Specific Dualboxing questions.

[Rose'n'Vitae]

Warm greetings :)

This forum makes me feel like I came to the right place, so I'll go straight to buisness. I'm trying to figure out which software suits my needs.

I have 2 accounts in WoW and these days I've gotten interested in dualboxing. I know next to nothing technical, but I've been lurking here since yesterday. I've made some basic sense of it all, but my desires are kinda specific - I'll explain and hopefully you might enjoy helping me :) Afforehand, if my questions turns out to be redundant here, I'd appreciate it if you would to tell me what I could have done to find these answers myself :) (so I might become better at researching on my own).

- I favor spellcasting, so my main spells are spammed only by mouserolling (Starfire = both directions / Wrath = holdCTRL both directions).
Effectively, I have a hard time figuring out which MB software supports this (some links are outdated, some software are nolonger free etc.) :)

- Many classes (that I play) has AoE abilities with a "glyph" targeted on the ground before channeling.
I can live without this feature, but just in case you know just the thing that could set off 2+ accounts to cast such spells effectively and simultaneously - if such a thing even exists. ;)

- I have both laptop and stationary. The latter would have no trouble running 2+ applications, however, I might enjoy to have the 2nd application next to me on a seperate computer.
This might complicate mouse broadcasting, as the laptop format is 1366x768 as opposed to the stationary's 1680x1050.

As for Octopus:
I've looked at it (your wiki link here: http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Octopus_Tutorial ). It seems fine save for a few things:
- Octopus_1.3.8a zip includes a pdf suggesting it's not free (2 week trial, then 14 USD).
- It's stated that it requires .NET framework 3.5 and Visual C++ 2008 redistributable (but the latter is a download for x86 - my operating system is 64bit - isen't this a problem?)


If you've come this far, I say thankyou for your time :) If you have any comments about how (in)appropriate my questions were, please include such ^^

Best regards!
Rose'n'Vitae

[Vecter]

Right now there are only a few software solutions that are being supported and used by users on this site:

HKN - http://www.hotkeynet.com/
Keyclone - http://www.solidice.com
ISBoxer - http://www.isboxer.com

There are a few more out in the marketplace but not much support from this site on them (octopus is pretty dead.)

For your specific needs you can use HKN or ISBoxer. HKN is the free solution and requires raw script writing skills. There is a lot of info on this site for this with many provided scripts to utilize. The author Freddie is very helpful as well. ISBoxer is a yearly subscription solution (there is a free 7 day trial you can get) that probably is the most complete package offering all your needs in a nice UI. Lax also provides stellar support.

[Ualaa]

If you want ground-target effects, pretty much your choices are IS Boxer or HKN.

IS Boxer is $36/year, as a subscription; slightly longer if you mention a referral... you can run up to five systems at once on the same subscription.
It has easy and accurate mouse broadcasting, which can turn on with the hotkey for the Hurricane (for example) and which turns off once you click for a target area.
There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the idea of how it works, it is very easy to configure to do exactly as you want; it is highly flexible and probably the most powerful software for boxing.
The automatic FTL assist is huge, as that can be a pain to set up with other software options.

HKN is free, which is a rather good price.
It is script based, which means a bit harder to configure for most of us.
But there are a lot of scripts out there, depending on your needs.
For example, you can have one which will turn on mouse broadcasting on a keystroke and off on another... and then go with Keyclone for the remainder of your boxing needs.

Keyclone is $20, for a lifetime license and is good on one computer.
From a press this key, and every other client gets the same key perspective, KC is as good as anything.
You can blacklist keys to not broadcast, or whitelist keys so only those broadcast... not nearly as flexible as Mapped Keys in IS Boxer, but definitely workable.
Setting up FTL assist is possible, but not simple; the first FTL was developed with KC.

I don't know much about Game Commander Pro, but GCP is another option out there.
Auto Hot Key, is in the same category; I don't know much (this is script based, like HKN), but its mentioned here and there.
Octopus, same deal too.



I'd go with IS Boxer personally.
You can do a 7 day trial.
And there is also a 14-day money back guarantee.
So, a lot of time to decide if you like it or not.

[Rose'n'Vitae]

Thankyou for replies :) I will definately look into IS Boxer (I liked the video) and KC aswell. Maybe also a peek at HKN.

Just one thing: KC cannot broadcast either mouse movement or clicks? (I admit, I didn't think it an option to use more than 1 MB software for MBing - such as one for mouse/another for keyboard).

[alcattle]

many people have gotten KC/HKN to work but HKN will work by itself and is free. I started with that and was happy, but IS is worth the extra cost just for the FTL to me.

[Ualaa]

KC has an option, to broadcast a click from the main window to each of the slave windows in turn.
This broadcast is not quick or instant, basically taking 2-3 seconds for five clients, during which you cannot do other stuff.

If mouse broadcasting is important, you want either HKN or IS Boxer.
If that is not too important, then KC is very good for key replication.

IS Boxer has a bit of a learning curve.
The wizard gets you a functional set up, very quickly.
Adapting the basic setting to how you want it to work, has the learning curve.
It isn't that complex; I've managed to learn to use it.
And there is a lot of support, in the form of more experienced users, the www.isboxer.com forums and the IRC (linked from www.isboxer.com).
Once you understand the basics on how the software works, its much easier to change/adapt then a script based language.