Multi-boxing System Configuration & Softwares General FAQ

[Shanefpt]

Hi all, this is just a sort of general overview of some things you will probably want to do when multi-boxing Everquest. This is going to give an explanation of various things you can do to better configure your system to get the most out of the experience. People with slower computers that are capable of running a multi-box session will experience far greater results than people with hex-core processors, 16+GB of RAM, and 2+GB Graphics Cards. If you have that setup, you may find SOME of this useful but it is probably not for you. If you're computer strains to 3-box, it may be time to buy a new machine, but this is definately going to be a major help to you.

With that said [this may be long-winded but I plan to cover a lot of info] lets begin!

FIRST AND FOREMOST [I pray I have your attention]; whenever I suggest any form of .ini editing PLEASE save a back-up in case you do something wrong.

If you have any catastrophes, PM me, I will do my best to respond. If you need ini help I will give you my personal THF committed email via PM to send me the files and look them over for you, since it is easier sometimes to take 30 seconds to fix what it could take me hours to explain.

If you are not using SoF, Sod, or UF clients you may want to consider upgrading now. These clients handle multi-boxing much more fluidly than previous releases. They also offer a higher range of variable in game optimization that make them a much more desirable consideration.

Firstly, for all those running MQ2 that plan to write or edit macros, download this awesome freeware notepad.

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ Notepad++ has plugins and setting that help GREATLY with syntax and whatnot.

Secondly, I suggest against using any other MQ2 versions than the official MQ2 or MQEmu [specially created for use on EQEmu servers]. Since neither of these condone "Active Hacks" or "Exploiting."

If you use any form of active-hacks you are on your own. Active hacks [and most passive hacks for that matter] are a violation of this [and most any] servers rules. I refuse to run those [and associated builds] and therefore know nothing of them other than they are not cool. You will meet the mighty banhammer.

Lillu and the gang are cool enough to give us a boxing privilege here lets not ruin it being jerks. I also greatly suggest, for any system [boxing or not] but especially slower computers or anything running Windows Vista or 7, to download a version of IObit's GameBooster. Get the older release from Snapfish here:

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/gamebooster.html because it is freeware.

Do not download the current version [I mean you could] because it is a time limited trial shareware. Also the RAZER:Game Booster is no longer supported by IOBit and has been licensed to some 3rd party company no one knows.

IOBit GameBooster, being the only program of it's kind that I seen significant results. The rest I tried I seen little if any and some even worsened my gaming experience. This one works. Don't get the whole IObit suite either, it is unecessary.

GameBooster settings Tutorial:
Download and install of course. Setup the install how you like; I typically like my desktop clean of icons. This one has no crapware or toolbars I can't speak for others. Launch the program.

1. Opening splash page: You will see several games installed on your computer listed. I just dragged the bounding box over them all, right clicked, and deleted them first thing.

If you use the built in launcher, I can't help you because I don't.

2. You will see the buttons [ADD+] and [CONFIGURE]; click configure. It should look like what I am looking at on the office computer I am on right now. It will be divided into 4 sections with sliders:

a. Processes
b. Unnecessary Services
c. Non-Windows Services
d. Others

Right about now is the first time you are seeing how much unnecessary RAM cache you are committing to crap you don't use while playing EQ. Using common sense, eliminate them by checking them off.

[NOTE: If you don't know what it is don't touch it! Things like IExplorer are obvious, JavaUpdater, etc. Things like MFPSCDL.exe you may want to Google first.]

Basically, everything that is for media players, task schedulers, updates, office suites, faxing, Background Intelligent Transfer, Diagnostics, Link trafficking, telephony, themes, shell hardware detection, print spoolers, Adobe products, Ipad, Ipod, Itunes, Bonjour, etc... Kill em all!

[NOTE: remember, when you shut off this program and restart everything comes back from changes made here so play around with it.]

Finally, click [APPLY].

3. Next we will look at "Tweaks."

[NOTE: These are the actual shutting off of services like you would do in your Control Panel System Services. The only way to reverse changes made here will be to start your task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and go to services and change how they are handled back to "default." Just be careful and use your gray matter first before clicking EVERYTHING off.]

Click on the [TOOLS] button and click [TWEAKS].

Here I left everything checked but "Disable 8.3 Names on NTFS and Speed Up Disk Access," and "Disable Last Access for NTFS and Speed Up Disk Access." I guess if your system has horrible performance, you can mess with this. Basically if you don't know what it means you are safe this time. It is needed for a lot of reverse compatibility situations between Windows XP (or newer versions), ME/98 Windows, and Win95/MSDOS. The second "Last Access" is basically a read/write timestamp system in place in Windows. If you don't need accurate and up to date timestamps, this is fine, if you do a lot of work on your computer sending documents that could be used "legally" later, are an artist or musician and need timestamps for proof of original copy, a photographer or videographer... LEAVE IT ALONE!

