Windows Layout advice?

[Criels]

I needed a break from boosting my RAF teams so I decided to start gearing an 80 team with Cata quest and start the learning curve of playing 5 toons.

I setup my healer using Grid, Clique, Video FX as shown in MiRai's video. It worked but video quality was horrible on Master (tank), read the FAQ, found the why and how to fix.

I'm currently using a main window on top, four below layout (single 27" monitor). Video FX works better with a full screen stacked layout. What layout do most of you use? My intention is to PvE and PvP so I'm not sure which layout will be most efficient and give me the most options. From the 5 boxing videos I've watched it seems most are stacking but then again I'm not sure how they are doing the video capture so I can't be sure what I may not be seeing.

[JohnGabriel]

I don't stack mine because I like to see at a glance what they are all doing. I put my main on a single 22" monitor and the four alts on a second.

The VideoFX quality does not bother me that much. The text is hard to read but I don't need to read the text to see their health is low and which to click on.

By the time I am ready to 10-box I will have a third 27" monitor setup. Thinking of having my main, off-tank, and both healers on the 27" monitor and the remaining on the two 22" monitors.

[Criels]

I tried to stack this afternoon and I agree with you, I like to see the other characters at a glance so I need to look at other options. I have a 24" monitor that I can set up as a second and move the 4 slaves over there but I'm a little concerned that with a 27" main monitor that it's going to require lots of head movement and I'll end up with a sore neck in about a week.

Are you using grid with Video FX? My video box on the master is so blurry it's extremely hard to tell who is losing health. Currently I'm questing with a pally/4 shammy so its easy to tell which one to click on to heal the pally ( the pink box ) but if any of the shamans were taking damage it would be extremely difficult to see in the video feed box.

[confusedtx5]

concerned that with a 27" main monitor that it's going to require lots of head movement and I'll end up with a sore neck in about a week.

I use 2x 30" 2560x1600 monitors and don't have any problems like that. As long as they're not too close to you it should be fine.



Have you looked at the mouse repeater + addon method?
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/30511-Adv-Healing-w-ISBoxer-Repeater-Regions-HealBot?highlight=healbot+repeater

[JohnGabriel]

[..snip..]
My video box on the master is so blurry it's extremely hard to tell who is losing health.
[..snip..]

Its true you'll never be able to see the text on the bars, but you only have to click on that bar not read it. Addons like healbot use red/yellow/green/blue bars to tell who needs healing and decursing.

For switching windows I prefer to remove the window switching keybinds in IS so the title of the window on Windows taskbar displays the character name, so I can just click on the character name instead of trying to memorize which character is in which window.

Anotherthing that help reduce how often you need to watch your slaves, is changing the error messages in Jamba, to make them easier to notice when you have alot of stuff going on. For example you might overlook an error that says "PlayerName follow broken." but might be more likely to notice it if it says "-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- PlayerName follow broken!!!! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-".

[Ualaa]

Basically, if you want to use Video Feeds, you need to stack the windows.
Because the Feed is going to show the window at whatever size it it.

I personally don't use feeds, but many do.
Game Source (for XSplit streaming) will disable Aero, which is needed for Video Feeds.
I could stream with screen regions, Aero enabled and use Video Feeds.

The combination of instant swap, to whatever window needs my attention...
And Jamba forwarding whispers...
I haven't really felt a need for video feeds.
But with a bit of playing around, feeds could display exactly whatever info is wanted... such as combo points or whatever; it definitely could have its uses.

[Apatheist]

On my old setup I had 3x24" screens, with my main region on the center screen and two clients each per side screen. I had this setup I played Shadowbane, where I used to 20+ box, so I needed a lot more screen real estate. Since then I upgraded to 2x 30" 2560x1600 and I found that the screen is large enough to put all 5 one one screen. Main region at the top and 4 smaller regions along the bottom of the screen. I find this setup is better than splitting the clients between two windows, everything is directly in front of me without having to turn my head at all.

Some people (as I did) go as large as possible, thinking it will make viewing easier, when the opposite is true. You get a much more comprehensive view when everything is right in front of you, rather than having to turn your head to either side to see what's going on.

[Khatovar]

My eyeballs do all the turning. The only time I actually turn my head to use my second monitor is when I have to come over and do something in the browser, like nuke the snot out of spammers.

[Criels]

Some people (as I did) go as large as possible, thinking it will make viewing easier, when the opposite is true. You get a much more comprehensive view when everything is right in front of you, rather than having to turn your head to either side to see what's going on.

I'd prefer to stay with 5 regions on a single monitor and to this point I've only been boosting and questing so its worked great. I had high hopes for video feeds to cover healing but I'm not happy with it which has caused my doubts in my current setup.

I've read the guides on repeater and click regions so I now know that I have other options it's just has a steeper learning curve than the video feeds did.

I definitely need to look into JohnGabriel's comment about selecting characters by their name on the windows taskbar. I haven't been using the "avoid taskbar" option so I'm not sure if it's simply a matter of selecting that option and I'll see their names or if it requires further setup but that would be a huge help. I continually mix up my regions during collection quest so seeing names would be great.

[Ualaa]

I used to have a 30.5" widescreen.
1600 x2560 = 4,096,000 pixels.
Unfortunately it went, and looking at the comments online... it was a fairly common issue at the 4-5 year point for the Samsung 305T's.

Two 27" widescreens, combined cost about half as much.
1080 x1920 = 2,073,600 x2 = 4,147,200 pixels.
Slightly more than twice the pixel count, but the main region from the 30.5" filled up almost the entire 27" monitor.

It was nice having everyone on the one screen.
But two monitors works well too.
One main monitor, with the active character.
One secondary monitor, with small versions of the others plus a fair bit more.

[JohnGabriel]

[..snip..]
I definitely need to look into JohnGabriel's comment about selecting characters by their name on the windows taskbar. I haven't been using the "avoid taskbar" option so I'm not sure if it's simply a matter of selecting that option and I'll see their names or if it requires further setup but that would be a huge help. I continually mix up my regions during collection quest so seeing names would be great.

What I had to do was in my Character Set slots I removed the "Hotkey to switch to this character". That changes the title of the window from "Ctrl-Alt-1" to "CharacterName1", now you also have to set your window layout to "Avoid Taskbar" so they can be seen.