Spiral Knights - My Dualboxing Setup

My Dualboxing Setup

18 replies [Last post]

Wed, 02/19/2014 - 18:19

Khonkhortisan

I have Khonkhortisan, a Champion gunner with a maskeraith. I also have Nasitrohknohk (spelled backwards), a Knight Elite bomber with a seraphynx.
I'm writing this because it seems like I'm the only one that plays this way and others may find it interesting, or more rewarding than alt-dragging. Also, it takes me a while to explain how I'm doing it, so I'm writing it all out.

Operating system/window manager: openSUSE Linux 12.3 (x86_64) / KDE 4.40.5
Screen resolution 1440x900, splitscreen window size 712x875
Two mice, two keyboards, Logitech Force 3D Pro joystick.
xinput version 1.6.0, 2.2 on X server
AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 240 Processor (two cpus)
2GB RAM (ouch, have to close other programs to play)
Nvidia GeForce GT 630 (also has 2GB memory)

First, the rules (I'm probably horribly misquoting like the rest of us):
I've heard you can have up to three free accounts online at the same time. I'm using up to two, and sometimes one.
You cannot broadcast a single key to two characters. This would be using software that helps you play, which is unfair. Doubling your damage (if they both happened to be aiming at something) for the same amount of effort (a single key click). The joystick is broadcasted this way, so only one character can have joystick controls assigned.

My personal preferences:
I frown upon alt-dragging (fighting with one, then having the others walk away from the start of the level to just collect loot), at least when there's only one alt involved. It's possible to control both at the same time, you're selling yourself short. Pretend each character is a separate person. Would you want someone to carry you through a mission, or worse, to always carry someone else?
You may think that having two characters doubles the reward of a level. It does. But when you're spending your rewards on two characters, it balances out.
I can singlebox any mission or level up to the skill level of my first character. I can dualbox any mission or level up to the skill level of my second character. I never play my second character alone.
No mobbing (moving as one unit). It's difficult to see if the characters are in the same place because they both see themselves moving first. I'll have them split when the path splits to scout ahead (though I usually know the side path is a dead end, and go there first). If they're going the same direction, I'll have them walk side by side on the walls of a hallway. I'm not thrown off by the speedy powerup (I can't find its actual name on the wiki) because I'm not using a single set of controls like multiboxers.
I'm only in a guild and friend people with my first character. If I'm invited into a locked party, I either have to go with one character or ask nicely to invite my other. I do get guild invites on my second character, but I'm a little fuzzy on whether it would be spying to join two, or wasting a guild slot to join my main's.
I try to make people aware of what I'm doing, usually by saying /me is Khonkhortisan, or /me looks deeply into Khonkhortisan's eyes and sees... himself., or synchronized dancing.

Input Devices:
When I play using just Khonkhortisan (for the missions too difficult for my second character's level, or in parties that fill up quickly), My left hand is on the mouse for aiming with right click for shooting, and my right hand is on the joystick for moving, with the trigger also for shooting.
When I play using both, Nasitrohknohk is using .oeu (on dvorak, esdf on qwerty) to move and shift-.oeu to aim. This means I can't move and turn at the same time, which doesn't matter for a bomber. Khonkhortisan is using joystick to move, and joystick hat to aim. I usually only aim in four directions that way, because I don't hold the hat down to keep it diagonal, having to press a shield button as well.
I have two mice and two mouse cursors (and two keyboards) to keep focus on both windows so they will both accept input. A keyboard only follows one mouse, but the joystick follows both. So the keyboard character has to have the joystick controls unassigned.

