Comparative analysis? HKN vs. GCP vs. ISB?

[Fuzzyboy]

Coming back from a long (and well deserved ) break, I see there's a lot of new contenders in the boxing software category. Last I played I preferred HKN over Keyclone for it's excellent ability to be configured by text (and, at least at the time, better mousebroadcasting).

Now, however, I'm told that castsequence is no more and using /click is the way to go. At the same time I see that GCP has some castsequence-like functionality and looking at the webpages for HKN/GCP/ISB I have a hard time determining what programs offer the most features.

Can anyone help me by pointing out, what programs support what features or do they all do pretty much the same?

[Fuzzyboy]

Actually, what I really want to know is - does the other programs have any functionality that HKN doesn't? :-)

[Chilaxx]

I would like to see this too. Maybe the authors of the software could tell us what makes their program unique!

I would contribute to this topic if i could But I don't know enough of all the software out there atm..

[Svpernova09]

I would like to see this too. Maybe the authors of the software could tell us what makes their program unique!

um. well. They software's websites do a good job of selling the features of the software.

http://solidice.com/keyclone
http://www.lavishsoft.com


I use ISBoxer for incredibly ease of creating macros / keymaps and superior mouse broadcasting and file virtualization.

[Psych]

For what it's worth, I use Hotkeynet and have zero issues.

Mouse click passing is good, it's lightweight, had a fully functional script I could just copy and paste in right on their webpage, a good amount of forum interaction on his site as well. I'm quite happy with it!

Also, I'm still using castsequences for my all druid 5 group. In testing, I can do more dps like that than just by manually firing off the spells when I'm on one of those toons solo, so it's certainly not that bad Click may be better, but castsequence is certainly easier and less typing

Hope that helps a little!

[Freddie]

I would like to see this too. Maybe the authors of the software could tell us what makes their program unique!

In order to say what makes HotkeyNet unique, I'd have to know a great deal about the other programs. But I know very little about them.

Comparing programs is a lot of work, and the comparisons go out of date quickly because programs change and grow.

[Mubox]

In order to say what makes HotkeyNet unique, I'd have to know a great deal about the other programs. But I know very little about them.

Comparing programs is a lot of work, and the comparisons go out of date quickly because programs change and grow.

Perhaps a community-editable matrix of features on the wiki would make sense. It would allow both authors and users to show which features are exposed by each application in a format that would make sense to everyone. As features grow the matrix could be expanded, if features differ then simple footnots can be added as a complement to the matrix.

Would be nice, I've never used any other application except Synergy, which hardly qualifies (in my mind) as something you could compare with HKN or Keyclone, thus if someone asked me "what does X do differently than Y?" I wouldn't have the slightest clue.

[daviddoran]

I'd love a comparison of all the available systems, not just on feature sets, but how easy/difficult they are to set up.

I started on HKN, switched to Keyclone because HKN kept changing on me, but now am considering switching to a FTL setup, and using IS Boxer, but I want to make sure I explore all options first. My biggest concern is re-configuring all my action bars, macros, etc. Looks like with IS Boxer FTL system, i just put the vanilla spells in the regular action bar slots, no macros in game.

Maybe someone could make a guide to "switching" from one broadcast software to another?

[Lax]

Actually, what I really want to know is - does the other programs have any functionality that HKN doesn't? :-)

I would like to see this too. Maybe the authors of the software could tell us what makes their program unique!

Just by answering this we might be violating the rules of the forums... but if you really want to know what is really different, I'll throw in my "fair and balanced" answer. (that's a jab at Fox "News" in case someone missed it)

ISBoxer, by way of using Inner Space, works differently than every other multiboxing software available to date. It's also the quickest and easiest to set up for WoW, via the Quick Setup Wizard (as demoed in the 40 second configuration video).

Exclusive features (ones you cant and wont find in HKN, KC, GCP, etc) during gameplay include:

• Precise mouse broadcasting with a visible cursor in each window even on the same PC. For example, if you are broadcasting the mouse and trying to have all your toons click on a portal, you will see the cursor change on each window to indicate when the mouse is properly positioned in each
• Virtual Files, which allow you to have ONE folder for performance reasons, while maintaining separate configuration files per character or per account (the Quick Setup Wizard and the Virtual File Wizard both set them up for you per character)
• Instant window swapping. Other products claim "almost instant" or "practically instant" etc. It's not the same thing. People coming to ISBoxer from other software will tell you the difference is night and day, and will say things like "it changed the way I play, because I now switch all the time instead of avoiding it like the plague because it could get me killed while I wait up to 7 seconds for it to switch". It's instant regardless of the framerate of the game, so even in Dalaran you're going to get an instant switch, and even on a slow PC it's still instant. (Note that some people prefer to disable window swapping or prevent it from happening most of the time, e.g. to click on a background window to cast a spell instead of switching to it, which is fine too)
• Interactive in-game UI (not the same as a WoW Addon, which ISBoxer also has -- this feature works in all supported games) which for example allows in-game configuration of Repeater Regions -- where you drag a box over something you want to automatically broadcast the mouse when it's over (it's possible to do regions in other software, but not via an interactive in-game UI). This is extremely useful for healing in conjunction with click to cast + sorted party unit frames. I heal my multiboxing teams exactly the same way as I heal when I play my healer in a raid, even if I'm playing my tank or a DPS at the time.
• Provides immunity to the "window needs to be foreground" problem various games have (EQ1, EQ2,LOTRO to name a few), can stop the game from repositioning the windows (LOTRO for example constantly wants to center the window, and EQ1 maximizes the window for no apparent reason when you leave the character select screen to go to server select), and solves lots of other problems posed by various games

