Multiple instances of the game

[Brommakis]

Hey!

Do you use 1 installation or 1 for each game? or another setup?

i ask because i have some issues with 1 random toon not responding after the last "tool update" from Blizz...


anyone else?

ohhh ye ive done all the wtf and cache cleanup

[Ualaa]

I play off of one install of warcraft.

With the virtualization of the config files, which most of the top software options provide, there isn't anything gained from multiple copies of the game.

I could see someone putting the Cache/Data folders onto an SSD drive, via symbolic links, because those folders don't change often and are what is read -- so you get the gains of an SSD and prolong its life.
Newer SSD's are rated to last a long time; mine is rated to last a million hours, and I'll have upgraded my system several times before then.

[Tim]

I personally have found the best performance doing this:

1x WoW for your "main" account (the one you play most often)
1x WoW for all your "alt" accounts to each share and use

The reason why I do this is so I can easily set up different addons/uis, and even have my main WoW install on a faster drive, or separate drive, than the other 4. Traditionally you'll want your main WoW to have more resources/graphics/consumption than your other alt game windows, since the main one is the one you pay attention to the most.

[EaTCarbS]

I use symlinks so that I can use different settings on each client.

[Tim]

I tried the symlinks thing myself but I found that performance just couldn't be beat when I put 1x WoW on it's own SSD, and the 4x WoWs on something else.

Considering that the 1x WoW with all the graphics chugged up on high take 1.2G of ram, and the 4x WoW only take about 250M, I think the HD requirements (I dunno, to pull up the graphic files?) are probably scaled in the same way, so you could put the 1x WoW on a dedicated normal drive, and maybe the 4x on the OS Boot drive?

I just like the 1x and 4x more than symlinks

Then again, when the heck are RAMDRIVES coming out? I'd love a drive where I could pop up 32 memory sticks that are 4GB each and then have a 128GB drive that is 32gigs/sec.

[Ualaa]

I can't see how you can beat 1x Warcaft, on your fastest drive.
Reading from a second drive, SSD or otherwise, won't be faster than reading from:
a) Ram, if its already in memory; or
b) Your fastest drive, which the single install is on.

With the virtualization of the configuration file, there's no advantage to symlinks at all.
Sure you can use them...
But they don't get you anything different from a virtualized config file, and an extra copy of the config file is fewer resources than a symlink.



Samdeathwalker had a thread on the other site, regarding a Ramdisk.
www dot dual-boxing dot com/threads/45043-8-Slot-Dimm-board-%2864G%29-coming!

His links were:
Eight DIMM slot based Gigabyte LGA 2011 Motherboards
LGA 2011 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
AMD to Discuss Bulldozer CPUs at Hot Chips 2011 | DailyGadgets

The advantage is Ram is so much faster than even an SSD.
The disadvantage is that you need to load the information into Ram, and if you shut off your PC or have to reboot, that's all lost.
Another disadvantage is price; 8x 8GB sticks, at $399 each, is essentially $1600 just for the ram.
Not saying you'd need to use 64GB like Sam...

[Brommakis]

i actually want to twist this alittle bit you are talking of whats loaded into memory, i dont really have that problem its more like when blizzard makes bad code as i see it and a good example is Northrend when the zones are to big and there is to much that is beeing loaded into Gfx memory and computer memory - there i get that most annoying "follow is broken" dong from Jamba they use some strange "not in the same phase" thingy in that expansion and it behaves strange for me as MBoxer, i may be alone with this problem!! - i now have 2 Force GT disks on sata 6 and 2 instances 1 for toons and one for master - this is so far working best for me with less loading time, And! somehow it dosent mess upp my settings from 1 start of the games to another... lite the graphic settings... (i know pwnboxer have settings but they are overruled by blizz). so am happy cow at least for now.

regarding symlinks - i stopped many years ago putting in "extra" software so do things for me - its like the time of the Download Accelerators... if you have 56k modems the darn grey box won't work faster if you use software enhancing magic stuff ;D

[Ualaa]

The phase lines are an annoyance.
And there's nothing we can do about them.

I see the idea as great, if you solely single box.
As then, you're not using follow, so it won't break.
And the area can progress...

There aren't as many phase lines in Cataclysm as there were in WotLK, which is a good thing.
That was the expansion where they experimented with the new technology.

[Tim]

Phase lines blow

We need an addon to warn of where phase lines are.

Once you know where the lines are at, it can simply be overcome by pressing the FORWARD key and having it broadcast to move all your guys forward and across the phase line, then just re followmode.