Using 1 Gaming Computer For 2 People? 424
True Vox writes "My fiance and I have recently taken interest in City of Heroes (she's currently got a character on my account). She's got a cute little netbook, but nothing nearly powerful enough for a 5-year-old MMORPG, let alone if we take interest in Champions Online! I am reticent to buy a new gaming computer simply for what amounts to a passing phase. Has anyone had any experience using one computer to control two monitors with two sets of input devices (e.g. two keyboards and two mice, or one keyboard, one mouse, and a 360 gamepad, perhaps)? I have seen one solution that might work, but not much information from users that I can find. In short, does anyone have any experience with setups like this?"
Computers are cheap - just get another box. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Computers are cheap - just get another box. (Score:5, Interesting)
Craigslist any 2+ ghz P4 1gb system for ~$100 and you should be able to play City of Heroes since that is the recommended system requirements [ign.com]. Slap in a $100 Radeon 4770 [techspot.com] (slashdot's new favorite [slashdot.org] card [slashdot.org]) and her system will probably run better than yours.... or you can continue to waste our time. Your choice, choose wisely.
Re:Computers are cheap - just get another box. (Score:4, Informative)
2Ghz 1GB is in no way useful... it's my own desktop's specs. (Well, 1.9Ghz to be exact.)
There used to be a time when playing CoH with a Geforce FX5200 was pretty smooth, back in 2005. When expansions like City of Villains came out, the engine changed a lot, and all the curvy landscapes bogged the PC down even if I was alone on the nearby map, using the superspeed power. The result was my needing to run 800x600 and 16 bit color, with 3D settings at like 50% detail.
Even without Heroes, day to day operations are slow on XP SP2 (even 2.0 versions of firefox run very slowly, let alone play running are very ). I'm not sure if it's just Dell's choice of architecture for my Dimension 2300. The fact that the machine has only one processor, makes things that I could do easily 5 years ago be a pain. I'm not in favor for upgrading and replacing old machines. The problem is that with Flash and Firefox forcing you to upgrade every 8 months, you end up with a world where even clean installs are too slow to handle the overhead of all the bloat out there.
At 2Ghz, even dual core, high-demand games such as any recent MMO will not be decently playable. Even if it plays OK today, the next set of patches can bring upgrades that kill your spiffy idle megahertz.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Really?
My kids system has a Nvidia 6600 256mb, 1gb of ram, AMD 2000XP and they don't have any real problems running CoH, it runs as well if not better than on my Core Duo with a Ge7400 512mb and 2gb RAM.
Of course, their system is Win2k while the core duo is XP, so that might explain it; I don't have good benchmarks on the XP machine for CoH because I just tested out the game (I thought it didn't compare well to Freedom Force), but it is, of course, a bigger resource hog than the Win2k machine. The 6600 is a
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Err... get process explorer and start shutting things down that you don't need running. View your system services (start -> run -> 'services.msc') and disable unneeded services from starting up automatically with boot. My Dell laptop is a P4-M 1.7Ghz with 1.25G RAM, running windows 2003, and it copes no sweat. I was running a 5 way browser test on a project I'm working on not too long back (IE8, Safari4, Chrome, FF3.1, and Opera (forget the version)), all running at the same time, no problem. (short s
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, I take it you haven't actually looked at Task Manager on a dual core (quad-core is, admittedly not that useful for games) system playing anything Source based/etc. Just check anything on this [tomshardware.com]. It's a little outdated, but so is your CPU.
Nothing wrong with a P4 for a lot of tasks, but you're deluding yourself if you think it performs better tha
Re: (Score:2)
Or he could just get one new. Newegg sometimes has CPUs as cheap as $30, and I guarantee they're more powerful than a 2ghz P4.
CPU - $30
Mobo - $50 or $60.
PSU - $40 (I never skimp on these)
Case - $? (Anything with free shipping; those things can be heavy!)
RAM - $10 (do you need more than 1GB?)
HDD - $40 (or salvage one from an old computer)
Videocard - $70 (Newegg had 9800 GTs going for $70 yesterday!)
Brand new, and it comes to around or under $250. Toss in some peripherals like keyboard/mouse/speakers and you'
Re: (Score:2)
Either you people have crazy hardware prices, or you and me really have very different ideas about skimping... 40 bucks for a PSU is cheap-ass, second grade, fell-off-a-truck stuff in my book.
But I agree. This problem does have only one solution. Gaming costs money, but in case of a PC you at least have a choice about exactly how expensive you want it to get.