The reason you can't find this in other software is because of fundamental differences in their design. My company has been doing this sort of thing since 2004. EQ1 players will probably remember how EQWindows (which is not mine, but I used it all the time myself) went out of maintenance and that's when I created WinEQ, which featured Picture-in-Picture, instant window swapping, and virtual files (it did not offer any broadcast features).

A few notable things about the ISBoxer configuration interface (but are not as exclusive as the ones above):

• The Quick Setup Wizard can generate a fully working setup for you very quickly, with almost no thinking involved on your part. It will even auto-assist when you push action bar hotkeys (1 through = by default) without you making any changes
• Window layouts (similar to KC's maximizer functionality) define how you want your windows layed out -- surprise! Okay that's not the notable part. Window layouts can be generated for you, with a preview pane to show you how it'll appear, and/or you can click+drag to create whatever style you like.
• You can set up as many teams as you want in the same ISBoxer configuration file. I have probably 15 different teams and I reuse window layouts, various key mappings, etc between them.
• ISBoxer can dynamically generate WoW macros, which would be installed and bound to hotkeys in game by the ISBoxer Addon. This allows for some advanced features for those who want it, and includes what is known as a "preprocessor" -- which means that you can put in variables like {CHARACTER} and when it spits out the actual macro, that will be replaced with the current character's name. e.g. if you made a macro "/say {CHARACTER}" in ISBoxer, and had each character press the key to activate the macro, each one will /say his own name.

The company is also my full-time job, which means I am personally available for assistance most of the time, and I am known to fix bugs for you while you wait (depending on the issue). It also means that I am constantly working on improvements, like working on supporting additional games (Aion) and I have been working for a while on the next generation of multiboxing software (which should be even more exciting)

With that said, each multiboxing solution has its own strengths and weaknesses.

I started on HKN, switched to Keyclone because HKN kept changing on me, but now am considering switching to a FTL setup, and using IS Boxer, but I want to make sure I explore all options first. My biggest concern is re-configuring all my action bars, macros, etc. Looks like with IS Boxer FTL system, i just put the vanilla spells in the regular action bar slots, no macros in game.

Right, the benefit with ISBoxer's FTL system is you don't need to make any changes at all to your action bars, from playing the character solo. You don't need to make any macros or anything, unless you want to. The mages in the related video were just using spells on the bar, and the default generated configuration, I made zero macros in-game. (But if I wanted to, I could have made macros in-game to do /castsequence, etc)

[Fuzzyboy]

• Virtual Files, which allow you to have ONE folder for performance reasons, while maintaining separate configuration files per character or per account (the Quick Setup Wizard and the Virtual File Wizard both set them up for you per character)

It's a nice feature, but is it significantly different from the functionality you get from simple directory junctions?

• Instant window swapping. Other products claim "almost instant" or "practically instant" etc. It's not the same thing. People coming to ISBoxer from other software will tell you the difference is night and day, and will say things like "it changed the way I play, because I now switch all the time instead of avoiding it like the plague because it could get me killed while I wait up to 7 seconds for it to switch". It's instant regardless of the framerate of the game, so even in Dalaran you're going to get an instant switch, and even on a slow PC it's still instant. (Note that some people prefer to disable window swapping or prevent it from happening most of the time, e.g. to click on a background window to cast a spell instead of switching to it, which is fine too)

That does sound good, but one thing that worries my though. What is the performance difference between a full-size window resized to for instance 800*600 and one where the window is configured to run at 800*600 in WoW? Also, my main windows is 1920 * 1200, so if I set up my user interface to look decent in that resolution, scaling it down to 800*600 (or something similarly small) will make it too small to actually see what is on the screen

• The Quick Setup Wizard can generate a fully working setup for you very quickly, with almost no thinking involved on your part. It will even auto-assist when you push action bar hotkeys (1 through = by default) without you making any changes

As for the user friendlyness, I bought a trial subscription yesterday and I find it pretty confusing. There are no standard buttons in the program - it looks nothing like standard windows/mac windows, which makes it a lot less intuitive. The setup is confusing and while the wizard will get you running fast, in order to utilize 100% of the programs potential, you have to spend just as much time learning to use it as I did in my time with HKN. In comparison, HKN is kind of hard to setup if you're not into programming - but once it's learned it's actually easier to use that most other programmes which require you to browse about for functionality in windows menus with poor or no documentation.

I like the "fake" mouse pointers and the easier macro management, but I find ISBoxer / IS to be a bit user un-friendly and cluttered and not very intuitive compared to keyclone/HKN (I haven't tried GCP for more than 15 mins so I can't comment on that).