Two Computers, 3 keyboards/mice/one game pad

electrickpirate

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Ok, first off, hows everyone doing? i haven't been here is so long, prob well over a year. happy to see the board still up and healthy.

Anyway, i figure if anyone knows how to do this(if its possible) someone here does.

What i want to do is this:

Computer 1: its own monitor, keyboard, mouse.
Computer 2: its own monitor, keyboard, mouse.

A third keyboard, mouse and gamepad(nostromo n52, which its drivers make the computer think it has a second keyboard and mouse connected to it that is programmable with the pad's software)

Anyway, i want comp 1s mon. key. and mouse to work on it, comp 2s mon. key. and mouse to work on it, but 1 want the 3rd keyboard, mouse and gamepad to work on both computers simultaneously.

Ex.

i use keyboard1 to play a character/chat on computer1, use keyboard2 to play a different character/chat on computer2. Now, i want keyboard/mouse/pad to move both characters at the same time on both computers.(arrow key forward on keyboard3 moves both characters forward) Its kinda like 2-boxing. I dont want to use a normal KVM beacuse i want all 3 keyboards/mice active at the same time and not have to disable keyboard 1 or 2 inorder to use the 3rd.

is there a KVM that can do that with some setting, or with some MacGyver home modding.

thought about usb splitters, but then keyboard/mouse/pad would have power supplied from both, not good i think. thought about serial splitters, but can i go usb keyboard/mouse/pad, convert to serial, split?

also thought about a real-time keylogger over my lan. problem with that is i have no know idea how i'd take the log/txt/dat file from the main, on the secondary and convert it into virtual keystrokes. and even over my own lan, i don't think i'd like any lag.

thought about making my own usb splitter, find the wire/pinning and just not splice the power supplying wire from one of the computers, if thats even possible.


Thanks in advance for any info that can help here.
 
Simultaneously?

Not sure about that m8.

Going from one computer to the next you are going to be switching using a KVM in the traditional sense.

The best way would be setting it up as some kind of network device and sharing it that route, allowing it to take over both systems but I have usually only seen this with a kind of cloned/mirrored image on all systems. Never on 2 systems with completely different items being used.

Off the top of my head, trying to use a single input device on 2 completely different systems poses a whole host of issues.

Could you be a little more specific on what it is you are going to be running where you need 1 input spanning 2 independent systems?
 
More specifically, controlling 2 world of warcraft characters, each on thier own account, on their own machine with one set of keyboard/mouse/pad set-up. A few months ago, in AB I was witness to a trio of mages, all 3 were barely out of sync from each other as far as position, in fact you could still read the names that were identical except for the last character because the positioning was so close. each mage cast the same spell at the same time, moved at the same time.(he didn't have them 'on follow' because if you've played the game there is a 'follow' distance that is left. I believe it HAD to be one player with the instantaneous, identical maneuvers, had to be 3 accounts, and as far as i know, even in windowed mode, only one account would have focus at a time. each time one mage would die, he would suicide the other 2 so as to have all 3 rez at the same time, in the same place so he could continue to play all 3 mages identically. i've never seen anything like that before, in any game or application of any type. there was no perceivable lag in actions from the 3 characters, hence my thought of it having to be one input piped to 3 machines, or one input to one machine, but somehow keeping 3 windows in focus at one time. 3 machines just seemed more likely because of the demand 3 instances of WoW, and 3 windows in focus causing some confusion visual. its also possible he could run 3 instances of WoW.exe one one machine, each having its own monitor, but still, 3 apps all having current focus?? just seemed easier to split the input 3 ways than set up yet another app to run all 3 WoW.exes. if it was one machine, it must have some KILLER ram/video hardware. my only thought was splicing/soldering the 'A' and 'B' channels of the KVM together at the output port side, effectively bridging the signals being sent to both machines. seems like keyboard/mouse/pad wouldn't be complicated, or not as complicated as bridging the video, which i don't want or need to do anyway.

now, i know there are some cheats and hacks for WoW, even with Blizz putting a fair effort into stopping it. however, looking at the combat logs, it was 3 different characters, which requires 3 accounts. i cant recall his name, guild or server, but it was 3 different toons. i know some people can be ever quick with a keyboard. i used to play both players in tetris way back when and got pretty good at it, but with no lag at all between actions, and every movement, every action, and suiciding the living toons to meet up with the dead ones, with everything he did happening absolutely simultaneously, i don't see how it can be done without 1 set of inputs, or some app that can take input in one window and route it to 2 other windows as input without them having focus.

have to say, whatever this guy did, im both confused and impressed. i'd like to do it too, but i want to do it more because how how complicated it is, and i just want to know how to do it more than play 2 characters, two accounts at the same time. don't think it would be all that hard to play the game like that actually. click to move would sync the toons, same character class would make it easy, and with independently assigned macros, even clicking on the same button can have both characters do something differant when/if need be.

i am fairly computer knowledgable, don't need to ask for help often at all. but from what i witnessed,

it was 1 input to 3 machines
or
it was an app piping input in one app to 2 other apps not having focus
 
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That is interesting.

I would have to say they must have all been on one system and he must have had some setup allowing 3 instances to run.

Just thing of the input lag and other variables that come through by connecting 3 systems together (or even 2) with 1 set of peripherals and having a simultaneous input.

I guess it's possible, I just don't know how.

I asked a buddy of mine who is a WoW guru and he said they are probably bot's with some high level macro's running, although he was a little confused why the other characters would kill themselves, as am I :)

That or it was piping (whatever that means)

But who knows.

By the way, if it is bots/macro's, it's cheating and the bloke's probably going to have all the accounts banned sooner or later :)
 
yea, thought of bots, and i guess if you were an absolute god at macro programming in xml/wows macro language, you could do it. i know bts run all the time in pve, but to run bots pvp? and smart targeting? he didnt act like a bot/macro. sometimes he'd go for the most wounded, sometimes stay on target. i don't know either. what i do know is more than using that to play 2 wow accounts, i just want to know how thats done.

(piping, sorry, prob some slang from work, but as an example, one water pipe feeds your house, but its piped out to all the sinks showers, toilets, ect. piping water lines takes the same feed to multiple locations to be used on demand, same thing with electrical wiring spliced to multiple outlets, your drains are all 'pipped' to one main drain, so, just use that sometimes. incorrect terminology i know, but to me regardless of the means or media the effect is the same - one source(keyboard, water, electric) turns to many locations the media is available(sinks, toilets, outlets, or multiple computers) also, i vaguely remember 'piping' being used to describe the function of a pentium level processor, might have meant something else though and don't remember it being used after the pentium line(5x86) pentium 2+ didn't use it, don't remember a reference to piping in the mmx versions either.
 
What my friend said is if they have an adequate way-point system programmed as well as being given appropriate task levels/decision making (or something like that) they can act almost like a real player.

I don't know beyond that :)
 
Wow.... a little more complex and deeper than I want to go, but very good links, thank you.
 
Dude that be wicked having 2 people in AB farming honor...But wouldnt blizzard think you being suspecious?
 

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