Is dual-boxing for Sacred 2 possible?

[losludvig 0]

I've searched high and low, but have found no mention of anyone running more than one sacred 2 client on one computer.

Since I have a spare cd-key, it would be nice to be able to use that extra storage space

I've tried running two clients, but the second one crashes silently just as it's about to enter the menu screen.

Haven't tried much to get it to work, except setting core affinities in the windows task manager, but since I have 0 experience in multiboxing, I could be missing the obvious.

Please advise...

[Chareos Rantras 0]

It is possible but run both in windowed mode and one of the 2 needs graphics on lowest and no physx on both, something like that;

 

Llama could do it so it IS possible..

 

 

cheers!

Chareos Rantras

[gogoblender 3,071]

I and a few others I know can run two on one comp. I've got an extra monitor, so I usually drop all my settings to lowest, and am able to keep it going.

 

 

gogo

[Chareos Rantras 0]

I've got an extra monitor

 

 

Dang I want one so bad!! Do you accept cookies for that monitor?

 

 

cheers!

Chareos Rantras

[Llama8 8]

You'll need a fairly beefy pc to run two copies of Sacred 2 at once, even with minimum gfx. I think the second one probably crashed because you're running it fullscreen? I can only get two to run at once if I'm running them windowed.

 

My pc specs: E8500 (~3.16 Ghz), 4 Gig of ram, 320meg 8800GTS, Win XP Home SP3 & plenty of virtual memory (since that's where the copy of Sacred 2 that you're not currently "using" will be sitting, unless you've got a 64bit OS & lots & lots of ram).

[Rotluchs 82]

got 3 accounts, 1 pc..

 

running them for multiple purpose, as followed:

 

 

single account:

• for any 'dangerous' tasks,
  
• boss hunting,
  
• party play etc..
  
• testing new difficulties once unlocked
  

 

dual account playing:

• for muling
  
• level-grinding...
  

 

playing with all 3 accounts:

• where my fps are quite ok to play fluently with 2 accs logged in, you can notice the rapid fps drop. still ok for:
  
• shopping (gettin better drops more often the more players are on same server)
  
• filling up servers playing 'passively' => chatting and letting others profit from the experience gain
  

 

 

environment/setup:

 

running windows 7 RC 64bit

all drivers/necessary software packs/redists up to date

1 windows account

2 hard disks (on 1st, system partition and a separate part with a Sacred 2 root/install folder copy - 2nd contains the original installation)

page file disabled

 

how I start up sacred when logging in with all 3 accounts:

2x from 2nd HD

1x from 1st HD

 

memory usage: with 2 accounts on isle, one trading : ~43-60%

cpu usage: ~80% avg

gfx gpu+memory usage: unsure, will add later (looking for a nice nvidia monitoring tool)

fps with 1 acc: to be filled in later

fps with 2 acc: -"-

fps with 3 acc: -"-

stability: for the last days, very good (some crashes on relogging/exiting the game)

 

 

system:

Pentium Dual Core ''Wolfdale'' 45nm (physically a Core2Duo with limited cache etc) E5200

8 Gig DDR2 800Mhz RAM

Geforce 260 896Mb Ram (old 65nm version)

Asus P5Q

Creative Audigy 2 ZS PCI

2x WD 640GB Blue 7200rpm sata

 

 

sacred settings:

no custom settings besides camera angle

texture qual: minimum

shadows: off

Render details: med

surface detail: very low

effects: med

grass: lowest

physx: off

res: 1440x900 windowed

AA: off

vsynx: on

 

music: off

speech: off

comments: never

listening pos: mixed

speaker#: 5.1

obstacles/obstructions: no

change vol on zoom: no

2D/3D: 100

player fx to center: no

openal: no

 

 

hope that helps a little

 

 

greetings RL

 

 

 

hint to start Sacred 2 up multiple times:

 

start first instance, wait for main screen.

start 2nd instance, wait and DO not get impatient alt-tabbing or else... wait for 2nd instances main screen as well..

now u should able to switch them via alt-tabbing or choosing from task bar

same procedure for logging on servers, starting session and leaving them: always complete procedure for one instance at a time, dont do both simultaneusly if you do (at least if I do) you may crash far more often

Edited June 14, 2009 by Rotluchs

[Llama8 8]

playing with all 3 accounts:

shopping (gettin better drops more often the more players are on same server)

That's interesting, has it been confirmed?

[Rotluchs 82]

playing with all 3 accounts:

shopping (gettin better drops more often the more players are on same server)

That's interesting, has it been confirmed?

 

 

I dont know.. I also might just gotten crazy and my mind is playing tricks on me after shopping in niob @ same charlvl for almost as long as leveling up from 1 to 200..

