1 Keyboard/mouse 2 computers

[Salt Shaker]

Is it possible to slave one keyboard and mouse to 2 separate laptops? I was thinking about 1.) ways to farm with two brutes at once and 2) the ability to move my RP twin duo, Double Trouble, in sync with one another.

[biostem]

14 minutes ago, Salt Shaker said:

Is it possible to slave one keyboard and mouse to 2 separate laptops? I was thinking about 1.) ways to farm with two brutes at once and 2) the ability to move my RP twin duo, Double Trouble, in sync with one another.

I've done something similar via a KVM switch, but that involves alternating between one computer at a time, (so you can't control both simultaneously).  You could pick up a USB splitter and a gender-changer to see what happens.  Why not just have the second character follow the first, and put 1 attack or power on autofire?

Edited October 29, 2019 by biostem

[Salt Shaker]

8 minutes ago, biostem said:

I've done something similar via a KVM switch, but that involves alternating between one computer at a time, (so you can't control both simultaneously).  You could pick up a USB splitter and a gender-changer to see what happens.  Why not just have the second character follow the first, and put 1 attack or power on autofire?

I have tried that, but it's not as effetive as being able to completely control them both

[biostem]

2 minutes ago, Salt Shaker said:

I have tried that, but it's not as effetive as being able to completely control them both

Understood.  What about the KVM switch in conjunction with the follow/autofire?  Then you can easily switch without getting up, change things slightly, then switch back?  I know on the ones I've used, you just tap scroll lock twice, then arrow up or down to change, and it's pretty much instantaneous...

 

EDIT:  I haven't used this personally, but what about a software solution like this?

Edited October 29, 2019 by biostem

[Salt Shaker]

5 minutes ago, biostem said:

Understood.  What about the KVM switch in conjunction with the follow/autofire?  Then you can easily switch without getting up, change things slightly, then switch back?  I know on the ones I've used, you just tap scroll lock twice, then arrow up or down to change, and it's pretty much instantaneous...

 

EDIT:  I haven't used this personally, but what about a software solution like this?

Oh that has potential. I'll look into it, and if not, I can try the KVM switch. Thank you, Biostem!

[Lines]

I know Lost Ninja has three boxes running simultaneously somehow, with inputs shared between them. In fact, I’ve seen it in action and it’s pretty dang sweet.

 

You’d need to ask him, though. I dunno if he keeps his superpower a secret.

[Big Lunk]

Not quite the answer, but I found a way to level 2 chars at once.

I got a cool little program that let's me set up hot keys that can broadcast a key press to an inactive window which I use to dualbox (2 client, 1 pc) , putting the second char on follow, and triggering abilies as needed.

I think it's called "autokey" or "auto keyboard", but I'm in the gym so can't check. Google search will probably find it easy. 

Edited October 29, 2019 by Big Lunk

[boggo2300]

Better than 2 girls, 1 cup, thats all I'm sayin'

[Lost Ninja]

3 hours ago, Lines said:

I know Lost Ninja has three boxes running simultaneously somehow, with inputs shared between them. In fact, I’ve seen it in action and it’s pretty dang sweet.

 

You’d need to ask him, though. I dunno if he keeps his superpower a secret.

No issue revealing my "secret".

 

I use InnerSpace/ISBoxer which is a software keyboard/mouse multiplexer. It might be a little overkill for what the OP is looking for. It's paid for software for a start (there is a free trial I believe), and while it will certainly allow you to control two or more characters at once it will with some application of trial and error allow three characters to play as a team while being controlled from a single keyboard/mouse by a single player.

 

My own setup comprises one PC (Ryzen 1600, 16Gb, 1060 6Gb) with three monitors. I mostly use a Logitech G13 for my control but if you use a keyboard you'll be better off with easier access to more keys. I also use a mouse but currently don't map any clicks through the multiplexer (it's doable but with /powexec_location, not really needed). For the most part it's using well thought out (through trial and error) macros and binds. With a maximum of three characters it's certainly not an I win button... but I do get a great deal of fun trying to do things that solo would be a doddle. 😄

 

For the record one keyboard/mouse into a two receivers used to be a suggested entry to two-boxing WoW before cheap software multiplexers were a thing.

[Salt Shaker]

6 hours ago, Lost Ninja said:

No issue revealing my "secret".

 

I use InnerSpace/ISBoxer which is a software keyboard/mouse multiplexer. It might be a little overkill for what the OP is looking for. It's paid for software for a start (there is a free trial I believe), and while it will certainly allow you to control two or more characters at once it will with some application of trial and error allow three characters to play as a team while being controlled from a single keyboard/mouse by a single player.