Nobody would think to ask how to have two people game a single player game on a XBox 360 either, right? Neither should one try with a PC.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
PSU is cheap enough that it's worth it to me to spend a little bit extra to get a PSU which is quiet. This means it has a large diameter fan, and has plenty of power. Along those same lines, I like to get humongous CPU coolers with as much copper as possible so I can run without a CPU fan.
Re:Computers are cheap - just get another box. (Score:5, Informative)
...and if its a machine that will have a bunch of drives, I'd go with 800 to 1000 watts just in case.
I used to feel the same way about PSUs, but then I picked up a Kill-a-Watt [newegg.com] off newegg, and checked how much power my computers were actually using. Now I realize I don't need nearly as much PSU as I thought.
Corsair HX620 (very efficient)
Athlon X2 @ 2.8ghz
Asus M3N78 Pro
2x1GB DDR2-800
Asus 8800GS
4x Seagate 320GB HDD
1x DVD
Samsung Syncmaster 940BW
2.0 Speakers
Power consumption when playing Left4Dead? 170 watts from the wall. If I shut my monitor off, it drops to ~136w. If I shut my speakers off, ~128w. If I get out of Left4Dead and leave it at the desktop, only ~90 watts. (though once I turn the Monitor/Speakers back on, it's back up to ~130w)
I think the efficiency on most cheap PSUs must really blow; if you go with a quality Corsair one, you really don't draw a lot of juice...
But then again, Athlon X2's and 8800GS's are relatively low power, and Asus makes very efficient boards.
Re:Computers are cheap - just get another box. (Score:5, Informative)
I second that. I get a kick out of what I hear these days about PSUs... Retarded. People going out and buying 700, 800, 900, even 1000 watt systems, is basically a waste.
If you could see what I used to run on my old Dell machine which had a measly 230 watt PSU, I am talking like 6 HD, dual proc, dual optical, and enough USB crap to sink a ship.
The difference is between quality and crap (no idea if Dell is any good these days, likely not).
My last build I did a LOT of research on PSU, and believe me there is NOT a lot out there. There are a handful of gurus out there that know what they are talking about, I mean like that I could find from scourging the whole internet. However what information they had was spot on.
First the number they sick on the side of the box (900WATT!!!) is pretty much useless. Also brand names mean next to nothing. So good luck! lol. Basically there are only a few manufactures in China that build them ALL. They are then re-branded to whatever the buyer wants. Some manufactures make better PSU that others, some use higher end components, however it can be difficult to figure out which is which.
Efficiency is about twice as important as actually stated wattage (which is usually a lie anyway), and stability is about twice as important as efficiency. What this means is that when you computer goes from no load, to heavy load, and the PSU starts sucking power and shunting it to your components, how much does it fluctuate? You might be surprised to see how badly some of these oscillate up and down, and those dips can cause system failure and even damage components in severe cases.
Anyway thats as far as I want to go into it as it is a pretty complex thing, but there is a community out there though hard to find. I know I was pretty blown away by the truth about PSUs. Most of the companies mislead, and outright lie on their specifications it is pretty absurd.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
www.newegg.com part number N82E16820148240. 9.99, free shipping, and no tax. 5 egg rating @ 15 reviews.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
2+GHz P4s/512Meg are commonly found in dumpsters/recycling centres by now.
You're advocating spending 200$ for a system (Base purchase + Graphics card) where 300$ gets you a more capable *new* system. Also, you conveniently forget that P-IV class machines typically have AGP slots and those are hard to get these days. Your link goes even to a PCIe graphics card which is absolutely useless in these kind of machines.
Believe me, I'm a dumpster diver.... Spending 50$ on a dumpster diven machine, is pretty much
Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Sounds like you're complicating things a bit.
What you're not saying here is if you want to run multiple instances of the game at the same time. What kind of PC are you using now? It had better have a LOT of horsepower. 9/10 times, the simpler solution (a second gaming PC) is the smarter answer.
Keep in mind, Windows was not designed as a 'time sharing' system - at least not in the way you're thinking.
Hardware probably isnt the real problem. (Score:5, Informative)
Meh, it isn't that difficult. I had a friend get into 5 boxing on WoW. He got a beefy system a couple of years ago, and could run 4 or 5 instances of WoW simultaneously without any real problem.
Two things to think about:
Does the game you want to play with her allow multiple instances to be run on a single computer? WoW does, but you have to have multiple WoW directories. It is possible to program a game to force full screen mode or to terminate if an existing instance is already running. Do some research on the software before buying the hardware. Find out about any tricks you need to use to get it to work.
