Playing EQ remotely (VNC or something else)

[cleric09-1999]

My IT network monitoring job is starting a rotating schedule so I'll be working overnight shifts for about a month. Nothing really happens so I was thinking of running EQ on my desktop computer at home and playing via high speed LAN-Connection from work.

This is what I have tried so far:

Remote Desktop Connection doesn't support DirectX games and UltraVNC lets it run in 1024x768 but is soooo slow it is unplayable.


I did try to play Everquest via LAN-Connection.
Computer running Everquest is:
Compaq Desktop 2+ Ghz with 3 GB of RAM. with a 4gb readyboost USB to make it 7GB.
video card: Geforce 6150SE
OS is Windows Home Premium
UltraVNC 1.0.5 and 1.0.5.2
Monitor: Viewsonic 22" native resolution is 1600x1050.


UltraVNC with resolution set to 1680x1050 or even above 1024x768 , the game video is distorted (also on server side). With game resolution set to 1024x768 the DirectX game video game displays fine BUT moving the character is so slow that playing is not possible.

Remote Computer:
Dell Desktop 3.0 Ghz with 2 GB of RAM.
Windows XP SP3
GeForce 7600
UltraVNC 1.0.5.2
Monitor: Acer 22" native resolution is 1600x1050.

Game is still set to 1024x768.
Resolution set in Windows Vista with UVNC Video Hook Driver Checked.
1024x768 (displays fine... to slow to play)
1440x1050 (displays fine... to slow to play)
1680x1050 (displays wrong like out of phase... to slow to play)


Does anybody have a suggestion of how I can set this up so I can play over the Internet without encounting the really slow video?

 

[devestator]

I don't believe it's possible. I kind of dabbled in it once myself as I work IT as well and there is just nothign fast enough. You would need to be able to transfer bascially screenshots of the eq window 15 times per second bare minimum for a choppy but playabe FPS. 30 FPS would be optimal though. I do not know of any program or transfer program capable of updating that many frames per second.

The only other possability would be a custom written app that could scan the screen and only send pixel colors that have changed, possibly even in a text format, but I'm not sure that would be fast enough either. Your best bet, copy eq to a portable hard drive.. take it to work, plug it in and play on your work computer off the hard drive

 

[Fry]

Someone needs to design a text based everquest client. Would be killer for botting.

 

[htw]

I'd do mq2telnet + eqbc. Not really "playing", but at least you can monitor, chat, control.

htw

 

[cleric09-1999]

I don't believe it's possible. I kind of dabbled in it once myself as I work IT as well and there is just nothign fast enough. You would need to be able to transfer bascially screenshots of the eq window 15 times per second bare minimum for a choppy but playabe FPS. 30 FPS would be optimal though. I do not know of any program or transfer program capable of updating that many frames per second.

Yes, I agree. From what I've done with my knowledge of networking even with "high speed" connections at both ends and data stream compressions the game is simply unplayable even using default UI at 1024x768.

My idea was to get an "exp group" going with multiple accounts running macros that I could occasionally check on to verify the group is operating smoothly and get them rezzed if the unexpected happened so they could go back to earning exp.

Remote Desktop was a quick no. UltraVNC and TightVNC could actually login to EQ but after you clicked "enter world" the screen would slow down to 8-10 FPS which made it very choppy and unable to move in any direction other than forward.

 

[cleric09-1999]

Interesting...

I'd do mq2telnet + eqbc. Not really "playing", but at least you can monitor, chat, control.

htw

Interesting... Tell me more please kind sir.

 

[Wasted]

You won't get any solutions that actually let you "play" EQ remotely unless you have really really good bandwidth on both ends. For context, within a gigabit network, it sorta works, but is still choppy at 800x600. The best "normal" bandwidth app I've managed was citrix, from www.gotomypc.com, alas, it is not free.

As for managing bots remotely... eqbc+irc+autobot (VIP section in the mq2 forums) is something I used for years and it works amazingly well. Me and a buddy had 18 toons (2 toons we actually played) spread across 4 computers in various places (he's in Germany, I'm in Switzerland, some of his were at his office in Ireland some of mine in my office, or at home if I was at work.) You need to get used to some things, you need to make some hotkeys. You need to really learn eqbc and autobot, specially the latter. Every single one of our bots ran autobot, except the ones we were controlling,of course. It'll handle every class, perhaps not as well as the specialized macros, but well beyond "well enough" for every class we've tested (every single class covered, except necros, for those, don't use autobot, because it'll just get your necro killed ;p) clerics and enchanters really shine with autobot though, it's amazing the things we've lived through with a macro controlling mezzes ;p

 

[PRWraith]

If you played with eqbc and monitored chat you could theoratically just play with the map window...

 

[kukmuk]

If you use EQBC, I wrote a GUI for it a while back you are welcome to try out. I haven't played EQ in well over a year so I'm not sure if it still works, but it is great for simple things like reporting health / mana / xp. There are a few predefined buttons in it for repetitive tasks.

http://www.mmobugs.com/forums/everq...plugins-and-offsets/9608-eqbc-client-gui.html

 

[alez]

That's dedicated...

lol to want to play that bad I mean

 

[cudacuf]

Been using http://www.crossloop.com/ for remote stuff. havent tried to play over it though, but it is free.

 

[cleric09-1999]

That's dedicated...

lol to want to play that bad I mean

More like.... That's I'm bored sitting at working between the hours of 2am and 8am.

 

[Wendel]

www.logmein.com

there is a free version available. Can be a little choppy at times, but you can play through it.

 

[dulak]

Well, you could always get a flash drive or external HD big enough to hold EQ and just take it back and forth to work. I suggest those b/c if you don't have any that are overly large (ie 120gb+), it doesn't have to install any drivers and xp/vista are compatible with nearly all flash drives and the such. I done that for while and it worked out great as I was working in a gov. facility lol. It's bloody amazing how fast things work when you're playing on a T3 connection lol.

 

[cleric09-1999]

Well, you could always get a flash drive or external HD big enough to hold EQ and just take it back and forth to work. I suggest those b/c if you don't have any that are overly large (ie 120gb+), it doesn't have to install any drivers and xp/vista are compatible with nearly all flash drives and the such. I done that for while and it worked out great as I was working in a gov. facility lol. It's bloody amazing how fast things work when you're playing on a T3 connection lol.

I do have the fast connection at work. Being in the IT industry specific "network monitoring" I was trying to avoid the "network footprint" of EQ. RD/VNC/VPN masks all that since my home machine is doing the work...

From the many different ways I've tried to do this even running at 640x480 or 800x600 it is too choppy for even a level 1 in doing a newbie quest of killing rats.

 

[Bearcub]

What about setting up a VPN to your home machine and tunneling through that and running EQ?

If you can keep the EQ process tunnelled through your home, would that solve the problem?

*shrug*

BC

 

[FunWithUs]

Vendor Controlls

I could see useful applications for this if you wanted to set something up that would let you update the prices on your vendor and such... Possibly some tradeskills... But fighting... I doubt it.

 

[monkeybiz]

I tried this awhile ago to try to get a toon loaded up for a friend while he was at work doing the remote desktop. If you manage to just get connected remote desktop just long enough without freezing you could get whatever /mac xxxx running then disconnect from the comp. Just make sure you have that toon literally exactly where u want him before hand otherwise I don't see this working. But just using your homecomputer as the "play base" while controlling from else where is definately a no go unless you pretty much have a direct T3+ right to your office from your house.

 

[JimJohnson]

Why not just run ShowEQ+issue commands via EQBC, you have the map to see what is going on and eqbc to control