How to: EQ2 and Innerspace

[moosejaw]

This is a clearing house of how to get up and running with Innerspace/Isboxer and multiple instances of EQ2. Please submit your tricks or suggestions to this thread and I will add them to first post(s).


[This will be an ISboxer focused guide with minor emphasis on the hardware requirements]


Important Links:

Innerspace ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2') Innerspace setup/wiki ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/Inner_Space') Isboxer setup/wiki ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/IS:ISBoxer') Isboxer getting started ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/ISBoxer:Getting_started')

If you are using Innerspace then you should be using Isboxer along with Windowsnapper, repeater and keymapper. There is no need to use Keyclone here at all.

Briefly, Windowsnapper will handle all of your window region positioning and PiP functions. Repeater will handle all of your keyboard/mouse multiplexing across all of your instances even to other machines with IS installed. Keymapper is the utility used to setup what keys you want sent where (which includes roundrobin, whitelist/blacklist) and is very powerful once fully utilized.

Hardware:

Gaming devices supported by IS: Logitech G15 and G11 (though not G13 or G19 yet), Nostromo n52 Speedpad works, also older USB X-keys devices work (newer firmware support has not yet been confirmed but is implemented).

Quoted from Lax (IS developer) with regards to Multiplicity/Kavoom KVM type software:



ISBoxer now has KVM Mode directly from one to another game window or windows (on the same or other PC), which you might find preferable to having to move the mouse across -- you keep your mouse on the original game window for mouse placement (that should be some good time savings), and you will see the cursor on the other window as well. You would set up a Mapped Key to switch destination windows (there are a couple examples on the KVM Mode page ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/ISBoxer:KVM_Mode'))




-EQ2 is a resource hog, no getting around it. Don't expect to run full graphics with even a top end machine and one instance without some hiccups. I use a Q6600 @ 3.0 Ghz with 8gb ram and Ati HD 4870 1Gb video. Six instances of EQ2 at minimum graphics brings my computer to its knees. All processor cores are at 80% or above all the time. I am confident that I could run 4 instances of EQ2 on this machine and turn up the graphics on the master a little.

-There is a lot of software rendering going on in EQ2. There has been rumors of off loading to the video card coming soon (we can only hope).

- The sound processing is another sticking point of mine. Your sound options are very limited. You can have software sound by default (recommended) or you can use hardware sound (eax/creative/soundblaster). Hardware sound is a little bit annoying to setup and when I tried to run multiple instances with EAX sound on some very bad things happened. So it shall be software sound from now on. As far as I can tell, you can not disable the sound in EQ2 which is very, very annoying. I turn the sound down on all the slave instances and leave it at that. No doubt a large performace gain could be had if we could somehow disable the software sound processing on all the slaves.

First step to multiboxing EQ2 is set your graphics performance to minimum, aka lowest quality (the bottom choice on the performance drop down). This gives you a proper starting point for running multiple instances.

Innerspace setup: EQ2 and EQ require the game to be "locked foreground" for accepting keystroke input, so make sure you check this box for each character.
First install Innerspace ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2') on your machine. This is subscription software but there is a 7 day trial available on that page for those wishing to try it out.
Next is to add your EQ2 game installation to your game menu as explained here ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/Inner_Space'). Next download and install ISboxer ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/IS:ISBoxer') (Note: Make sure ISboxer is installed to your Innerspace directory). This will install the newest versions of WindowSnapper ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/IS:WindowSnapper'), KeyMapper ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/IS:KeyMapper') and Repeater ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/IS:Repeater') to your Innerspace installation.

Now go back and watch the videos on the ISboxer wiki ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/IS:ISBoxer') on how to setup your teams. Read the Isboxer getting started ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/ISBoxer:Getting_started') wiki page.

Next post: setting up keymaps.

Work in progress.....

[moosejaw]

To start with, Keymaps are your best friend when boxing any game. If you have never used a keymap before then you should create 2 maps to start with.

Keymap- "Team1" - or whatever you have named your first team (character set), to keep it simple.

Keymap- "Team1 Toggle"- This map will be used to toggle on/off the team1 map to enable you to type normally. Especially when trying to enter passwords on startup/login.