 

My own setup comprises one PC (Ryzen 1600, 16Gb, 1060 6Gb) with three monitors. I mostly use a Logitech G13 for my control but if you use a keyboard you'll be better off with easier access to more keys. I also use a mouse but currently don't map any clicks through the multiplexer (it's doable but with /powexec_location, not really needed). For the most part it's using well thought out (through trial and error) macros and binds. With a maximum of three characters it's certainly not an I win button... but I do get a great deal of fun trying to do things that solo would be a doddle. 😄

 

For the record one keyboard/mouse into a two receivers used to be a suggested entry to two-boxing WoW before cheap software multiplexers were a thing.

Oh that's perfect, thanks so much!

[Salt Shaker]

7 hours ago, Lost Ninja said:

No issue revealing my "secret".

 

I use InnerSpace/ISBoxer which is a software keyboard/mouse multiplexer. It might be a little overkill for what the OP is looking for. It's paid for software for a start (there is a free trial I believe), and while it will certainly allow you to control two or more characters at once it will with some application of trial and error allow three characters to play as a team while being controlled from a single keyboard/mouse by a single player.

 

My own setup comprises one PC (Ryzen 1600, 16Gb, 1060 6Gb) with three monitors. I mostly use a Logitech G13 for my control but if you use a keyboard you'll be better off with easier access to more keys. I also use a mouse but currently don't map any clicks through the multiplexer (it's doable but with /powexec_location, not really needed). For the most part it's using well thought out (through trial and error) macros and binds. With a maximum of three characters it's certainly not an I win button... but I do get a great deal of fun trying to do things that solo would be a doddle. 😄

 

For the record one keyboard/mouse into a two receivers used to be a suggested entry to two-boxing WoW before cheap software multiplexers were a thing.

Do you run it from tequila? I can't get it to work, not sure what i need to have it launch from. 

[Lost Ninja]

If you look on the ISBoxer forums they have a guide for how to get things working and they suggest using their discord if you have any issues (with an updated guide there too). ((http://isboxer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=46472#p46472))

 

However I had no luck using their method for launching the game. Or the work round of having InnerSpace catch the game once you launch with Tequila so I wrote a .bat file to launch the game. InnerSpace launches the batch file for each copy of the game and the batch file adjusts the registry for each client.

@echo off
setlocal
set cpath=d:\Games\Tequila\
set cexe=hc-bin64\cityofheroes.exe
set bver=2019.10.01
set pver=2019.10.29
set auth=51.79.19.146
set pdir=homecoming
cls
:start
echo.
echo City of Heroes batch launcher, this batch file will launch 3+ clients depending on the following keypress
echo You will need to re-run it for each client launch. 1 & 2 Will autofill their respective Accounts, 3+ won't.
echo.
echo Starting a client will set the registry for that start. Restarting without this .bat will NOT reset the registry
ECHO.
echo 	1:	Account1		(Large)	(Multi-Box)	Center Screen 	(Borderless 2)
echo 	2:	Account2		(Large)	(Multi-Box)	Left Screen		(Borderless 1)
echo 	3:	Account6		(Small)	(Multi-Box)	Right Screen	(Small Windows)
echo 	4: 	
ECHO 	5: CoH (Change Account on Login), intended for solo.
echo 	6: Launch Beta Client
echo.
echo	8: Store current Registry settings to a temp file for later integration.
echo 	9: Exit
echo.
choice /n /c:123456789 /m "Pick an option:"
if ERRORLEVEL == 9 goto end
if ERRORLEVEL == 8 goto store
if ERRORLEVEL == 7 goto start
if ERRORLEVEL == 6 goto Beta
if ERRORLEVEL == 5 goto Solo
if ERRORLEVEL == 4 goto Q4CoH4
if ERRORLEVEL == 3 goto Q4CoH3
if ERRORLEVEL == 2 goto Q4CoH2
if ERRORLEVEL == 1 goto Q4CoH1

:store
cls
echo.
echo Will store (to %cpath%) the current registry settings for the most recently closed game client.
echo.
echo Please rename this to one of the following premades (multiplay1... etc)
echo.
regedit -e %cpath%temp_coh_settings.reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Cryptic\CoH
goto end

:Q4CoH1
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account1 (Centre Screen)
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\Q4CoH1.reg
goto launch

:Q4CoH2
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account2 (Right Screen)
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\Q4CoH2.reg
goto launch

:Q4CoH3
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account6 (Small Screen)
echo Please adjust account on launch.
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\Q4CoH3.reg
goto launch

:Q4CoH4
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account7 (Small Screen)
echo Please adjust account on launch.
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\Q4CoH4.reg
goto launch

:Solo
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account (Solo)
echo Chnage the account on load...
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\soloplay.reg
goto launch

