How to Box 5 accounts (or 2 or 3 or 4) with ONE computer:

[Xzin]

This is not something I have explored much. Most of my boxing is done on individual machines. But the way of the future is going to be boxing on ONE machine.

So for those of you who do it, chime in and let us know what hardware and techniques you use. We can consolidate the list down later to help new people.

What I would love to see is a guide like I wrote but specifically tailored to those who want to box but don't want to drop $5,000+ in order to do so.

A decent box that can run 5 WoWs can be had for $800 or less, plus copies of keyclone and 5 copies of WoW should be under $1000.

Side benefits: less power used (less cost) and less cooling needed.

[Gallo]

I'd certainly be interested in this, since I may be in the market for a new primary rig soon. I'd assume that you'd want to at least get a video card that is not only good, but had dual monitor support.

Can you put (and use) more than 1 video card in a computer? The thought has never crossed my mind until learning about multiboxing.

[Remote]

Hey Xzin. I multibox 5 shaman on Suramar (level 54 atm). I run all five WoWs on one computer with the specs below. I broadcast keystrokes using an AHK script. I also have a script that logs all five clients in simultaneously. Can post those scripts if anyone is interested.
Specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHZ
320 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
6 GB RAM
2 x 300GB SATA 7200RPM in a RAID 0 (speeds up read times substantially)

The most important mods I use are Twoboxtoolkit and Automaton.
I tried multiboxing 3 characters on different machines at first, and definitely prefer one machine. There are many tricks to doing it, so if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

@Gallo: Yes you can put multiple video cards in one machine. Though depending on the cards you're talking about, there could be power concerns. Make sure you've got a hefty power supply for high end cards.

[Xzin]

I assume XP 64, right?

[Remote]

Vista Ultimate 64. Flip 3d with 5 WoW clients is entertaining. :lol:

[Xzin]

Sounds like a decent setup. How many gigs does 5 use? 4ish? In populated areas.

[Remote]

It only uses about 3 gigs in the highly populated areas. I'm really not sure why I have 6 *shrug*. I've found it to be more processor intensive than anything else. With a quad core manually assigning the processor affinity is key.

Overall runs good. 75 FPS and 150 ping. Smooth as a baby.

[ahnubis]

I can run 4 on my amd 3200+ with 1.5gigs of ram ati x800xt 512mb gfx card. runs fine on that setup with AHk script I wrote. keyclone works good too.

my laptop is a

dell inspiron I9300

intel pent m 2ghz with 1gig of ram geforce go 6800 can run 3 accounts just fine. Im going to upgrade to 2 gigs of ram and see if I can handle more.

[Gallo]

I can run 4 on my amd 3200+ with 1.5gigs of ram ati x800xt 512mb gfx card. runs fine on that setup with AHk script I wrote. keyclone works good too.

my laptop is a

dell inspiron I9300

intel pent m 2ghz with 1gig of ram geforce go 6800 can run 3 accounts just fine. Im going to upgrade to 2 gigs of ram and see if I can handle more.

Hmph... my system is better than yours except that I have a 256mb gfx card and you have a 512. I can only run 3 before my system tops out at 100%... I wonder if I could run 5 if I upgraded my gfx card alone.

[beyond-tec]

AMD 6000 X2 WINDSOR (2MB Cache)
ASUS M2A-VM HDMI
3GB DDR2 PC800
EVGA e-GeForce 8600GT Superclocked 256MB
Windows XP Home

I've tried to start a 5box Setup with this config.
4 Sessions minimized.

It works but it's a bit laggy. I often lost 1-2 Alts.

I'd say with a better graphic card it might work.

[Remote]

AMD 6000 X2 WINDSOR (2MB Cache)
ASUS M2A-VM HDMI
3GB DDR2 PC800
EVGA e-GeForce 8600GT Superclocked 256MB
Windows XP Home

I've tried to start a 5box Setup with this config.
4 Sessions minimized.

