Quick Setup Wizard 41

From ISBoxer
Jump to: navigation, search

ISBoxer 41's Quick Setup Wizard includes significant improvements since ISBoxer 40! Most importantly, the wizard gives you the opportunity to select a style of configuration, with new defaults that may be more adapted to your game. For example, Diablo 3 players will now enjoy an Action RPG configuration style instead of starting with the same settings as an EverQuest player; these games have a very different style of gameplay!

Starting the Quick Setup Wizard

The Quick Setup Wizard can be launched in one of four ways
  1. The Wizards menu at the top of ISBoxer Toolkit (next to the File and Help menus) includes a Quick Setup Wizard option
  2. There is a Ctrl+Q keyboard shortcut in ISBoxer Toolkit to launch the wizard
  3. Right clicking on "Character Sets" in the top left pane as if to create a Character Set includes a "Quick Setup Wizard (Recommended)" option
  4. If configuring for Multiple Computers, the "Character Sets" heading in the bottom left pane of a Computer can be right clicked for a Quick Setup Wizard option for that Computer

Page 1: Which game will you play?

The first page of the Quick Setup Wizard asks simply, "which game will you play?" A drop-down box is provided with a list of games that ISBoxer has some known settings for. If your game is listed, it is recommended to select your game so that ISBoxer can apply its known settings. If your game is not listed, just select "Other" at the bottom of the list in order to continue.

Page 2: Which characters will form this team?

Configuring Characters with the Quick Setup Wizard

After selecting the game you will be playing, next it is time to set up your Characters. On this page, a tree of automatically discovered Characters is provided for you, along with boxes for manual data entry. If your Character is listed, clicking it will fill in the appropriate boxes to the right. Either click your Character and verify the information in the boxes, or manually enter your Character's information and click "Add character to team".

Depending on the game selected, Account name boxes may be available
  • For World of Warcraft, there is both an Account name and a Battle.net account field. ISBoxer automatically detects the correct Account name for auto-discovered Characters, but it cannot detect your Battle.net account name. Filling in this box will allow ISBoxer to make sure your Config.WTF file for this Character has the correct account name saved, for easy login.
  • For RIFT, there is an Account name field. ISBoxer automatically detects the correct Account name for auto-discovered Characters (noting that RIFT keeps a history of the last 4 logins). Filling in this box will allow ISBoxer to make sure your RIFT settings file for this Character has the correct account name saved, for easy login.

The Inner Space launch "Game" and "Game Profile" settings will match a Game and Game Profile configured in Inner Space. This is how ISBoxer knows what game to tell Inner Space to launch. If you have multiple Game Profiles (for example if your game requires Multiple game folders to multibox) then this setting will allow you to configure the right Game Profile for each Character as you create your team. If no games are currently configured through Inner Space, a "Help me" link is provided.

Page 3: What will we call your new team? (Character Set)

Now that you have decided which Characters make up your team, it is time to give your team a name. This name will be used to refer to this specific team, which will be turned into a Character Set in ISBoxer. This will be used later on by selecting the name from a list of teams you can launch, so it is recommended to keep your team names simple, and easy to tell which team is which.

Page 4: Window Layout selection

Next it's time to pick a style of Window Layout. This page offers a drop-down box with a list of possible Window Layouts generated for your team on your monitors, as well as a set of properties that can affect the generated layouts. Existing Window Layouts that are compatible with your team are also included.

Peruse the styles in the drop-down box and choose one that is close to what you want. If any properties are changed, take note that the drop-down box resets and re-populates with different generated Window Layouts, and you may need to look through them again.

If you are not satisfied with one of the generated styles, it is recommended to choose the closest to what you want, rather than to choose no Window Layout and attempt to build one from scratch. After completing the Wizard, you can easily alter the size and position of any of the Regions in your Window Layout. To do so, select your Window Layout in the top left pane, and then select Regions in the bottom left pane; this will bring up the Regions editor for you to either click-and-drag, or manually enter precise size and position numbers.

Page 5: CPU Strategy selection

After choosing your Window Layout, the wizard will help you choose a CPU Strategy. CPU Strategy may significantly affect your performance (in terms of framerate/FPS) while multiboxing, and there are different reasons to use different strategies. ISBoxer 41's CPU Strategy page will try to select an appropriate recommendation for smooth performance for you, based on how many game instances you will be playing across how many CPU cores you have. (Previous versions of ISBoxer automatically defaulted to Round-Robin strategy, which was not optimal in a large number of cases!)

The drop-down box in the lower half of the CPU Strategy page provides the list of CPU Strategies. Each entry shows the number of Slots (game instances) that will utilize each CPU Core, as well as the total number of CPU Cores that each Slot will use. The closer those numbers are to the same value, the smoother the expected performance. For example, if it says "slots per core 1/3/1/3" this is indicating that some CPU cores are only used by 1 slot, while others are each used by 3 slots; therefore the expectation in this case is that some of the cores will be much busier than others. On the other hand, if it says "slots per core 3/3/3/3" then each is expected to perform about the same.

