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Using 1 Gaming Computer For 2 People?
True Vox writes "My fiance and I have recently taken interest in City of Heroes (she's currently got a character on my account). She's got a cute little netbook, but nothing nearly powerful enough for a 5-year-old MMORPG, let alone if we take interest in Champions Online! I am reticent to buy a new gaming computer simply for what amounts to a passing phase. Has anyone had any experience using one computer to control two monitors with two sets of input devices (e.g. two keyboards and two mice, or one keyboard, one mouse, and a 360 gamepad, perhaps)? I have seen one solution that might work, but not much information from users that I can find. In short, does anyone have any experience with setups like this?"
A) Just have her remote desktop into your computer, log in as another user, and play that way
B) fiance... fiance.... SPEND TIME WITH HER
:(
No closing parenthesis
Perhaps you could auction your extra parentheses and buy an Alienware with the proceeds?
Check out some of the refurbished systems available online and from places like Frys. You can get some raging deals on a solid mid-range box. Thin Client is absolutely abysmal as a gaming solution. This way you two can share a hobby and not drive each other nuts.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
Sounds like you're complicating things a bit.
What you're not saying here is if you want to run multiple instances of the game at the same time. What kind of PC are you using now? It had better have a LOT of horsepower. 9/10 times, the simpler solution (a second gaming PC) is the smarter answer.
Keep in mind, Windows was not designed as a 'time sharing' system - at least not in the way you're thinking.
http://www.bistolas.net
It would seem as though he did not perform a google search prior to writing in?
Censorship is obscene. Patriotism is bigotry. Faith is a vice. Slashdot 2.0 sucks.
Although you'd probably need a monstrous rig to handle two games... maybe.
I'm really just guessing here. Maybe someone can tell me if that can be done =)
I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts...
This was discussed the other day and I have to smile at the fact that this is the best the Linux community can come up with. You are seriously going to run City of Heroes on top of Wine on top of this other thing just to get a post on Slashdot? 1. Calling bullshit on the fiance 2. If she's real, she's sleeping with someone else 3. Linux!
Honestly, a 5 year old game could most likely run on the cheapest of cheap systems at best buy. Go spend the 2-300$ (yes, they have them that cheap) and fish around your local recycling center/craigslist for a monitor. When you're done with the phase, sell it on craigslist for a hundred bucks as a set, or keep it as a media pc. You're on a geek website bro, there's always a use for another PC. Always.
You're asking a bunch of dorks about a technical question concerning the opposite sex?
head explodes
It's called multiseat. It's a feature that's targetted for the next version of Fedora Linux . I'm not sure if there's any way to do it under windows but vmware or virtualbox might help when Fedora 12 comes out.
Just get the cheapest inspiron from dell and dump the integrated graphics for...anything that's not integrated. Then you won't have to worry about virtual machines with direct graphics access or any other time sucking rough spots.
Also, if you can wait a few weeks, keep checking the best buy circular for the coupon code for the extra-discounted cheap dell machine.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Buy a console. Or play other kind of "games" with her ;) Or go out. I mean anything where you actually spend time interacting with each other in the real world.
Intelligence shared is intelligence squared.
Just heap together some old parts - a base machine should come out to be 250 - 300 if you play your cards right ( dual core athlon, 9600GT or some other cheap graphics card, a basic hd, basic case + psu combo eg. centurion 5 with psu, some cheap ddr2 ram and a 780g mobo ). or a cheap dell with an added card.
The graphics might not be able to be shared in that manner for a fairly modern game.
Not to mention that if its connected over a lan, chances are the game play is going to suck.
You could try running two instances of the game as separate users on your machine (and hook up two monitors) and use synergy to do movements or something.
wow people do multiboxing to run multiple instances, which you can look into but the thing will probably suck with a game that actually needs something kinda new.
Parentheses, man! Learn to use them (or if you don't want to learn how to use them, just avoid using them (unless you are just trying to be hopelessly recursive (which is not always a bad thing))).
Yes i can see why you want this, but i can not understand why or how you managed to get the question posted on /. instead of just getting a second computer.
It can't be done with Windows (at least not to my knowledge), but multiseat on Linux these days is a cinch. Google has tons of resources on the topic -- basically it involves a bit of xorg.conf hacking, and then Bob's your uncle.
I myself have done it before on an amd64 dual-core 2.2GHz system with two video cards, a GeForce 7600GT on PCI-e, and a GeForce 6200 on plain PCI. Worked beautifully. I could multiplayer FlightGear by running one instance on each seat. Each user can log on and off independently with their own keyboard and mouse.
This is a (blurry and fuzzy) picture of my setup (1280x1024 JPG). You can see glxgears running on each screen -- handled by the same computer. Cool thing about using two video cards is that each user gets his own GPU -- running two FPSes simultaneously (I tested Nexuiz) had absolutely zero slowdown.
I've tried that. Tt didn't work for me. I needed a fast internet connection, and two fast computers, which defeats the whole purpose, and, despite what you may think, having two games going on at the same time often presented "resource in use" type problems and slowed down the target PC). The ideal solution would be to isolate each application somehow (VMWare ThinApp?), or get a way to run both simutaneously, and connect two mice, keyboards, and monitors to the computer, which Windows is not capable, and Linux will only be in 6 months with xinput2.
But, out of the two, Remote Desktop would be your best bet. If you can get two instances running and decent FPS (with a netbook?), please, let me know. If only the netbook could be used as the second "computer"...
Gamer with a fiancee? I can't believe you guys fell for this obvious troll attempt.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Here LMGTFY, found some interesting links, here's a standout Multiseat Linux - One computer, multiple monitors, mice, and keyboards Probably lots of other ways to do it as well.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of cats. MEOW!!
I have done this for business not gaming might work.
http://www2.userful.com/products/downloads/free-2-user
My wife went through a passing phase a while back ago, so I got her a quad-core P4 w/4gb/500Mb, Radeon 1950 x 2 in crossfire, 41" monitor, Wireless mouse, Keyboard, joysticks, gamepads. Basically everything I wanted in a game machine, while I only had a small netbook (although I could play Farcry on my netbook so it wasn't that bad...)
