I upgrade a machine with a 800 MHz processor and a nVidia MX 420 to a Barton 2400 with on board video and saw a huge increase.  Out of curiosity, I put my nVidia GeForce FX5200 in the old system and saw very litle difference in performance.  They was also very little difference with the Barton when I upgrade from on board video to the FX5200 to a GeForce 6600 GT, other than freeing up system memory and keeping the system out of swap along with some fancy new video effects.  I, however, still lag myself to death with Advanced Lighting and Vertical Shaders when I enter Omens of War zones; they effective cut my FPS in half, regardless of video card and CPU combination.

Just recently, I put together an AMD Athlon 64 setup using the same 6600 GT video card and the difference is day and night, even with the same hard drive, same amount of memory, etc.

EverQuest definately needs more CPU than GPU.  Discuss.

[Nekokirei]

One thing I seem to be doing differently is that I don't use "<alt> <shift< R" to free the cursor (too lazy) but rather the conveniently located Startmenu hotkey.

/waves at Ti

i've been blessed for the next two weeks with a friend's 66 cleric and found my notebook is capable--not entirely *happy* but capable--of running both accounts at the same time.

i've seen this mythical "hotkey" mentioned a couple of time for switching between sessions.  eh, anyone mind telling me how do i set one up?

[JillieMT]

The hotkey that Ti is talking about is the Windows key. Alt-Tab works as well, of course.  :-)

[Tiroon]

/waves at Nekokirei

Alt-tabbing to jump between windows works fine.

The other keys are handy for getting the second window started. Since you tried out the notebook with two EQ sessions you managed that part just fine. 8-)

[ebric]

I use the free wineq program. Like it much better than the EQ/XP tools, and don't see any need for the pay version....though I have been thinking of getting it just to give back to the guys that keep it rolling.

I run a fairly high end box and depending on zone can run 7 accounts on one box with no issues. There is a little to that though. I have 3 directories for EQ on the PC (multi drive raid 0) Directory one if for my main toon...has all the bells and whistles on, particle effects and all...the other 2 have most all the toys turned off and I run the other accounts off them. If I had 5 on one account I started having zoning crashes and if near a raid or in PoK painful lag and frame rate issues. So from my experience there is an advantage to having different directories.

I usually just run my 4 toons but now and then its fun to go kill something I can't do without the help of a friends toon :)

[Chickennuggets]

I have the worst  machine imaginable... Win ME, 512Ram, dell stock graphics card, cable connection.  Can 2-box most zones, Except PoV reliably (meaning little lag), and can three box a cleric in if all the stars are aligned properly.  Not sure if playnice, and eqwindows still works or not, but I have them up anyway.  Only problem I have had so far is when one of the toons is zoning, and the other isin't I loose control of the curser on the one I can still run around.  Usually the wizzy is evaccing or porting both at the same time though.

Basically 2 boxing you can do on just about anything, I think over 2 and you start running into hardware problems.