IS:ISBoxer

Introduction

The ISBoxer Suite includes ISBoxer Toolkit, WindowSnapper, KeyMapper and Repeater. ISBoxer Toolkit is currently in Beta, that helps configure WindowSnapper, KeyMapper and Repeater, as well as other unique functionality for multi-boxing with Inner Space.

Downloads

ISBoxer Suite

Quick screenshot of ISBoxer Toolkit. Click to enlarge.

Current Beta release:

• 2009-02-24 Build #22 installer: Lavish.ISBoxerSuite.Beta.22.exe

The ISBoxer Suite installer will install ISBoxer Toolkit, WindowSnapper, KeyMapper and Repeater. Please install to your Inner Space folder (which should be selected by default during installation).

Upgrading to a new version

No special upgrade instructions at this time. Simply install the new version, and it will be compatible with your old settings.

Known Issues

Some of these issues are not attributed to bugs in our software. Any known bugs in our software, however, will be fixed as soon as possible, and noted here.

• All Games
  • AltGr key is not working properly for producing Alternate Graphics on international keyboards. Fixed in Inner Space build 4888, please update Inner Space to resolve this issue.
  • Alt+Num keys are not working properly. Fixed in Inner Space build 4888, please update Inner Space to resolve this issue.
• Lord of the Rings Online
  • Num keys are not broadcasting properly. Fixed in Inner Space build 4896, please update Inner Space to resolve this issue.
  • Must be used in DirectX 9 mode (no DirectX 10 support at this time, sorry!)
• EVE Online
  • Window positioning and border option for the main region of a Window Layout may not apply properly
• EverQuest 1
  • For best results please make sure you are on Inner Space build 4895 or later, and ISBoxer Toolkit build 19 or later!
  • Quitting to Server Select (leaving from Character Select) resets the game window even if "prevent the game from repositioning" is enabled
• World of Warcraft
  • Mouse broadcasting accuracy may degrade at extremely low framerates
  • Mouse broadcasting may not work properly if Hardware Cursor is disabled. You may need to check that Hardware Cursor is enabled in the World of Warcraft video options (click Resolution on the left), and it may help if Reduce Input Lag is disabled (not checked).
  • Slow performance can be expected when running multiple sessions on one PC if the "multisample" setting is higher than 1x. To improve performance, find the Multisampling drop-down in the World of Warcraft video options (click Resolution on the left, and the Multisampling box will be in the upper right), and select an option that includes 1x multisample (for example, 24-bit color 24-bit depth 1x multisample).

Instructions

The following is a very general overview of the process of using ISBoxer Toolkit. Everything you need to know is designed to be built in and easy to use and understand. If you need help, please let us know so that we can help you with it (see Join us in chat, below), and then correct the problem in our software. We also have walkthrough videos (see below) that demonstrate actual configuration with ISBoxer Toolkit.

1. Make sure Inner Space is installed, and has been run at least once.
2. After making sure Inner Space is closed, launch the ISBoxer Toolkit (note: you may need to right click and select "Run as Administrator" if using Windows Vista or Windows 7)
3. Create one or more Character Sets. A Character Set defines a team you will be playing. See the Walkthrough Videos below for general assistance with setup.
4. Find one of the two ways to Export to Inner Space (the Walkthrough Videos may help you if you cannot find one)
5. Launch (or re-launch) Inner Space
6. Launch a Character Set from the Inner Space menu (under ISBoxer Character Sets)

Walkthrough Videos

Once you have ISBoxer Toolkit installed and the Inner Space scripts (WindowSnapper, KeyMapper and Repeater) extracted to the Scripts folder as described above, you can watch our new walkthrough videos for some helpful explanations.

• ISBoxer Toolkit Overview Part 1
• ISBoxer Toolkit Overview Part 2

Next we will be working on videos that will show more information for specific games, such as World of Warcraft (including how to use FTL Modifiers), EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Lord of the Rings Online, and others.