I thought it was a GREAT idea... She would get tired of it and I get a new gaming machine that she would never let me buy.
Unfortunately, she loved it so much she kept it and I didn't get to "inherit" it all after the passing phase.
But at least she didn't give me any grief over getting (more recently) a much better spec machine, because it cost me a lot less than hers did at the time.
GrpA
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
It had better have a LOT of horsepower.
Meh, it isn't that difficult. I had a friend get into 5 boxing on WoW. He got a beefy system a couple of years ago, and could run 4 or 5 instances of WoW simultaneously without any real problem.
Two things to think about:
Does the game you want to play with her allow multiple instances to be run on a single computer? WoW does, but you have to have multiple WoW directories. It is possible to program a game to force full screen mode or to terminate if an existing instance is already running. Do some research on the software before buying the hardware. Find out about any tricks you need to use to get it to work.
Find out about the game controls and UI. Chances are, while it might be possible to play multiple instances on one box, it might be a PITA because of the complexity of the game to share a mouse/keyboard. Multi-boxing works in WoW because one person drives multiple characters. Two people using a single keyboard and mouse would not work very well for that game. Other games might be different.
Search google for 'Multi-boxing' + '(your game name)'. Chances are someone has already tried what you are wanting to do.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Have her use remote desktop (rdc / rdp ) to gain a second session on your box.
As a bonus, I guess your 'partner' could use it to 'play games' while in bed.
Well, aside from the fact that the software you pointed to requires a second video card, which for gaming, should be the most expensive part of the computer, you will also have the issue of game license issues due to only having one computer, running 2 instances of the same game at the same time will be very difficult if not impossible for many games. Most will check to see if multiple license keys are in use at the same time with online play, and to my knowledge, installing 2 copies of the same game on the same computer using different keys is not something that will work either since that is a use that was never designed into the games and they will usually check to se if it is already installed and basically say that it is already installed on the computer. And for most MMORPGs you are not allowed to connect two sessions/characters online at the same time, so that will be something you need to look at as well.
It is probably just better to build a cheap game rig. Simply do a budget gaming PC:
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 Wolfdale ~$70
Asus P5QL Motherboard ~$90
4GB DDR2 RAM ~$20
320GB hard drive ~$45
DVD+/-RW ~$25
SIGMA La Vie LBYWBP computer case with 500W power supply ~45 after rebate
ATI HD4770 video card ~$100
Total: ~$395
If you need an extra copy of XP or Vista, well that will be another ~$100, and if you need a monitor, another $100-150.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
"she has a cute little notebook.... what amounts to a passing phase."
Are this condescending to your fiance directly, or just when she is not around?
I'm at the comparing features phase of learning about virtual machines, but I was wondering if something like VMware workstation (or equivalent to run on a the AMD64) can output different VM's at the same time to a dual head setup?
Anyone know of freeware that could pull this off and not bury the system?
I don't believe you have a fiance. Enjoy your Slashdot-designed basement-bargain multibox XP/Gold farming solution.
...1 CPU?
Dude, wtf? You aren't going to be married long with this line of thinking. Get off of it and buy your woman a fantastic gaming machine and forget this crap. It shows you care. Priorities, man. She IS paying attention to your choices.
Seriously. WTH.
I just put together a $200 TigerDirect (I know, may I burn in hell) special for her and slapped in a GeForce 6800. She and I play WoW together every once in a while. She doesn't have the patience to raid, but she likes questing and running the occassional instance.
Its not worth it. She'll gain 20 pounds, lose her job, and end up blowing her 19 year old guild leader when she takes a trip to go "see her parents" so she can get some extra dkp.
I'm not bitter.
Try betwin. I used it to share my laptop with my daughter while in the field.
You can download a demo that is time limited, you have to restart it after one Hr.
Unfortunately, I don't know how much $$$ the full version is.
$99 a seat! See all comments above for cheaper solution.
You can buy her the first of a series of nice machines. Sony was nice enough to engrave the (now 5th? 6th?) one I got for my Mrs. of 15 years this year (a nice Vaio mostly for watching Dr. Who), engraved on it 'At least it is not a drill.'. There you go. So, either cough up the dough, play m.p. games on a console (like the Wii perhaps?) or...take turns, one watches, the other plays, switch on every other death. Or something. Good luck!
Desktop environments - especially WINDOWS desktop environments - will not allow two people to log onto the same hardware at the same time.
Oddly enough, most Linux distros come with an X-server installed. Just create an account for her, she can log in, then direct the video output to her own netbook, or to a second monitor, or whatever.
To do anything similar on Windows, you MUST install a Windows Server, whether it be Win2K, Win2003, or Win2008. You CANNOT log multiple people on at the same time with Win9x, ME, XP, or Vista or Win7. Microsoft won't allow it, you ain't doing it without some SERIOUS hacking.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Sure. Is it worth it? No.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
..wtih Ubuntu 8.04 and userful. I had to use the same gpu for both seats, and neither had 3d accel. Doing what you want seems like it may require having multiple identical gpu's. You may have to wait for MultiDisplay Manager to make it into Xorg, in addition to WINE supporting the game you want to play (Maybe Direct3D gallium frontend or something.) Right now? Rent a rig or something.
I work for an Education Management company, where we have about 57 schools across the nation. This past year we deployed NComputing (http://www.ncomputing.com). This setup involves dropping a PCI card in to a desktop computer, then connecting up to 3 additional small black box stations that have their own PS2 ports for the keyboard and mouse, and a VGA port for the monitor. The black box stations are connected back to the 'host' desktop via CAT5 cable. While this setup does effectively allow multiple users to simultaneously log in to the same machine, complications often due arise, such as software/applications that can not have multiple instances running at the same time. Also we experienced random crashing of the 'host' desktop and all connected stations.
Really, to use that program, or things like it, you still need a second video card. And even if you don't, by the time you have the input devices, speakers, screen, and game licence, what have you saved? You've saved about $400 of computer. Maybe $800.
