How many EQ toons can you run on one computer and if more than 4 what do you use? I am having issues trying to get more than 4 to load, hehe.
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How many can you run?
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- Start date
JimJohnson
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Back when OOW just came out I loaded 12 on a pc but couldnt do anything.
You need to tweak virtual Memory settings.
Not sure if it works for PCI cards but with AGP you can adjust some bios settings
You need to tweak virtual Memory settings.
Not sure if it works for PCI cards but with AGP you can adjust some bios settings
I regularly box 8 on my pc but it's got windows xp 64 and 8gb of ram. It doesn't use virtual memory so it doesn't bog down in that respect. My other two pcs I can run up to 4 on each but they are windows xp 32 bit with 4gb of ram each. EQ is extremely memory hungry and uses up to around 560mb of ram per eq session so you have to have at least that much free depending on how many sessions you run. Also have to have a decent video card when you're running a lot.
eqisdead
eqisdead
drop the graphics options
900 mhz
64 mb vid card
512 ram
1 toon , teamspeak
900 mhz
64 mb vid card
512 ram
2 toons
2.7 gig
512 pcie vid card
1 gig ram
5 toons
1.8 gig
512 pcie vid card
1 gig ram
4 toons
twin 3 gig's
512 pcie vid card
2 gig ram
13 toons
remove all skins and models including horses and elementals
can also adjust yor virtual memory size
900 mhz
64 mb vid card
512 ram
1 toon , teamspeak
900 mhz
64 mb vid card
512 ram
2 toons
2.7 gig
512 pcie vid card
1 gig ram
5 toons
1.8 gig
512 pcie vid card
1 gig ram
4 toons
twin 3 gig's
512 pcie vid card
2 gig ram
13 toons
remove all skins and models including horses and elementals
can also adjust yor virtual memory size
On my old computer I had 2 gigs ram, 256k meg vid card, and could run 3 toons. My new one has 4 gigs ram, 512 meg vid card and core2duo. I was hopin to run 6 of them since i doubled everything, hehe.
Intel 6600 core2 duo
Abit AB9 Pro MB
4 Gb OCZ ddr2 800 ram
Radeon X1650 Pro PCIE 512 mb
2 500 gig wd hard drives in raid striping mode
Intel 6600 core2 duo
Abit AB9 Pro MB
4 Gb OCZ ddr2 800 ram
Radeon X1650 Pro PCIE 512 mb
2 500 gig wd hard drives in raid striping mode
n00bsgoboom
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AMD 64 3700+
3.25 GB of RAM, have 4 GB but I only have the non 64 bit version of XP so I can't get all 4 GB of my RAM.
Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT(256 MB)
I regularly run up to 8 toons at 1200x900 resolution, I play at that resolution because I'm too use to it =/. 8 is the max for me at my current settings, if I try to load a 9th I get a "Not enough video memory" error from WinEQ.
3.25 GB of RAM, have 4 GB but I only have the non 64 bit version of XP so I can't get all 4 GB of my RAM.
Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT(256 MB)
I regularly run up to 8 toons at 1200x900 resolution, I play at that resolution because I'm too use to it =/. 8 is the max for me at my current settings, if I try to load a 9th I get a "Not enough video memory" error from WinEQ.
Here's quite a bit of changes off the top of my fingers...
Effectively with no lag:
4 @ 1024x768
5 @ 800x600
8 @ 640x480
Up to (with 5-10 sec delay in alt tabbing)
7 @ 1024x768
12 @ 800x600
18 @ 640x480
------
Recommendations:
-Swap space/Virtual Memory
Install a second hard drive with small storage space 80gig is good and access time 8ms or less. Create a partition around 2100 size on the second hard drive, and try not to use the additional partition's space for anything else but storage of files you do not access often.
Disable paging file on your C (EQ) drive.