World of Warcraft: Using Hot Character switch notifier

The Hot Character switch notifier feature of ISBoxer can be used to notify all Characters of the current Hot Character. In World of Warcraft, this is typically used to set the Focus Target (there may be equivalents in other games that can be used in a similar fashion). If you are not familiar with Focus Target in World of Warcraft, it is basically an additional unit portrait frame that can be used to help cast spells on, follow, or assist a specific player. If you do not intend to use Focus Target for another reason while multi-boxing, and do not mind manually pressing an Assist key to make your followers assist, this is the simplest and easiest method to be able to switch to using any of your Characters as the main while playing.

An alternative method is configuring a bunch of World of Warcraft macros to determine which modifier keys are held down, and automatically assist a different player accordingly (see Using FTL Modifiers, below) -- this would remove the need to press an Assist key, but requires a lot of extra work, a lot of extra keys, and is quite confusing to the typical player. Using the Focus Target method requires very little additional World of Warcraft configuration, and does not require replacing your Action Bar buttons with macros, creating a separate macro for each action, or un-binding any World of Warcraft key bindings.

Step 1: Create World of Warcraft macros

This method requires the following macros on every Character:

1. /follow focus
2. /assist focus
3. /focus <name> -- for each Character

So, for example, if you have 3 Characters named Alice, Bob and Charles, the following macros would be required on each Character, identically for all Characters:

1. /follow focus
2. /assist focus
3. /focus Alice
4. /focus Bob
5. /focus Charles

Note: For advanced users, all of the /focus macros could be combined into one macro. This tutorial is not intended for advanced users, who probably already know how to set up their Focus Target-based macros.

The easiest way to create all of the macros is to log all of the Characters into the game, then use Mouse and Key Repeat (with no white or black list) to create identical macros on each character. The process goes something like this:

1. Log all Characters into the game
2. Turn on Mouse and Key Repeat
3. Click the menu button at the bottom of the screen to get the menu that has buttons for video options, key bindings, interface options, macros, and so on. The menu should open on all Characters (assuming each Character is at the same video resolution in-game)
4. Click on Macros in the menu to open up the Macro editor
5. Click on the Character Specific macros tab at the top, in order to create macros for these specific Characters, instead of making them apply to all Characters on your account
6. Click the New button at the bottom to create a new Macro
7. Click in the "Enter Macro Name" box in the window that opens, and type a name for the macro. For example, you could name the "/assist focus" button "Assist", the "/follow focus" button "Follow" and "/focus Alice" might be named "Alice"
8. Select an icon from the list. It doesn't really matter which icon you select. I never show the action bar that has these macros on them anyway, and ideally you shouldn't either (unless you want to, it's up to you)
9. After entering a name and selecting an icon, click the Okay button
10. Now you must type in the "Enter Macro Commands" box. If creating the Follow macro, type "/follow focus", and so on. The exact commands for each are listed above in various places.
11. After entering the command, you are done with this macro and may continue creating the next macro. Repeat until each macro is created.

Once your macros are created, you will need to assign them to an Action Bar in order to create key bindings for them in the game. Here is an example process for doing so, but you can place them on any action bar and assign any key combinations (note that you do not actually have to press the keys you are setting here, so they can be as obscure or complicated as you like):

1. In the Interface options menu under Action Bars, show Right Action Bar 2
2. In the Key Bindings options, assign Key Combinations F6 through F12 to the first 7 Right Action Bar 2 actions (if you have fewer than 5 Characters, you may not need all of them, but this will show how to do up to a full group of 5 Characters with the 2 macros for Assist and Follow)
3. In the Macros window, drag the Follow macro to the top slot in Right Action Bar 2, the one that should be labelled F6
4. Drag the Assist macro to the next slot in Right Action Bar 2, the one that should be labelled F7
5. Drag each Character Focus macro to the next open slots in Right Action Bar 2, which should be labelled F8, F9, and so on, in the order that is configured or will be configured in your ISBoxer Character Set Slots -- so that the F8 button corresponds to the Character in Slot 1 (window 1), the F9 button corresponds to the Character in Slot 2 (window 2), and so on
6. In the Interface options menu under Action Bars, you can now hide Right Action Bar 2 again so that these macros are out of sight and out of mind!