If you planned to die tomorrow, then the $800 loss wouldn't matter. If you don't, then the $800 of extra hardware will eventually come in useful, even if she never plays again.
But most importantly, if you want her to enjoy it, and you want her to start gaming regularly, it's not going to happen when things just barely function with glue and shoestring.
Now, if you want her to have a bad experience as a way of convincing her to either not use your machine, or to buy a second machine, then you've got the right idea.
But hey, we're computer people. Advizing someone to buy another computer is about the easiest thing we can do.
I've used BeTwin to run two simultaneous instances of Diablo 2 for a small LAN game. It worked okay, but at US$99 for a single license, there are probably cheaper ways to run old games.
Multisteating Windows is crap. But heres an idea of how it could be done with Windows. This idea does not involve Virtual Machines (not suitable for games) or RDP (also NOT SUITABLE FOR GAMES FOR THE LAST BLOODY TIME!).
He could use the BeTwin software which appears to give direct graphics access (good for games) - and then to deal with the fact that a lot of games (Like WoW) don't like to run two different sessions at once (unless you are on Wine) you can also do some Application Virtualization using Sandboxie (or Novell Zenworks Application Virtualization) to keep the two games somewhat separate. To fully separate the games you might need separate NICs, but they are a dime a dozen and you could probably get one for free.
Else you could buy a computer that could handle it for $300.
Well that's my two cents.
Since you asked in short, the answer is - Yes.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
I think you're better off getting a new girlfriend.
I am reticent to buy a new gaming computer simply for what amounts to a passing phase.
The underlying statement here is: "if it's a passing phase, the money will be wasted because the new PC will be gathering dust".
But actually that's totally up to yourself. If it turns out to be a passing phase, you can simply sell the computer.
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
This one is too easy. Amazingly, it seems the majority of comments above are constructive. +Karma to the crowd. Also, buy a new computer for your wife.
Rather than try to use a solution to allow a machine to have two users, which likely will cost more than a new box anyway, one can find decent deals on a low end HP or Gateway machine either as a closeout or loss leader special, or a special of the week at Costco or Sam's.
If you are not needing Crysis on its maximum settings, buying a low end machine, getting it to 4GB of RAM (or at least 3), and putting in a $50-$100 video card should do someone decently for most games. No, you won't be getting triple digit FPS with settings on max, but it will at least be decently playable.
The product you are asking about is called Applica. I know because I worked for this company for 4 years, developing this product that allows more than one user on a single PC. The product consists of a proprietary PCI card which connects with an ethernet cable. At the other end of the cable is another proprietary box with connectors for pluggin in an extra monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Then, the user installs the Applica software which creates and manages the new console as a separate context from the main PC console. Both the Applica user and the main PC have fully independent desktops. http://www.applica.com/
It might be worth considering that Champions Online is going to be released on the 360. That might be an inexpensive way to allow both of you to access at the same time. Consoles have their own sets of disadvantages and advantages over pcs.
I could imagine you can clamp together some input set per application makeshift but as soon as it comes to 3D acceleration you are boned. Oh yeah, why would you believe a computer powerful enough to run one instance of the game would be less expensive than two stock gaming machines...?
Well, unlike what virgins living in their mom's basement may imagine, sex is only a small part of the time spent together in a relationship.
For a start, you can't keep it up all weekend. (Cue the willy-wavers to come swear they keep it up 24/7;)
Second, a woman tends to get unflattering ideas if your interest in her starts and ends at sex.
Third, humans generally, that is, including men, have more needs than sex. Look at Maslow's pyramid sometime. There's stuff in there like safety, confidence, respect, self-esteem, etc, which are actually antithetical to the role of being just a pussy on legs. You can't get much of a feeling of security of the family if, for all you know, you're just a perfectly fungible sex object in that family.
Basically I dare say that if your wife's interest in you started and ended at sex, you too would probably get insecure and unsatisfied eventually. I mean, what hint would you have that you're not just there until she finds someone with a bigger tool or more stamina?
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
iNo really! It's City of Fucking Heroes!
It won't run on s machine with the power of a 7 year old desktop with integrated graphics. BFD.
Use this as an excuse to upgrade yourself and regift her your old computer, you could even give her the new case/peripherals if you think that would make her happy.
That way the only money you're out comes from the difference between the date you purchase the system and the actual date you'd typically have upgraded the system. We get to reason a luxury purchase! Go mathematics!
Quack, quack.
COH is not WoW, though. I fancy I have a fairly high end system (dual core CPU, veloci-raptor drives, 4 GB RAM, GTX-285 graphics card with 1 GB RAM, you get the idea), and with two instances of COH, it drops to low single digit FPS in some zones or situations.
It's weird. It's not that FPS drops to half, like you'd expect. (Actually, I'd expect even less, because any half-competently programmed program wouldn't render at all when minimized. Well, if COH could stay minimized, that is.) It drops disproportionately more when dual-boxing on the same computer.
Part of it, I suspect, is also because COH doesn't actually play nice with multitasking, period. Even getting it to fucking stay minimized when I want to check something in Mozilla can be a chore. It just wants to hog the screen, no matter what. Sometimes even ALT-TAB doesn't work right out of it.
To cut a long story short, yes, for COH I'd recommend two boxes even if you wanted to dual-box by yourself.
I don't know what kind of computer could dual-box COH on the same machine, but probably it would cost a lot more than two high-enough-end machines to run an instance of COH each.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Seriously, stop being sensible on Slashdot, you're spoiling it for the rest of us..
Well they say sex is like air, is a much bigger deal to people deprived of it :-)
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
Well, that's certainly a possibility too.
Then again, AFAIK a dual-core CPU does have at least _some_ separate cache for each CPU. Plus, I'd feel very shafted if Intel and AMD try to sell me dual- and quad-core CPUs that "are not at all designed for multi-tasking." What's the second CPU for, then? ;)
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
But what will they do the other 23 hours and 55 minutes of the day?
One of the problems mentioned seems the toughest to me - get 2 different applications on a same Windows system to use different input devices sets (keyboard+pointing device). Is that even possible?