Gameplay:
You end up looking at one character, looking at the other, looking at the first again, and looking at the second through the same window. The more stuff that's going on in the room, the more eyes switch and the more focused you have to be to stay alive like you would with one character.
I got a freeze bomb quickly so that I could use my bomber to block off the exit to a hallway with chainbombing, where the gunner can pick the monsters off while they're standing there.
If I see a Lumber I'll freeze it with the bomber, poison with the gunner's maskeraith, shoot off a set of five shots (I've gotten into the habit of only shooting five rounds and pausing for the imaginary reload so I can always shield when I need to, though my bomber doesn't shield because of always holding a bomb. I have trapped my bomber in ice before.) with a silver six, then chainfreeze it again. I haven't actually gotten into the habit of using the seraphynx yet, but I see its value in the third talent being a group shield.
I collect both dark matter and luminite for my battle sprites, breaking them with the gunner because the bomber is slow at getting three attacks in.

At the time of this writing,
I'm an eternal orb away from argent peacemaker, have obsidian carbine, blitz, and 4* gunner armor.
I have a freezing vaporizer mk II, twisted spine cone, a new graviton charge, and 3* bomber armor.
You can see I'm partial to pure damage types.
I used to use a third weapon slot, but have stopped doing so. Now I have four weapons (two per character), so I can always have one character with the correct damage type, elemental, shadow, or piercing.

Other games:
I can dualbox in kobo deluxe, fireboy and watergirl, anything simple enough that one character can be played with one hand. I can't dualbox in rotmg. Stare at one character too long, and the other one has died forever. I've heard of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, a paid game with dualboxing already set up, but haven't tried it.

I have simplescreenrecorder set up to stream to twitch.tv, so I could produce a video to link to here.

Setup:
These instructions are for linux only. Windows doesn't seem to have a native way to create two mouse pointers.
If you want to copy me, please read the whole thing first to know if you can even do this before you try. (this is very complicated)
I shall try to go in chronological order as if I'm starting over.

Download the game client and install to /home/user1/spiral
Create an account, then a SINGLE character (the gunner) on that account. Trying to log in with a second character on the same account will log you out of the first character.
Leave the Music/Effect/UI Volume on. This will be the client you hear out of. (You don't want to hear echoes when one character hears what the other is doing)
Set the video options as low as possible, but do not cull transients. You'll want to see the bomb radius on both screens.
Setup the controls to use the gamepad, with both the joystick hat, and mouse for aiming. I kind of ran out of buttons for pickups on my joystick, so I have to move the mouse that the keyboard follows to my main character to use health pills, then move it back.
All of your settings are saved to /home/user1/.java/.userPrefs/projectx/prefs.xml (on windows this is in your registry). Because the settings are there, you cannot simply run two clients, make them both accept input, and be able to control them separately without changing the controls of one every time you start. I consider this bad design to save settings per-computer user instead of per-account, because there may be someone out there with two children and only one login on the computer.
So you need another user to have a separate set of controls (I haven't found a convoluted way of having both clients use a separate copy of the same file)

Create a new user and home directory for that user. If your username is Knight, the other one should be Knight2. Don't re-use someone else's login on your computer.
As root, set user2's password to nothing "".
I tried to make it a passwordless login by using visudo to add the line
user1 ALL=(user2) NOPASSWD: ALL
to the file /etc/sudoers, but it didn't work for me.
Switch to user2.
Install to /home/user2/spiral. If the installer is named something like ~/Downloads/spiral-install(1).bin it won't install because it can't find itself because it's not named spiral-install.bin
Start user2's spiral client and create a second account, then a single character (the bomber) on that account.
Turn off the Music and Effect Volume (again, to remove echoes) and leave UI Volume on.
Set the video options low except for cull transients again.
Setup the controls to use the keyboard only, with mouse for using the menus.
Add the first character as a friend.
You'll have to get partway to Haven by yourself.