:Beta
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account (Solo)
echo Chnage the account on load...
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\Q4CoH1.reg
echo|set /p=%pswd%|clip
D:\Games\Tequila\hc-bin64\cityofheroes-beta.exe -patchversion %bver% -auth 167.114.165.144 -patchdir hc-beta
goto end

:launch
echo|set /p=%pswd%|clip
D:\Games\Tequila\hc-bin64\cityofheroes.exe -patchversion %pver% -auth %auth% -patchdir %pdir%
goto end

:end
endlocal

((With some changes to prevent my accounts wandering the above is what I launched the game with today.)) - ((To use the above: Copy everything in the code section above, then open a new .txt document in windows notepad (or better a decent notepad replacement eg: Notepad++ or Scite). Copy the text into this new file and rename it launch.bat (or similar). If you've done the process correctly windows will probably prompt you and ask if you're sure you want to change the extension. The .bat file is basically a windows script, runs each line/sequence in order and has some small amount of logic. You can follow what each line does by reading it.))

 

When you set up InnerSpace you tell it to use the launch.bat (or whatever you called it above) to launch the game with.

 

You can ignore the password fields if you feel uncomfortable about writing them down in plain text, it's merely used so I don't have to write out my really hard to remember passwords three times every time I launch the game... 😄

 

Top Section Adjust: (As needed.)

cpath = Client path - Where Tequila is installed, where the piggs sub-directory is etc.

cexe = Path to the specific client, if you use the 32 bit client change this otherwise it should be okay.

bver = Beta Patch Date (get this from tequila.xml).

pver = Client Patch Date (ditto).

pdir = Patch Directory (don't think this changes, unless you plan on running other servers I suppose).

 

Registry Tweaks:

The game stores, Graphics/Sounds in the registry not in plain text files like all the other settings, if you don't want to mess with this it shouldn't matter. But if you do you can store you most recently save client settings ("Apply Settings" in game) using the #8 option (as above), then you need to rename it so it can be loaded via the batch file. I suggest that unless you know you need it OR know what you're doing with regard to the registry you ignore this "feature".

 

Registry besides setting the graphics/sound up per account allows you to have a different Account name remembered by the game, and a couple of other non-graphical settings that the game for some reason doesn't store in the options.txt file.

 

I don't think there is anyway to show easily how I have InnerSpace set up as it's all a big .xml file which isn't really human readable.

 

The only other thing I have done is use SymLinks to make all of my individual Account directories into a single directory, the game seems quite happy with this.

Edited October 29, 2019 by Lost Ninja
editor stopped responding to input... :/

[Salt Shaker]

5 hours ago, Lost Ninja said:

If you look on the ISBoxer forums they have a guide for how to get things working and they suggest using their discord if you have any issues (with an updated guide there too). ((http://isboxer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=46472#p46472))

 

However I had no luck using their method for launching the game. Or the work round of having InnerSpace catch the game once you launch with Tequila so I wrote a .bat file to launch the game. InnerSpace launches the batch file for each copy of the game and the batch file adjusts the registry for each client.

@echo off
setlocal
set cpath=d:\Games\Tequila\
set cexe=hc-bin64\cityofheroes.exe
set bver=2019.10.01
set pver=2019.10.29
set auth=51.79.19.146
set pdir=homecoming
cls
:start
echo.
echo City of Heroes batch launcher, this batch file will launch 3+ clients depending on the following keypress
echo You will need to re-run it for each client launch. 1 & 2 Will autofill their respective Accounts, 3+ won't.
echo.
echo Starting a client will set the registry for that start. Restarting without this .bat will NOT reset the registry
ECHO.
echo 	1:	Account1		(Large)	(Multi-Box)	Center Screen 	(Borderless 2)
echo 	2:	Account2		(Large)	(Multi-Box)	Left Screen		(Borderless 1)
echo 	3:	Account6		(Small)	(Multi-Box)	Right Screen	(Small Windows)
echo 	4: 	
ECHO 	5: CoH (Change Account on Login), intended for solo.
echo 	6: Launch Beta Client
echo.
echo	8: Store current Registry settings to a temp file for later integration.
echo 	9: Exit
echo.
choice /n /c:123456789 /m "Pick an option:"
if ERRORLEVEL == 9 goto end
if ERRORLEVEL == 8 goto store
if ERRORLEVEL == 7 goto start
if ERRORLEVEL == 6 goto Beta
if ERRORLEVEL == 5 goto Solo
if ERRORLEVEL == 4 goto Q4CoH4
if ERRORLEVEL == 3 goto Q4CoH3
if ERRORLEVEL == 2 goto Q4CoH2
if ERRORLEVEL == 1 goto Q4CoH1