What's wrong with your post, looks like you're stuggling with the keyboard... wrist playing up?
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
I had this exact same situation 3 years ago with COH.
I ended up getting a second COH account for her, and rebuilt her machine to handle it.
if you don't get her own PC and her own account, after 2 weeks, you wont be able to use your computer.
So the requirement can be boiled down to something like this, The rasterization happens at the server end (having 3d hardware) and the image generated should be transferred to the clients. This can be speeded up by using compression / encoding etc. but in the end getting a FPS = 30 which makes the game playable is not an easy task doing it real time. Maybe this has to be looked at from a different perspective or its not practical in real case ...
Reticent
Reluctant
Get it right, people!
"The Milliard Gargantubrain? A mere abacus - mention it not."
Opps, looks like you are malfunctioning Sexbot "Moraelin". Time to Decommission you!
;) )
Bring in Sexbot #4059302 for a rental until the insurance company can compensate the owner.
(But honestly, all your points were very good.
AnimePapers.org: Anime Wallpapers Handled With Care
{{Can we collectively as a community agree to stop answering these with things like "here's a solution: don't do what you're trying to do"?}}
Is a fine solution, often is the right solution, maybe the 60% of the times. Think about a newbie tryiing to put a square peg into a circle hole. Google will *NOT* tell to stop searching that. Yahooo will *NOT* tell then to stop. No machine will stop and think.. "Wait.. what you are tryiing is stupid, maybe is feasible but even If you make it works, it will suck". And here is another difference Man vs Machine. We can reject questions that are erroneous.
So, obviusly, once a newbie as ask all machines, and all machine-soluble problems are done, there are a few no-machine-soluble problems. Most of these are "the error is the questions" type.
So you are wrong.
-Woof woof woof!
Couldn't have said it better. After all, it seems she's actually taking the time to be interested in something the poster is interested in. Newsflash: she probably doesn't give a crap about the game. But she would like a new computer for her efforts to indulge, I'm sure.
I mean, come on... it's a computer. They're not exactly rare items these days. I bought both my niece and nephew good computers when I bought my last one. Both went unused for ages because their parents were afraid of the net. I'm still glad I did it though.
Man, this is the lamest excuse I ever heard for justifying the expense for a second monitor.
I can imagine trying this line out with my wife: ..." .. whatever ...
"really dear, we need to buy this second 24'' lcd so you can play with me on my computer
I know for my MMO, and for many others, you can't log into more than 1 character off of 1 account at the same time. I can run two instances of the game, and log into two seperate accounts (for market/vending/extra-storage purposes) at the same time. But if I try to log in a second time under 1 account, the first instance get's disconnected...
For a start, you can't keep it up all weekend. (Cue the willy-wavers to come swear they keep it up 24/7;)
You know that it is possible to use the tounge aswell?
There is no way you can run two 3D demanding games on the same PC. Maybe Vista has some advanced 3D engine to host 2 user, but I doubt it.
VM still lacks support for GPU, so it won't work either.
The cheapest solution would be a cheap overclocked system. Buy a reliable motherboard from Asus and overclock an Intel Dual-core CPU.
I bought an Intel dual-core E4300, 1.8 GHZ almost 2 years ago and at 3.2GHz is still able to give me 60FPS in almost any new game.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
"... does anyone have any experience with setups like this?" Oh yeah, mainframes were in most every large company a few decades ago. Perhaps you should get yourself a 360. (ummm... not talkin about Xbox either)
If I didn't have absolutely NOTHING to do, I wouldn't be here.
[quote]Well, unlike what virgins living in their mom's basement may imagine, sex is only a small part of the time spent together in a relationship.[/quote]
:)
And by that you mean, like, 30 seconds a week, right?
Read and Comment at my BLOG
!!!
hey there,
I think the best solution for this issue is using linux as a os, with 2 desktop sessions, one per each monitor.
afterwards, you should map each controller to each virtual desktop you're using. if you need Windows in-order to run these games (I'm not familiar with them), just install VirtualBox with windows on it, and run 2 different sessions of it, each in every virtual desktop. now, you need to run initial run to each game (in each VirtualBox) and just play using the 2 controllers. Another thing you need to do, is SetFocus, for each controller in each VirtualDesktop, so in-case someone of you click on the controller, it will be focused in his session while if a 0.10 seconds later the other player will click in his own controller, the focus should be automatically set on the other's player VirtualBox within his own Virtual Desktop session.
Good LUCK!
Read and Comment at my BLOG
!!!
MMORPG, passing phase, temporary. yeah right. Good luck nursing that addiction.
The rest of the time she can cook and clean.
I am reticent to buy a new gaming computer simply for what amounts to a passing phase.
It works like this: She gets your current gaming computer, you then reluctantly get to go out and buy a quad core with 8 gig of RAM and a gig video card. This is the way of the geek relationship.
For a start, you can't keep it up all weekend. (Cue the willy-wavers to come swear they keep it up 24/7;)"
Going with the assumption that this is a young couple, not even married yet, if they were more towards the norm, sex WOULD be one of the primary items on the agenda. I mean, that is normal early in the relationship. Think about dating, you're primarily there to try to get in her pants. And usually...good sex leads the guy to thinking marriage might not be bad 'cause he'd like to keep that to himself on a perm. basis. The deep relationship that you're talking about, that comes along later after you are 'trapped' so to speak in marriage and are stuck together. If it doesnt' develop, the marriage isn't gonna work.
Even with that last part being said...sex in a marriage is STILL a very important part of the relationship. And besides, if you go with most guys side of things anecdotally, you'd better get all the fucking you can before the numptials, 'cause that wedding cake generally cuts her sexual appetite WAY back.
"Third, humans generally, that is, including men, have more needs than sex."
True, but, for heterosexual men, they can satisfy 99% of those needs on their own, but, for sex they need the woman there. Self satisfaction jokes aside. Face it, the old joke of "Why did God give women breasts? So men would talk to them" holds a lot of merit.