Step 2: Configure ISBoxer to use our macros

First, set up the Hot character switch notifier in your Character Set, for each Slot:

1. Check the Broadcast keystroke button
2. Click the < button in the box next to it to pick a keystroke -- make this correspond to the Character Focus macro you made in World of Warcraft for the Character. In the example given above, this means F8 for Slot 1, F9 for Slot 2, F10 for Slot 3, and so on.
3. Select between "When above hotkey is pressed" and "Any time I switch to this character". It's up to you. With the hotkey option, the key will only be broadcast (and therefore the Focus Target only changed) when using that hotkey to switch windows, as opposed to also when you alt+tab, click, or any other method to switch windows. I use the "Any time" option, which broadcasts the keystroke any time I switch windows, regardless of the method used.

Next, set up Mapped Keys for Assist and Follow:

1. If you do not have a Key Map that applies to your whole Character Set, make one now by creating a new Key Map, and dragging your Character Set into it
2. Create a New Mapped Key for Follow
   1. In the Hotkey box, pick the key combination you actually want to press to make your other characters follow you. As I have a G15 Keyboard, mine is the G16 key, an easily accessible key. It is recommended that you do not make Mapped Keys that you would normally use for typing in a chat window, so it would be a bad idea, for example, to make it F. However, Alt+F or Shift+Alt+F would be appropriate.
   2. Create 1 Step for the Mapped Key
   3. In Step 1, add one Keystroke action. In the Target box, select "Window:All w/o Current". For Key combination, put the key combination assigned to the "/follow focus" macro in the game
3. Repeat the above for Assist, using a different Hotkey to assist, and using the key combination for the "/assist focus" macro in game

You're done! Save it!

World of Warcraft: Using FTL Modifiers

Note: FTL Modifiers are NOT configured by ISBoxer to broadcast with Repeater. You will want to use Key Maps.

FTL Modifiers can be used to designate the currently active Character (also known as the Hot Character, aka the window you are clicking or pressing keys in). This allows macros to be created inside World of Warcraft that determine which modifier keys (CTRL,ALT,SHIFT) are pressed, and assist or follow that Character accordingly.

A good, and less complex, alternative to using FTL Modifiers is the use of Focus Target (a feature of World of Warcraft). If you do not need Focus Target for another purpose, and do not mind hitting an Assist key, using Focus Target is the easiest solution. Detailed instructions on setting up this alternative will soon be available here.

Step 1: Select modifiers to designate a Character

First, select a combination of modifier keys to be used for each Character.

"Standard" FTL modifiers for up to 5 Characters are as follows:

1. CTRL+SHIFT
2. CTRL+ALT
3. ALT+SHIFT
4. CTRL+ALT+SHIFT
5. CTRL

... but any combination that suits your fancy is fine to use.

In your Character Set configuration for each Slot, check the boxes for your desired FTL Modifiers for that Slot. In the above example sequence, that means that Slot 1 would have Left Ctrl and Left Shift, Slot 2 would have Left Ctrl and Left Alt, and so on. World of Warcraft and Inner Space do support the use of the right-hand modifier keys should you want (or need, e.g. having more slots than key combinations the 3 left-hand modifiers will allow).

Step 2: Create World of Warcraft macros

This is the hard part. Instructions to follow soon.

Step 3: Create Mapped Keys

1. FTL Modifiers must be enabled for any Mapped Key you want to use with FTL. This can be done either by checking "Use FTL Modifiers" for an entire Key Map (which will apply to all Mapped Keys that don't specify otherwise), or for individual Mapped Keys (which by default will follow the rules of the Key Map they are in).
2. Each Keystroke Action added to any Step in a Mapped Key will then automatically apply the FTL Modifiers assigned to the Slot they are sent from. If you are playing the 1st Character, the modifiers from Slot 1 will be applied. If playing the 2nd Character, the modifiers from Slot 2 will be applied, and so on.
3. If the Character you are playing is to receive a Keystroke, you will need to specify its Keystroke separately (it can be the same key) with Current Window, in order for it to NOT receive the FTL Modifiers. Otherwise, for example if "2" is sent to "All w/ current", the current window will also receive the FTL Modifiers for its own Slot. If "2" is sent to "Current Window" it will NOT receive FTL modifiers, even though "2" may be sent to "All w/o current" to have all of the other windows receive 2 with the FTL Modifiers.