Enable 2048 paging on the second hard drive, min 2048, max 2048 (creating a paging file with a range such as 1024min 2048max can and will cause fragmentation of your paging file tks windows, causing slower access times, there is no valid reason to have a range for normal PC use)
-WinEQ2 with EQPlayNice
This is pretty much mandatory, if you pay for the subscription it allows you to set the Rendering Limit which is key for no lag. Without subscription it still will help more than trying to just load multiple copies of EQ since EQ attempts to gain as much CPU resources as possible, any background EQ sessions not controlled via WinEQ will suffer immensely. Set your CPU/FPS limiting to CPU for the fg and fps for the bg. fg should be around 30-40, bg should be 5-15. for your fg rendering limit should be x-1 out of x and a range of 40 will work will but you'll notice a slight flickering, for less flicking use 100. bg use 1 out of 5 or 1 out of 10.
-Windows Resolution, Display Properties and Desktop
The lower you set your Windows Resolution, the more amount of memory EQ can draw from. Also take note that any images used as wallpaper reserve system memory to exist, and in the event you alt tab and it needs to be redrawn, the desktop itself will eat CPU time and switch from paged memory to active memory, slowing you down. Best performance will result in having only a windows system color (looks ugly but worth it). The same can be said for ICONS on the desktop, put everything you need on your start menu and have your desktop empty. Right click desktop, pick properties, select the desktop tab, click customize desktop, uncheck all icons at the top and you'll have nothing but the recycle bin. use TweakUI or google 'edit windows xp registry remove recycle bin' to remove the recycle bin altogether.
While you are in there uncheck run desktop cleanup wizard and you won't have task scheduler using resources (minimal but every drop in the bucket counts)
While you are in Display properties also click Appearance tab and then the Effects button, uncheck both of the first "use transition" option, uncheck the second "smooth screen fonts", uncheck "show shadows under menus", uncheck "show window contents while dragging", uncheck "hide navigation key until" option, and click Ok.
-My Computer options
Right click my computer and select properties
Click Advanced tab
Click "Settings" under "Performance"
Select "Adjust for best performance"
This will disable Windows Themes and other graphic intensive features of Windows XP that reserve system memory and eat CPU time every time they are accessed
Click Ok and then click Remote tab
Uncheck allow remote invitations to be sent from my computer
If using Media center/pro uncheck allow users to connect remotely unless you have a reason to use RDC in which case you probably don't need these suggestions as a whole
If you never use system restore, I highly suggest disabling it as a whole. Some casual users live by this so in these cases leave it, but most folks learn 1. they store copies of virus/spyware/malware and are a depot for maliciousness 2. system restore really isn't going to fix your problem for you in any case
-Registry
Start->run->type regedit and click ok/press enter
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then SOFTWARE then MICROSOFT then WINDOWS then CURRENT VERSION then RUN
(after doing run also do RunOnce and RunServices)
If you have no idea what should be running, look for anything suspicious like "qttask.exe", and "sunjavaupdsch.exe", which run in the background and check for updates for Quicktime and Java at their leisure. Anything you don't know, you can google the exact filename.exe and it will tell you what it does. Use caution here if you are not confident.
This will remove any programs starting without your knowledge eating CPU time and system mem
-Services
Start->run->type services.msc and click ok/press enter
If you have a router / don't use Windows Firewall, right click Application Layer Gateway Service and select Properties. From the dropdown box choose disable and click Ok. Depending on what's running at this time you'll see a progress bar telling you its stopping the service, just wait for it to do its thing. Follow this procedure for:
If you don't care about Windows Update, "Automatic Updates"
If you don't use Windows Messenger, "Messenger"
If you are the only person who uses your computer, "Fast User Switching Compatability"
If you never pick "Help and Support" from the Start menu, "Help and Support"
If you don't care if windows warns you about not having antivirus, "Security Center"
If you aren't adding new Network equipment any time soon, "SSDP Discovery Service"
then click OK
-gpedit.msc
There's so many options here I don't want to go over them, but if you load this up and go into the options under Administrator templates, there are hundreds of options that can disable common features that eat resources by using security policies
-EQ settings
load up EQ (if you have WinEQ2 now, load it with WinEQ2) and pick Options before logging in. Only have ONE copy of EQ open before doing this
Deselect-All for models and click next
Uncheck sound (big difference here if you play silent, f eq's sounds mp3 ftw)
uncheck social animations - will gain large amount of RAM
set your resolution - as low as you can tolerate
disable mip mapping
disable dynamic lightning
texture quality = low
uncheck texture caching
uncheck texture compression (no longer functioning correctly)
click finish
Now exit out of the game all the way and reopen the session, log into game
-EQ ingame settings
The sad news is - this will need to be done for every character you plan on boxing, but its a one time hit if you use the same few characters on consistant basis
Get in game on the character
Always use default UI or a custom UI that does not use any custom tga, or preferrably stripped tga that are even less quality than EQ's (its possible!)
