Keyclone help? Massive lag between two windows = unplayable

[Anonymous]

Hi,

This is my first time to try dual boxing on one PC so please go easy if i'm making a noob mistake.

Basically I am running two instances, two separate accounts, and purchased keyclone.

It is sending my keystrokes to both windows but the lag between them is awful!!!

I cannot even walk in sync over extremely short distances. I press spacebar and one character jumps and then the next jumps a second later.

I can line up both characters perfectly on top of each other and then both are 20 yards about in about 15 secs.

Unless there is something to be done about this I don't see how dualboxing will be possible for me.

[krinkle]

For some reason it posted as guest above.

Anyway, to clarify the two characters won't even stay remotely in sync. they are both wasy far away from each other just walking even the shortest distances.

Any help is much appreciated.

[keyclone]

first off, what fps are you getting for each window?
what type of machine (cpu, system memory, stand-alone grfx memory)?
are you running full screen or windowed?
what resolution? (running in 800x600 helps depending on the machine)

unless you have your characters facing EXACTLY in the same direction, they will start to deviate as they walk forward or back. the best solution is to create a follow macro and have your clone follow your main. (do not use keyboard to drive, as this would probably make your clone stop following. use left+right click-n-hold to drive)

as for jumping and the clone jumping a second later, that is known as 'animation latency'. basically, the clone you see on your main screen receives the 'jump' animation command from the server... after it came from your clone's wow client... doubling the latency before you see the animation on your main's screen. to see if they are jumping at roughly the same time, position both windows next to eachother... stare between them, seeing each character in your peripheral vision. then hit spacebar. you should see movement on both screens at just about the same time. that is client-side animation... which is done BEFORE sending the jump command to the server.

[krinkle]

first off, what fps are you getting for each window?
what type of machine (cpu, system memory, stand-alone grfx memory)?
are you running full screen or windowed?
what resolution? (running in 800x600 helps depending on the machine)

unless you have your characters facing EXACTLY in the same direction, they will start to deviate as they walk forward or back. the best solution is to create a follow macro and have your clone follow your main. (do not use keyboard to drive, as this would probably make your clone stop following. use left+right click-n-hold to drive)

as for jumping and the clone jumping a second later, that is known as 'animation latency'. basically, the clone you see on your main screen receives the 'jump' animation command from the server... after it came from your clone's wow client... doubling the latency before you see the animation on your main's screen. to see if they are jumping at roughly the same time, position both windows next to eachother... stare between them, seeing each character in your peripheral vision. then hit spacebar. you should see movement on both screens at just about the same time. that is client-side animation... which is done BEFORE sending the jump command to the server.

Thank you for the speedy response. My computer is very nice and just finished being built by me.

QX6850 @ 3.33Ghz
8800GTX ULTRA @ 660Mhz
2GB GDDR3
VISTA ULTIMATE
Tec Cooling

Here I took a picture:


The follow macro really helps and seems to have solved one problem. Thanks for the advice.

I am only doing two characters to get started, but wanted to eventually run 5 on this machine. I wonder if maybe this will be impossible.

However just checked and you are right when I put the windows next to each other the characters are jumping at the same time! It is when I only watch one window that the lag seems terrible.

Currently I am getting 60fps on my main window.

Thanks for the advice seems like there will be a bit of a learning curve for me.

However I am having a really anoying problem that the second WoW copy keeps getting disconnected.

[keyclone]

there are a couple of threads on the forums regarding the "follow disconnect" bug. as i understand it, blizzard is aware of it.

as a work around try this:

keyclone/setup/mouse-mapping
mouse-action: RBUTTON (right click in the area)
key: <whatever key you are pressing to get your clone to follow>
hit the '+' to add the mouse to key mapping

hit ok and return to your main. now, whenever you right click, you will be telling your clone to follow.... if you are using "left+right click-n-hold" to drive, then they should stay right with you.

while you are in the mouse-mapping screen... you may consider mapping left click to your /assist macro... this way, whenever you select a mob to attack, your clone automatically gets the target (sometimes i have to left click a second time)

[Ticks]

unless you have your characters facing EXACTLY in the same direction, they will start to deviate as they walk forward or back. the best solution is to create a follow macro and have your clone follow your main. (do not use keyboard to drive, as this would probably make your clone stop following. use left+right click-n-hold to drive)

How do you look behind you or around you while moving when using this technique? I personally drive with WASD on my main character while my clones are all on follow. Now they stop following from time to time but it's usually because they entered melee combat or something else but it's never a big deal because I just press my tilde key (~) which is bound to my /follow macro. I guess what I'm saying is that in PvP, I just can't stand not being able to pan my camera angle around my toon while on the move.

[rjenkins8142]

I also like to drive with WASD, so I just unbound WASD and (QE) on the clones in WoW. So I hit my follow key ('=' for me), then drive normally with WASD. If I need my clones to turn or move during a complicated combat situation, I can just use the normal arrow keys to turn or run forward/back, etc.

[krinkle]

Just wanted to offer an update.

Its a few days later and everything is working great. Just a bit of a learning curve.

And I can happily report that my machine runs 5 copies of WoW with no problems.

I have window #1 (my main) at 1920x1200 with all settings maxed.

I have windows #2-5 (my drones) at 800x600 with lowest settings.

My main window is still getting framerates from 30-90fps depending on the environment. So I'm happy.

Its amazing to me how much attention you get as a multi boxer. Everyone is orgrimmar gathers around and stares. I've never gotten so many tells.

Today is a pain because I have to get every version updated to 2.2.

But anyway thansk for the help!!

[Xabcess]

Krinkle,

Just curious, do you run all of the clients maximized or just the main window?

How much do you find each client taking with respect to CPU util% and RAM %.

Do you run all 5 on one monitor or two monitors?

I run 5 clients on a single machine and find that running all of them maximized (ie, visible) keeps my CPU at 100% util. RAM is not an issue at all...may 1.5GB usage. When I minimize the four clone clients my CPU util drops to around 40% util.

I've tried both 800x600 and 640x512 for the clone clients. Of course, all settings turned off/to miminum. I generally run the main client at 1600x1200 or so. I run everything on a 24" monitor.

My specs:

AMD AM2 Athlon 64 X2 3.2Ghz (dual core)
4GB G Skill RAM
GeForce 8600GTS 512MB

Just curious about your experienecs with the clients...

Cheers,
Xabcess

[SaberSquadron]

there are a couple of threads on the forums regarding the "follow disconnect" bug. as i understand it, blizzard is aware of it.

as a work around try this:

keyclone/setup/mouse-mapping
mouse-action: RBUTTON (right click in the area)
key: <whatever key you are pressing to get your clone to follow>
hit the '+' to add the mouse to key mapping

hit ok and return to your main. now, whenever you right click, you will be telling your clone to follow.... if you are using "left+right click-n-hold" to drive, then they should stay right with you.

while you are in the mouse-mapping screen... you may consider mapping left click to your /assist macro... this way, whenever you select a mob to attack, your clone automatically gets the target (sometimes i have to left click a second time)

I'm glad that I come here to read through the posts. I use Keycone (great program) and have been having problems with my toons falling off /follow. The solution I came up with (which is not very satisfctory) was to have my lead hunter run normally and have my following hunters use Aspect of the Cheetah. This worked most of the time but I still had the occasional fall off and had to go back to pick them up. This little nugget of information is just what I am looking for. I can't wait to go back and try it, especially as I now have mounts and need t be able to use them without stopping every 30 secs to allow my other toons to catch up.