If a guy didn't want women for sex, he'd not likely give them much attention otherwise...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
One way that you could do this is to use something such as AutoHotkey which will allow you to filter inputs and send them to a specific application to allow both of you to play at once. It would require the use of a more glorified script like those written for multiboxing in WoW or other games. Check out autohotkeys site and look around for some premade scripts. Their language has a very straightforward API with a knowledgable fan base, I'm sure you can come up with something.
Yes your netbook is not the best gaming platform.
However, I play City of Heroes even on my Acer One that I had to pick up on a trip(yes the $49.99 model that you get with the ATT 3G contract) It is a 1.6 Atom with 1GB of RAM, and after about a week I ripped of XP and installed Windows 7, which is surprisingly much faster on the little unit, better on battery and suspends and hibernates almost instantly.
It has a 945 GM950 video chipset that sucks
However, if you crank down the settings, you can get 15-20fps out of the game.
And yes Win7 is faster than XP for gaming on the netbook, even with 1GB of RAM. (Use the Vista Drivers from June 2008, the Win7 drivers from Intel still kind of suck.)
So install Win7 on the Netbook, and get by with that.
If you are focused on multi-user, again Win7, get the multi-user patch or buy dual input devices, so that focus isn't stolen from one Window, and start with a beefy CPU, and at least a dual GPU solution. (But you are going to be better off buying a cheap second computer, truly...)
--------------------
Things that would make the netbook a 'bit' better, that I haven't tested yet for City of Heroes:
-Replace the RAM and moving the system to 1.5GB.
-There is the GMABOOSTER type of application that will set the GMA 950 to 400mhz if you don't care about battery power (and no it is not technically overclocking it.)
It would be the least expensive way to do it.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
I'll have you know that thanks to my many years of tantric training, I am capable of...
Oh shit, I forgot my wife reads Slashdot. Excuse me, I have something on the stove.
You are welcome on my lawn.
If a guy didn't want women for sex, he'd not likely give them much attention otherwise...
Spoken like a true basement virgin
I can see many Slashdot readers scratching their heads right there, "They get ideas?"
You are welcome on my lawn.
Going with the assumption that this is a young couple, not even married yet, if they were more towards the norm, sex WOULD be one of the primary items on the agenda. I mean, that is normal early in the relationship. Think about dating, you're primarily there to try to get in her pants. And usually...good sex leads the guy to thinking marriage might not be bad 'cause he'd like to keep that to himself on a perm. basis. The deep relationship that you're talking about, that comes along later after you are 'trapped' so to speak in marriage and are stuck together. If it doesnt' develop, the marriage isn't gonna work.
Good graciousness! Absolutely everything about this is backwards! Honestly, this is at the root of everything that's wrong in the world now. And it's not just the obtuseness of how to go about interacting with women, lest you misunderstand me. It's the complete abdication of anything resembling acting like an adult, and taking a long-term, responsible view of the future.
You DATE to find out if it will work. The SEX is just a side benefit. Try thinking with your BRAIN for a change. If the sex is good, you'll think ANY woman would be a good wife, and that's just STUPID. I know. Been there. Done that.
(Full disclosure: Happily married to the perfect wife and mother for 15 years. 3 kids. Deliriously sated with what happens behind closed doors. Did nothing but smooch until we were married.)
Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being."
Is that anything like the "dounge"?
You are welcome on my lawn.
And you only get that much until you're married.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Spoil-sport.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Other posts mention Multi-seat linux. That is what you are looking for, plus WINE. At most, you will need to buy an extra graphics card. To run games on legacy systems, test it first under WINE. You get better performance and compatibility for games on WINE on Linux than you do for MS Vista. There are some that won't even run under WINE, though, so for those check out Cedega.
What to do about those suggesting Windows server? Double-tap to be sure.
1. Buy her a computer
2. Impregnate her.
3. Welcome baby
4. Sell computer on Ebay/Craigslist
5. Spend the rest of your life paying for medical bills, school lunches and bail bonds.
Mod parent up!
Probably more like the lounge. Where the couch is.
Where in the "classical western scenario" the male ends up, after offending the female.
If it is honestly just a passing phase, instead of getting some pretty unique peripherals that you'd never use again, why not just rent a computer that will do the job?
And you only get that much after you're married.
Fixed.
Try running multiple instances through a thin-client. Unless you're running some experimental MIT/IBM shit, I guarantee your computer is going to drag. Plus, you just said her character is on your account. I don't play COH, so maybe i'm missing something, but are multiple characters from one account allowed to play simultaneously? If you want to play together, shell out the money for a second PC that can handle the game. Get a nice lcd monitor for yourself so she can use the old one (or vice-versa). And be happy!
synergy so far is the only software based shared kvm like program, that lets you run multitudes of computers from the same kvm environment. as for getting a real kvm switch, this is always ok, except you will have to switch between computers instead of actually forcing spread control from the keyboard amongst the comps.
Safety: condom
Confidence: 40+ minutes
Respect: Waiting for her
Self-esteem: 14+ cm
By your own definition, everything humans need can be attained through sex.
I can tell you all that as a girl (check real quick...yeah okay, I am in fact a girl) I would prefer to have sex. I tried to play NWN with my programmer boyfriend only to realize that though we were in the same room together, on the same designated server.....I still needed an upload of something else.
Sex is a HUGE part of EVERYTHING! Girls do want it, trust me. Monogamy, though unnatural (I am a biologist), does not ruin sex. I try on a regular basis to get the goods from my geek, only to be ignored for the computer. When we are together, I know he is thinking about coding on that bitch in the computer room.
Gaming is nice, don't get me wrong. I love my emulator that lets me play FF7 whenever I feel nostalgic, but unplug for a bit and see if you can find someplace more fun to plug that dongle in ;) 3
"Don't Panic"
I'm not going to comment much about most the rest, since others beat me to it, but at the very least what I'm trying to say is this: there's a long way between "primry items on the agenda" and being the _only_ thing you do together.
Because that's the crux of the matter. Whenever someone asks something along the lines of "how would I go about doing X with my GF/fiancee/wife?" there has to be someone who'll chime in with "try having sex with her instead." Which, even skipping past the psychology considerations, would only work if you can genuinely fill a day with only sex. Because otherwise it still leaves plenty of room to do something else together, be it a MMO or, like in Tom Lehrer's song, "poisoning pigeons in the park", or whatever else.
