1pc Multiplayer make 2 programs accept imput

[Davros]

Since i have 2 monitors i had an idea
I made a copy of unreal tournament renamed it unrealtournamentx.exe to prevent conflicts then ran ut in a full screen window moved it to monitor 1. started a multplayer game.
then ran utx the same but on monitor 2 and i could join the game running on monitor 1
the problem is only 1 of them at a time will accept input (with totally different keybindings)
anyone know if there is a work around ?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I've seen a program that allows for multiple input sources combined with ability to control multiple windows simultaneously, but I can't remember what it was called. It was created specifically to allow multiple users to use the same computer without going through dumb terminals.

Regards,
SB

 

[pcchen]

There is (or was?) a program which automatically shift input focus to support multiple mice. However, keyboard input still requires focus so it may not work very well for games.

It may be possible to write some background program to manually send keyboard messages (i.e. WM_KEYUP and WM_KEYDOWN) to different windows, if these messages are not filtered by the OS (and if the game does not use DirectInput to read keys).

 

[Mize]

If you ran one in a VM you can pipe one device to the real machine and one to the VM, but that would be pretty slow for any current game.

 

[Blazkowicz]

You mean, using USB passthrough for a keyb and mouse?, or maybe a USB hub : that may be easier, else the host Windows will use the keyb and mouse as redundant primary input.
This is a nice idea as I can imagine Unreal Tournament being playable in software mode in a VM. You could even show two windowed 960x720 games on a 1920 wide monitor.


What you're really looking for is called multiseat. In linux, you can hack this yourself with Xorg configuration. If you plug in separate vid cards, you even have two separate graphical sessions (this pissed me off as I was trying to do an extended desktop) and you "merely" have to configure the inputs (good luck).
There are distros variants or software that allow to do this out of the box, I think. (So you merely have the pain of finding the software, how well it is supported etc.)

This linux thing is boring so here's the next thing, Windows Multipoint Server 2011. "Server" is a misnomer, as it is a multiseat desktop. Does precisely what you want, can do thin clients too. The only, slight detail is it would cost you a few hundreds dollars.
Lastly the "Xen VGA passthrough" dance, with two graphics cards, two VM and a motherboard with IOMMMU/Vt-d is "the" solution but again, boring and costs in time and money.

 

[Blazkowicz]

There is (or was?) a program which automatically shift input focus to support multiple mice. However, keyboard input still requires focus so it may not work very well for games.

It may be possible to write some background program to manually send keyboard messages (i.e. WM_KEYUP and WM_KEYDOWN) to different windows, if these messages are not filtered by the OS (and if the game does not use DirectInput to read keys).

What about Autohotkey : it's a great global hotkeys program and scripting language, it is capable of focusing a window and sending input events to it (so you can do ghetto automation of tasks), can replace a keypress with another one etc. and can do near anything, since it's a programming language.

For instance, in the comprehensive help file it comes with a sample script that can turn joystick input into mouse input.
Still, you would need a program that can read the second keyboard (and without Windows thinking this keyboard is connected and available to it). Then I think Autohotkey is able to do "focus on second Unreal Tournament window ; send keypress ; focus to first Unreal Tournament window".

/edit : I only thought of discrete key presses, not continuous ones, which are especially needed for movement. duh! plus you would basically need a bit of custom hardware / custom keyboard controller.
Maybe you can manage to play with simply using joystick input only (such as an X360 controller) on the second Unreal instance.

 

[Mize]

Parallels on osx could do this, but why not virtual box on win or Linux? Every usb device can be mapped to the host or any vm.

 

[Davros]

Lack of hardware acceleration

 

[Mize]

Lack of hardware acceleration

Parallels has 3d accel for up to dx9. not sure on other vms.

 

[Davros]

virtualbox has 3d support but I couldnt get it to work
virtualbox also had the same focus issues