Team1 setup:

I don't want to regurgitate the instruction for creating maps found here ('http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/ISBoxer:Getting_started'). But I want to give some helpfull hints to utilize them. Common keys to start out your keymap should be '1' through '=' . You can set these up to be passed to all windows and place macros only on the keys you want your master and slaves to activate. Optionally you can add 'spacebar' to be passed to all windows so you can use jump to quickly clear obstructions.

NOTE: Because EQ2 drops new spells onto your action bars automatically when you level, you should move new spells off your action bars (or move them to macros) to prevent inadvertent casting by your characters.

Remember you can have the number 1 on your keymap press anykey you wish on any window. Pressing 1 can; press 1 on the tank, press numpad 1 on your dps, and press your dance macro key on your healers. Simply adding steps with the key to press and which window to press it in is all that needs to be set up. You can also have windows do nothing when you press certain keys. Lets say my healers have heal macros on 6 and 7. I can set my keymap to only pass 6 and 7 to the healers windows so the dps characters will never see that key press.

Invite group macro and keymap integration: One of the pet peeves of boxers is getting your group formed up quickly and the same order. Since EQ2 places group members in the order that they accept the invite, we want our group to look the same each time. Here is where we can use a round robin keymap to our advantage.

Using your master character's invite to group macro as a starter, send the first keypress to the master window to send out invites. This is the first step of the round robin. In the next step you should send a keypress to the first character you want in the group and tie this to your general 'accept macro' key (see below). Repeat these round robin steps until you have all your group members covered. This macro will cycle through each step on each keypress.

General accept macro-


/acceptinvite group
/accept_trade


By this time you have probably figured out that the sky is the limit when it comes to the keymaps.



Team 1 Toggle setup:

For those times when you need to suspend your normal keymap, you can toggle you keymaps on and off. Select a bind key here that isn't going to be used for anything else but this toggle. I suggest using the 'pause' key for a normal keyboard (use the scroll lock for mouse/keys toggle in repeater) and using one of the top row of Gkeys (G1,G2,G3) on a G15 keyboard. On the G15 you can set up a 'm' light to go on/off with your toggle.

What we do here is another round robin with the first step: turning 'on' the keymap/turning on a 'm' light (if G15)/flash an on screen message "Team 1 keymap ON" (you set the message duration and fade time).

The second step is to reverse the first step:turn 'off' the keymap/turn 'off' the 'm' light/flash an on screen message "Team 1 keymap OFF".

This round robin acts like a toggle but is very reliable in execution.

[moosejaw]

File redirection is crucial to keeping your team's UI and game settings segregated between solo and boxing play.

NOTE: The file you are redirecting from must be present when you first start up the game with Innerspace. If this file hasn't been generated or is not present, an Innerspace error may result. To prevent errors, make sure the file exists before launching the game. The virtual file you are redirecting to will be created, by copying the contents of the source file, if it does not already exist.

Files to redirect, what they do and why we do it:

EQ2_RECENT.ini - This file contains the most recent graphics/resolution/sound settings that you have used. This is where you would manually adjust your screen resolutions on slaves for reducing system loading.

It is recommended that you use a different file name for each account/character to keep account specific data seperate. I.E. EQ2_recent_toon1.ini EQ2_recent_toon2.ini etc. EQ2_recent.ini Doing this will allow your account name to be saved properly for each instance you launch, making login much easier.



EQ2.ini - This file contains the addon loading information. Only addons listed in this file will be loaded. It is common practice to only run addons on the master/lead character, so to make this process easier you can create the redirected file ahead of time. Open the EQ2.ini file (with your favorite editor) and save as EQ2_addons_master.ini (for example). To set up the slaves with no addons simple clear out the UI settings and save the file as EQ2_addons_slaves.ini (for example). The slave file works great to load up the slaves with no addons. Should decide to change addons at a later date, let your addon updater do its thing and copy (or delete) the changed data in EQ2.ini to your 'master' file.

There are other .xml layout files that EQ2 generates andthey are saved by server/character format. I don't see any reason to redirect these files unless you want to solo play a normally boxed character and use totally different settings. In this case you would simply redirect those specific files for when you box and retain the solo settings in the default format.

[moosejaw]

Silly spam limiter.

Reserved.

[moosejaw]

And again, Reserved.