:store
cls
echo.
echo Will store (to %cpath%) the current registry settings for the most recently closed game client.
echo.
echo Please rename this to one of the following premades (multiplay1... etc)
echo.
regedit -e %cpath%temp_coh_settings.reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Cryptic\CoH
goto end

:Q4CoH1
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account1 (Centre Screen)
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\Q4CoH1.reg
goto launch

:Q4CoH2
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account2 (Right Screen)
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\Q4CoH2.reg
goto launch

:Q4CoH3
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account6 (Small Screen)
echo Please adjust account on launch.
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\Q4CoH3.reg
goto launch

:Q4CoH4
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account7 (Small Screen)
echo Please adjust account on launch.
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\Q4CoH4.reg
goto launch

:Solo
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account (Solo)
echo Chnage the account on load...
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\soloplay.reg
goto launch

:Beta
cls
echo.
echo Launching Account (Solo)
echo Chnage the account on load...
echo.
set pswd=password
regedit /S d:\Games\Tequila\Q4CoH1.reg
echo|set /p=%pswd%|clip
D:\Games\Tequila\hc-bin64\cityofheroes-beta.exe -patchversion %bver% -auth 167.114.165.144 -patchdir hc-beta
goto end

:launch
echo|set /p=%pswd%|clip
D:\Games\Tequila\hc-bin64\cityofheroes.exe -patchversion %pver% -auth %auth% -patchdir %pdir%
goto end

:end
endlocal

((With some changes to prevent my accounts wandering the above is what I launched the game with today.)) - ((To use the above: Copy everything in the code section above, then open a new .txt document in windows notepad (or better a decent notepad replacement eg: Notepad++ or Scite). Copy the text into this new file and rename it launch.bat (or similar). If you've done the process correctly windows will probably prompt you and ask if you're sure you want to change the extension. The .bat file is basically a windows script, runs each line/sequence in order and has some small amount of logic. You can follow what each line does by reading it.))

 

When you set up InnerSpace you tell it to use the launch.bat (or whatever you called it above) to launch the game with.

 

You can ignore the password fields if you feel uncomfortable about writing them down in plain text, it's merely used so I don't have to write out my really hard to remember passwords three times every time I launch the game... 😄

 

Top Section Adjust: (As needed.)

cpath = Client path - Where Tequila is installed, where the piggs sub-directory is etc.

cexe = Path to the specific client, if you use the 32 bit client change this otherwise it should be okay.

bver = Beta Patch Date (get this from tequila.xml).

pver = Client Patch Date (ditto).

pdir = Patch Directory (don't think this changes, unless you plan on running other servers I suppose).

 

Registry Tweaks:

The game stores, Graphics/Sounds in the registry not in plain text files like all the other settings, if you don't want to mess with this it shouldn't matter. But if you do you can store you most recently save client settings ("Apply Settings" in game) using the #8 option (as above), then you need to rename it so it can be loaded via the batch file. I suggest that unless you know you need it OR know what you're doing with regard to the registry you ignore this "feature".

 

Registry besides setting the graphics/sound up per account allows you to have a different Account name remembered by the game, and a couple of other non-graphical settings that the game for some reason doesn't store in the options.txt file.

 

I don't think there is anyway to show easily how I have InnerSpace set up as it's all a big .xml file which isn't really human readable.

 

The only other thing I have done is use SymLinks to make all of my individual Account directories into a single directory, the game seems quite happy with this.

Oh boy, this is a quantum leap beyond my knowledge of pretty much anything computer related lol. I really appreciate you taking the time for me,  So basically I can jsut copy/paste the entire contents of the above box and it'll work, or do I have to edit certain parts (beyond where neede as indicated in your post)

Edited October 30, 2019 by Salt Shaker

[Lost Ninja]

Was thinking about this, this morning. This is a simplified .batch file that will just launch the game (assuming you edit it to match your config).

@echo off
D:\Games\Tequila\hc-bin64\cityofheroes.exe -patchversion 2019.10.29 -auth 51.79.19.146 -patchdir homecoming

So this is what actually runs from the a original .bat It doesn't have registry inclusion, it doesn't autofill accounts names or copy your password into the clipboard. It will need to be manually edited every time the game updates. (Again get the specific values from the tequila.xml) And change the path to match your own. EG if your game is in c:\Tequila the above would start with "C:\Tequila\hc-bin64\cityofheroes.exe".

 

However it's created/edited in the same way.

[Salt Shaker]

Ugh, I'm confused now, sorry about my tech dunce cap.  So where do i put that .bat file, in the tequila files or the innerspace files?

 

[JollyOgre1]

How are you even able to do this??...i cant even see my other toons or even invite them to a team when running a 2nd account.

[roleki]

Dumb question, but, are both characters on the same server?