You can change your CPU Strategy later via the CPU Strategy Wizard if needed, so it is okay to be unsure about which is best. Choose a CPU Strategy (if you are unsure, use the recommended setting that has been selected for you) and let's move on!

Page 6: How would you like to control the game?

Selecting and configuring a configuration style with the Quick Setup Wizard

This final page of the Quick Setup Wizard will significantly affect how you use ISBoxer, so if there is one time that you should actually pay attention, it is on this page of the wizard.

Depending on the game you selected on Page 1 of the wizard, one of the following styles of configuration is automatically selected and recommended for you
Recommended only for ISBoxer veterans. This style of configuration starts without any of the standard Key Maps and Menus, and may require additional manual configuration.
Recommended for ISBoxer veterans. This style of configuration starts with minimal standard Key Maps and Menus, and may require additional manual configuration.
Recommended for ISBoxer newbies and veterans. This style of configuration includes a standard Menu and standard Key Maps for Combat and Non-combat. Broadcasting mode is off by default, with all other Hotkeys enabled by default. Includes a standard broadcasting Button Set to pass the standard MMO Hotkeys, 1 through =. (For World of Warcraft, defaults to an Assist+Broadcast Button Set for these keys.)
Recommended for ISBoxer veterans. This style of configuration is a more complex and advanced version of the MMO - Standard style. Additional Key Map assignment is expected with this style, which also includes a Menu Button Set for its custom Combat Hotkeys.
Broadcasting mode is ON by default with this relatively simple style, with no Menus in the way. Includes individual window control Hotkeys.
Recommended for Diablo 3 and Path of Exile, as well as similarly-played games. This style of configuration is designed to be suitable for Action RPG games. Broadcasting mode is ON by default with this style, with no Menus in the way. Includes individual window control Hotkeys, suitable for repositioning individual characters (such as for 're-sync').

Importantly, some configuration styles start with Broadcasting Mode ON by default (specifically the Generic Broadcasting and Action RPG styles), while most have Broadcasting Mode OFF by default. This reflects the expected state of Broadcasting Mode during multiboxing gameplay.

Beneath the configuration style drop-down box is a set of tabs with settings for various aspects of your new multiboxing configuration. In the Hotkeys tab, observe and customize some of the common Hotkeys that will be available to you. For MMO configuration styles, a Game Key Bindings tab allows you to tell ISBoxer what keys correspond to various Key Bindings in the game, such as Interact with Target; additionally, this page provides a table that you can use to fill in which keys each Character should use to Target each other Character in the game (usually corresponding to the "Target Party Member 2" sort of Key Bindings, e.g. F1, F2, F3, F4).

When the "Show me advanced options" box is checked, additional options may appear in the tabs you see, and a Control Groups tab and Key Maps tab help you easily set up Action Target Groups and configure default Key Maps; this is especially helpful with the MMO - Pro style of configuration, which will use additional Key Maps and is somewhat likely to use Action Target Groups.

Finished!

A MMO - Pro configuration created with the Quick Setup Wizard

Upon completing the Quick Setup Wizard, many things are configured for you:

  • A Character is set up for each of the Characters you told ISBoxer about
  • A Character Set is created with a Slot for each of the Characters
  • Your CPU Strategy is applied to your Character Set
  • Your Window Layout is created and applied to your Character Set
  • Key Maps are created depending on your configuration style, with your selected Hotkeys
  • Variable Keystrokes are created and filled in with the settings from the Game Key Bindings tab
  • A Repeater Profile, responsible for Broadcasting Mode and also optionally used by Video FX, is created and attached to your team
  • Virtual Files may be set up for your Characters depending on the selected game, to assist with game features like "Save account name" (for login) and in some cases per-window graphics and sound settings as well
  • Menus will be created and, in most cases, attached to your Character Set.
    • A Menu with the Key Maps/Menu Hotkeys and Broadcasting Mode toggles is always attached
    • For MMO styles, a Standard Menu is also optionally created for you (alternatively, you can tell it to use a Key Map for this instead of a Menu). The Standard Menu is mostly transparent, and can be repositioned over your Action Bar (or Quickslot bar or Hotbutton bar or whatever the game calls it) in the game for a simple visual indicator as you play, as well as the ability to click on your Action Bar for the same behavior using the Hotkeys. If the Standard Menu does not fit your Action Bar, simply adjust the sizes in the "Standard" Menu Template to fit!
  • For World of Warcraft, a WoW Macro Set called Quick Setup 41 is created and assigned to your Character Set