[Herc130]

I am almost diffinently buying an 8-port vetra since EQ2 plays much better having some macros as simultanious input for all (not so much in EQ1) and all I had was a 4-port, but did entertain the thought of going with ISboxer. Just wondering how well that would work with 6 different computers and 7 different X-keys (Only 1 multicasting, other 6 controlling only the comp it's hardwired to). How much problems did you have with set-up, reliabiity over all computers and any problems after SOE patches EQ2? Don't want to turn it into a hardware vrs. software post cause I know your intent was to give info on setting up ISboxer, but how well do you think using ISboxer compares to going full hardware? I have always used full hardware to box until recently when I started using multiplicity. Before that, I use to switch through computers manually with a KVM and I cannot imagine trying to box EQ2 and doing all my mouse clicks for quest for all the boxes using a KVM lol. Being able to move my mouse and keyboard through all the comps on my network simply by....moving the mouse cursor there has made things tremendously easier for me and for the most part, the software works fine except there were alot of problems to work through on set-up and every week or two, I seem to get a new problem. So my eyes were opened to software a little because using synergy, multiplcity or other software like that is infinitely better for boxing in my opinion then using a KVM. Just wondering if that holds true comparing ISboxer type software and vetra multiplexers. Still probably ordering the 8-port tonight, but maybe I'll try using ISBoxer on my laptop for when I am stuck at work and got nothing to do.

[moosejaw]

I was stuck on a phone call while you were posting that. ;)

I think Innerspace is not much different than the other multiplexers out there. They all get the job done pretty well. Innerspace goes a step beyond with Isboxer. The ease of setup for keymaps/window regions/teams is just amazing. Another thing you get with keymapper is the ability to set up keymaps that inject keys only to the windows you want. Do you only want your healing keys to repeat to the healer windows? No problem.

If you have certain keyboards like the G15 and I think the Nostromo (not sure on that) IS directly supports these devices special keys. I have my PIP keys bound directly to Gkeys for example. Your IS license is good for 5 or 6 machines (have to check) and ISboxer will synchronize the data between them all. I haven't used this feature yet but I may soon. The only disadvantage is slight network delay with sending the commands but in EQ2 that isn't even a factor.

Using multiplicity/synergy shouldn't interfere with IS because all your input commands should be intercepted and direct per the keymap regardless of which machine they input on. Once again I haven't tested that yet. If you run the same resolution on all the machines then the software mouse repeater should work well for clicking on instances/ports/resurects etc.

You could reduce some clutter with the software solution for sure and moving the mouse across all screens (multiplicity) means you don't need a mouse on each machine all the time.

[Frosty]

- The sound processing is another sticking point of mine. Your sound options are very limited. You can have software sound by default (recommended) or you can use hardware sound (eax/creative/soundblaster). Hardware sound is a little bit annoying to setup and when I tried to run multiple instances with EAX sound on some very bad things happened. So it shall be software sound from now on. As far as I can tell, you can not disable the sound in EQ2 which is very, very annoying. I turn the sound down on all the slave instances and leave it at that. No doubt a large performace gain could be had if we could somehow disable the software sound processing on all the slaves. I "think" that running software sound is supposed to eat up a lot of your CPU.
I'm running mine in hardware mode, and turn all settings I can find down for the slaves.
I just have an onboard sound card.. and I suck at computer stuff (and not at that computer) so I can't remember what it is. :P

I'm not sure what you are using for sound, but I did find this post about Creative's Alchemy program to restore EAX under Windows Vista ('http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=406700').

I am still looking for a way to disable the sound completely on the slaves, because every bit of performance helps though.

[moosejaw]

I ran alchemy and set up eax. That is when bad things happened when boxing. Running eax solo allows me to play but will give me crashes. All in all, eax is broken.

What are you setting to get hardware mode without using eax? All I see is Miles and surround modes and they are both software modes. It is my understanding that eax is the only way to use hardware sound and all other options are software.

[Frosty]

What are you setting to get hardware mode without using eax? All I see is Miles and surround modes and they are both software modes. It is my understanding that eax is the only way to use hardware sound and all other options are software.
I could be completely wrong. :P

If I can get my son to sleep, I'll go look (on my crappy laptop right now).

[Frosty]

Ok, I was wrong. :P

Mine is set to Miles Fast 2D.