 

 

but feel free to test for yourself, or ask around.. you may as well start a small extra topic (or add to existing ones) about stuff related to bargaining & personal player experience ...

 

 

heck, I feel like asking if it was possible to get a full niobium 16player server, with an empty isle + outpost so we could do some checks

 

 

to my experience I got more +30 all skill amulets more often if there were other players ingame, as well as the weapons with max sockets and nice stats.

(alone, it was only +27 most of the time for double bonus all skill amus, or eg. only +15 on rings instead max 16)

 

 

I bet at least chrona would be up for this, few others too..

Edited June 14, 2009 by Rotluchs

[gogoblender 3,071]

Interesting

So you're making conjecture...more players on server means better shopping... to have this boiled down?

 

 

gogo

[Knuckles 904]

You know, now that you mention this, I had the same feeling when shopping in S1. I always seemed to find more of what I was looking for quicker when a few people were in server vice me being alone. Thought it was just me or coincidence but now I wonder if there's something to this. Haven't really shopped much in Sacred 2 but you're describing the exact same thing I noticed in S1

[Llama8 8]

So you're making conjecture...more players on server means better shopping... to have this boiled down?

 

Yup. It definitely helps with MF/drops from monsters, but shopping? *shrugs*

[Katran 0]

The more people on server the better the stuff you get. This is for sure and its not just one or two people saying it. Go in niob this days you will find tons of people fighting on a single server for better shopping spots. And it works two ways you get better stats and you see gear that you didnt see before(when you where alone)

[Rotluchs 82]

IMPORTANT INFO FOR WAY BETTER FPS PERFORMANCE WITH MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS LOGGED IN ON SAME PC:

 

in addition to the info above:

 

dont forget to set the -nocpubinding parameter for your sacred 2 desktop shortcut(s) , it really helps a lot..

 

had forgotten it when I was writing my post above, just remembered it now, and it gives a drastically fps increase trying out 6 accounts simultaneously atm.. user inputs from keyboard now lag more than before, but still... lets see...

 

 

tbc

[Rotluchs 82]

http://forum.sacredeng.ascaron-net.com/sho...ght=multiboxing

Hi all,

 

recently I managed to get my hands on 2 copies of the en_UK version of Sacred 2, ending up @ 4+ copies in total (ger collectors edition,normal ger version,UK version..)

 

 

also, some time ago I upgraded my machine,

utilizing the power of an Intel C2Q Q9550 as replacement for my old Pentium Dual-Core E5200 (awesome, for this low price&OC potential)

 

rest of my hardware is still the same, 1x Nvidia GTX 260 and 8Gig Ram , paired with 2xSATA HDD raid0 and 2xSata HDD single drives (maybe ill grab my first SSD soon, but tend to wait a little longer..)

 

 

Ok.. now that I remembered how important the -nocpubinding parameter is when launching Sacred 2 multiple times I was amazed by the flawless performance with 6! instances running @ same time with higher FPS and less stuttering then before with just 3x Sacred 2...

 

but besides giving my main and my buddies some add passive experience boost on empty hc niob servers, I havent tried out anything yet:

 

few days ago, I stumbled across some interesting multi-boxing articles related to WoW by accident..

 

Starting to wonder how you all think about multiboxing in MP games in general and Sacred 2 in particular.. ?

1. Is it prohibited by Ascaron's EULA or somewhere else ? (first thought-doubt it if no game files are altered? but who knows..)
   
2. Is it supported in the game's code/design already? (built in macro / script support , and if it is possible somehow, are there any known 'default' macros/scripts one could use)
   
3. How does 'Ascaron' think about multi boxing in general + their own games in particular (like/dislike and possible/not possible to implement in Sacred 2 with future patches/addon(s) )
   
4. What are the 'MP community' thoughts regarding this matter?
   
5. Has anyone of you tried it in other games / Sacred 2 already ?
   
6. Anyone of you already tried extended macros / scripts for a single instance of the game or while 'multi boxing' Sacred 2 ? (with the help of Keyclone or Autohotkey for instance)
   
7. Any other software-tools that might be useful for multi-boxing in Sacred 2 ?
   
8. Currently in Sacred 2 v2.43 what multi boxing goals do you know/think are or aren't possible to realise ?
   

 

 

waiting for your input,

 

Cheers RL

1) I've not read it, but I doubt it mentions it (though I could be wrong). After all, the only way to do this is to buy multiple copies.

2) Probably not explicitly, no. I've noticed that Sacred 2 doesn't want to do it fullscreen (though windowed is fine).

5) Yup (only Sacred 2 though).

