EQ WindowsFollow

Can we get back to the OP's question? I would like to learn how to 2-box better. I do have 2-computers (actually 4 in the house) but when my son's and future daughter-in-law are over we use all of them. All together we have 5-accounts. I would like to play any combination of 2 of the following: shammy, cleric, chanter, or warrior while they play their characters. I tried installing and using EQ Windows but couldn't get it going. I was able to run 2-EQs from the same start menu but it was a little laggy. I copied my EQ files and created a second with a new name as someone suggested above.

What I would like to do is to run both instances side-by-side on my screen. Is this possible? What I ended up doing was putting both instances in window mode and have half of each window off the screen. Before I would do that I would have to move all my tool bars and what-nots so they would either be left alligned or right alligned. The hardes thing about this was that my view from my toon was never centered. Half the time I was playing blind.

What I want is to have 2-instances running but minimize both windows so they are both fully on the screen. Can this be done?

What is the mouse?

Fair enough Bubspeed. It might be a lot higher percentage than I imagine. I hope not, but for all I know, you could be dead on. I still don't think it's right, but there's a hell of a lot nastier stuff going on in EQ than buying an Ebay account, so I'll hop off my little soapbox now. And since others have asked too, I'll get back on topic and answer as best I can about boxing with one PC.

You can box easily enough with two, but you have to roll your chair back and forth a lot and the noise usually drives others in your domicile up a tree. ;)

The best method to two box on a single PC is to use two monitors, which necessitates two video cards NOT in SLI mode. In order to run things as smoothly as possible, you should also have a fairly decent processor and at LEAST 1 gig of RAM. I recommend 2 if possible. You should also have two physical hard drives with your entire EQ directory copied onto the second, with a shortcut to its executable next to your primary one on the desktop. This makes things run even more smoothly. So in an ideal situation, you have two copies of EQ--you don't have to install a second copy, just copy the files--on two different hard drives, two video cards, two monitors, a muscular processor and a heap big wad of RAM. Thanks to the new mouse cursor code, you can literally move the cursor from one EQ window straight across into the other monitor running the other EQ. Quite smooth really.

Now most folks may not have the financial means to set up this perfect scenario for 2 boxing on one PC. If you do not, then you can manage with one monitor, one video card, one hard drive with one copy of EQ. Just ALT+enter out of EQ to start another game by clicking the same shortcut icon you always do to play EQ. This will start another instance of EQ and you log in with your other account. You can then simply ALT+TAB between the two EQ's in windowed mode, or you can hit ALT+ENTER after you switch to the one you want to run in full mode. I have to do this since windowed EQ screws up my UI pretty badly. =/ This ALT+TAB between the two EQ's works well enough, but it depends upon how powerful your PC is. If you have a strong video card, a good processor and a pretty big dose of RAM, the delay between switching EQ's is not too bad. But if your PC isn't quite up to snuff in any of these areas, it could wind up being a serious excercise in frustration switching from one EQ to another as your PC struggles to keep up with the resource demand. That can be very deadly in a hairy group situation.

I don't recommend trying this sort of play at all if you're in a raid or any situation where a boxed toon is a liability to others, especially if you don't have a bleeding edge ultra PC. Can you imagine the raid lag if you had two EQ's going at the same time? *shudder* Do yourself a favor and don't try it.

If you happen to have a huge monitor, by the way, it is certainly possible to run two EQ windows side by side, if they're in a low enough resolution. It's usually just easier to ALT+TAB between them though.

Hope this helps.

Edited, Tue Nov 15 20:17:26 2005 by Maderik

I regularly play 3 chars. I have 1 setup on another PC and play the other two on this PC since it's capable of handling the load.

I originally used EQwindows (www.eqwindows.com), but it was recently broken beyond being usable and the original programmer has abandoned the product. It was by far the best, but useless now.

Now the only options I know about is simply running two normal windows of EQ OR using WinEQ (http://www.lavishsoft.com/wineq2/).

Neither works as good as the original EQWindows, but both ways will get the job done.

Major issues with both as I have seen.. WinEQ - Tad bit more lag from time to time, but overall a quicker response time from the windowed instance.

As far as simply running two instances of EQ in its native form, I've had limited problems since the mouse change. The only major problem is Auto Follow. The background window (char that is following) will lag more than the dominant window (one on top). By using WinEQ this doesn't happen quite as much, but the main screen will lag a bit more.

It's almost as if WinEQ can divide the lag more evenly between the EQ sessions. Where the normal EQ windows will push more resources towards the window on top.

That's at least my view on it all...

the more computers the merrier

I have used both Eqwindows and Wineg.
Eqwindows hasn't had an update since April of 04.

Wineq(by lavishsoft) is the way to go.
It is supported to start with, It makes eq hog less memory in one or 2 instances of the game, in my experience.

I understand that the subscription version will let you run 4 instances of the game...or 4 different games, tiled or layered.

The window switching is fantastic, it can be assigned to any key that you like.

I set 1 instance on a slightly smaller window than the full screen session, and I use the tilde button to switch from one session the the other...very seamless, one mouse cursor, no lag, short zones(yes the fact that it hogs less memory is this noticeable).

I never had as good service with Eqwindows either.
Wineq/lavishsoft has forum boards that actually get answered by the guy who programs it.
My questions usually on the same day, and this is the free version (Wineq 2.0 lite).

I have been using the lavishsoft product for about 6 months now vs the year and a half with Eqwindows and very pleased with it, the service and the regular updating of the product.

Even with the recent windows changes in EQ, I have found that Wineq is worth running for the fact that it frees up the memory usage.