Five-Boxing on an iMac / my set-up

Hi,

I have been readind these boards for several weeks now, and I thought it was time for me to give something back. There won't be anything ground breaking or new, but it might anyway be useful to some, at least for inspiration. So here goes : my set-up.

Hardware

I have a 24' aluminium iMac. Certainly a good machine, with dual core 2.8 GHz processor, 4 GB of RAM, 1920x1200 resolution, and a Radeoon HD2600XT (256MB). A good machine, but hardly a hardcore gaming rig. I nevertheless use the iMac for gaming. It is running a light version of Windows XP (32 bits) in a Bootcamp partition.

*** This section for Mac users only ***
In Windows, I over clock the graphic card by about 15%. The impact in terms of FPS is really measurable. While doing that, I feel safer having the cooling fans in the iMac spinning a bit faster. I use SMCFanControl to do so. A minor annoyance is that I have to load my "gaming cooling profile" from within Mac OS X, and then restart into Windows. No way to control the fan directly from Windows (if anyone knows a way, please let me know). Also, the iMac becomes more noisy. Well, still more silent than a normal PC, but definitely audible.
*** End of Mac users only section ***

I also use a Nostromo N52 from Belkin. I have been using it for years and don't even imagine playing without it.
My mouse is a hardcore gamer's Logitech G9. Ultra precise, sensitivity adjustable on the fly, weight adjustable, and stuff ... Absolutely pointless when it comes to WoW, but ok, whatever ...

Software

I use Octopus as a multiplexer. Not that I think that Keyclone is too expensive or not worth its money, but I like to be able to test a software solution before I buy it. Once all set up with Octopus, I never felt the need to switch anymore.

About specific multi-boxing addons, I only use TwoBoxToolkit. I like the sticky follow and the automatic quests and invitations accept features.

I have only one hard drive in the iMac, so obviously all my WoW clients run from the same hard drive. I also wanted to keep things easy to maintain, so I run everything from one single folder.

So how is it all set up ?

First of all, I don't want another screen or another computer. Everything has to be done on the iMac. I also like to keep an eye on my characters, a "Follow has broken" message is too easy to miss. So no windows in background for me. I don't need to be able to actually play the game on the alt windows. I just need to be able to steer the character a bit (in case of emergency, or would a follow break), validate a quest, or accept a trade. This kind of things can be done even on a tiny window.

Also, I wanted my set up to be as flexible as possible. I play my five shamans team, of course, but I can also play a group of five different characters, or play only three characters together with a friend in an instance, or play a character alone, etc ... I didn't like the idea of having a pre-defined "main". I want all of my characters to be replaceable and exchangeable.

Here is a screenshot of my setup. It is a bit old now, but things still look pretty much the same. I think it will make things easier to explain :

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/3...imaccr1.th.jpg

The most characteristic thing about this set up, is the fact that there is a nice playable main window, and four tiny "thumbnail" windows. The main window has a very playable 1520x1200 resolution, all eye cookies to maximum, no Anti Aliasing though, frame rate is set to 30 maximum. The four tiny windows have a 400x300 resolution, lower graphical details, of course no AA, and frame rate set to 30 maximum, and a very low 5 FPS when the windows are not focused (99% of the time).
With things set up like that, my main window is most of the time between 25 and 30 FPS (the set maximum). Of course, I have some slow-downs when entering capitals, but nothing I would consider unplayable.

I aim through focus. That is, the character in the main window is the focus of others and himself, and all attacks are targeted to focustarget. Having the main window character being his own focus allows to use strictly identical macros for every character, which I find very convenient.

Now, the "pièce de résistance", and possibly the only original part of my set up. I have fives buttons on my N52 that are related to the Picture in Picture (PiP) feature of Octopus, and to some macros on each of my characters (they are the five blue buttons on the far right part of my interface). At the press of say, button #2, the following sequence of events is triggered :
- The PiP feature in Octopus brings the thumbnail view #2 to the main window, and minimizes the main window to thumbnail view (this happens surprisingly fast, really not an issue)
- Character #2 becomes the "master" of all other characters (using the /TBmaster function of TwoBoxToolkit)
- Character #2 becomes the focus of every character including himself
All this means that character #2 becomes the main at the press of the #2 button. All macros are still valid. All characters are instantly swappable

For the rest, I also have a macro to change focus. I use it when playing with other people in a group, or if I want to heal an ally I pass by somewhere in the world. This macro is the same for all my character (even my main, remember he is his own focus) :
/target focustarget
/focus
Basically, this allows me to set someone else as the main of all my toons. They will attack what he targets, they will heal what his target is attacking.

For crowd control, when I play with my priest or my mage, I use target for the mob to control. The mage for instance, will continue attacking focustarget, but the sheep command will be applied to his own target. This target is set through the current main character window with a macro like /target focustarget that gets applied only on the mage client.

*** This section for Nostrom N52 users only ***
Controls are all done through the N52. The default state is used for movements, the red shift state is used for attacks, the blue one for heals, and the green one for group control (invite, character switching, mount, etc ...). I switch shift state with the wheel on the N52. Roll down switches to red, up to blue, and click toogles green. The directional cross is used for various things. In default state, it is just mapped to other motion related actions, like autorun or sit. When in a shift mode, it is used for modifiers.
I set some button bars on my screen mapping the N52 buttons, one for each of its shift states, with modifiers to present other functions when pressing (regular) Shift and Control.
*** End of section for Nostrom N52 users only ***

That's about it.

P.S. Please forgive my English mistakes, I am not a native English speaker.


%%%% EDIT %%%%

I love this forum !
Yesterday, I bumped into this wiki page. I added this to my character switching macros and PiP set-up. Now, when a client comes to the main window, its settings are dynamically set to high, while the window being reduced to thumbnail has its settings set to low. It works great. I cannot say I really noticed a change in FPS though, but I like to think my main window is more often on the 30FPS cap.

What a nice clean setup you have. I am looking to upgrade my computer 'soon' and if I go mac this will be a great resource. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the post. I'm in the process of moving but as soon as that's done, I'll be coming back to this post. My hardware setup sounds very similar to yours so this will help me get organized. Also, your English is perfectly understandable. ;)