It works but it's a bit laggy. I often lost 1-2 Alts.

I'd say with a better graphic card it might work.
Yeah, never run the other clients minimized. They don't move as quickly and you'll lose them when mounted...and sometimes even when walking. If you can't run all the clients open then the system isn't beefy enough.

[kalih]

Quad-core Q6660 2.4ghz
8600GT (horizontal span)
4GB Ram
WinXP Prof.

I was able to get everything up and running just fine.

Under XP, I tried to do two separate vid-cards, and it makes things worse. One monitor on separate vid cards was substantially slower than a single vid-card with horizontal span.

I run at 50+ fps on the alts (quad-screened at 800x600) and about 30 fps on the main (full-screened on second monitor).

I am positive that I am GPU-bound right now... so I may upgrade my vid-card if my FPS starts consistently dropping below 30, but it's been played well, up until now.

One thing I think people -need- to mention in this thread is how many windows they have up versus how many are minimized. You can 5-box with windows minimized on a much much weaker machine but there are major disadvantages to having a char minimized and trying to play with him. The follow, specifically, is fairly sketchy.. really jumpy like... and I actually lost it a few times.

[Xzin]

If it is laggy when you are on a land mount, because you are minimized, it is going to be far worse on a flying mount. As in, you will not be able to do it.

[kalih]

I put in my return request for my two vid-cards to newegg today and bought a brand-new 8800 GT. I'll let ya'll know what this does for my framerates. This puts my machine in the $1100 range, with shipping and everything (except monitors).

The 8800GT, over the next month or so, is gonna presumably drop in price into the low 200$s, so it's gonna be an excellent card for the price.

That being said, you can definitely get away with 8600 GT (or presumably 8600 GTS) and render all 5 screens up at once with reasonable graphics settings... (alts quad-screened at minimum graphic settings, and main with minimum settings but with max terrain distance and upped resolution).

[BlackKnight6667]

Hey All, I just started Dual boxing last night. I have a Mac and have the ability to pull the best option of either XP-Vista, or Mac OSX (10.5). I'm going with Mac OSX. My machine is a bit disgusting for most normal players (not for most of you of course).

Mac Pro
Dual Dual core Xeon 3ghz
2Tb Drive space (set up as 4x500gb drives raided in 2x1tb partitions)
8 gigs of ram
2 ATI X1900XL (512Mb) video cards (PCI-E 16)
Monitor wise I have a 23" and 2x20" LCDs

I'm currently getting my feet wet with 3 boxing (on one Box). but I have room for a another monitor, but I'm considering goint the Dual 30" instead (windowed WoW Multi screens per monitor on Secondary accounts)

Numbers wise I pull 60 frames on the main toon and 30-40 on the alternates. When I start spamming spells etc I get some slowness but it's within playability. Cost wise, I can't say exactly, but figure in the 6-7K range to start with some extras probably pushing it to 8K.

Anyone else multi-boxing on Mac? Are their any suggestions you have for me etc...

[Zaelar]

3g ram
ati raedon x600 w/ 256 ram
3.0 ghz p4 w/ hypertheading

Got it for about 700 dollars from dell a couple years go, just added 2g of ram.

Runs 5 wows in windowed mode, none minimized, at 3-30 fps. Some resized to be smaller though. Not suggested for heavy pvp, but little to no problems so far for pve. AHK to pass keys. All from one wow directory with very little HD space left over(currently 6.2GB).

[Remote]

Question:

When blizzard finally drops the ban hammer on a multiboxer for using 3rd party software (and its when, not if), is there a method for doing 5box on 1pc using hardware inputs? (most likely due to farmers, like Xzins recent post spelled out).

It wouldn't be hard to modify Warden (Blizzard's monitoring software) to check for things like Multibox, Synergy, Keyclone, AHK, etc. It probably already does so, it just doesn't do anything about it, because the those programs aren't flagged.
If Blizzard wanted to drop the ban hammer on multiboxers at all, they would have done it a long time ago.
Also, the way Warden works, it would be impossible for it to see the use of AHK scripts. They would have to completely change its functionality.

