I have decided to put together a huge distillment of my boxing experiences to help newcomers with multiboxing as I keep seeing the same questions come up time and time again. Below are the bulk of my methods of how I go about boxing and what worked for me. Methods keep evolving and what works for me may not work for you as our end goals may be different.
I am releasing this text under the creative commons some rights reserved license. You are free to copy it to a wiki (Wikipedia may be a good bet) and add and modify it as you see fit - but no commercial exploitation of my work, please. If you do post this, please acknowledge me as the author. I have put A LOT of time and money into building my setup and I do not make any money doing this. I did almost all of the work from scratch - deciding on the best way to plan and implement my setup. I built this for ME and my specifications, which may differ from yours. If you don't like something, think it costs too much, or want to modify it - please do so. It is your setup. I just lay the foundation; just make sure you understand how everything connects and functions as part of this system - changing things can sometimes, but not always be expensive or difficult. While I have given this a great deal of thought, it is possible I have missed things or passed over an easier solution. If so - please feel free to post about it.
The writeup is below. If somebody wants to take it and add their information on how to dual box or use software programs, that would be most helpful to people new to multiboxing.
Sections need to be added that deal with: Synergy Setup, Macro Layout, Tips and Tricks, Key Placement, Movement, Common PvP Tactics, Common PvP Problems, Cloth Tanking, PvE Boss Fight Arrangements and High End Raid Multiboxing.
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High End World of Warcraft Multi-boxing - Five (or More) Characters at Once
By Wasabiz - Emerald Dream
**Credits for Introduction go to Xzin**
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Getting Started
Alright. You have all the accounts you want to multi-box. Characters created and server is chosen. Now where do you go? Well, first you'll need the program to help make multi-boxing probably what I would say, 50x easier.
Computers
The computer perspective is very important. You'll need a fairly decent or good computer to really be able to run 5 instances of World of Warcraft efficiently.
I highly recommend checking out this thread, as there has been a discussion going on for quite some time now about the type of computers many others are using.
http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=1626
I currently am able to run 5 instances of WoW getting around 30 FPS on each, and 100% CPU usage with this setup.
Processor: 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo
Video Card: 8800 GTX
RAM: 4GB, ( XP only reads 3GB)
When I currently 3-box, I get around 70 FPS on each instance. So it really depends :)
I know there is a lot of information on which WoW is more dependent on, whether it be CPU's or Video Card. I'll leave that for someone to add to this, as there are many posts about it.
Quote:
I have some constructive criticism and possibly some extra info for you:
You should add a section about processor affinity. It needs to be dealt with, especially on quad-cores, as it greatly increases framerates. By default, only two cores will be used by the 5 WoWs.
My setup, btw, is this:
Q6660 Quad-Core CPU
4GB ram
8800GT
I am maxing out my framerate on 5 screens up at once (my setup is 4 quaded on left monitor, fullscreened main on right). My maxfps is set to 75, and I am 70+ fps on all screens almost all the time. Before I set the maxfps, I was getting 100+ fps almost everywhere.
Monitors
Now, when it comes to monitors with multi-boxing. I can't express to you HOW important this is. If you don't have more than 1 monitor, start saving up and buy one. They only cost around $150 for a nice 17” monitor.
I recommend you have a video card on your one PC that can handle more than one monitor. Or a secondary video card in your PC. From what I understand, in SLI mode, you are not able to run more than one monitor. So those with SLI, be careful.
I happen to have a secondary video card in my PC, so I am able to run 3 monitors. Monitors are very important for multi-boxing because you need to have visibility of your secondary characters, even though you aren't playing them. Latency might spike and your character stops following you. Or you might not have something.
The way I have mine set up is the main character on first monitor, and 4 characters on second monitor. This way you are able to see every character, while being able to control your main effectively.
Here is what it looks like when you get it all set up. (This is done with WoW Maximizer)
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...er050/5box.jpg
Another setup, more oriented for the 4 boxer is..
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...0/untitled.jpg
however, I always say just upgrade to 5 accounts, and make it better ;)
Now, for the hardware part of it. I just make it look.. somewhat fancy. It sure doesn't look as good as say a 5 box hardware set up. However, I can't fit 5 monitors on one PC.
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...1025071703.jpg
Unfortunately, the thing with XP is the Direct X part of it. When you have 2 monitors hooked up and on “Dual View” there is a glitch, and it cuts your FPS down in half. Making it unplayable.
The solution to this is Horizontal Span. Go to your video card settings and change the display to Horizontal Span ( one whole desktop ) This will move your resolution up to 2560 x 1024.
Software:
Okay, you have your hardware set up, your characters ready to go. Now you just need to know how to actually get everything “going”
There are 2 different programs you can use to help ease your multi-boxing solutions. Those 2 programs are Keyclone and Autohotkey. Both are excellent programs to use, however its very opinion dependent. I use Keyclone because I don't like using my brain. Autohotkey requires you to make “scripts” or “code” to set certain things up.