Example

• Slot 1 FTL modifiers: CTRL+SHIFT
• Slot 2 FTL modifiers: ALT+SHIFT
• Mapped Key: Hotkey is "2". Step 1 sends "2" to Current Window, and "2" to All w/o current.
• What happens when playing Character in Slot 1: You press "2", Current Window receives "2", and all other windows receive "CTRL+SHIFT+2"
• What happens when playing Character in Slot 2: You press "2", Current Window receives "2", and all other windows receive "ALT+SHIFT+2"

Some people like to put their FTL macros on a separate key instead of the key pressed in the main window

• Slot 1 FTL modifiers: CTRL+SHIFT
• Slot 2 FTL modifiers: ALT+SHIFT
• Mapped Key: Hotkey is "2". Step 1 sends "2" to Current Window, and "]" to All w/o current.
• What happens when playing Character in Slot 1: You press "2", Current Window receives "2", and all other windows receive "CTRL+SHIFT+]"
• What happens when playing Character in Slot 2: You press "2", Current Window receives "2", and all other windows receive "ALT+SHIFT+]"

Using Multiple Computers

With Build 20

Information coming shortly -- you can still use the old process for Build 19 if you wish.

With build 19

While configuring for multiple computers is not fully implemented in ISBoxer Toolkit yet, it is possible to use multiple computers with a few extra steps.

Step 1: Configure a Character Set for each Computer

First, set up each computer individually with any desired Character Sets, Window Layouts, Key Maps and so on. Many features will automatically work with multiple PCs, including Repeater and Mapped Keys that send Keystrokes or Key Map actions to either All (with or without current) or Groups (Action Target Groups). Any feature that requires selecting a Computer (such as a Slot in a Character Set, or Mapped Key Light actions) will not yet work and may be removed from final functionality (specifically regarding the Slot in the Character Set, that will probably go).

Because Character Set Slots are same-PC only when selecting a target for sending a keystroke, if you want to use an individual Character on another PC as a target, you will need to create an Action Target Group with only that Character on it (on the PC that the Character is running on), and an Action Target Group on the PC to send from (so that it will show up in the list of targets). Action Target Groups will work as long as the Computers are connected together (see Step 2 below) before launching the Character Sets.

Step 2: Connect Inner Space on the Computers

Here, we must network Inner Space. This part is currently best done with a Star topology -- that is, any number of PCs connected through one central PC. Designate one PC that will connect to each of the others. Don't worry about how to do that yet, because first all of the other PCs need to have incoming connections enabled. On each other PC, open the Inner Space configuration window by right clicking Inner Space in the system tray (while it is running), and selecting Configuration from the menu. In the Configuration window that opens, at the bottom part of the General tab, is a check box that says Enable incoming connections on port (with 10101 filled in the box next to it). Check the box to enable incoming connections, then click Apply, and restart Inner Space. Incoming connections will not be enabled until Inner Space is restarted. You may need to open incoming TCP port 10101 in your firewall software -- as different people have different software, I cannot easily explain how that is done, sorry! You might not need to, you can worry about that if connecting fails from the main PC. After enabling incoming connections for each of the other PCs, the main PC must then connect to each of the others. On the main PC, select Console from the Inner Space menu, to open a command console window in the main program. You will need to enter a command to connect to each of the other PCs, as follows:

remoteuplink -connect 192.168.1.101

However, you must replace 192.168.1.101 in the line above with the IP address or name of the other PC. If you don't know where to find either of those, the name of the PC is the default value for the "Unique name for this uplink" box found directly above where you enabled incoming connections, so you can try that name. Repeat this step for each of the PCs that you wish to connect to.

The connection process will need to be performed again if you shut down Inner Space or the connection is otherwise terminated. This process will be automatic later on when the multiple PC features in ISBoxer Toolkit are completed.