Find out about the game controls and UI. Chances are, while it might be possible to play multiple instances on one box, it might be a PITA because of the complexity of the game to share a mouse/keyboard. Multi-boxing works in WoW because one person drives multiple characters. Two people using a single keyboard and mouse would not work very well for that game. Other games might be different.
Search google for 'Multi-boxing' + '(your game name)'. Chances are someone has already tried what you are wanting to do.
Re: (Score:2)
CoX does allow you to run multiples instances, but you are going to need some hefty iron to do it.
Even better than googling would be to drop by official forums, people are pretty helpful in matters like this.
Re: (Score:2)
Most DO but sometimes you have to put a line into the preferences manually.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yea, this guy's right. Even if you could run CoH in multiple instances concurrently (which shouldn't be hard, it's not THAT resource intensive for an MMO, though it uses a bit more than WoW to look good), you can't easily make Windows understand how to use 2 sets of keyboards and mice concurrently.
Sure, the keyboard you could likely get past by having 2 and using completely different keys for each instance, but especially in CoH, the 1-8 keys, control key, and space bar are REALLY important... The mouse h
Re: (Score:2)
This is correct, I don't know what the process is on a windows computer, but setting up multiple instances of WoW in a single directory on a Mac is as simple as:
1. going into the WoW application folder
2. selecting the game icon (not the launcher)
3. hitting cmd+d or right clicking and selecting "duplicate"
Doing so will make a copy of the app with a new name ("world of warcraft" becomes "world of warcraft copy" etc) that uses the same directory.
Then you just download Clonekeys [google.com], which is mindbogglingly easy to
Oh dear...did he even search the internets? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Oh dear...did he even search the internets? (Score:5, Funny)
search?q=2+players+1+computer
Woah! You almost had me fooled and made me click on that link!
Re:Oh dear...did he even search the internets? (Score:4, Funny)
search?q=2+players+1+computer
Woah! You almost had me fooled and made me click on that link!
hah nice one anon...freud at work i s'pose.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Found it.
I was remembering a dongle, but this seems to fit functionality. Does CoH run on Win98?
http://www.dansdata.com/easyclone.htm [dansdata.com]
Hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
Cheap Refurbs? (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.dell.com/outlet [dell.com]
Considering it came with a licensed OS, it was cheaper than me building one.
just keep an eye on there, because they go quick. if it turns out that you can buy a better computer than what you have, just keep the new one and give her the old one...win-win?
DANGER! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! (Score:5, Funny)
head explodes
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
He's obviously lying.
He's 14 and his cousin's visiting for a few weeks and left his Alienware laptop charger in LA. Any adult geek of marrying age would have a few 2+ ghz PCs lying around that a cheap video card could be thrown in, or spend $100+ on Craigslist and buy a suitable PC.
Re: (Score:2)
Close.
It's actually his second cousin, and she's visiting him in Kentucky. That makes it all square.
(Hey, if you can't fuck your friends and family, then who can you fuck?)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Multiseat (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Multiseat (Score:5, Interesting)
And Windows? Hah. You can't even remote desktop to a Windows PC without kicking off the user at the console.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I've been waiting for multiseat linux to gel for years.
Are you joking? Multiseat on Linux is used everywhere and has been around nearly from day 1.
People usually start it up via
ssh -X someserver.com
or
ssh -f -L 5910:localhost:5910 someserver.com tightvncserver :10 :10
xtightvncviewer
Granted, there is no brain-dead mode for people who don't know how to use VNC or X, but, geez, it's one or two commands. You can run Gnome, KDE, or whatever else your heart desires.
Re:Multiseat (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Erm multiseat has been around and will always be around due to the xorg architecture. It has *always* been possible. There are basically 2 solutions:
*"the old way" setup xorg.conf with two xservers with seperate gfx card (it may be possible to do it on one gfx card but there will probably be driver/performance problems), keyboard & mouse. Additionally he can use a simple script to switch over xorg configurations and use the same setup as a dual monitor system. From a technical standpoint this is the way
Re: (Score:2)
You want to play the game *with* her, right? (Score:4, Informative)
Just get the cheapest inspiron from dell and dump the integrated graphics for...anything that's not integrated. Then you won't have to worry about virtual machines with direct graphics access or any other time sucking rough spots.
Also, if you can wait a few weeks, keep checking the best buy circular for the coupon code for the extra-discounted cheap dell machine.