I will let you look at it and choose which you want.
Autohotkey: http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=807
Keyclone: http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=883
Now, I am relatively new to the whole multi-boxing scenario. I was very frustrated when I first came to this forums, I am not one to be “brain oriented” I seeked more of a step by step instruction on how I could get started. Xzin's write up was an amazing write-up, but didn't necessarily tell me “how” to get started.
If you are not familiar with Keyclone, its very easy to set up. Simply run the program, and any wow instances up, it will detect it.
With Keyclone, since every key is sent to the other wow's, when you try to speak, unfortunately all 5 of your characters will speak at the same time. There is a trick around this, the author put in a “pause” button.
Hit “PAUSE” on your keyboard, and it will stop any key clicks being sent to the other clients. This enables you to chat. Just hit it again to unpause.
What I do, is I have 5 different folders, for example
[code:1]c:\wow1
c:\wow2
c:\wow3
c:\wow4
c:\wow5[/code:1]
This enables it so each one is a different WoW. It gets real old when you have to type 5 account names and passwords each time you want on. However, when I load them all up, and I have keyclone running.
I just type the password once, hit enter, enter, and boom.. I'm in game.
Having a separate wow, also enables you to use Interfaces that deal with the WTF folder.
*Also, take notice*
These are not separate "installs" They are just copies of the main World of Warcraft folder at c:\program files\world of warcraft.
I went to C:\Program Files
I copied the World of Warcraft folder. (The whole thing)
I then pasted it directly into C:\
Then I renamed the folder to WoW1 ( did this all the way up to WoW5)
Now, go into one of the 5 folders. Make a shortcut of the wow.exe and rename it WoW1 all the way up to 5.
As soon as you have Keyclone installed, put it on your desktop somewhere. When you are ready to launch your WoW's, run it.
Now, before we go any further, if you have a second monitor, you will want to download what is called as “WoW Maximizer”
This is a program that will remove the Titlebar of your WoW instance and make it a full screen. The neat thing about this, is it will align all the wow's up nice and neatly.
Go to http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/downloads/details/146/
Download it, and extract the .exe and .ini in each WoW folder.
Then follow the instructions below. This is only for a second monitor
IF YOU HAVE A SECOND MONITOR, RUN THIS.
After Keyclone is up and running, just run this .bat file.
Copy and paste this code into a file called launchwow.bat then just double click it, if you wait patiently all of the windows will launch. (Use notepad to write this)
[code:1]REM batch file to launch 5 evenly spaced wows
REM Left monitor
c:\wow1\maximizer.exe --margin 0,0,0,1280
REM upper right of right mon
c:\wow2\maximizer.exe --margin 0,512,1920,0
REM upper left of right mon
c:\wow3\maximizer.exe --margin 0,512,1280,640
REM lower right of right mon
c:\wow4\maximizer.exe --margin 512,0,1920,0
REM lower left of right mon
c:\wow5\maximizer.exe --margin 512,0,1280,640 [/code:1]
Again, this is dependent upon your your desktop being 2560x1024.
All 4 windows on the right monitor will be 640x512 in size, the one on the left will be 1280x1024 .
Another option was given by Jelly.
For Tri (3) Box UsersQuote:
I run a resolution of 2048X768. I just thought i'd share the little maximizer .bat thing i made up for my resolution, in case anyone wanted to do the same.
[code:1]REM batch file to launch 5 evenly spaced wows
REM Left monitor
c:\wow1\maximizer.exe --margin 0,0,0,1024
REM top of right mon
c:\wow2\maximizer.exe --margin 0,384,1024,512
REM bottom of right mon
c:\wow3\maximizer.exe --margin 384,0,1024,512
REM bottom right, right screen
c:\wow3\maximizer.exe --margin 384,0,1536,0
REM Top right, right screen
c:\wow3\maximizer.exe --margin 0,384,1536,0[/code:1]
Hope this is helpfull to someone.
Below is a screenshot of my desktop. One window is on the left monitor, and 4 evenly spaced windows. Tada!
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/7...bscreenfz8.jpg
I had to make a 3 window setup, on the same resolution for my friend, since he only uses three accounts.
http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/7...screen2jc3.png
Comments welcome.
Jelly
I recently have decided to try some Tri-Boxing as well, and I must say I'm having a blast with it. For the folks that don't want to 5 box, but instead 3 box, here is another step to step tutorial on how to get it set up.
Running 3 WoW's compared to 5 on your one computer, is by far easier. I get about 70 FPS on each client. The controls are also much more easy.
Its recommended you have a larger size monitor than the typical 17". Either that or you can have another second monitor.
I currently use a 20.1" monitor with resolution of 1680x1050. It works well for me. The Monitor itself with the WoW's launch, looks like this..