Step 3: Launch Character Set on each Computer

Just like you were playing on individual Computers, you must launch the desired Character Set on each, in the usual fashion (select from ISBoxer Character Sets in the Inner Space menu). As long as the PCs are connected, everything should work as described.

Reporting Bugs

To report bugs or other problems you can do one or more of the following:

• Join the chat channel described in the section below and explain the problem
• E-mail to lax@lavishsoft.com

Join us in chat

We are on irc.lavishsoft.com in channel #isboxer, the best place to talk about and get help with all of the tools for multi-boxing with Inner Space! Whether you are already using it, or just have some questions for people who are, please feel free to stop by.

If you do not know how to join IRC, click here to join us via your browser! There is no registration process or anything, but please select a Nickname (alias) so you don't appear as "mib_5few93" or such from not having a name.

Coming Soon

Pending Updates (completed for next Build)

Currently in development (may or may not be completed for next Build)

Planned (not yet in development)

• Improvement to Repeater List creation: Box to press keys in to toggle in the List
• Improvement to Mapped Key creation: Ability to create multiple Mapped Keys with similar properties (e.g. 1 key to 1 key)

Release History

• Beta Build #22 - 2009-02-24 (to download this specific version: Lavish.ISBoxerSuite.Beta.22.exe)
  • Fixed mouse positioning in borderless World of Warcraft windows
• Beta Build #21 - 2009-02-19 (to download this specific version: Lavish.ISBoxerSuite.Beta.21.exe)
  • Fixed issue with missing CPU cores from Build 20
  • Fixed issue with new Window Layout warning message when Snapping is disabled
• Beta Build #20 - 2009-02-19 (to download this specific version: Lavish.ISBoxerSuite.Beta.20.exe)
  • Fixed "Swap Hot Character to main region when I press Slot activate hotkey" when Region 2 is set to be used for session 2 (as opposed to session 1 when inactive)
  • Added "Clear ISBoxer Toolkit Profile", "Copy ISBoxer Toolkit Profile to Clipboard" and "Paste ISBoxer Toolkit Profile from Clipboard" context menu options on the "ISBoxer" item
  • Added Window Layout warning when Exporting to Inner Space, for when the Window Layout does not have enough Regions for a Character Set configured to use it
  • Mapped Keys now show the Hotkey when listed in the main (top) section
  • Finished initial implementation for multiple PC configuration
• Beta Build #19 - 2009-02-17 (to download this specific version: Lavish.ISBoxerSuite.Beta.19.exe)
  • Fixed some EverQuest 1 issues
• Beta Build #18 - 2009-02-17 (to download this specific version: Lavish.ISBoxerSuite.Beta.18.exe)
  • Fixed an issue with the Hotkey picker window drop-down box giving an error on some systems or not fully populating
• Beta Build #17 - 2009-02-16 (to download this specific version: Lavish.ISBoxerSuite.Beta.17.exe)
  • Added Window Layout option to only "Swap Hot Character to main region" when a Slot hotkey is pressed, in addition to the other options
• Beta Build #16 - 2009-02-16 (to download this specific version: Lavish.ISBoxerSuite.Beta.16.exe)
  • Added message if Game Configuration could not be read from Inner Space that explains how to solve the problem
  • Fixed "Open ISBoxer Toolkit Profile" menu option -- it now loads the selected file!
• Beta Build #15 - 2009-02-15 (to download this specific version: ISBoxerToolkit-20090215-beta-15.zip)
  • Added Window Layout option to only "Swap Hot Character to main region" when a specific hotkey is pressed, instead of always
  • When launching a Character Set with a Window Layout that has Swap Hot Character to main region enabled, all windows will now move to their proper positions with the first Slot activated
• Beta Build #14 - 2009-02-13 (to download this specific version: ISBoxerToolkit-20090213-beta-14.zip)
  • Fixed FTL modifiers for international keyboards
  • Added Window Layout option to remove border around main window
  • Added Character Set Slot option to configure maximum FPS (foreground and background)
  • Fixed Launch Interval option (Character Set) and increased the default interval to 7 seconds between launches
  • Launching ISBoxer Toolkit on Windows Vista or Windows 7 with a non-Administrator account and User Account Control enabled should no longer cause the application to crash -- it should now instruct the user to Run as Administrator