Switch to user1.
cd /home/user1/spiral
touch spiral2 splitwindows dualbox
chmod +x spiral2 splitwindows dualbox
spiral2 starts the second client as the second user. splitwindows resets the resolution. dualbox resets the resolution, then starts both clients.

spiral2 starts the second client as the second user.
/home/user1/spiral2:
#!/bin/sh echo "" | su - -c /home/user2/spiral/spiral user2; echo
echo "" is the empty password for user2. The last echo places a newline between Password: and your next command prompt.

splitwindows resets the resolution of both clients.
Spiral Knights allows setting windowed/fullscreen mode. It should be windowed to play two clients. It also has some preset resolutions up to your screen size. If you have a normal-sized monitor, and don't have two monitors, you'll probably have to use a window size smaller than double the smallest size allowed by the client. A custom size can be set by changing ~/.java/.userPrefs/projectx/prefs.xml
This breaks things like (the left side of) the auction house and missions menus, because they go off the edge of the window. If I want to go back a few missions, or buy something at auction, I change the window size, do that, then quit my client, change the file, and start it up again.
This could be a request for a feature to change the window size to a custom resolution in-client without restarting with the warning that a size smaller than the smallest default may make certain menus unusable.
My screen resolution is 1440x900. I divide the screen in half so the clients are on the left and right which matches up with where my input devices are. Your windowmanager will add a few pixels for the window border and titlebar. Mine, KDE 4.40.5, adds 8x25 pixels to any window.
I have my taskbar set to - click on the rightmost icon (Panel Tool Box), More Settings, - Windows can cover. This lets me use the full vertical resolution of my screen for the game clients.
So divide your screen in half (720x900) and subtract the window decorations (712x875). Replace the following resolutions and users with your own.
/home/user1/splitwindows:
#!/bin/sh sed -i 's-.*fullscreen.*- <entry key="fullscreen" value="false"/>-' /home/user1/.java/.userPrefs/projectx/prefs.xml sed -i 's-.*display_mode.*- <entry key="display_mode" value="712, 875, 0, 0"/>-' /home/user1/.java/.userPrefs/projectx/prefs.xml sed -i 's-.*fullscreen.*- <entry key="fullscreen" value="false"/>-' /home/user2/.java/.userPrefs/projectx/prefs.xml sed -i 's-.*display_mode.*- <entry key="display_mode" value="712, 875, 0, 0"/>-' /home/user2/.java/.userPrefs/projectx/prefs.xml

KDE also has a way to force a window with a specific title "Spiral Knights - Character1" to be in a certain position on the screen (click on the leftmost button on the titlebar, More Actions, Special Window Settings, Size and Position), but I haven't set this up because I change the window size to use the auction house, so it isn't always splitscreen. Forcing the resolution doesn't work, the client will just draw græy on any pixels it doesn't think it has.

dualbox resets the resolution, then starts both clients.
/home/user1/dualbox:
#!/bin/sh ./splitwindows ./spiral ./spiral2

To make this all work, you'll need some way to keep both clients in focus so they both receive input. I have no idea how to do this on windows.
Plug in a second mouse, and optionally, a second keyboard. You can also go full-keyboard if you want two bombers, or intend on moving and aiming at the same time one-handed with a swordsman or gunner.
I'm using the xinput command to create a second mouse pointer.

xinput list with one mouse pointer:
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)] ⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)] ⎜ ↳ Microsoft Microsoft 5-Button Mouse with IntelliEye(TM) id=8 [slave pointer (2)] ⎜ ↳ Logitech M+ Mouse id=12 [slave pointer (2)] ⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)] ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Power Button id=7 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Logitech USB Keyboard id=9 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Logitech USB Keyboard id=10 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]

xinput list with two mouse pointers:
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)] ⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)] ⎜ ↳ Microsoft Microsoft 5-Button Mouse with IntelliEye(TM) id=8 [slave pointer (2)] ⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)] ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Power Button id=7 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ Logitech USB Keyboard id=9 [slave keyboard (3)] ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=11 [slave keyboard (3)] ⎡ Auxiliary pointer id=13 [master pointer (14)] ⎜ ↳ Logitech M+ Mouse id=12 [slave pointer (13)] ⎜ ↳ Auxiliary XTEST pointer id=15 [slave pointer (13)] ⎣ Auxiliary keyboard id=14 [master keyboard (13)] ↳ Logitech USB Keyboard id=10 [slave keyboard (14)] ↳ Auxiliary XTEST keyboard id=16 [slave keyboard (14)]

Please don't collapse spaces within tags.