But, for all my slaves I have the following turned down to the lowest settings in Optins -> Sound -> General:

1. Sound Variations - "Reducing this setting will save memory at the cost of sound variety."
2. Max Simultaneous Sounds - Lowest setting is 8 I think.
3. Max Footstep Distance - 0.0

I'm going to dig through some other stuff.

I haven't really been having any problems with running 6 instances on my machine. I have my main window set to run with almost every setting at max.
There are a few things I turn off because they just annoy me (insane ammounts of grass/plants on ground). But it can't hurt to find a way to turn the sound off on the other 5 since I don't use it anyway. :P

[Lax]

Not to butt in :)

License is for 5 PCs, yes on G15 and G11 keyboards (though not G13 or G19 yet), Nostromo n52 Speedpad works, also older USB X-keys devices work (newer firmware support has not yet been confirmed but is implemented).
You could reduce some clutter with the software solution for sure and moving the mouse across all screens (multiplicity) means you don't need a mouse on each machine all the time. Indeed synergy or multiplicity should work fine. Also, ISBoxer now has KVM Mode directly from one to another game window or windows (on the same or other PC), which you might find preferable to having to move the mouse across -- you keep your mouse on the original game window for mouse placement (that should be some good time savings), and you will see the cursor on the other window as well. You would set up a Mapped Key to switch destination windows (there are a couple examples on the KVM Mode page)

[moosejaw]

Not to butt in :)

License is for 5 PCs, yes on G15 and G11 keyboards (though not G13 or G19 yet), Nostromo n52 Speedpad works, also older USB X-keys devices work (newer firmware support has not yet been confirmed but is implemented).

You could reduce some clutter with the software solution for sure and moving the mouse across all screens (multiplicity) means you don't need a mouse on each machine all the time. Indeed synergy or multiplicity should work fine. Also, ISBoxer now has KVM Mode directly from one to another game window or windows (on the same or other PC), which you might find preferable to having to move the mouse across -- you keep your mouse on the original game window for mouse placement (that should be some good time savings), and you will see the cursor on the other window as well. You would set up a Mapped Key to switch destination windows (there are a couple examples on the KVM Mode page)No problem at all Lax. I will get the corrections inserted to the top post. I think placing as many guides where people might see them will help build more support, especially when they see what a breeze ISBoxer is to setup. I for one love the front end that you built for the other scripts. It saves hours of setup time.

I saw that you remade the ISBoxer page and placed all the links at the top, nice touch. I need to setup a second machine to check out the kvm feature.

You don't mind my linking those pages directly do you? Let me know if any if any links are not ok. I am changing the ISBoxer download link to just the ISBoxer page in case the link goes bad.

[Lax]

No I don't mind at all, should help people make use of the information that is available.

[Frosty]

Heya moosejaw,

I did some searching last night about the sound thing and it looks like Vista no longer supports the sound layer used by a lot of games.
I had a link to it..but it was late, and now the kids are screaming (son is smacking me in the back so I'll help him make another toon in CoH). :S

I know I found it in the sony eq2 forums though...

If I find it again I'll post it.

[moosejaw]

Frosty, can you post up what resolution monitor you use and how your layout is arranged. Also are you redirecting eq_recent.ini and what resolution is listed in that file for default and windowed?

If we have similar hardware and my performance is suffering it is probably the screen resolution. I have had bad results trying to lower the resolution in the redirected eq_recent file.

[Frosty]

Frosty, can you post up what resolution monitor you use and how your layout is arranged. Also are you redirecting eq_recent.ini and what resolution is listed in that file for default and windowed?

If we have similar hardware and my performance is suffering it is probably the screen resolution. I have had bad results trying to lower the resolution in the redirected eq_recent file.
I'll have to look at the resolution when I get home...it's a new 25 inch monitor with a crazy wide-screen format.
But I think all the windows have the same resolution including the main. Just all the follower accounts have everything turned down or off.
I'm also limiting the background frames to like 12 and the forground to 20 for the followers.

For my layout I used the AutoLayout in WindowSnapper, and have the main window on the left, with 6 slots on the right.
I have the empty slot for the place holder of what window is active. (default setup I think.)

Each account has it's own "faked" eq_recent.ini file through the ISBoxer setup. I can't remember what that's called? :P

I have my main window set to not go above 60FPS, but most of the time it runs anywhere from 30-60FPS.
I know I could turn off a few more "pretty" things, but I like em and don't want too!