• Beta Build #13 - 2009-02-09 (to download this specific version: ISBoxerToolkit-20090209-beta-13.zip)
  • Added Character Set option to configure the delay between launching characters
  • Added Window Layout option to cause mouse clicks that focus a window to not be passed to the game (useful for EQ2 and other games that would otherwise begin to mouselook, etc)
  • Added Character Set option to prevent the game from repositioning the window (e.g. EQ1, LOTRO) -- requires Inner Space build 4861 or later
  • Added Character Set option to cause the game to believe it is the foreground window (e.g. EQ2, LOTRO) -- requires Inner Space build 4861 or later
• Beta Build #12 - 2009-02-06 (to download this specific version: ISBoxerToolkit-20090206-beta-12.zip)
  • Implemented the "any time I switch to this character" Hot Character action
  • Fixed problem with not restoring current directory when importing/exporting (this caused ISBoxerToolkitProfile.XML to save to the wrong directory and subsequently not find the last saved version when launching again)
  • Extended the delay a little bit between Character launches when launching a Character Set
  • Added settings to Repeater Profile to have Key and/or Mouse Repeat enabled at startup
  • Renamed WindowSnapper Profile to Window Layout
  • Renamed Relay Group to Action Target Group
  • Added option to Window Layout configuration to disable the Hot Character switching to the main window region (for example, to play 2 characters on 2 monitors, each being full screen)
  • Added Glossary of terms, which should help clear up any confusion about what a given word means (such as FTL) and how the feature is used
• Beta Build #11 - 2009-01-28
  • Added Character Sets drag and drop to WindowSnapper and Repeater Profile pages
  • Added Character and Character Sets drag and drop to Key Map page
  • Selecting an item in the main tree will now default to selecting the root node in the item's page, instead of no selection. This also makes various things more apparent. (e.g. Game and Game Profile for each Character)
  • Renamed "Window" target descriptions for Character Slots to say Character Slots instead of Window (1 through 5, for example)
  • Removed "Screen Layouts", replaced with Computers (to be used for configuring multiple PCs). WindowSnapper Profiles can now use screen layouts from a given Computer instead
  • Reduced .NET requirement to 2.0 instead of 3.5 (this fixes issue with renaming things)
  • Added ability to assign actions other than keystrokes to Mapped Keys (e.g. load or unload one or more Key Maps, toggle indicator lights on devices that support them)
  • Added ability to import existing KeyMapper XML files
  • Known issues with Beta Build #11
    • Multiple Computers can be configured. However, exporting to Inner Space will not yet include the multiple Computer settings. This feature is still in development.
• Beta Build #10 - 2009-01-18
  • Fixed CPU Cores not applying correctly
• Beta Build #9 - 2009-01-18
  • Fixed some Repeater hotkeys not applying correctly
• Beta Build #8 - 2009-01-18
  • Fixed some WindowSnapper hotkeys not applying correctly
  • Exporting to Inner Space now detects configuration problems such as Characters not having a Game or Game Profile selected. Previously this would have only been identified when attempting to launch the Character Set
• Beta Build #7 - 2009-01-17
  • Fixed issues with WindowSnapper settings not properly applying when using PiPSqueak (session 1 borrows open slot option). Fix requires WindowSnapper 20090117 or later.
  • Added context menu to ISBoxer tree item
• Beta Build #6 - 2009-01-17
  • In the Hotkey picker window, the dropdown box no longer disappears when you're pressing keys in the auto-detect box
• Beta Build #5 - 2009-01-17
  • Screen display names are now sanitized. This fixes a problem where an ISBoxer Toolkit profile (configuration set) would be saved, but could not be loaded afterward
• Beta Build #4 - 2009-01-16
  • Hotkey picker window now has a dropdown box with available button names
  • Fixed Inner Space path not saving properly when changed
  • Fixed some bugs when Inner Space path is not set
  • If Inner Space path is not detected at program startup, a folder selection window will pop up to ask the user to locate it