 

Okay, well I was thinking to start a new thread since it should be clear now that multi instancing is possible, however I'm searching for a way that allows for better multi boxing, meaning I'd like to do more than just filling up servers for better experience or trading with my own accounts

 

here's the character-setup I was thinking of, up to that point its clear:

 

either some veiled shadow warriors with 4 buffed skeletons each, or energy shields using temple guardians - Area of Effect (charged grid+fiery/icy ember)..

 

 

I only got one PC/mouse/keyboard/monitor at the moment,

so I will end up in trying to send inputs from 1 mouse/1 keyboard to all/specific exe instances/accounts (for the start, I'll use 2-3, later 5-6)

 

meaning I will have to use tools like

 

http://www.autohotkey.com/

and/or

http://www.solidice.com/keyclone/

or

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

or

http://www.lavishsoft.com/joomla/index.php...=2&Itemid=2

or

http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/I...Boxer#Downloads

 

..these tools I found on this wow related multi-boxer forum:

 

http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums.php

 

other infos about multi-boxing:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-boxing

 

http://www.wowwiki.com/Multiboxing

 

>>>>omg.. look at THIS, thats SICK ^^<<<<

 

since I see no way (do any of you?) of making a useful macro that would allow alts to follow up the main in sacred 2 (and I cant just send the mouseinput to all exe's, chars would be stuck somewhere in ancaria after few seconds) , only thing I could imagine to make the others port over to the main as fast/often and make their combat arts/buffs beeing triggered/activated after x seconds or on keyboard-input..

 

but, how? now that's where its getting difficult..

 

 

Greetings RL

Edited March 28, 2010 by Rotluchs

[Rotluchs 82]

*bump*

 

got back to Sacred 2 few months ago, and now I'm trying to work on this idea again..

 

 

I'm no scripter texter progger modder.. I'm interested in this but it's 'dark matter' to me, so I still suck.

 

here's an *.ahk script I made after reading the manual for it, first attempt ever in such things.. heck nah, proud of it anyways, even tho it might be flawed

 

it's messed up, but it works, sort of..

 

what it does ?

 

it eases up rune-reading a bit, after I swapped tons of them for builds like my new Area of Effect Temple Guardian...

 

~<^>!RButton::
Loop
{
Sleep 1; This is the delay between clicks, in milliseconds.
GetKeyState, RButtonState, RButton, P
if RButtonState = U; User has physically released the button, so end the loop.
	break
MouseClick, Right
}
return

Edited March 28, 2010 by Rotluchs

[AbissalD 0]

how do you play with 5 accounts at once ? whenever I start to start a second game , it closes the first one automaticly

Edited June 13, 2010 by gogoblender
split off from other topic - this is good topic of it's own :)

[Dragon Brother 619]

Are you trying multiple accounts on LAN on the same machine or over the internet via closed or open net? For open/closed you need two different multiplayer accounts and for LAN...I dont know if you can do it with LAN, never tried it.

[AbissalD 0]

I want to try with lan , but I can't even run the game twice because if I try to start a second game after I minimize the first one , it closes the minimized one.

[Dragon Brother 619]

Are you running them in windowed mode? That helps with multiple instances of the application being open.

[locolagarto 15]

Are you running them in windowed mode? That helps with multiple instances of the application being open.

 

It is almost unusable in LAN as one game save will most likely overwrite the other upon exit.(I have tried several times and the saves are troublesome) I have never tried it in full screen, only windowed.

[Dragon Brother 619]

Are you running them in windowed mode? That helps with multiple instances of the application being open.

 

It is almost unusable in LAN as one game save will most likely overwrite the other upon exit.(I have tried several times and the saves are troublesome) I have never tried it in full screen, only windowed.

 

I thought it would be tough to get workin in LAN.

[Rotluchs 82]

Is dual-boxing possible? - DarkMatters (FDM):

 

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=10883

 

I gave up the whole project shortly after it's resurrection early this year, due to several reasons..

 

1.) there didnt seem to be much activity/interest in general regarding this matter+sacred2 ..

2.) tried several of the tools mentioned for a very short time, wasn't able to make much progress

3.) it might be a problem (for the above mentioned tools) that there's the s2gs.exe running as well, it might intercept/interfere with keyboard commands/send key requests

4.) I felt pretty much lost, didnt find anyone else that ever tried to successfully multibox Sacred 2 (do more simultaneously than just alt-tabbing between instances)

5.) haven't contacted the person responsible for Hotkey.Net development yet, normal faq wasnt enough resource to find out why it didnt worked.. (neither did octopus or keyclone)

 

best I could do was send L-Mouse click 'once' for a single action, followed by corresponding activity on both chars, followed by gfx glitch/artifacts.. wasn't able to repro the action, never worked again since then.

6.) I suck, me can't script. (yet)