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...1112071845.jpg
The three screens fit very well on my monitor, as I can see all the characters at all times, and have quick reactions to each. However, I would love to see some folks with the higher resolutions :)
To run 3 Clients, we are going to use a .bat file just like the 5 box. Go to notepad, and paste this..
[code:1]REM batch file to launch 3 evenly spaced wows
REM Left monitor
c:\wow2\maximizer.exe --margin 480,30,0,0
REM top of right mon
c:\wow3\maximizer.exe --margin 0,570,0,840
REM bottom of right mon
c:\wow4\maximizer.exe --margin 0,570,840,0 [/code:1]
Rename the directories as needed. Make sure you have WoW Maximizer, as that is required.
Save it as triwow.bat
At first that just stretched the windows out, which made the bottom window really really ugly. I found in another post here that you can set the game resolution to pretty much any value in the config.wtf file.
Go to your WTF folder, and as soon as you open it, there will be a Config file in there, open it with notepad, and edit the SET gxResolution.
So the two top windows have:
SET gxResolution "840x480"
and the bottom (main window) one has:
SET gxResolution "1680x570"
Just don't change any video settings in-game, or it'll reset the resolution and you have to re-edit the config.wtf files.
Now, when you double click that, it will launch 3 WoW's and space them nice and evenly on your screen. The results will be..
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...untitled-3.jpg
UI Interfaces
Alright, the UI, is actually quite simple, or quite complex. I have an obessive personality and therefore I felt I “must” set up a nice UI and make it look good.
You can easily use the default UI and download a couple good mods that might help out. However, I use a very nice and low memory interface.
I highly recommend changing to BONGOS, and not Bartender 3 . Bongos is incredibly far easier to set up keybindings than Bartender 3, it will be a lot easier for you.
Some nice Mods you might use will be included in this posting.
http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/v...ight=interface – Xzin
The Interface I use is http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/4575/
This is called All Deuce UI by Ace2.
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...807_020157.jpg
Because I have 5 different copies of my WoW folder, I have 5 different WTF folders. I just copy over the WTF folder from the Ace file and put the character name of that WoW folder.
Macros
This is probably the most difficult part you will have with multi-boxing. For me at least, it was very hard, and it takes a long time for me to set up macros for each of my characters, and then figure out how It will be used in action.
The trick with Keyclone, is since “every” key click you do, is sent to the client.
Thats where the handy brain comes in and you have to set up your characters to meet accordingly.
The first 2 macro's that are so important, are the Follow and Accept macro.
When I play, since I don't have “x-keys” I use the fancy numpad. As you see in the UI picture up there, I set up my bar to match the numpad, and set the keybinding to N1, N2, such and such.
With Bongos, just type /bongos to get into the menu. You'll see a “bindings” section to use later.
Okay, you have a bar.
In one of the buttons, put a macro named “Invite”
Put the following:
[code:1]
/invite Toon2
/invite Toon3
/invite Toon4
/invite Toon5
[/code:1]
*Rename to your Actual Character Names*
This only goes on your main.
Now, on all of the other 4 characters, place this macro in a DIFFERENT button than the main character.
[code:1]
/script AcceptGroup();
/script AcceptQuest();
/script AcceptTrade();
/script RetrieveCorpse();
/script RepopMe(); [/code:1]
Bind this to “Shift+2”
Now, when in game and you have Keyclone running. You'll want to click the “invite” macro on your main and then hit “Shift+2”
Congratulations, now you have your party assembled. That is just the general idea on how to set up macros and get running with your toons. You do this with any spell or macro, depending on how you do it.
For class specific macros and etc. The best advice I can give you is browse the “Macro” forums. There are excellent sticky posts and other numerous posts that can help you out.
Especially the sticky post for mages :)
Macros and Quest Accepting
With the accept macro you have up there, it is incredibly easy to “Share” a quest and then “accept” it, this saves you from having to actually click the poor NPC 5 different times. However, some quests aren't shareable, and you will have to go through that torment. ;)
Other Resources:
Dual Boxing Forums: http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/
WoW Insider Interview: http://www.wowinsider.com/2006/12/15...with-ten-arms/
Sirlin Game Design Theory: http://www.sirlin.net/archive/the-ma...a-40-man-raid/
GM Conversations: http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?p...id=19&warned=y
Quickly Thrown Together Videos: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...65098130473147
Quickly Thrown Together Videos: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3471302298396612214[/img]
4+ Multiboxing Blogs
Æbox - 5 Shamans - http://home.comcast.net/~xbx/xbox.htm
Captns Log - WoW http://captn-log.blogspot.com/
Q Cyber Shop - WoW http://qcybershop.blogspot.com/
Micah - http://5boxwow.blogspot.com/
Team Wizzy - DAoC http://www.teamwizzy.com
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CHANGELOG
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11-12-2007 : Added TRI-BOX setup!