Type /showgrass off
Type /showspell off
Hit Alt + O to open options
If they arent, slide all sound sliders to the left = 0%
Click on Display
If you want: Unclick Show PC names (very little gain but noticeable when around many players / raid)
If you want: Unclick Show NPC names (very little gain but noticeable when around large amounts of NPCs, good to do on any toon that is being macro'd for heals or something that you don't need to see)
Uncheck Level of Detail
Uncheck Show My Helm
Slide Fade Delay all the way to the left (0.0)
Slide Fade Duration all the way to the left (0.5)
**Transparency is HUGE. This can make or break your multiboxing
Transparency will default to 100 with fade to defaulting to 50
The kicker is not all windows default to 100 even though the slider says so.
So pick the transparency you like and slide both sliders to the exact same percent. This will NULLIFY window fading, which is a primary source of CPU time lagging out multiboxing. If you prefer 100, you need to slide the top Transparency (which will already be at 100) down to a value lower such as 90 and let go of the slider, and then wait a second and slide it back to 100, this will correct the windows that do not default to 100.
You can have different transparency values for different windows on your screen at the same time, the crucial factor is that the Normal Level and Faded Level for the window is THE SAME. Having any sort of fading, even if they are 1% different, will screw you up. But having a window of 100/100 for your health and then having your chat 70/70 is fine.
Of note: any additional chat windows you create will still default to 70/50 or so, so be sure to reset the values to the same whereever you want them.
Max frames per second you can keep low, if you keep it at 100 wineq will still limit it below what eq will try to limit, but the lower the limit in EQ initially, the better
LOD Bias -- VERY LOW / all the way to the left
Disable all three tabs worth of particle effects, meaning set them all to:
Near clip - Near
Density - OFF
On for - MY SPELLS(Spell) / ME(Player)
Opacity - 0%
***Set opacity slider all the way to the left for all three
Far clip plane - The lower the better
Gamma - does not matter
Sky Type - OFF = least amount of memory
Load Screen = NONE - no memory used for loading image during zone time
Now click the advanced button
Uncheck ALL checkboxes on the right and CHECK Disable Tatoos
Shadow clip plane - all the way to the left / off
actor clip plane - slightly left of the middle for your primary character (30-40% ish), all the way to the left (5% ish) for any bots that are on autofollow all the time
Dynamic Sky Size = Tiny (32)
Sky reflection Update = Once Per Minute
Terrain Texture Quality = Minimum
Effectively with no lag:
4 @ 1024x768
5 @ 800x600
8 @ 640x480
Up to (with 5-10 sec delay in alt tabbing)
7 @ 1024x768
12 @ 800x600
18 @ 640x480
------
Recommendations:
-Swap space/Virtual Memory
Install a second hard drive with small storage space 80gig is good and access time 8ms or less. Create a partition around 2100 size on the second hard drive, and try not to use the additional partition's space for anything else but storage of files you do not access often.
Disable paging file on your C (EQ) drive.
Enable 2048 paging on the second hard drive, min 2048, max 2048 (creating a paging file with a range such as 1024min 2048max can and will cause fragmentation of your paging file tks windows, causing slower access times, there is no valid reason to have a range for normal PC use)
-WinEQ2 with EQPlayNice
This is pretty much mandatory, if you pay for the subscription it allows you to set the Rendering Limit which is key for no lag. Without subscription it still will help more than trying to just load multiple copies of EQ since EQ attempts to gain as much CPU resources as possible, any background EQ sessions not controlled via WinEQ will suffer immensely. Set your CPU/FPS limiting to CPU for the fg and fps for the bg. fg should be around 30-40, bg should be 5-15. for your fg rendering limit should be x-1 out of x and a range of 40 will work will but you'll notice a slight flickering, for less flicking use 100. bg use 1 out of 5 or 1 out of 10.