[Frosty]

My monitor resolution is set to 1920x1080 but each EQ2 client is set to 1024x768.

Sorry it took me so long. :P

[moosejaw]

I will have to try your lower resolution. I was having issues setting resolutions so I left them alone. Maybe the game didn't like the resolution I set. WOW was a bit more tolerant when you manually changed the config. I'll report back with any performance changes. :)

[Lyssia]

To start with, Keymaps are your best friend when boxing any game. If you have never used a keymap before then you should create 2 maps to start with.

Keymap- "Team1" - or whatever you have named your first team (character set), to keep it simple.

Keymap- "Team1 Toggle"- This map will be used to toggle on/off the team1 map to enable you to type normally. Especially when trying to enter passwords on startup/login.

Team1 setup:

I don't want to regurgitate the instruction for creating maps found here (http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/ISBoxer:Getting_started). But I want to give some helpfull hints to utilize them. Common keys to start out your keymap should be '1' through '=' . You can set these up to be passed to all windows and place macros only on the keys you want your master and slaves to activate. Optionally you can add 'spacebar' to be passed to all windows so you can use jump to quickly clear obstructions.

NOTE: Because EQ2 drops new spells onto your action bars automatically when you level, you should move new spells off your action bars (or move them to macros) to prevent inadvertent casting by your characters.

Remember you can have the number 1 on your keymap press anykey you wish on any window. Pressing 1 can; press 1 on the tank, press numpad 1 on your dps, and press your dance macro key on your healers. Simply adding steps with the key to press and which window to press it in is all that needs to be set up. You can also have windows do nothing when you press certain keys. Lets say my healers have heal macros on 6 and 7. I can set my keymap to only pass 6 and 7 to the healers windows so the dps characters will never see that key press.

Invite group macro and keymap integration: One of the pet peeves of boxers is getting your group formed up quickly and the same order. Since EQ2 places group members in the order that they accept the invite, we want our group to look the same each time. Here is where we can use a round robin keymap to our advantage.

Using your master character's invite to group macro as a starter, send the first keypress to the master window to send out invites. This is the first step of the round robin. In the next step you should send a keypress to the first character you want in the group and tie this to your general 'accept macro' key (see below). Repeat these round robin steps until you have all your group members covered. This macro will cycle through each step on each keypress.

General accept macro-


/acceptinvite group
/accept_trade


By this time you have probably figured out that the sky is the limit when it comes to the keymaps.



Team 1 Toggle setup:

For those times when you need to suspend your normal keymap, you can toggle you keymaps on and off. Select a bind key here that isn't going to be used for anything else but this toggle. I suggest using the 'pause' key for a normal keyboard (use the scroll lock for mouse/keys toggle in repeater) and using one of the top row of Gkeys (G1,G2,G3) on a G15 keyboard. On the G15 you can set up a 'm' light to go on/off with your toggle.

What we do here is another round robin with the first step: turning 'on' the keymap/turning on a 'm' light (if G15)/flash an on screen message "Team 1 keymap ON" (you set the message duration and fade time).

The second step is to reverse the first step:turn 'off' the keymap/turn 'off' the 'm' light/flash an on screen message "Team 1 keymap OFF".

This round robin acts like a toggle but is very reliable in execution.

I've read through this several times and tried to do this in ISBoxer, but I'm missing something or not fully understanding the process. Could you possibly clarify for me, step by step, exactly how to make a group invite keymap, etc.?

[Lyssia]

*snip*
EQ2_RECENT.ini - This file contains the most recent graphics/resolution/sound settings that you have used. This is where you would manually adjust your screen resolutions on slaves for reducing system loading.

It is recommended that you use a different file name for each account/character to keep account specific data seperate. I.E. EQ2_recent_toon1.ini EQ2_recent_toon2.ini etc. EQ2_recent.ini Doing this will allow your account name to be saved properly for each instance you launch, making login much easier.

I am running four different accounts, and I have tried to set this up but it's not working for me. I have created a virtual file named eq2_recent.ini. I have IS set up with four characters and have added all four characters to the virtual file, telling each one to run as eq2_recent_(charname).ini. The four different ini files are being created - I see them in the EQ2 folder. However, when I launch the character set all four are coming up with the last account signed in rather than the one specified in the virtual files.

What am I missing?