There are 16 hours awake in a Sunday or Saturday. That is, if you don't skip any sleep. You can't have sex 16 hours in a row. Well, not without marinating yourself in medicines, anyway. Try even doing pelvic thrusts at the empty air (or wiggling your tongue, since an AC earlier suggested the tongue as a solution) for 16 hours straight and then tell me how those muscles feel after that exercise.
Nobody says not to have sex. Nobody says not to be interested in sex. Yes, ideally you'd have some of that too.
But the real keyword in there is the "too."
Relationship "solutions" which imply doing only sex, instead and to the exclusion of any other activity together, just tell me that whoever comes up with those (I mean the OP, not you) hasn't actually had either sex or a real relationship. And I mean with a woman whose last name isn't .avi, .mpeg or .wmv ;)
Even shorter: it's not an exclusive or.
Well, I could comment about the mysoginism there, but as I was saying others beat me to it. But even so, what I'm trying to say is:
1. Regardless, even if _you_ (think you) don't need a woman for anything but sex, she does need you for more than sex. It's not a sex doll you can just deflate and pack somewhere until your next erection. You usually have to maintain that relationship with more activities than just having sex.
2. I'm not buying it. Yes, it's a popular pretense in today's culture, but I don't buy it. If men were really that self-sufficient and free from half of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we wouldn't have half as much jealousy and insecurity around.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Good graciousness! Absolutely everything about this is backwards!
Has it occurred to you that different people might have different needs and interests in a relationship?
Two girls, one CPU?
Actually, spoken like someone who has actually been around the block a few times...and knows of what he speaks.
I've slept with plenty of women, but, they are no substitute for your real friends.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I picked up a scratch & dent computer, dual core 2.6, 3 GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive for $220 from the dell outlet.
http://www.dell.com/outlet
Considering it came with a licensed OS, it was cheaper than me building one.
just keep an eye on there, because they go quick. if it turns out that you can buy a better computer than what you have, just keep the new one and give her the old one...win-win?
Take a look at this: http://popcopy.blogspot.com/2008/12/enable-multi-user-concurrent-logon-for.html
I mean, what hint would you have that you're not just there until she finds someone with a bigger tool or more stamina?
Benchmarks?
wouldn't full disclosure include the fact that you're a devotee of a religion espousing the sanctity of marriage as a spiritual union as one of its core tenets? Just as people's faith often colors their ideas about nature of the physical world (6K year-old earth, etc.), and blinds them to obvious contradictory evidence, so your notions about marriage might largely be informed by faith rather than experience. I'm gathering this the bible quotation in your sig.
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
If your computer is powerful enough, look into working with a virtual machine. There are some linux distributions and programs that allow two virtual machines running simultaneously. The way that you would do this is use a 2+ KVM switch and have the virtual machines take input from one of the ports.
The downside to this is that it is a bear to setup and debug and it's even more of a bear if your system isn't powerful enough. If you can't dual box on your machine, you should probably not attempt this.
Never had a date or been married, have you?
I think for most couples sex definitely drops off after marriage or shortly after and usually gets worse when you have kids and a tight schedule.
I won't even get into sex drive after/during cancer, tumor removal, or other diseases, and yes I am familiar with it because my wife had part of her cervix removed (tumors) and her mom died of pancreatic cancer (and her stepdad remarried a month after her death, so the loyalty wasn't really there at the end).
that's the mentality that's killing the planet.
think about all the poisonous materials used for production, let alone dispose of the computer.
factor 966971: 966971
The SEX is just a side benefit.
No, sex is the whole point. Of course, you need a compatible personality too, but THAT's the side benefit. Good sex with a girl you don't like won't last. But relationship with a sweet loving girl who won't have sex is a complete non-starter. I mean, if you're content with masturbating, why not just be single?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Buy another system, it can't be very expensive, and if she loses interest in MMO's you can box on your favorite and drop farm or raise pets. I'm betting that she won't lose interest very quickly because MMO's are kinda like Slayer, If ya like them even a little bit you'll get sucked in and be a rabid fan forever.
These days you can build or buy a relatively economical PC. Thou I would go with separate accounts.
Sure the easy suggestion is to do as so many people already have and advise that the guy in question buy another PC. However there is one thing that it seems we are overlooking here:
The cost of administering an additional (presumably windows) PC. Going from the care and feeding routine of one to the same for two is not trivial, especially if both systems are used regularly. And few women consider windows administration to be a sexy task for their man to do.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
So, did it work, or is he still on the computer? :)
I'm not shy, I'm stalking my prey
What, she is a girl so this will not be more than a phase? Great relationship you got going there.
On the technical end, you can build a pretty economical gaming rig on the cheap, and it is going to be worlds better than any shared solution.
You say you want a revolution....
Yeah! If I just want meaningless sex all day with a dumb bimbo, it's my damn right as an American to do so.
Err...I think you have it backwards as far as how most men do it (and nothing wrong with that).
Most guys are not out looking for a relationship or 'brains' when they are on the 'hunt'. I mean, I've never heard a guy look across a bar, spot a woman and go "GOD, I gotta go over and talk to her, she has the best sense of humor and personality I've ever seen".
No, he goes over to talk to her at the onset, because she is physically attractive to him, and he'd potentially like to bang her.
If that keeps his interest long enough to get to know her, then the brains, personality and compatibility come into play, and yes, that's part of what you need if you are indeed looking for a long term relationship. No, you don't marry just for sex, but, like another poster said, marrying a girl that is a great girl, all around but isn't into sex (and if you ARE), is a recipe for disaster too. If she's not good and willing in bed, I don't care if she has the best personality in the world, I'm not keeping her around for a permanent relationship possibility.
But, everyone is different. I'm not meaning to slight you...but, I'm just saying that possibly your views and how it works in general for everyone (male) is an outlier. Hey, the world needs guys like you to give the rest of us a good name.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
... or that the vast majority of relationships (including marriages) end poorly, so maybe going by your needs is a poor way to get a good one?
