MultiBox (software)

[Glencannon]

Edit: Finished reading the entire thread and noticed the suggestion has already been made. but still seems like something people want.

It is possible and somewhat simple but it would take a lot of work to add so don't hold your breath for that feature. The main slowdown would be the UI, the best way I can think would be to display a picture of a keyboard and you can click on keys to toggle whether or not they broadcast.

I don't think it needs to be so complex, though that would be very nice and intuitive. It could be a simple list of all the keys with a check box next to em.

Or even a text CFG file with all the keys and an = 1 for broadcast 0 for no broadcast. It may not be user friendly but i think anyone who is dual boxing has enough computer skills that they can edit a simple text file.



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Original:

Awsome job Micah, your my hero!

Having finished showering you with praise, now I have a request or more accurately a suggestion.

would it be possible to create a button exception list for the broadcasting, or just to broadcast certain buttons. For example just broadcast WASD for movement but leave other hot keys unbroadcasted.

This way if I'm dual boxing a warrior and priest. I can have them move the same but if i hit my F hotkey, moused on my warriors screen, he will sunder and my priest wont hit whatever ability is bound to F on his screen.

[Steph]

Are you running a 3x2 monitor array or some other layout (hard to tell in your image).

Hi Micah,

I was reasonably sure that I did test different layouts already, including 3x2. To be certain I did specifically test it, but this did not change anything. The MultiBoxClient disconnecting and mouse lag issues remain. I wonder if it is because of the different resolutions in play.

Adding the resolutions to the picture it is not a continous screen area like you have with your six identical or similar monitors. My setup with the two displays of the desktop in [ ]. As you can see there are gaps due to the notebook displays having a lower resolution than the desktop displays.
[code:1]1024x768 1024x768 1024x768
1280x800 [1280x1024 1280x768] [/code:1]

Besides the above, I have a few bits of feedback for you:

• It is not fully clear to me when MultiBoxClient or Server actually do save changes made to their GUI. A [Save] or [OK] button and a message in the log would be extremely helpful when troubleshooting.
• While I appreciate the GUI as overlay over the fullscreen game window, it would be even better to have it moveable so it can be put on the spare monitor with the log visible during use.
• A status display for keyboard and mouse broadcasting would also be very handy, either on the task bar icon, or in the main GUI.
• I understand you apply mouse movement differently from the way Synergy handles it absolute/relative to avoid the wow camera spinning issue. Since it can be confusing with the mouse cursor being left on the borders of a display while exiting its range and still being there at the very edge where it was left rather than appearing where it is being moved into the display, I was wondering: Would it be possible to maintain the synergy way of moving the mouse up to the point where mouse buttons are being pressed? The spinning does not occur unless you are in that movement mode and click, if I recall correctly.

The above are just some ideas that might be handy, I wont play crybaby if you dont like any of them :wink:

Cheers, Steph.

[Micah]

It sounds like I'll have to take a day and do another code pass on MultiBox in the near future. I'll be out of town until Friday but I'll try to do it this weekend.

Some quick answers:

Yes, I pass scancodes instead of virtual keys. I don't remember why but I had a good reason at the time. I think it has to do with the fact that scancodes are what the computer receives, then the OS/drivers convert those to VKs and I wanted each computer to handle the VK conversion on their own for simplicity and what I thought would be more reliable. Perhaps I can make it a user-option as to which is passed along so those wanting to use media keyboards can do so.

MultiBox saves changes immediately upon changing them, hence the lack of save/OK button.

The overlapping GUI was actually a hack to fix a problem with the GUI locking (and the whole program breaking) when you tried to drag the window. There are far better ways to handle the problem such as putting the GUI in another thread or better yet, fixing the API I used (wxWidgets) but I opted to simply have it un-draggable. Perhaps I could change it so it pops up just above the system tray instead, it may be more intuitive and then you could at least have *some* control over where it showed up. Again, not an ideal solution but the "right" way would be a lot more work.

If someone wants to make me some different icons for different status's I'll use them. The two icons I use for server/client right now are just the first two I found when googling the web. I don't remember the format I need for them, I think it's some ascii art thingy used specificly for icons... I'll try to look it up later (or check out the source code if you are curious).

The mouse cursor staying behind on the other screen is another hack fix I put in. For a while, the mouse "disappeared" (moved to the lower right corner of the desktop) when you left a monitor but that was causing problems sometimes when a packet was dropped at just the right time. Again, the proper fix is to fix the problem but the easy fix was to leave the mouse behind. Perhaps I can go over that this weekend.

[kamon]

Great program. I only have a couple problems.

I use a G15 Keyboard and my media keys and my NumLock do not work after I activate the server.

Another problem is that if I am holding down a key and I move my cursor to another screen it acts as if the key is still being pressed. This isn't normally a big deal but it also does it with my mouse if I jerk it in a fast manner while holding down a button. This is kind of annoying while PvPing and stuff, as I have to make quick motions with my mouse very often.

[shockbeta]

Hey Kamon,

I also use the G15 and was hoping to find someone else to confirm it was usb keyboards that were giving the problem with the media keys. This is a bug in the code somewhere that has yet to be discovered.

As for the button being pressed constantly when you're off the screen, it kinda needs to work this way. I personally like it. I have no need to hotkey and autorun button. The reason though that it happens is when you mouse to the next screen over and the release the key, that computer gets the keyup message not the computer you were just at. Now you could make sometype of memory system to check where the keyup message needs to go, but I highly doubt micah has the time or feels the need to do it. Also like I said some of us may like that it keeps pressing the button down so we owuld prefer it not to be changed. If you didn't know yet to get the button to relases on the one it's stuck down on, just press the key and it will recevive the keyup message that releases the key.

As for the numlock key, mine works on my g15, I just can't bind anything to it. It doesn't change the light of whether it's on or not, but numpad and numlock work as expected.

[darkangael]

Is there a possibility in the future of adding hotkeys not only for broadcast, but for sending mouse/kb to individual screens? (e.g. I want to control box2 but don't want to have to move my mouse all the way over there).

I would add it myself but I don't have visual studio installed (if I do get it installed I may have a look though )

[Ellay]

The above mentioned feature would be huge, I'd love to completely switch over to Multibox from Synergy, please oh please let this be a reality

[Buruan]

I am also putting my vote down for this feature

Hold key X and it controls Screen1 only
Hold key y and it controls Screen2 only.

This is great stuff.

Thanks for your hard work on this Micah.
It is really appreciated

[Micah]

I have been overly busy lately with an out of town work thing for 2 days and jury duty but I should have some time freed up in the near future to take a look at MultiBox. Unfortunately, MultiBox works "well enough" for me which makes it a hard sell over playing WoW for 4 hours but I really will try to put some more programming time into it and get some of the suggested features in.

As for the recent feature request, do you want the mouse/keyboard going to separate screens or just the ability to hotkey switching between screens? That is, press the letter 'a' and you are now controlling screen 1 (mouse + keyboard). Press letter 'b' and you are now controlling screen 2 (mouse + keyboard).

Creating a hotkey to switch computers is easy, having the mouse and keyboard go to different computers at the same time is not in the current design.

[Buruan]

Hotkey switching.

If possible similar to the following scenario.

I have only Keyboard Broadcasting enabled, I am playing my low level character on the main computer and following with my high level character.

A situation arises where I need to control my high level character quickly and i want to take control of machine #2 (Mouse and Keyboard)

I press a key and boom I have full contol over machine 2 while losing control over machine 1.

I press the key again and all is back to normal.