ISBoxer performance issues

I've recently switched to ISBoxer and the performance (mostly framerate) has been abysmal when compared to Keyclone. I'm sure it's a configuration issue, but I can't figure out why it is running so poorly on my machine.

With Keyclone, I had all 5 clients running at about half video settings. With ISBoxer, my main is half settings, rest are bare minimum, and the performance is considerably worse (the main often drops to near 0 FPS, or hangs for up to 10 seconds). Even teh alts with minimums settings get poor performance (maybe 15 fps max).

I have foreground windows limited to 45 fps, background limited to 13 fps.

My setup is as follows:
Quad core Q6600
8GB RAM
Paging disabled (never seem to run out of ram anyway even with itunes/firefox and even vmware running)
ATI 4500 video (not a great card, but had no problems with toned down settings when using keyclone)

Additionally, and this may be related - mouse turning is very choppy in any isboxer client. i don't have mouse broadcasting enabled, but when I mouse turn it skips around and moves too quickly like the sensitivity is on max (it's the same as I had it in keyclone).

Can post my configs if necessary. Thanks

I would say its always advisable to post your config in pastebin. I run both software and have not seen any noticeable difference in performance.

The main difference in general performance is that with Keyclone the small windows were rendering at that actual size. With ISBoxer, the small windows are rendering at the full size (size of the main window) as long as Swap is enabled in your Window Layout. If you would rather they render at the small size, you can disable Swap, but you're also going to lose mouse broadcasting in this trade-off.

In other words, with Keyclone an example setup on a 1680x1050 monitor might have a 1344x1050 main region with 4 336x262 smaller regions. The smaller regions are actually rendering at 336x262, which uses less GPU time (aka renders faster) than the full 1344x1050. The same layout using ISBoxer and having Swap enabled, all 5 of those regions are rendering at 1344x1050. The time it takes to render all 5 is greater, so your FPS will take a hit. Most people seem to like the instant swapping enough to switch to performance settings instead of looking at shinies when multiboxing :)

Also, I repeat this ad infinitum as it tends to evade, well, everyone. You will get a great performance increase by aiming the camera on your non-main characters downward, so you have a top-down view. Casting targeted AOEs is also easier this way, since the camera should already be downward on the alts.

Reading this post surprises me Lax.

As my fps is much better with Isboxer then with Keyclone. Swamping screens with zero lag issue and my clones follow with no problem.

I do not have the beast of a machine as the OP either. And I haven't messed with my settings either. They are all medium but no shadow.

That makes sense, but does this mean I'm going to need a beast of a video card to get any kind of performance out of ISBoxer? It was always a bit of a hit over keyclone, but lately it's completely unplayable (I wonder if something changed in my config - but the only thing I know is I keep reducing graphics settings even more).

I did quad boxing on it before, even in arenas, with OK performance, but lately something is very strange and it just seems to degrade more and more. For example, in the last few AV's, a single fear bomb will drop me to 0 fps and lock up everything for 10 or sometimes even up to 30 seconds. Just now, 3 times in a row i got fear bombed or knocked back and all my clients locked up for a good 30 seconds... actually 10 minutes later now my main window is still locked (wow crashed I think). This happens pretty much constantly now. Does this sound normal?

I run five instances of WoW using IS on a dual core laptop. Its far from an uber machine.

SUre, I can run my team through Dal, but I get 30+ FPS on my main everywhere but Dal and Argent Tourney Grounds.

I do have my graphic settings turned down in WoW.

The phenomena you describe in AV is unlike anything I've experienced. I used to get degradation after doing a window switch with KeyClone. That's never happened with IS and the speed is uncomparable.

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Originally Posted by heyaz

That makes sense, but does this mean I'm going to need a beast of a video card to get any kind of performance out of ISBoxer?

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No, you really don't. I have a 7600GS Nvidia 512mb Video card. I run 5 clients on a 1440x900 Monitor with 40-60 FPS on the main, and 15 on the slaves. I don't have any performance issues. I have view distance to the middle, and projected textures on, and particle density on medium on the main. I also run the 4 slaves with no sound.

Multisampling needs to be set to 1x, check your graphics settings, it will tank your performance.

The multisampling option is something that ISBoxer has been detecting and insisting on correcting for users for some time now, so I haven't been so quick to point that out anymore. But it is still the single most important setting to be sure is set right. The option is in the WoW video options panel, in the Resolution pane. You can have 24-bit color, 24-bit depth, etc, just make sure the last part of it is set to 1x multisample.

Quote:

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That makes sense, but does this mean I'm going to need a beast of a video card to get any kind of performance out of ISBoxer? It was always a bit of a hit over keyclone, but lately it's completely unplayable (I wonder if something changed in my config - but the only thing I know is I keep reducing graphics settings even more).

I did quad boxing on it before, even in arenas, with OK performance, but lately something is very strange and it just seems to degrade more and more. For example, in the last few AV's, a single fear bomb will drop me to 0 fps and lock up everything for 10 or sometimes even up to 30 seconds. Just now, 3 times in a row i got fear bombed or knocked back and all my clients locked up for a good 30 seconds... actually 10 minutes later now my main window is still locked (wow crashed I think). This happens pretty much constantly now. Does this sound normal?

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No, you should not need a beast of a video card to get any kind of performance out of ISBoxer (as others have pointed out). If "a single fear bomb" makes things freeze for several seconds, I would definitely not call this normal. When was the last time you checked for new video, sound, and hard drive (motherboard chipset, specifically for the SATA or IDE or whatever you're using) drivers? I would definitely start there in this case. Also, what Windows are you on? If you're not using Windows 7 64-bit, maybe it's time to check it out? I think you should still be able to get it for free from MS (the download may not be available, but if you have a friend who has the iso downloaded I think they are still giving out keys that will work until mid-2010)

Have updated all the drivers, but having some issues with window placement now. Have tried with both monitors at same resolution (they are 3" different in size), and with one at a slightly higher one (which I used in the past).

Window layouts were way off position after driver update, so I deleted them all and used the window layout wizard. They're still not even close. windows overlap, hang off the screen, and right now the 6th window gets displayed in a tiny little box on top of my main (nowhere near where it's supposed to be according to the window layout).

Any ideas?

Have you tried settting it yourself and saving it as a custom layout?

Edit:

Nevermind.. started from scratch. Works now

Quote:

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Originally Posted by heyaz

Have updated all the drivers, but having some issues with window placement now. Have tried with both monitors at same resolution (they are 3" different in size), and with one at a slightly higher one (which I used in the past).

Window layouts were way off position after driver update, so I deleted them all and used the window layout wizard. They're still not even close. windows overlap, hang off the screen, and right now the 6th window gets displayed in a tiny little box on top of my main (nowhere near where it's supposed to be according to the window layout).

Any ideas?

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It sounds like the desktop resolution being reported to ISBoxer doesn't match the actual resolution. Do you have the font size changed in Windows? This does some funky things like that