If you are not in any above [or similar] professions, for general users/gamers this will release a pretty hefty chunk of resources by reducing read/write usage everytime a program is accessed. Less read/writes being handled faster system performance.
Finally, click [OPTIMIZE]

That's about it, click the [GAMEBOX] tab at the top and then [BOOST & LAUNCH] at the bottom center and you are now GameBoosted!

[Note, the process is only like this the first time, afterward your settings will be saved and automatic]

[MUCH more to come... afk a bit will edit this later]

[Shanefpt]

Okay, just got home from work and I am sitting down and enjoying some apple cinnamon oatmeal and a quesadilla with southern sweet tea. Don't ask. It's been a long day.

The next part of this quest is going to be identifying, do you have enough hard disk space to create a second copy of Everquest?

If your internal hard disk is smaller than 80GB [which is rare but not unheard of these days] the answer is probably not. However, if you have a larger hard disk, I suggest you delete some of that internet porn and make room for a second install of Everquest. the reason for this is a master/slave file affect. The original install, the master, will have all the normal play graphics and effects in tact. The second file, or slave file, will be the file you apply the following tweaks to. Also make sure you have enough room available to have about 15% of your hard disk empty at all times for read/write and caching. Further, if you have several hard disks you can play from, you can load an equal number of accounts from each additional install while only using slightly more resources at the cost of more used space.

Later I will discuss management of these multiple installs easily with WinEQ2.

Okay, so you now have 2 installs right? A Master-Everquest and a Slave-Everquest file?

We all on the same page here?

GLOBAL LOAD EDIT

Let's rock! In the Slave-EQ file [whatever you named it] find the file named "GlobalLoad.txt." Open this in Notepad++. Clear all the data in that file, just erase it all... go ahead. This will prevent your background instances of Everquest from loading many models, items, objects, and other custom textured graphics from loading.

Now in the GlobalLoad.txt type this:

3,1,TFFF,Global_chr,Loading Characters

Save and exit.

NO WRITE FOR DEBUG

Inside your directory you will find a folder called "Logs," open it up and find the "dbg.txt" file. This tweak is simple, right click on the file, click "Properties," then check "Read Only," then click "Apply," and then "OK." You are done. On to the next thing.

Prevent All Sounds from Loading

Everquest loads and caches a multitude of files. On slower machines the constant load and release of sound files from memory can cause a lot of drag on your computer. This will prevent EQ from loading any sounds into memory.

Open Notepad++ and create a new blank file, select "Save As" choose your "Slave-EQ" directory and save the file as "NOSOUND.txt" and now this instance of EQ will never again load any sound files upon login. This has a very different effect from simply turning the volume down in the in-game options. This completely prevents the load of all sound files.

Editing the Everquest Client

Open up your "eqclient.ini" in Notepad++ and enter the RED TEXT into the search [Ctrl+F] and alter the values in GREEN TEXT to match that below.

ServerFilter=1
MultiPassLighting=FALSE
ShowGrass=FALSE
AllLuclinPcModelsOff=TRUE
LoadVeliousArmorsWithLuclin=FALSE
Sound=FALSE
Music=0
EnvSounds=0
CombatMusic=FALSE
WaterSwap=0

Then you will manually add this line:

StickFigures=1

This will prevent all character models from loading and replace them with stick figures. These are actually the untextured 3d vector bones used to animate your 3d polygon graphics. This simply removes the rendering of the textured polygons and vastly increases game performance.

[NOTE: This will make augment birdbaths disappear, you can elect to load from your original install shortcut or create a separate WinEQ2 profile for each character to load from the separate installs to work around this, your choice. It is a small setback to pay for loads better performance and stability]

The Options Editor

Locate your "OptionsEditor.exe" and run it. Go through and uncheck all options except Texture Caching and Texture Compression

Congrats! You have completed the second stage of EQ Multi-client performance optimization!

Will add more later. Going to play for a little while need to help several folks get flagged for Xegony event. LATER!

[Shanefpt]

Reserved for the rest of the FAQ...

[Shanefpt]

Reserved for the rest of the FAQ... Just in case I need one more window since there will be A LOT of explanation coming. Hopefully, make this fool proof.

THINGS TO COME:

Everquest Client Tweaks that will greatly enhance boxing gameplay no matter how bad your computer sucks.

MQ2 Gameplay Enhancing Plugins & Functions: What to use what to avoid and why.

WinEQ2 Lite: Getting started properly for best overall performance.

Sneak Peek at KurzeBotBETA! [shameless self-promotion] - Maybe [unsure if it is time to reveal but will tease anyway] The mac that can handle a box like it's you playing the character actively with only 4 hotbuttons set in Main's UI.

Sorry just flexing my nerd a little.

[Safiya]

Some good tips in your posts. Thanks.

Can also check out http://ezserveronline.com/forums/index.php?topic=2988.0

My system is really a ghetto ass rig with only 4GB RAM but I can box a single group with minimal issues and up to 9 sometimes...until I zone into BoThunder for some reason. Not sure what the issue is with that, is that zone particularly resource intensive?