[Remote]

Question:

When blizzard finally drops the ban hammer on a multiboxer for using 3rd party software (and its when, not if), is there a method for doing 5box on 1pc using hardware inputs? (most likely due to farmers, like Xzins recent post spelled out).

It wouldn't be hard to modify Warden (Blizzard's monitoring software) to check for things like Multibox, Synergy, Keyclone, AHK, etc. It probably already does so, it just doesn't do anything about it, because the those programs aren't flagged.
If Blizzard wanted to drop the ban hammer on multiboxers at all, they would have done it a long time ago.
Also, the way Warden works, it would be impossible for it to see the use of AHK scripts. They would have to completely change its functionality.

Take your ideas / thoughts / mindset on this issue, and add +10 public relations and +5 to politics.

Right now, there isn't enough people bitching about 'boxers to make Blizzard care. At some point, that mindset might change.
There are plenty of people bitching. I spoke with a GM who informed me that I get reported multiple times every day. Is there a general uproar? No. And I don't think there ever will be.
To use Xzin as an example...he worked his way to Warlord, and yet there weren't enough bitchers to make Blizzard care. And I'm sure there were quite a few people QQing about getting 4 Pyros to the face.

[Sun]

Question:

When blizzard finally drops the ban hammer on a multiboxer ...

Sorry but I hear this all the time from others who are paranoid about using 3rd party programs. Guess what, its not going to happen. Stop thinking that this is a BOT program. Blizz knows you have to interact with this program for it to work. I personally know how much time I have spent just in setting up my different accounts. I also know that as my toons progress there is more work involved in setting up even more macro commands to operate my toons.

NOW if this was a BOT program, EVERYTHING would be automatic. YOU HAVE to interact with this program. SIMPLy said.

Think of all the time invested in creating AddOns for the game. Look at all the people who have created things that make this game more playable. Blizzard knows this game goes beyond just playing it. KC is nothing more than anything else that has already been done and APPROVED by blizzard.

So please dont be so negative with "the ban" hammer just yet.

IF....and I do say IF the chinese were to modify this program to make it BOT for them ... trust me BLIZZ most likely will STOP that program.

3rd party programs aside....this program does not modify the client AT ALL!!!

nuff said....

[Gurblash]

Currently 5boxing on 1 laptop.

System specs:
Inspiron 1520, Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, 1.5GHz, 667Mhz 2M L2 Cache
2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT

Each window is running on the screen via Keycloner's maximizer. Main focus runs at about 30fps with all gfx turned down. Drops to about 10fps in high traffic cities such as lagforge.

[Bravo]

Hey all, just got my horizontal spanning problem fixed, I returned the ati card and went with nvidia, coming to this website and reading the forums really got me excited about multiboxing. last weekend I built a

Intel quad core q6600
4 gigs of ram,
nvidia 8600GT 256mb ddr3
500 gb sata hdd.

using keyclone I have all 5 screens running over 2 monitors at 60fps, just started off with 5 shammies, getting my feet wet and having a blast

[Xzin]

Just as a reference point, you had to "script" UO in similar ways to automate game play. Didn't mean it was any less frowned upon:

www.easyuo.com

The difference though was that UO is a 2d game and as such is SO MUCH EASIER to automate. WoW will eventually get that level of automation, all else equal though.

[Cernunnos]

Currently 5-boxing with one 21" monitor (soon to be two) on the following setup:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (standard 2.4GHz clock atm)
4GB RAM (only using 2.75 under XP)
Asus EN8800GT video card w/512MB

4x alts at 800x600
1x main at 1280x1024

All windows are at 60 FPS until you get into crowded areas. Then they drop to 45-ish. Very playable and I highly recommend the 8800 GT if you are speccing out a system right now, especially considering that the WotLK expansion will bump up the graphics.