-Windows Resolution, Display Properties and Desktop
The lower you set your Windows Resolution, the more amount of memory EQ can draw from. Also take note that any images used as wallpaper reserve system memory to exist, and in the event you alt tab and it needs to be redrawn, the desktop itself will eat CPU time and switch from paged memory to active memory, slowing you down. Best performance will result in having only a windows system color (looks ugly but worth it). The same can be said for ICONS on the desktop, put everything you need on your start menu and have your desktop empty. Right click desktop, pick properties, select the desktop tab, click customize desktop, uncheck all icons at the top and you'll have nothing but the recycle bin. use TweakUI or google 'edit windows xp registry remove recycle bin' to remove the recycle bin altogether.
While you are in there uncheck run desktop cleanup wizard and you won't have task scheduler using resources (minimal but every drop in the bucket counts)
While you are in Display properties also click Appearance tab and then the Effects button, uncheck both of the first "use transition" option, uncheck the second "smooth screen fonts", uncheck "show shadows under menus", uncheck "show window contents while dragging", uncheck "hide navigation key until" option, and click Ok.
-My Computer options
Right click my computer and select properties
Click Advanced tab
Click "Settings" under "Performance"
Select "Adjust for best performance"
This will disable Windows Themes and other graphic intensive features of Windows XP that reserve system memory and eat CPU time every time they are accessed
Click Ok and then click Remote tab
Uncheck allow remote invitations to be sent from my computer
If using Media center/pro uncheck allow users to connect remotely unless you have a reason to use RDC in which case you probably don't need these suggestions as a whole
If you never use system restore, I highly suggest disabling it as a whole. Some casual users live by this so in these cases leave it, but most folks learn 1. they store copies of virus/spyware/malware and are a depot for maliciousness 2. system restore really isn't going to fix your problem for you in any case
-Registry
Start->run->type regedit and click ok/press enter
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then SOFTWARE then MICROSOFT then WINDOWS then CURRENT VERSION then RUN
(after doing run also do RunOnce and RunServices)
If you have no idea what should be running, look for anything suspicious like "qttask.exe", and "sunjavaupdsch.exe", which run in the background and check for updates for Quicktime and Java at their leisure. Anything you don't know, you can google the exact filename.exe and it will tell you what it does. Use caution here if you are not confident.
This will remove any programs starting without your knowledge eating CPU time and system mem
-Services
Start->run->type services.msc and click ok/press enter
If you have a router / don't use Windows Firewall, right click Application Layer Gateway Service and select Properties. From the dropdown box choose disable and click Ok. Depending on what's running at this time you'll see a progress bar telling you its stopping the service, just wait for it to do its thing. Follow this procedure for:
If you don't care about Windows Update, "Automatic Updates"
If you don't use Windows Messenger, "Messenger"
If you are the only person who uses your computer, "Fast User Switching Compatability"
If you never pick "Help and Support" from the Start menu, "Help and Support"
If you don't care if windows warns you about not having antivirus, "Security Center"
If you aren't adding new Network equipment any time soon, "SSDP Discovery Service"
then click OK
-gpedit.msc
There's so many options here I don't want to go over them, but if you load this up and go into the options under Administrator templates, there are hundreds of options that can disable common features that eat resources by using security policies
-EQ settings
load up EQ (if you have WinEQ2 now, load it with WinEQ2) and pick Options before logging in. Only have ONE copy of EQ open before doing this
Deselect-All for models and click next
Uncheck sound (big difference here if you play silent, f eq's sounds mp3 ftw)
uncheck social animations - will gain large amount of RAM
set your resolution - as low as you can tolerate
disable mip mapping
disable dynamic lightning
texture quality = low
uncheck texture caching
uncheck texture compression (no longer functioning correctly)
click finish
Now exit out of the game all the way and reopen the session, log into game
-EQ ingame settings
The sad news is - this will need to be done for every character you plan on boxing, but its a one time hit if you use the same few characters on consistant basis
Get in game on the character
Always use default UI or a custom UI that does not use any custom tga, or preferrably stripped tga that are even less quality than EQ's (its possible!)
