In my opinion, AHK is illegal.

[Formulaone]

I just had a conversation with a GM who told me that dual boxing is legal, but when I asked "one thing I couldnt get a clear answer on from the forums is about a 3rd party program. If you run two instances of WoW on the same computer (both seperate and valid accounts) in windowed mode with 1 window being active and the other in the background, the third party program can send keystrokes to the window in the background without switching from the main window. Is that against any rules?"

His response: "Using a third party progam to automatically perform actions would be a violation"

I explained further "If it isn't automatically making a character do multiple actions or both characters automatically doing synchronized actions, but simply 1 button making 1 character perform a single action, would it be legal if used in that way?"

"What you described would be a violation. However, using an alternative-input device such as voice activation would not be a violation so long as the action did not perform multiple keystrokes."

Screenshots of the conversation are available if requested, but its late and i'm too lazy to get them hosted right now.

Anyways, it seems like the problem with AHK is that it duplicates a keystroke and sends it to both clients, even if the keystroke doesn't actually do anything on one of the clients, it is still turning 1 keystroke into multiple keystrokes.

The way around this would be to somehow make AHK only send the keystroke to the background window and not to both. Is this possible? And if not, how else can you legally control two characters on one monitor? I have heard of people programming macros that alt tab to the other window, do desired action, then alt tab back. I dont know much about macros and key binding, but all I have is my regular laptop keyboard (laptop can run two clients of WoW, it has 2gb ram, duo core processor, and good enough video card) and an external USB numeric keypad. Is there some way to bind alt tab macros to the keypad (it isnt like a gaming pad with programmable buttons).

Hopefully there is a way to program AHK so that it doesnt duplicate the keystroke on both clients, but only sends it to the background client. If there isnt, i would appreciate any advice on the other ways to control both characters.

[Xzin]

"Using a third party progam to automatically perform actions would be a violation"

Pretty sure this is more targeted towards a program like Wowglider - that actually controls movement and plays your character for you - than AHK. So, the sky isn't falling. You still have to tell the client to DO things. Sure, it might be creatively setup, but still. Nothing happens until you trigger it.

I do everything in hardware, read my FAQ, its stickied.

[Formulaone]

Hardware costs money, and I would rather not spend it since I never plan on going past dual-boxing so it doesnt seem necessary. From looking at the information on autohotkey's website it looks like it is possible to make the main window ignore a keystroke and simply send it to the background window. So for the people experienced at writing code for autohotkey, what would the code look like if you wanted to send the F1 key to the background window only?

[Formulaone]

http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/245/wownu4.png

If you are going to change my topics title, how about something accurate?

"GM confirms AHK is illegal if used a certain way." would be better.

[hapiguy314]

This is quite hillarious. AHK, a software that sends input to the other client without "performing multiple keystrokes," is illegal yet "an alternative-input device - such as voice activation" is perfectly legit.

Dude GM, get your ish straight sir.

[Tech249]

Its been noted on this website and the AHK website that AHK could be used to the extent that it is illegal. Just don't use it that way.

People can change the argument so that AHK or even hardware based setups to multi-box are against the TOS of WoW. WoW TOS is so global that it's silly, they can ban you for no reason at all.

How many people do you know that use a G15, Nostromo or other type of hardware? According to the ToS they should all be banned. Blizz isn't going to do that. I'm willing to bet more then 30% of the player base uses these items. These are all considered third party software.

Using AHK to send 1 to three different windows still involves you pushing that 1 key. It requires you to be at the computer and in control.

To answer your AHK question though, you can specify that certain keystrokes only goto a certain wow instance.

[code:1]0::
KeyWait, 0, D
ControlSend,, 0 , ahk_id %wowid2%

Return[/code:1]

The code above would only send the keystroke to your second wow instance.

According to your argument though, you can't even do this. You are using a third party program to aid you.

[hapiguy314]

Tech249, you're so money.

[Formulaone]

Just like to clear up that that it is not my opinion that AHK is illegal as long as you only use each button to do a single action on a single character. Some moderator changed the topic of my post without fully understanding what i was saying. What i am saying is that by what the GM told me about what is and isn't a violation, using a third party program to duplicate one keystroke to make 3 mages automatically cast fireball at the same time would be cheating. Sure you had to manually press the one key, but according to the GM's statement thats like saying botting is legal because you had to manually download, install, and activate the bot.

[hapiguy314]

Sure you had to manually press the one key, but according to the GM's statement thats like saying botting is legal because you had to manually download, install, and activate the bot.

Sorry bro - but that analogy is like so farfetched. But to each his own. I guess playing World of Warcraft is botting too because i have to download the software then install, then activate.

Botting is illegal because it functions independently. IT DOES NOT INVOLVE ANY USER INTERVENTION. While AHK (or a multiplier) will not fire, or cast any spell, unless you press a button - hence the CONTROL is not automated.

I dunno man - for some reason, it's as clear as night and day to me. But of course, I respect your choice not to use AHK.

[Shogun]

The main thing, im, is that you're sat there at your keyboard, sending commands/instructions, and it's not automated 3rd party software.

If they don't detect you're using delays and auto-mated commands, and if they contact you in-game and ur there to reply, can they prove it? So you had the program running "I was working on photoshop/other software with it"

They can ban you for anything or nothing though...