[bishbash]

Nice writeup, but I feel sick with all the colour changes

I would PM a GM to see if your allowed to post a full macro though. Fairly sure they don't mind snippets to help people with questions, but a full-blown macro might not be allowed. Wouldnt want you to get into trouble

You can allways just throw more resources at your PC rather than tweak performance, which is why I consider myself lazy. I run with no page file and 16gb ram. If my PC wants to start paging memory with 16gb of ram, I obviously need more ram.

On my machine, editing the settings took the ram use from 1.1gb to 0.5gb per instance. But it dont half look ugly looking at humans.

I also found it useful to have multiple shortcuts from the 1 installation directory. Simply adding /login:<loginaccountname> to the end of the shortcut after patchme will automatically bring you to the login screen with the ID for the toon.

Then you can have an EQ icon for each of your toons, all running from the directory. Which is a lot better than the old way I used to have it, which was 14 x copies of the EQ folder as I could never remember the login names for the toons. And it took up a stack of space.

"S:\SSDGAMES\Everquest\eqgame.exe" patchme /login:<loginname>

[Shanefpt]

My system is really a ghetto ass rig with only 4GB RAM but I can box a single group with minimal issues and up to 9 sometimes...until I zone into BoThunder for some reason. Not sure what the issue is with that, is that zone particularly resource intensive?

Bastion of Thunder has some issues if you are running an SoD+ Client. The reason is back in [geez what 2002-2003] when Live switched from the Titan-release Server boot to the new calculation modes in SoF-SoD-UF [which are pretty much the same client with different options enabled , good'ol SoE getting their money's worth lol!] they created a new instance of several zones and added/replaced things. The server here [and all Emu servers] is based on the released code for Titan-server, so newer clients have little bugs and glitches. Some zones are missing many file references, BoT is probably the worst in question.

[Shanefpt]

Nice writeup, but I feel sick with all the colour changes

I would PM a GM to see if your allowed to post a full macro though.

Thanks and don't plan to post anything here directly, also I have Lillu review things when I post. Have already made several edits as per his suggestions. I respect the admins here, they are good to us.

Sorry about the color thing, I can see where it could get annoying. Keep in mind many people like to skim. I did that so that people who skim don't miss important things. You don't back up the ini and go editing things and mess stuff up. Well, you know how that ends.

You can allways just throw more resources at your PC rather than tweak performance, which is why I consider myself lazy. I run with no page file and 16gb ram. If my PC wants to start paging memory with 16gb of ram, I obviously need more ram.

I understand this but I also have many friends that live in random places around the world, that do play here, and some can't really afford to just go buy new computers, processors, SSD drives, or huge RAM upgrades. As I stated in the beginning of the post, "if you have an SSD, Hex Core processor, or 16GB of RAM (etc etc)," this probably isn't for you. LOL!

I also found it useful to have multiple shortcuts from the 1 installation directory. Simply adding /login:<loginaccountname> to the end of the shortcut after patchme will automatically bring you to the login screen with the ID for the toon.

Then you can have an EQ icon for each of your toons, all running from the directory. Which is a lot better than the old way I used to have it, which was 14 x copies of the EQ folder as I could never remember the login names for the toons. And it took up a stack of space.

"S:\SSDGAMES\Everquest\eqgame.exe" patchme /login:<loginname>

That is a nice trick that I overlooked. By the end of the tutorial I plan to have an entry regarding the installation and setup of WinEQ2 and profiles in that, which places a quick launch ability for each toon in the WinEQ2 icon on your taskbar.

Also keep in mind, the tweaks are applied for your background running windows not your foreground running main.

Thanks for the feedback!

[moonrazor]

I would PM a GM to see if your allowed to post a full macro though.

I don't see a problem with a full macro of anything. As long as it doesn't rely on a loop command to auto run, it can't be considered an afk macro, thus not really against the rules. Although there are exceptions to this, group scanning macros that you can spam with a key press could be considered game breaking, etc.

Nice write up though. Informative, to the point, and this will work for most people on emu.

Keep up to good work!

[Linideen1]

GLOBAL LOAD EDIT

Let's rock! In the Slave-EQ file [whatever you named it] find the file named "GlobalLoad.txt." Open this in Notepad++. Clear all the data in that file, just erase it all... go ahead. This will prevent your background instances of Everquest from loading many models, items, objects, and other custom textured graphics from loading.

Now in the GlobalLoad.txt type this:

3,1,TFFF,Global_chr,Loading Characters

Save and exit.

So Iv been messing with this,

That works great on load times, Makes my bots zone almost instantly(i run 12, 4 on full Graphics, 8 on Bot graphics, 4 on full graphics zone in about 20 secs, Bots zone in about 2-3 Makes them EZ to Rez thx to Noren's Hotkey)

Problem A: Dose not Load DSK Statue in Guild Halll
Fix: 3,0,TFFFC,thfobj.eqg,Loading Characters
Problem B: There are no aug kits,
Fix:
3,1,TFFF,Global_chr,Loading Characters
1,1,TFFF,Global_obj,Loading Character Equipment Files
1,1,TFTF,GEquip,Loading Character Equipment Files