Is a Virtual Machine counted as Software or Hardware Broadcasting?

[keghia]

With all the talk about attempting hardware broadcasting to get around the new rules, do you think that running a VM, or multiple VM's on a decent computer, would count as software broadcasting on Blizzards end?

Technically it is just the one computer using software to emulate another computer, but whether or not Blizzard/Warden would pick up on that detail, I'm not sure...

[nodoze]

Multiple people have been saying VMs were not allowed but when I asked for a link to the source the only thing I got back was a screenshot of a paragraph about regarding Cloud Computing... While Cloud Computing does typically leverage Virtualization it is not the same thing as running a VM on a local host.

I didn't get a chance to find the original full cloud computing statement and study it but would be happy to review it and/or any other statements by Blizz regarding VMs (if there are any) if someone finds/posts them.

All that being said, no matter how you proceed, I would try get your setups working such that one action by you only does one action in a single client. If you do it via software and they catch you it is actionable. Doing it via hardware hasn't been explicitly stated as being against the ToS YET but I believe you are setting your self up for problems if you do one action causing multiple actions in one or more clients and similarly are on thin ice if one action by you cause an action in multiple clients.

If you review this video it looks like she is doing it right via hardware (notice how each spell cast is slightly staggered as their is no multicasting of 1 keystroke to multiple WoW clients):

EDIT: This video was made private for some reason:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMCuQ4TPWQU

This was the best replacement video I could find which also appears to be individually starting each spell:

https://youtu.be/2e9-VsXbir0?t=38

It is not as readily apparent as the spells all being cast are instants but if you watch closely you can see the stagger. The previous video was mainly things with cast times like FrostBolts so it was very obvious.

[keghia]

Wow that is a good video to share, thanks for the info nodoze

[nodoze]

Wow that is a good video to share, thanks for the info nodoze

Thanks. Glad to help. In case you haven't seen it here is another video you may want to see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B45FL6aOT7k

I was going down the path of something like this doing 4 DPS clients in a quadrant on my main PC and doing my healer on a 2nd PC with either it's own small 10keypad or toggle-able hardware based keyboard broadcasting (or both)... After seeing that video and upgrading to a large 4K monitor I have been working with this setup with mouse-over-focus and it seems OKish. Still getting used to it but I am leaning this direction if I keep 5boxing WoW.

Her accent is cute.

Agreed. That may be why this is one of my favorite auditions of all time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4EE4bIFixQ

[Kayley]

Her accent is cute.

[Moorea]

video is gone, any other links?

[jak3676]

was it one of these? https://www.youtube.com/c/hyperboxing/videos

[Moorea]

cute indeed and good setup. no idea though how that person’s setup has anything to do with VMs

my take is VMs are worse in all points than just running multiple clients / it just is slower, wasting ressources and trying (and likely failing to) hide something

[nodoze]

cute indeed and good setup. no idea though how that person’s setup has anything to do with VMs

my take is VMs are worse in all points than just running multiple clients / it just is slower, wasting ressources and trying (and likely failing to) hide something

Full fledged VMs are very different that slim Virtual Desktops which can be achiveved with only 1 install of the operating system.

Think of it as running a 5 monitor extended desktop setup in windows where you can put something different on each screen (like a unique wow window).

The benefit of a MultiSeat Desktop Virtualization approach is that then each of the 5 monitors (which can be virtual or consolidated) are then given their own desktop and keyboard and mouse to make them appear like fully fledged separate PCs (or VMs) but really it is just a single install of Windows with an extended desktop that is carved up into desktop containers... You could then just use 1-2 keyboards (with KM switches) and 2 monitors for 5 clients if you use the 4 quadrant setup for the other 4 virtual desktops.

Unless you have done it before it may be hard to visualize but likely many existing multi-boxer primary PCs can easily be adapted to do this for very little additional $ and relatively little complexity and not much overhead.

It isn't hiding anything and the advantage of this approach is that you are likely compliant with Blizzard's current stated ToS and not using input broadcasting software to broadcast keys to clients as you are using hardware. I think you are best served effectively unicasting via hardware instead of mulitcasting or broadcasting but regardless it is hardware based and at least for now blizzard has keyed on software broadcasting.