This script never seems to work exactly right with all the ways I mess with my keyboard, so I removed some lines for you.
/home/user1/bin/mice:
#!/bin/bash two=`xinput list | grep "Auxiliary keyboard"` #one to two or two to one xinput remove-master "Auxiliary pointer" 2> /dev/null #remove duplicates without error if [ -z $two ] then xinput create-master Auxiliary #second mouse pointer xinput reattach "Logitech M+ Mouse" "Auxiliary pointer" #second mouse xinput reattach 10 "Auxiliary keyboard" #second keyboard else xinput reattach "Logitech M+ Mouse" "Virtual core pointer" xinput reattach 10 "Virtual core keyboard" fi xinput list
The second keyboard is referenced by id because they both have the same name.

To play:
As user1
cd /home/user1/spiral
mice
./dualbox
Move the first user/account/character's window to the right, and the second to the left.
use the main mouse and main keyboard to log into both accounts in both clients
start a mission with your second character (because that one most likely has to catch up to the level of the first character)
Join your second character with your first character
Click on the right window (the joystick gunner) with the second mouse to focus it to allow joystick input to that window.
Click on the left window (the keyboard bomber) with the first mouse to focus it to allow keyboard input to that window.
You can now control your first character with joystick separately and simultaneously with controlling your second character with keyboard.

v-- /me looks forward to the rest of this thread --v

Wed, 02/19/2014 - 18:35

Hyper-Galactic

Congrats on letting the GMs know you have a good possibility of keyboard macro'ing lockdown.

Wed, 02/19/2014 - 19:20

Khonkhortisan

I don't use macros and I don't play in the coliseum :)

Though I have an idea how I'd create a macro for a game that didn't support it, if I ever needed one.
Lockdown is a team pvp. When you join, you're automatically assigned a team. I already know I can't fight myself. And if I'm on the same team as myself, my two dualboxed characters aren't worth two full characters played by two people. I'd be doing a disservice to my team.
I do play ctf seriously in another game (BZFlag's GU League), though I'm the worst two tanks if I dualbox in that game.

Wed, 02/19/2014 - 19:30

Vesperaldus

Is dualboxing the same thing

Is dualboxing the same thing as multiboxing? Cause I'm pretty sure that multiboxing is a bannable thing...
I dunno what multiboxing even is. O.o

Wed, 02/19/2014 - 21:09

Klipik-Forum

I believe it is allowed.

Giant wall of text :o only read the first few paragraphs, but I get the general idea. I would need two brains to do that.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SK Terms of Service:

6. Restrictions

You agree not to do any of the following prohibited actions:

-reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, translate, modify, adapt, create derivative works from, deconstruct, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble in any manner Spiral Knights or any portion thereof, including but not limited to any character, graphic, associated software or proprietary communications protocol used by the software or any utilities, applications, emulators or tools derived therefrom;

-permit any other person (including but not limited to a former member whose account Three Rings has terminated) to access Spiral Knights, or create or provide any other means through which the Games may be played by anyone besides you (e.g., through server emulators);
upload, post, email or otherwise transmit through Spiral Knights any material that (i) is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable; (ii) you do not have a right to transmit under any law or contractual or fiduciary relationship (e.g., inside information, proprietary information from an employer or confidential information subject to a nondisclosure agreement); (iii) infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other party's proprietary rights; (iv) is unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional material, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation; or (v) contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;

-harm minors in any way;

-impersonate another user or administrator;

-forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any materials you or another party transmit through Spiral Knights;

-disrupt the normal flow of dialogue, cause a screen to "scroll" faster than other members of the Services are able to type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other members' ability to engage in real time exchanges;
-interfere with or disrupt the Services or servers or networks connected to the Services, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Services;

-intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including, but not limited to, regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, any rules of any national or other securities exchange, including, without limitation, the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ, and any regulations having the force of law;

-"stalk" or otherwise harass another; or

-collect or store personal data about another member without the express permission of such member.

-reveal personal data about another member--including but not limited to personally identifiable information about the member, administrative role of the member within a game, and information about game characters associated with the member--without the express permission of such member.

