Need SW to force EVE and/or LOTRO lower than default res for boxing

[ShadowKntSDS]

I am looking for software (ISboxer, keyclone etc) than can force EVE Online and/or LOTRO clients below their default software limits for resolution. EVE Online by default can not be lower than 1024x768, and LOTRO clients can not be lower than 800x600. These resolutions aren't exactly the best for fitting multiple clients on a monitor for boxing as my screens are 1080p or smaller.

I've already tried HotKeyNet. It used to be able to resize EVE clients for PIP, but somewhere along way EVE changed and it locks into 1024x768 when you try to make it smaller.

Please post if you have an experience with either client. I've already posted in the LOTRO specific forum with no response.

[Lax]

Well, depending on the design of the game you can't necessarily force it to actually render lower than 800x600 or 1024x768 (as you mentioned, you used to be able to resize EVE clients but then the design of the game changed and it locks into 1024x768 -- similar thing with EQ2 at 800x600). ISBoxer will scale it down from one size to another, but it's just that -- scaling. Meaning the text is going to be small and hard to read when it's scaled. (But this also enables instant swapping and perfect mouse broadcasting)

There's not really another way to do it without changing the game client itself

[ShadowKntSDS]

Scaling is fine and acceptable in some cases, like for slaves when 6 boxing lotro, and for scouts in eve. I am aware of the issues in eve where mouse clicks in a scaled client will not line up properly. I'd also assume the same to be true for any other client that can not be set to an arbitrary size.

If ISBoxer is confirmed to be able to scale the clients down to an arbitrary size, I'll certainly give the trial a try.

Any other software that can scale the clients?

[Lax]

I am aware of the issues in eve where mouse clicks in a scaled client will not line up properly. I'd also assume the same to be true for any other client that can not be set to an arbitrary size.

ISBoxer should line them up correctly, there's been bugs where it doesn't in certain situations for certain games. I don't think that'll be an issue during your trial

[ShadowKntSDS]

I stand corrected. Perhapse it was from some other software forum that i read about the issues. I'll certainly give ISBoxer a whirl.

[ShadowKntSDS]

After trying ISBoxer for a few days, I have to say I'm very impressed. I was not exactly unaware of it before, but I can see the true power of it now. It's pretty amazing for LOTRO.

EVE on the other hand, is a mess, although I do not attribute this to ISBoxer. EVE does not resize gracefully, and its minimum resolution is rather large. Instant swapping with slaves works fine as long as the main window is exactly an EVE resolution, and the slaves are done correctly. This is certainly useful over alt-tabbing. However, this isn't as amazing in EVE as you most inputs are mouse based, and easy instant (non-swapping) access to multiple clients is more important. Putting 2 clients up and splitting the a 1080p screen space (960x1080 each) as i originally planned looks horrid, as the game is stretched in one dimension, and compressed in the other. This exacerbated by the particularly bad fonts in EVE. Again, this is EVE's fault.

I think I will attempt to put two clients on the screen, both at 1024x768 with some overlap and just deal with it. I can use the rest of the space to put a scout client (doesn't really need direct input) and perhaps some buttons/click bars. It looks like they are allowing arbitrary resize in a future patch, but they still have the 1024x768 minimum restriction on the test server.


All, said, this is a great product. I'd buy it for LOTRO, but still use it for EVE.

[Mukade]

The problem with EVE, is that even in windowed mode, the client refuses to do anything but set resolutions that are reported to it by the graphics hardware. For people who want to have one window span multi-monitor, that means hacking registry and drivers (with stuff like riva-tuner) to make it think you have a monitor 2 or 3x as wide as normal, or running a software driver between DirectX and the normal driver (which kills performance).

You might be able to get the resolution you want by doing something similar. In fact it will probably be easier, as windows puts some kind of upper limit on how many pixels can be on a monitor described in the registry, so the only way to get triple monitor at high resolutions was through the horrible driver method, making dual monitor the limit through registry hacks. There most likely won't be a problem picking resolutions lower than that maximum though.

To give you a further idea of just how bad EVE's graphics programming is, I can run 5x copies of WoW with all settings at max, and all I get is low frame rates. Meanwhile with EVE, my graphics card ramps the fan up to max to cope with heat it's generating on the character selection screen, and has caused several hangs from overheating, just from sitting in station (I'm lucky because EVE got known as a graphics card killer for some models/brands).

[ShadowKntSDS]

The changes on the test server fix most of the hacks needed for multi-monitor support. You can drag and resize the windows to any size you want as long as it's above 1024 in width and 768 in height. The results are pretty stunning tbh, but I can not use multiple monitors in my day to day setup.

Sadly, I have not yet been able to get on to the test server since I started my ISBoxer trial. This will fix half of my problems.

I will look into registry hacks to get a lower resolution. There was a report of someone getting the game into 800x600 (since they changed the cap), but thats because he was actually using a 800x600 lcd panel.