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
grow some
Since she is your fiance, I am surprised you haven't figured this out by now.
Women cost money. Just buy her a computer. It will be a savings in the long run, because time spent gaming isn't time spent shopping.
This is far off topic but I'll bite.
I think Dunkirk has it exactly right here. While I can guess that his religious beliefs (which I don't presume to really know about) are at least not inconsistent with his post, you're trying to use religion as an excuse to dismiss the ideas automatically instead of addressing them on their own merit.
I too have been married for 15 years, and I think my relationship with my wife is strong because it's based on friendship and mutual support, not sex. We both enjoy sex but with kids and madly busy schedules, it would never be enough to keep us together. We both still reminisce about life before kids, when we could actually date now and then. Obviously if a better sex life was my main desire I'd drop my inconvenient commitments and run off with someone else. That has nothing to do with how good the sex was in the beginning of our relationship. If I were to have chosen to marry her for the sex, even if she were playgirl of the year then, I'd be dissatisfied by now.
We've been through a lot in the past year especially since I gave up what was pretty close to my dream job in order to support her professional needs and the needs of our kids. In other words, I think one needs to love their spouse so much that what benefits one's self is much less important than what benefits their family. She has done the same for me in the past.
I *know* I sound "preachy" here, but why? I'm not arguing that friendship trumps sex because of any kind of right relationship with God or, far worse, some fear of afterlife or hell. I guess the only reason this sounds like a religious argument is because we hear this same kind of message from the religious right wing. We then tend to accept or reject the idea based on other opinions not even remotely related to the relevant arguments. This same thing happens all the time in politics, and it bothers me.
A linux operating system can support multiple users remotely connected. This will allow the 1 computer running linux to run any number of applications for any number of users who remotely connect to it. The video and audio can be piped to the remote computer you are accessing it from, so technically you can say that it is doing all the work and streaming you the pieces you need.
The only problem is that linux is not something most people can pick up and use without some experience, help or time enough to read manuals. The other, possibly larger issue with this is that most game developers only develop for windows. The only viable option if you wanted to proceed running a windows application on a linux machine would be to have some sort of emulation software like wine to run the game on the linux console. But emulators like wine cost a great deal of cpu, and taking into account the amount of cpu required to power most games, it wouldn't be very lag free to do this multiple times.
Of course, I am assuming you have an average computing system and not any top of the line cpu or multiple sli video processing setups.
So, in short. If you had a powerful enough linux computer dual, possibly quad core, and a good video card(s), and wine worked on your game, then theoretically you can play the game on a small number of remote computers without requiring much computing power on the remote systems.
This company offers software that allows you to run multiple sessions off of one computer, with separate monitors and inputs.
Their software is open source, and the larger part of their customer base are in developing nations, allowing institutions to provide more terminals at lower cost (Only needing to purchase one machine to serve, for example, 5 or more people.)
Haha, you can only hope so, or just order pizza and buy a dishwasher.
You are probably looking for this, http://www.omni-ts.com/linux-desktop/ (linux only...)
Mess with the best, die like the rest
If she already has a netbook then let her keep it, chances are you're using XP, google concurrent logins, this hacks XP with TS files to allow more than one login at a time. Then she can MSTSC from her netbook to your workstation without disrupting you. Cost $0, takes about 10 minutes and a few reboots. As far as the woman playing being a phase... my money is on her frustrating you to the point you give it up before she ever does. She enjoys the time with you, in men's minds she's an invader. Good luck with it.
That word, reticent.. I do not think it means what you think it means.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
From the summary:
I am reticent to buy a new gaming computer simply for what amounts to a passing phase.
Clearly this setup is just going to be used infrequently as a distraction from the otherwise non-stop sex this couple is having. This is to be expected considering the couple is still only engaged.
After a few years of marriage I'm sure True Vox will be back asking for the cheapest build that will run "The Sims 3" and all possible future expansions so that he can get some time away from the woman he clearly loves and to stop the arguments about whether she gets to play The Sims or he gets to play Team Fortress 2.
Nick
you're trying to use religion as an excuse to dismiss the ideas automatically instead of addressing them on their own merit.
His argument is based on his own experience. I'm suggesting that his obvious religious views may color his perceptions of that experience, in the same way that a creationist's beliefs may color his views of evidence that an impartial mind might consider to support evolution. This is no different from questioning whether any data source might be influenced by some factor extraneous to the phenomenon being studied.
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
My person religion prevents me from using the word "you" on Thor's day, as this is the day that it's all about ME!
Thank you for being so understanding!
I, too, wish for the day when each American family will own a $2,500-4,000 rack mount server connected via GigE to all rooms in the house. Every room in the house would then only have a KVM and audio with USB inputs for external devices. These "workstations" would each have their own username and sessions to the server. ANDDDD (here's the part none of the KVMoIP guys seem to understand) the family needs 3D GAMING across this 100ft cable as well as BLURAY PLAYBACK. You give me a $700 KVMoGigE product that does this and I will buy one for everyone I know who has a computer.
What you guys don't seem to get is that we are not using the computers we have. Why would I want to buy another cheaper POS system that I also only use 5-10% of (not counting gaming periods)? When instead, I could have a dual quadcore server with SLI graphics and 8-16gb of ram :) (throw all the $300 computer money into the server fund)
The closest thing I've come across to allow you to do this is NComputing.com. You can conventionally KVM the console access and SLI graphics cards while sending three non-gaming sessions over Cat6 (non-IP). This is still not exactly what we need to play blurays and 3d games remotely on the same PC. But it is sure damn close.
Ncomputing.com offers a non-3d setup for $170 on tigerdirect. It allows you to play dvds and browse the net and office docs across tons of PCs for cheap. No bluray, no gaming, 33ft range limitation, and only 1024x768 res.
If they will make a product geared towards American family needs instead of third world countries, you would all find buying another computer is a ridiculous and wasteful answer that could instead be solved by a glorius multiseat rack server solution. I still await this product in the future.
First and foremost...