-modify any files or use any game hacking/altering/cheating software or tools, including scripting or macroing software, or attempt to disassemble the game client and/or decipher the data transmissions between Spiral Knights' client and server. These activities will result in immediate termination of the Player's Account and may subject you to civil and/or criminal liability.

-engage in any behavior that is contrary to the 'spirit of the game' as defined by Three Rings in its sole discretion. This includes the manipulation of the game environment.

-play Spiral Knights on any server or service that is not provided or authorized by Three Rings.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

^None of those things say anything about multiboxing. Hey, my knight got a bug where it couldn't move in the ATH and I sent a support request. Coriolis was standing right next to me while I was talking to him through my multiboxed alt.

Wed, 02/19/2014 - 21:33

Khonkhortisan

Sleepy-Hollows: When most

Sleepy-Hollows:
When most people hear the term multiboxing, they think of someone controlling many characters with a single set of controls (press forward and they all move). I'm using the term "dualboxing" to mean multiboxing with two characters, and trying to imply that I'm controlling them separately (because I'm a dual-armed person).

Klipik-Forum:
One thing I see in those restrictions that may apply to me is to modify any files, when I'm setting a non-standard window resolution while the client is not running.
Another is the opinion of what is 'spirit of the game' behaviour, which I wish to do.

I may be wrong about whether what I call "mobbing" is allowed.

Here's a way to test whether you are mentally capable of dual-boxing.
http://www.addictinggames.com/action-games/fireboyandwatergirl.jsp
Go through the first level, moving one character at a time, with your left hand on awd and your right hand on <^>.
Then go through again, on the next level or same level, trying to keep both characters in motion.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 00:20

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!

Wow, this is cool! As a Linux user, I never knew about a lot of this stuff!

But there is one thing which I'm not sure if you're aware of...I've been using KDE3, and I can get rid of the window decorations. (Titlebar, buttons at the top right, etc.) I don't think you can do it in KDE4 (For no good reason...), but I'm not very familiar with 4, so...

While I don't have the guts to try anything like this, it seems like a nice challenge.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 12:21

Fehzor

That's a pretty neat way to play the game! You should post videos of this.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 12:27

Whimsicality

Imagine controlling two (retro) Shard Bombers at once...

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 13:05

Khonkhortisan

Ah. That recovers a few pixels. I think I'll do that.

So back to the instructions:
Divide your screen exactly in half this time (720x900 for a 1440x900 screen) without subtracting the window borders
Write that into /home/users1and2/.java/.userPrefs/projectx/prefs.xml or the /home/user1/spiral/splitwindows script (and run it)
Start both clients
Move the top-left corrner of the left window to the top-left corner of the screen (it'll go slightly over the middle of the screen, and off the bottom)
Press Alt-F3 (or left click on the first icon on the titlebar, or right click in the middle of the titlebar), More Actions, no border. It'll take up the left side of the screen exactly.
You'll get a popup about pressing Alt-F3 to get the window menu back to get the border back.
Now move the top-left corner of the right window to the center of the top of the screen (next to the other window, you should have window snapping). It'll go off the right side of the screen, and off the bottom too.
and set it no-border as well.
Alt-left click will move an already-borderless window.

It's so pretty!

http://flic.kr/p/khR8vF
http://flic.kr/p/khRLaF
(I removed my account names from the picture because I'm sure "they" don't want me sharing any part of my login info. Sorry for the screen tearing in the first screenshot.)

Now an attempt to keep it this way:
When it starts up, it has a window title of Spiral Knights or Spiral Knights <2>. When you log in, it has a window title of Spiral Knights - Firstcharactername or Spiral Knights - Secondcharactername.
What I tried was Alt-F3, More Actions, Special Window Settings..., Window Matching: Window title: [ Exact Match ] Spiral Knights - Secondcharactername, Size & Position: Position [ Force v ] 0,0 , Appearance & Fixes: No titlebar and frame [ Force ] Yes.
No titlebar and frame is another name for no border.
It'll work if I press Apply in Configure Desktop, Window Behavior, Window Rules, but not on its own.
I think it's not working because it creates the window with a title I don't know (maybe blank), then changes it to Spiral Knights (then to Spiral Knights - charactername), and kde doesn't catch anything other than initial window title (and spiral knights has no special window class or type, just title).

