Multiple PC setup keymap issues (EQ2)

[Skarling]

Hi there,

I have a weird issue when running EQ2 slaves on my second PC (master is on main PC). My keymap is setup follows "Like a Pro" guidelines, with main DPS button calling priority-based keypress sequences - e.g. 1,2,3,4,5 on step 1 and 6,7,8,9,0 on step 2 both with assist to main. No tick for "do not advance" box in steps in eather Combat, Virtual or class keymaps. The problem is when I spam this key, everything works fine on Master and hotkey buttons stop getting "rolled over" on the last keypress, but on slaves they just keep on going off for some time like 2-5 seconds depending how many presses wirer on a keybind button. I opened an IS debug console and checked that the hotkey presses are passed correctly to all windows and each keypress is passed on at exact same time the button is released (according to debug window), but in reality the sequences are applied with a delay, which starts accumulating for longer fights and also if there are more than 1 key in a sequence. It looks like there is a buffer of some kind that stores the keypresses and releases them with delays. As I mentioned, there is no such issue on Main PC - the sequences stop at the same time I stop pressing keymap hotkey. I have Spell Queing turned off on all EQ2 clients too. If I start pressing mapped hotkey on slave PC, surprisingly the problem remains within slave PC - sequences get delayed even in the window where I press the hotkey - whereas keys passed to Master on Main PC are fine.

I also have a WoW team with similar setup (but with macro library-based priority system) and I run a test (with hotkey sending 1,2,3,4,5 to all windows and there is no problem whatsoever, so it appears the issue could be unique to EQ2.

I am at a loss as to where to look for help (whether this is hardware/software/game issue), thus the post in this forum.

Any advice will be appreciated.

[lax]

One of the things you have to realize with these games is that many of them ignore input unless the press has a different timestamp than the release. The more you cram into your button and the more you spam it, the more pronounced the resulting effect is going to be. And yes, absolutely, different games behave differently in how they buffer (or not buffer) and process input and there's several different APIs that game developers have to choose from when designing their input system. So, I can certainly take a peek again spefiically at EverQuest 2's input system (which I have not had to do for a while) but I just double-checked my code and there is nothing EQ2-specific right now that I can find.

I would highly recommend NOT cramming a send of every button into the same Step. There are numerous ways to "slow your row" here, including the ability to use additional steps, and possibly using one on press and one on release. You can have multiple rotations inside your DPS rotation by using a Do Mapped Key Action, etc.

[Skarling]

Thanks for a quick reply. Indeed, I now split the combat keys from one step into two - Step 1 does assist (keypress in EQ2) and Step 2 calls for approprate action in Virtual combat -> each Class map. I also limited each class sequences' steps via "do not advance" and "do once" tickboxes (melees for .3 sec and casters .8) while leaving each step sequence at 5 key sends. That seemed to help a lot, although I am still getting 1-2 delayed rotations after a prolonged fight. I also noticed that it helps if I don't repeatedly press spam key but let it be idle for a short while after resuming spam (I guess the game has a chance to "absorb" the delayed key presses that way).

Edit: It still baffles me though why on my Master the key presses and resulting key sequences are executed without any of these "buffering" issues, and it occurs only for my slaves. EQ2 does not have GCD, instead every ability has a cooldown, thus my desire to optimize casts by capturing spells that are off cooldowns by "rolling" keypresses. I used to have two-step macros for EQ2 but grew tired reshuffling spells in those macros each time I got an upgrade in spell rank while levelling. Having priority-arranged spells (grouped by 5) on hotbars is way easier.

[Skarling]

Hello,

Any news on this? This "buffering" is seriously annoying, especially in long fights, slaves keep doing abilities long after the fight is over :/ I could not find and optimal key step "do not advance", because my group haste can vary a lot depending its composition (e.g. if I take a dirge with me, he gives groupwide reuse and haste buffs, same if I swap inquisitor for defiler as healer etc.). I have read somewhere on EQ2 forums that the game can only buffer 1 keypress (to queue abilities) but in my case its like all of them.

I doubt its my setup, as it works flawlessly on WoW, besides I tested EQ2 by assigning "=" as single keysend of "=" to all windows, and it still keeps buffering up.

[Skarling]

OK, I noticed that movement/jumping keys were not causing any such buffering and changed my DPS keys' option "Hold any Keystroke Actions while Hotkey is pressed" to "On" (from default "Off"). That fixed it for me, although I've no clue why . No more buffering.