Does the game allow you to run 2 instances at once AND login to the same account on both instances?
World of Warcraft does not, as when you login a second time the first session gets booted.
http://hotkeynet.com/index.html
I use this for multi-boxing WoW, and it seems like it could handle the input. Perhaps run her copy against a different monitor, and use hotkeynet to pipe the input over to yours?
(And for multiboxing WoW, I just LOVE the PiP. It is SO awesome to be able to reach up and click on the little screen and use healbot...)
Yep. If there wasn't any sex, there would be no people and, hence, no problems! Abstinence for world peace! Err... Slashdot for world peace?
I've been married for 9 years, together for 13. Any ideas you have about suggesting people change their standards mid-relationship should be tempered. My drive is significantly higher than my wife's. From time to time, I get some thought into my head that I should be more sensitive and a little less aggressive. Every time, this leads to her having confidence problems because something changed and she has no idea what it is. Pouting continues until my experiment with sensitivity ends. She knows what she has in her skull is everything I want in a life mate, but it's important for her to know her body occupies a certain percentage of my brains too.
"14+ cm"
How in the world did I never think of measuring in *centimeters* before reading your post? Brilliant! Genius! Thank you! Thank you!
I am not left-handed, either!
And you only get that much until you're married.
I realize you're joking, but still, this meme just isn't true. Married people have significantly more sex than others. See, e.g., Money, Sex, and Happiness: An Empirical Study. (Money required, but I was able to get it e-mailed for free by providing my college e-mail address.) For instance, the chart on page 20 indicates that 44% of the general population has sex on at least a weekly basis, 56% of married people, and 43% of people who have never married. One of the authors' findings is "unmarried people say they have much less sex than those who are married".
Of course, usual disclaimers about self-reporting apply. Strangely, if you add up all the heterosexual males' reported sexual activity, it ends up being much higher than the sum of the heterosexual females' reported sexual activity . . . but still, there seems to be no reason to doubt this specific point.
MediaWiki developer, Total War Center sysadmin
Better yet, look at those off-lease business computers, the kind with no PCI slots and an external power supply. Big companies lease them by the ton, and then ditch them after a few years. Brand new, they're maybe overpriced, but used, they cost a pittance. If you pay more than $150, you're getting ripped off. Lots of them on eBay; "external power supply" is a good way to find them.
Doesn't sound like a good gaming computer? Well, I'm not a serious gamer, but the Dell SX270 I have does quite well with 3D graphics. And the Intel 865 graphics chipset is on the CoH recommended list. If you're looking at a computer with a different graphic chipset, compare it against the recommendations on help.ncsoft.com.
just give her a controller, any controller, doesn't have to be attached, and tell her that your monitor is what she's playing. /works for my 4 year old niece //what? ///no really, what?
I've had my Gentoo box set up for multiseat. Warning one: do not use old PCI video cards. Me and my roommate could play UT2004 at the same time. But on the PCI card it sucked bibles. I you want to do multiseat get an SLI PCIex board and two PCIex video cards. Warning two: two audio cards makes things much easier for splitting audio to multiple sources. Warning three: multiseat works best for general internet browsing, videos, word processing, etc. If you want to game, multiple computers are more cost effective. Warning four: Windows sucks. You can multiseat basically any newer Linux distro and run a VM Windows in each seat. For the most part doing what you want to do isn't that hard but; games want all the horsepower they can get.
I did this a couple of times, so that a friend could play counterstrike with me on my laptop with a nice video card. I installed virtualbox freeware edition(http://www.virtualbox.org), and installed a copy of Windows XP inside it (I had an old valid key). I installed the Vbox guest additions, which allow for a lot of cool features, including 3d acceleration within the host. I installed a USB keyboard, mouse and audio, and had the virtual machine grab them. Lastly, I hooked up an external monitor, dragged the VM onto it, and made it fullscreen. At this point, I was able to control my Vista host with my laptop keyboard and one mouse, and the XP host with the other set, and we even had distinct audio. Oh, I also had to disable mouse pointer integration to help keep the mice separate...I think. But it was awhile ago, and I haven't messed with it for a bit, so my memory is kinda shaky. That betwin software sounds easier, as I had to do quite a bit of work to set this up and work out the bugs, but if you have an old license to XP lying around, the rest is free, and you get to geek out.
Someone should perhaps chip in and tell this guy what routers are for. A lot of people less technically minded are still stuck thinking it's one internet connection per computer. So then that backwards thinking would lead to a solution multiple gaming sessions on the same computer. (And there's no other valid reason that would lead to wanting that other than being really really cramped for space. Although I'm sure if one knew where to look, they could probably find one case or another made to hold multiple motherboards in minimal space. I believe those are called mini-server cases?)
If the guy has a netbook, there's probably a wireless router sitting around somewhere already. There should still be a few extra sockets for things beyond the primary computer and network printer. Just get another computer setup already and some cheap ethernet cable, it not that expensive and it really is the easiest way.
Over the years this idea has surfaced a number of times. In fact I used to sell something of this sort. When computers costed five thousand dollars there was a financial reason to do this. Sharing one computer for two users taxes the CPU resources and causes sluggish operation. Much of the cost of such a rig is the two monitors and keyboards and mouses and audio. These days with computers that cost only several hundred dollars, and less used, it is just as well to use separate computers. There are lots of slightly down-level computers laying around. Try a computer recycling center near your home.
Or maybe not. How do you know which of the different kinds of relationships are more likely to "end poorly"?
I know one thing: without good sex, a relationship definitely isn't going to work for me.
Seems to me that if the dumb bimbo is your fiancee, the sex isn't meaningless at all, because having sex with your fiancee is an important aspect of a normal relationship. Besides, being a "dumb bimbo" doesn't mean someone isn't also a nice person or a good partner.
If the women you're sleeping with are not your real friends, it's no wonder you don't like spending time with them.
Install ESX as a hypervisor, and then create a VM for you and another for your partner. ESX lets you dedicate PCI devices to a specific VM, so you can dedicate one graphics card and USB card for you; and another pair of cards for your partner.
No, I will not work for your startup