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what is keyclone
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essentially, keyclone is a p2p, unicasting keyboard emulator.
keyclone links applications together...enabling you to hit 'F1' within one application,
and having that key simultaneously sent to each of the other applications keyclone is managing. it will also
send those same keys to any other keyclones you may have linked in, which in turn will distribute the keys to
the applications they are managing.
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history of keyclone
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keyclone was developed by a single developer for use in a game called shadowbane (still the best
ultra-massive MMORPG i have played... 200 v 200 real-time battles, show me another game that does that). faced with overwhelming
odds, we needed more... and were lacking in personnel. the answer was obvious. we needed a force multiplier, and
multi-boxing was possible with the spare hardware i had laying around. keyclone was born.
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what is multi-boxing
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with computer hardware getting cheaper, many people had found numerous machines laying around
their house, not doing anything. realizing that playing their favorite MMORPG with two or more
characters was double the fun, multi-boxing was born.
some people will also run multiple game accounts on the same machine. this is known as multi-instancing. it is used
interchangeably with multi-boxing since many multi-boxers will also have multi-instances running on some machines.
check dual-boxing.com for a great community forum focused on multi-boxing.
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how many windows at one time
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keyclone has no realistic limit to the number of windows it can manage at any one time. system resources would
generally be the limiting factor.
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how to add windows
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with keyclone activated and running, click the 'add' button and click on the window you wish keyclone to manage.
the title of the selected window will appear in the keyclone list
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does it work with other machines
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yes. keyclone will pass your keys to other keyclones on remote machines anywhere on the internet.
simply enter the ip:port address of the keyclone you wish to connect to, and hit connect.
once the connection is established, a line will appear in the keyclone list. it shows the bytes/sec
sent and received along with the ip:port of the remote keclone.
 note: if you are using a firewall, you will need to allow keyclone to communicate to solidice.com for license
validation as well as communicate to your other keyclone machines.
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how to connect to other machines
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keyclone uses UDP to communicate to other keyclone when linking multiple machines together. You can specify
which port each keyclone uses in the setup dialog. the default port is 1320.
remember, if you are using firewall software you must enable keyclone to validate its license to solidice as
well as communicate between eachother.
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what is the do-not-pass list
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when you are multi-boxing, there are some keys you do not need passed to the clones, for instance left & right arrow.
in many games, looking around is key for the leader... but you don't need that one the clones, and it does eat valuable
cpu load trying to swing the camera around while multi-instancing.
to add keys to the list, go to the setup area, click 'do-not-pass' and click in the window just below the list.
then hit the keys you wish to add.
note: to remove keys, select the key in the list and hit delete
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what is round robin
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round-robin is a term from scheduling algorithms. basically,
it allows you to specify a key that will be sent to individual clones, one per keypress.
this is very useful in games where you have an action that can only be performed on a target once and has a cooldown timer.
if all 10 clones were to do it at once, it would waste 9 of them. instead, you round robin the key such that when you hit the
key, only one character will perform the action... allowing you to save the other 9.
to add keys to the list, go to the setup area, click 'round-robin' and click in the window just below the list.
then hit the keys you wish to add.
note: to remove keys, select the key in the list and hit delete
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what are hotstrings and keymaps
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this is beyond the basic... and is not needed for standard operation... be prepared
keymaps are a way to allow your keypress to be interpreted differently for different clones, or completely ignored.
basically, your key is mapped into a 'hotstring', a user defined word or phrase, and sent to the other clones
to be interpretted by the keymaps on each. the default behavior would be for a clone to ignore a hotstring. you must
load a keymap onto each clone you wish to receive the hotstring.
doing this allows you many different key combinations and potential command groups.
for more, click here: [FAQ - hotstrings]
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can i pause broadcasting
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yes. the override button toggles transmission of keys. by default, hitting the PAUSE key will toggle for you. you can specify
any key you want in the setup dialog.
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can i macro with keyclone
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no. keyclone is not a macro program. it does no timed events of any kind. it does not bundle keystrokes
or record/playback keystrokes. this is by design. keyclone will never have embedded macro capabilities.