[keyclone]

@Cernunnos

sounds sweet. can you drop a screenshot of your desktop showing the screen layout?

it's all on one monitor? does your main overlay the others?

[empeha]

my 5in1 setup:
Intel Core2 6300 (1.86 GHz)
2GB RAM
Radeon X1900XTX (512MB)

most time 20-40 fps on all windows (higher in instances) unplayable in major cities because auf only 2GB RAM.

Playing on 24'' Dell. Keyclone + TweakUI (X-Mouse)

[Cernunnos]

@Cernunnos

sounds sweet. can you drop a screenshot of your desktop showing the screen layout?

it's all on one monitor? does your main overlay the others?

Yeah, I'll post a screenie tonight. I just have the main centered over the 4 alts, so there is overlap. I was afraid it would be a pain, but it works out pretty well. I just click to get focus on any alt screen I want and click back to that main when done. Since the mouse doesn't have to move far, it's not bad to do quest turn-ins/vendoring, etc. PvE is no problem. I think PvP wouldn't work out so hot.

I'll move to the main on one screen with 4x alts tiled on another when the 2nd monitor gets here.

No doubt that 5 identical screens with pure hardware and a synced mouse would be better still. That's a LOT more expensive, though. ;-D

[Ghallo]

So I am curious - is there a way to "clone" mouse movement on all of the instances?

[wolviex]

i have been messing around dual boxing for lil while, only issues i have is the following toon lags, i run dual monitors, with main screen on high settings, and the clone on all low settings minimized. Only using AHK and several macros

Windows XP Home Edition
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3700+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256.0 MB

2gig RAM

[Fahn]

I use my one box to either 3 or 5 box depending on my mood :lol:

I use Keyclones Maximizer, varying how I have them set up every couple of days. I typically get 20fps on each when 5 boxing, and 25-40fps 3 boxing.

Biggest problem is load times while zoning or entering Shattrah.

specs:
CPU: AMD Opteron 165
RAM: 2048 DDR 400
VID: ATI Radeon X1950 256
MON: 20" Wide screen acer LCD
HDD: Single 7200rpm Seagate

Also, has anyone tried running a single Raptor and compared it to 2 7200's running in Raid 0, and checked the performance difference boxing?

[Taipan]

Greetings to all with this first post.

I'm about to start experimenting multi-boxing on a single PC with WoW.

Current setup :

- Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0 ghz no O/C
- G.Skill Kit Extreme2 2 x 1 Go PC6400 PK
- MSI P35 Platinum
- Noctua NH-U12F (cooler)
- Seasonic S12II-500HT (power)
- Western Digital Raptor X 150 Go - 16 Mo 10k rpm
- Sapphire Radeon™ X1950 Pro 256 Mo
- Win XP Pro (not 64)
- Logitech G15
- Samsung LCD 226bw (22") in 1680 * 1050
- 19" lcd TBD

Currently running full options up, 90 fps in Shatt City, average 150-175 fps flying around Nagrand, +200fps looking up the sky.

Note : I have found that with powerful enough CPUs, mid-range ATI cards tend to outperform similar price-ranged Nvidia ones in terms of FPS in WoW.
It seems their ATI Catalyst driver pulls more out of the CPU than the Nvidia ForceWare driver (again, for WoW only).
Thus the "non-uber" X1950 Pro 256.

/salute

[Astralas]

So I am curious - is there a way to "clone" mouse movement on all of the instances?

Yes. For some years i've multi boxed on WoW with one computer, assuming I was the only one around. It seems on here people have tricks for pressing one button and it being pressed on all accounts, macros for formations etc, but there aren't really any explanations i've been able to find. Can someone help with this? My hands really do get quite strained trying to do so much at once.

[Wilbur]

Read properly, theres shitloads of info. You have obviously put no effort into digesting any of the available information.

[Astralas]

Read properly, theres shitloads of info. You have obviously put no effort into digesting any of the available information.