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 15:00

#10

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!

Doah, I forgot to say what I did to achieve a borderless window. While you have seemed to get it working pretty well, I want to say that I was able to get it automatic by simply setting "Spiral Knights", and it keeps the borderless window even after I log in. I assume that you could just set "Spiral Knights <2>" to have no border, as well.

Anyway, I can tell you that I am very bad at multitasking! (I tried the Fireboy/Watergirl game you linked to...I bombed it.) I may attempt it someday, though, so I'll bookmark this thread. So all I can say is...how do you do that? :P

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 17:59

#11

Klipik-Forum

Oh my god that game, I'm so bad at it ;-;

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 12:13

#12

Khonkhortisan

Ok, here's a dual video, pun intended.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1cuvvm_dualboxing-a-pinch-of-salt-in-s...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1cwhmf_dualboxing-royal-jelly-in-spira...
Sorry, no sound. I'm not running pulseaudio because another game becomes mute with it running, and restarting the alsa server doesn't stop the music in SK, so ssr doesn't have another source to record.
Recorded, masked, censored, and hosted with simplescreenrecorder, gimp, kdenlive, and dailymotion.

Sun, 03/09/2014 - 13:05

#13

Khonkhortisan

I still don't know how to blank a subject line

Someone told me there was a thread two years ago that said multiboxing wasn't allowed. So I looked up some threads to explain my actions to the next person that comes along.

Ah. I was right about the broadcasting thing. To each game their own multiboxing rules.
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/34506#comment-216567

I'll wait until I have some kind of newfangled foot controller before I even think of trying a swordsman at the same time. My two hands are already tied with two characters. If I lived in a sci-fi I'd just grow another arm.
This would be three characters on three free accounts, equivalent to three characters on one account - for the purposes of the limit of how many characters you can have without paying. http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/78323#comment-686297

http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/18745#comment-106498 "Its (sic) not like you can handle two games launched at once" lol

Also, http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/40036#comment-252613
I find this interesting. In the first video, the main character is only getting as many extra crowns as you'd get from a few extra enemies spawning because of a party of two.
The alt character is spending a revive after purposely being killed, and only getting the last room's worth of crowns (I think?) and then doesn't level.

So I'm somewhere in between "ineffective multiboxing" (alt-dragging) and "effective multiboxing" (broadcasting one set of controls to both).
Now I'm pretty sure that putting in the extra work to control both characters (and leveling them both) puts me well within the "spirit of the game" rule.
Besides, an admin would eventually comment here if there was something to disagree with, so this is my safety net.

If you wish to play the same way I am, and are on linux, the what-could-be-called-third-party xinput command keeps your separate input devices separate. It is not capable of "helping you play".
If you're on windows, you'll probably have to download multiboxing software, but be careful! This can put you in a grey area of the rules because such a software (isboxer, for example) is capable of helping you play (sending any button press to both windows), but we only have your word that you are only using its more basic features (such as toggling a mode where the left half of your keyboard goes to one window, and the right half of your keyboard goes to the other window)
I made the mistake of recommending multiboxing software to someone without explaining this to them, which is why the first someone I mentioned said the first thing I paraphrased them as saying (they were correct in doing so).

Sun, 03/09/2014 - 22:42

#14

Hexzyle

Multiboxing with three free accounts is permitted. (and up to an unlimited amount of paid accounts) Multiboxing means that you have multiple instances of Spiral Knights open on the computer and you switch between them to control each one. People used to do this to alt drag.