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is keyclone legal for world of warcraft®
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this is the unanswered question. by the Blizzard terms of service(TOS), keyclone is clear. the intention of the TOS
is to stop unattended macroing. since keyclone does not support nor provide macroing or delayed actions, it would
be impossible to use it unattended. the result would be characters standing still doing nothing.
i have posted this question to the Blizzard forums and called their technical support/customer service looking
for a response. no blue response on the boards (administrators/moderators) but the vets almost unanimously agree it should be legal.
the Blizzard people i have spoken with
informed me that they actually multi-box at work (not using keyclone as far as i can tell...), but not to hold
my breath looking for an official word from Blizzard.
personally, i can only see it as helping people stay interested in the game (well, i am a bit biased here). after
all, there is only so much bank posing you can do before you realize there is no callenge controlling a single character
to kill the various mobs. but attempting to wield the power of 5+ characters would be a true challenge and fun to boot.
i could also see multi-boxing being a great thing for the hardware vendors... after all, who doesn't want 5 flat panels
around you, immersing you in the environment.
we'll see... for now i use the philosophy, "go until someone says stop"
[12 aug 2007] update: an exchange between Drakuleth and a GM
[30 aug 2007] update: an exchange between myself and a GM
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why isn't keyclone free
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why isn't everything free?
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i try to install keyclone, but it says 'Can't create output file.. msvcr71.dll'
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this is normally a vista issue. as you are trying to install keyclone into it's default directory, c:\program files\keyclone,
vista tries to enforce some level of security by stopping anyone that is not administrator.
to resolve this issue, make sure to run the installation as administrator (right-click on the install binary, select 'run-as admin')
once installed, you must also run keyclone as administrator
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i run vista, will keyclone work?
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yes.. with one minor adjustment.
you must run keyclone as administrator in order for it to be able to save settings into its keyclone.ini file.
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i downloaded keyclone, but it's not active
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keyclone is not free and requires activation through a one-time, $19.99 payment via paypal.
keyclone is also node-locked, requiring a copy for every computer you will run it on (hence the low cost).
you will have to buy each copy from the computer you are going to use. just install and run on that
computer... at which point you will be presented with the aboutbox informing you that keyclone is not active.
simply hit the 'get license' button and pay for that system's license via paypal. once paypal authorizes your
payment, your keyclone license for that system-id will be activated.
please note the keyclone system-id in case you need to transfer that system license in the future.
your activation allows you free upgrades whenever they are available. just download a new one and install over
your existing installation (you are not required to upgrade... normally... but i reserve that right in case of some
unforeseen problem) installing a new version will not damage your keymaps or other settings.
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i paid using an eCheck, when will keyclone activate
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that depends on paypal and your bank. living on the internet, we all come to expect everything immediately.
maybe someday the real world will catch up to us.. until then, it can take some time.
some countries seem to take longer then others to get the transactions completed. for this, i am sorry.
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can i move it to another machine
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yes. your license allows you to move your activation to whatever machine you wish... but that process is a
manual one, and requires interaction on my part (in other words, it could take a day or 2). contact me with
your old system id, new system id, and your email address you used with paypal. once i have those, i will
invalidate your old license and activate your new one. (i really should make a webpage for this...)
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i changed my system and now keyclone says 'LICENSE EXPIRED'
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if you change your hardware, re-install your OS, or get a new machine, odds are good that your keyclone system-id will change.
when that happens, your keyclone will pop-up as expired. this is due to the new system-id not being activated.
DON'T PANIC your license is still valid, and always will be... it's just not associated with the new system-id.
to fix the situation, please drop me an email (or PM on the forums) containing your email address, old system-id and the new system-id.
once i have that information, i will effect the transfer as soon as possible.
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do you have an email address?
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yes. please send any email requests to keyclone -a- solidice dot com
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i have more questions...
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you can PM me at dual-boxing, username keyclone... or you can send me a note via the contact page
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