For example, where? The threads are very much full of jargon that I don't understand.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7775069164425274386&hl=en

All I really wish to do is what is being done in this video - being able to spread out into formations by pressing a macro, and force the characters to do the same thing.

[Wilbur]

The Stickies. The NUMEROUS posts, failing that, try searching for "Formations" or "Movement"

More effort required.

[Astralas]

I'm afraid they're of little help. For example, this one on formation and movement - http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=1412 - has nothing as to what you actually put into the macro, only people discussing it with the presumption you already know how. I'm very much an amatuer when it comes to macros and the like.

[Wilbur]

/me sighs

It tells you exactly what to put in the macro, bind a diffrent movement to one key for each character. Multicast this key, viola.

[Astralas]

"It tells you exactly what to put in the macro" - Where?

[Wilbur]

For fuck sake, use your brain.

You have four characters going in diffrent direction, One button is pressed, how do you think its done? One button, is bound to a diffrent movement direction on each character.

E.G Character one the = key is move forward
Character two, the same key is move backward
Character three, the same key is strafe left
Character four, the same key is strafe right.

I don't understand why you want to use a formation, it only makes things look slightly better, it has very little impact on gameplay. Get the other aspects of your setup nailed before you start trying to make it look "pretty" and put the finishing touches to it.

[Astralas]

Hm.. I think i'll take my leave if everyone on this site behaves in your manner. See you.

[Wilbur]

Hm.. I think i'll take my leave if everyone on this site behaves in your manner. See you.

Appologies for over-reacting, not everyone on this site does, for the most part we are very nice, however when someone comes in, asks a question which has been asked X many times, and clearly has not bothered to delve into the HUGE amounts of posts which already discuss this subject, well, I think we can be forgiven for suggesting you use your brain.

I don't mind helping people, but I'm not going to spoon-feed them.

[keyclone]

realize.. there are people that could be trolls looking to cause issues and hope to emot this exact reaction. their goal would be to minimize/damage multi boxing and the community @ dual-boxing.

my suggestion would be, have patience or don't answer beyond what you believe is acceptable. let them stew on the answers you've already provided, assuming they are more then just RTFM.

if they continue to call out for help, someone else will pick up where you left off. (one of the benefits of a great community like this)

[Stricknine]

This is my first post here, I've been lurking for a few days reading some of the stickies and was directed to this post from Xzin's stickied writeup on multiboxing. Its the first link in his post @

http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=410

Now, I am a pretty smart guy, I have been working in computers and gaming for probably 20 years now. I am technically and financially able to multibox once I learn more about it.

I've been playing WoW for a little over a year and due to being in a small, unprogressing guild made up of real life friends (so I can't just dump them for a bigger guild) I thought mutliboxing might be fun to do instead of raiding. So I start reading this forum.

Then I get to this thread. Some guy posts in "Beginners Haven" who obviously has NO macro experience (like myself) and gets flamed for it. I realize its probably been asked 100 times, but for someone (LIKE ME) who isn't up on the lingo, getting started on macros is not the easiest thing. I'd suggest that for threads linked from one of the better summary posts (thanks Xzin, your write ups got me interested in this unique playstyle) not flame n00b's or potential n00bs (ME) like that.

Some people (ME) have never used macro's in WoW. I would have no idea for what to even search for in the forums. I'm not asking for a "type this, blah blah IWIN!!" tutorial, but maybe just a little primer on the subject. So please, instead of flaming me, possibly direct me to a specific post for some beginning macro creation help as it relates to multiboxing.

Macro's and the keyboard/mouse control are the biggest hurdles in my beginner opinion. I can buy equipment and hook it all up, thats easy. Making it work slick is a whole other bag of tricks I hope I can learn here without 3rd degree flame burns.

[Wilbur]

The macro and Addons forum has numerous posts on Howto Macro and a list of other useful resources as well as some examples on what you should be including in your macros, what format you should be going for insofar as character control, etc.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Well I box 4 each on 6 computers. For EQ1 you dont need a whole lot, any up to date machine should be able to do it but ya ram is most necessary. Im still on win2K but I can see 3.6G (there is .5 gig flash ram on my motherboard) which is sufficient without using a 64 bit operating system.