Anything more than this the GMs said that they would analyse on a case by case basis. However, the main thing you don't want to do is use some sort of computer assisted control scheme, like broadcasting one key press to more than one client, having a key press do more than just a single mapped action (macros) or having a character under automated control (botting)

What you are doing is not broadcasting a single key to multiple clients, but rather overcoming the need to alt-tab between clients. This is effectively the same as playing Spiral Knights from two completely separate computers. If you have the brain capacity to operate two computers at once, should you not be allowed to operate two characters at once? If a person had the ability to be in two places at once, I do not think that it would be illegal for them to operate two separate vehicles simultaneously (unless there was an issue with them having a reduced concentration while performing multiple actions, but that's a legal issue that would need to be studied by a doctor, similar to how people with bad eyesight or mental conditions are not allowed to operate machinery, not a "rights" issue)

I reiterate, computer-assisted play is not permitted due to it giving an unfair advantage over other players. But if your brain is already capable of assisting itself in this way, you've already got a biological advantage over players, there's very likely nothing wrong with setting up the game so that you can make the most out of your gift. If you were a crane operater with extra arms, your boss wouldn't say "no, don't touch any more than two knobs at once". You'd be allowed to use your own body to the best of your ability.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 14:00

#15

Khonkhortisan

Here's another test of brain capability

I feel that it accurately recreates the panic that I feel in places such as the northeast of the four rooms in the royal jelly mission.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/icylime/multitask I would consider a score of 120 to be passing.

Thu, 03/20/2014 - 01:18

#16

Khonkhortisan

Woohoo! More screen space!

xrandr is a command that can change your resolution, refresh rate, and when you have an extra-large resolution it can either pan or scale.
With the arguments
xrandr -output VGA-0 --scale 1.5x1.5
your screen will have 50% more pixels (to a side, not by area), all squished into the resolution of your monitor.

After calculating whether it would stretch more to fit 1024*2 into 1440, or 600*2 into 900, I went with one window on the bottom-right of my screen, the other on the top-right.

VGA-0 is the way my monitor is plugged into my computer, you may have a different connector.
> xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1440 x 900, maximum 16384 x 16384
DVI-I-0 disconnected primary (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VGA-0 connected 1440x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 410mm x 256mm
1440x900 59.9*+ 75.0
1280x1024 75.0 60.0
1280x960 60.0
1152x864 75.0
1024x768 75.0 70.1 60.0
800x600 75.0 72.2 60.3 56.2
640x480 75.0 72.8 59.9
DVI-I-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
> xrandr --output VGA-0 --scale 1.33333333333x1.33333333333
> xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1200, maximum 16384 x 16384
DVI-I-0 disconnected primary (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VGA-0 connected 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 410mm x 256mm
1440x900 59.9*+ 75.0
1280x1024 75.0 60.0
1280x960 60.0
1152x864 75.0
1024x768 75.0 70.1 60.0
800x600 75.0 72.2 60.3 56.2
640x480 75.0 72.8 59.9
DVI-I-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

I made some more bash scripts to change the size of the desktop, and disabled my split windows one, then turned it into a toggle.
~/spiral/screensize:
#!/bin/bash
if xrandr | grep "VGA-0 connected 1440x900"
then
xrandr --output VGA-0 --scale 1.33333333333x1.33333333333
else
xrandr --output VGA-0 --scale 1x1
fi

I have one or two 1024x600 windows on a 1920x1200 screen in a 1440x900 monitor.

Sun, 04/06/2014 - 15:19

#17

Khonkhortisan

Virtual Machine

This is a bad (slow-running, as it's virtualized) solution, but installing VirtualBox, getting a linux iso (Ubuntu, for example), and doing USB passthrough for your second physical keyboard and mouse works with the linux instructions above, where the guest xinput has access to a simulated mouse and keyboard for the first pointer, and the real ones for the second pointer.
I shall keep looking for a solution (that follows ToS with no extra features) for windows, and if I ever get access to one, a mac.

Sun, 04/06/2014 - 16:06

#18

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!

Keep in mind that modern Mac OS X versions ARE Linux, just with Mac's stuff on top. So it shouldn't be too hard to get what you've done to work on Mac OS X

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