Type /showgrass off
Type /showspell off
Hit Alt + O to open options
If they arent, slide all sound sliders to the left = 0%
Click on Display
If you want: Unclick Show PC names (very little gain but noticeable when around many players / raid)
If you want: Unclick Show NPC names (very little gain but noticeable when around large amounts of NPCs, good to do on any toon that is being macro'd for heals or something that you don't need to see)
Uncheck Level of Detail
Uncheck Show My Helm
Slide Fade Delay all the way to the left (0.0)
Slide Fade Duration all the way to the left (0.5)
**Transparency is HUGE. This can make or break your multiboxing
Transparency will default to 100 with fade to defaulting to 50
The kicker is not all windows default to 100 even though the slider says so.
So pick the transparency you like and slide both sliders to the exact same percent. This will NULLIFY window fading, which is a primary source of CPU time lagging out multiboxing. If you prefer 100, you need to slide the top Transparency (which will already be at 100) down to a value lower such as 90 and let go of the slider, and then wait a second and slide it back to 100, this will correct the windows that do not default to 100.
You can have different transparency values for different windows on your screen at the same time, the crucial factor is that the Normal Level and Faded Level for the window is THE SAME. Having any sort of fading, even if they are 1% different, will screw you up. But having a window of 100/100 for your health and then having your chat 70/70 is fine.
Of note: any additional chat windows you create will still default to 70/50 or so, so be sure to reset the values to the same whereever you want them.
Max frames per second you can keep low, if you keep it at 100 wineq will still limit it below what eq will try to limit, but the lower the limit in EQ initially, the better
LOD Bias -- VERY LOW / all the way to the left
Disable all three tabs worth of particle effects, meaning set them all to:
Near clip - Near
Density - OFF
On for - MY SPELLS(Spell) / ME(Player)
Opacity - 0%
***Set opacity slider all the way to the left for all three
Far clip plane - The lower the better
Gamma - does not matter
Sky Type - OFF = least amount of memory
Load Screen = NONE - no memory used for loading image during zone time
Now click the advanced button
Uncheck ALL checkboxes on the right and CHECK Disable Tatoos
Shadow clip plane - all the way to the left / off
actor clip plane - slightly left of the middle for your primary character (30-40% ish), all the way to the left (5% ish) for any bots that are on autofollow all the time
Dynamic Sky Size = Tiny (32)
Sky reflection Update = Once Per Minute
Terrain Texture Quality = Minimum
I think we should cut and paste his post into a post of it's own and sticky it. I've never seen a better post about how to minimize the resource usage in EQ.
eqisdead
eqisdead
Well, I know I already word-doc'd and printed my copy LOL. Perhaps a mod could edit the title to make it more easily seachable on the boards?
Like "Fine tuning your system for running multiple instances of EQ or WinEQ"
Like "Fine tuning your system for running multiple instances of EQ or WinEQ"
hoppy96pgtbs
( o Y o )
Wow........Can't wait to get home and Redo all my $hit. Just installed a new Power Supply, new Fans, 4200+ X2 2.4Ghz(ish) processor and New BFG 7300(ish) video Card. I havnt got to see what she will do with EQ since upgrading, I played some Battlefield 2 and first 2 rounds got a Gold and Bronze star, no lag whatsoever on a 64 player map. Thanks a lot Coffee.
THANK YOU Coffee!! It will be a couple days before I have time to tweak things but your post is very impressive.
I am using WinXP Media Center Edition, I just noticed that windows only shows 3.25 gb ram in the system. Is there anything I can do about it not showing the whole 4 gb's?
I think I am going to make a second logon for running EQ
I am using WinXP Media Center Edition, I just noticed that windows only shows 3.25 gb ram in the system. Is there anything I can do about it not showing the whole 4 gb's?
I think I am going to make a second logon for running EQ