I only play in full screen for the "immersion" factor. Autofollow will fail with only one machine so you have to move your lead in a "walk" mode to slow things up, and overshoot turns then come back with the main when the follows are positioned corrected for the turn.

I just switch through my groups. Press a single key and I am at "group 1", then flip to "group 2" etc.

Should be simple enough to control 4 or 5 by switiching from one to the other, and if only a single window has focus, which is always the case, then you don't need seperate keys for each character. Ya you gonna lose some serious time flipping from toon 1 to toon 4 but ... I just don't go for having a bunch of tiny screen on the computer.

What you want to do is to minimize flipping time whcih is basically a function of your hardware. So just buy the fastest stuffs heh, and more ram is better always. And a raptor.

[offive]

I run all 5 accounts on my single system.

AMD 64x2 5400, XP 32 bit, 4gb (3gb usable in 32 bit OS), SLI 8800GTXs. 24" wide aspect LCD with AHK. OS on Raptors in raid 0 and Wow builds on seperate Raptor.

I resize windows on my two dpsers down a lot. The healers get more screen space. The tank gets the most so I can pick up agro changes easier.

Turn off sound and visual effects on all screens except the main.

Another thing to note if you minimze a window that lags that process, better to simply shrink the screen down.

I tried running 5 in Vista x64 but the overhead from the 32bit code caused max CPU load and it was pretty much unplayable compared to the 32 bit XP. Now if Bliizz would release a 64bit client... i might see better performance on Vistax64.

[Lokked]

Alright, I amassed as much information as my brain could handle for tonight, but I still have a few questions.

My system-to-be (I haven't purchased it yet, but its about ready):
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Asus P5K base model.
BFI or some other crap brand nVidia 8800GT 512MB
2x2GB Micron 5-5-5-5 DDR2 DIMMs (4GB)
Some sorta hard drive, not RAIDed (How big a deal is RAID0 HDDs?)

I want to run 5 instances of WoW and, later on, 3 instances of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning when it comes out, all on this machine. I have 2 LCD panels.

My concern is that my friends told me that running multiple online games from the same IP causes bad IP stacking, where 1 or more of your instances will not recieve its packets when it should, due to strange routing (??), and disconnects. Dunno if this is an issue. Some light shed on this would be fantastic.

My other problem is what operating system to purchase (yeah, I'm going to use a purchased version). A couple posts back sais Vista is bad, while others say it's good. Basically I want someone to tell me straight out what OS to use :p

If there is anything else I require hardware-wise to pull this off, let me know. I think, besides the WoW copies and actual computer, the ideas in my head work!

[Wilbur]

Raid 0 HDD's offer some performance boost when loading, etc Although to be honest, there won't be a *huge* amount of diffrence, however it should be noticable.

As far as Age of Reckoning, my "sources" tell me that its far more CPU intensive than WoW. Apparently it supports SLI as well, which could make things interesting (WuWu for joo Xzin :P).

Your friends have misinformed you about "IP stacking" I don't think anyone here considers this an issue.

As for an operating system, XP 64 bit or Vista 64 bit. This is the only essential thing for systems with > 3GB RAM. This aside, you'll suffer a performance hit with Vista (due to the extra bells and whistles) however XP does have its own "issues" with Dual-view which cuts performance significantly. In XP the Dual-view performance problem can be fixed by switching to horizontal span instead.

As for extra hardware, Most people just use their normal keyboard, however some have used things like X-keys and such to great effect (Programmable keyboards) But this is considered a "plus".

Good Luck.

[marvein]

I find that if you are playing all the same class then 1 keyboard is sufficient for most uses. I have an n52 as well but I only use it for convenient things because atm its not really necessary just handy. When I do another 5man team it will be a different thing so it might be needed.