Parentheses! (Score:5, Funny)
Parentheses, man! Learn to use them (or if you don't want to learn how to use them, just avoid using them (unless you are just trying to be hopelessly recursive (which is not always a bad thing))).
Multiseat is your solution (Score:5, Informative)
It can't be done with Windows (at least not to my knowledge), but multiseat on Linux these days is a cinch. Google has tons of resources [google.com] on the topic -- basically it involves a bit of xorg.conf hacking, and then Bob's your uncle.
I myself have done it before on an amd64 dual-core 2.2GHz system with two video cards, a GeForce 7600GT on PCI-e, and a GeForce 6200 on plain PCI. Worked beautifully. I could multiplayer FlightGear [flightgear.org] by running one instance on each seat. Each user can log on and off independently with their own keyboard and mouse.
This is a (blurry and fuzzy) picture of my setup [sunriseroad.net] (1280x1024 JPG). You can see glxgears running on each screen -- handled by the same computer. Cool thing about using two video cards is that each user gets his own GPU -- running two FPSes simultaneously (I tested Nexuiz) had absolutely zero slowdown.
Obviously fake. (Score:5, Funny)
Gamer with a fiancee? I can't believe you guys fell for this obvious troll attempt.
Re: (Score:2)
If I had any moderator points right now, you'd definitely be getting one.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't know whether to mod you funny or let my gamer fiance, who's sitting next to me, slap you over the internet.
We both game. He's playing GalCiv2 and I'm posting on /. and waiting for my Titan Expansion to finish downloading for UT3.
Fun with Xorg + Linux (Score:4, Interesting)
For goodness sake, just buy her a REAL MACHINE. (Score:5, Interesting)
My wife went through a passing phase a while back ago, so I got her a quad-core P4 w/4gb/500Mb, Radeon 1950 x 2 in crossfire, 41" monitor, Wireless mouse, Keyboard, joysticks, gamepads. Basically everything I wanted in a game machine, while I only had a small netbook (although I could play Farcry on my netbook so it wasn't that bad...)
I thought it was a GREAT idea... She would get tired of it and I get a new gaming machine that she would never let me buy.
Unfortunately, she loved it so much she kept it and I didn't get to "inherit" it all after the passing phase.
But at least she didn't give me any grief over getting (more recently) a much better spec machine, because it cost me a lot less than hers did at the time.
GrpA
Re:For goodness sake, just buy her a REAL MACHINE. (Score:2)
Re:For goodness sake, just buy her a REAL MACHINE. (Score:2, Funny)
... I ask as a wide-eyed youngin.
Re:For goodness sake, just buy her a REAL MACHINE. (Score:4, Interesting)
No, not always. It's usually worse.
Most wives seem to put computer hardware into the same bucket as sports cars, motorbikes, and substances (beer or otherwise) -- things that men often want, but never really need. Therefore, buying something new (a mouse, a motherboard, a DVD burner, another terabyte of disk or few gigs of RAM) is often a fight.
There are exceptions, but those are exceptional.
Like this:
First, my wife bought herself a nice dual-core machine. A little under a year later, she asks me to pick something out for myself...and I managed to find a nice quad-core SLI machine for about what she paid for hers. She said OK.
Use her netbook (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Have her use remote desktop (rdc / rdp ) to gain a second session on your box.
XP Home doesn't support it.
XP Pro will boot off the console user when a remote user logs in.
Vista is the same set of rules, afaik.
You need windows Server to active support multiple simultaneous interactive sessions.
And that STILL won't let you run a 3d accelerate game 'remotely'.
For the application at hand, it would be simpler to just buy a $300 budget gaming PC and be done with it.
Use a rental (Score:2, Interesting)
As a bonus, I guess your 'partner' could use it to 'play games' while in bed.
Still not going to work... (Score:4, Informative)
It is probably just better to build a cheap game rig. Simply do a budget gaming PC:
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 Wolfdale ~$70
Asus P5QL Motherboard ~$90
4GB DDR2 RAM ~$20
320GB hard drive ~$45
DVD+/-RW ~$25
SIGMA La Vie LBYWBP computer case with 500W power supply ~45 after rebate
ATI HD4770 video card ~$100
Total: ~$395
If you need an extra copy of XP or Vista, well that will be another ~$100, and if you need a monitor, another $100-150.
Re: (Score:2)
Bear in mind that the games mentioned by the questioner are MMORPGs, which generally are friendly towards runn
Re: (Score:2)
CoX will allow you to run two instances from one install. I do it all the time to xfer stuff between characters using two accounts.
A relationship obviously not built on respect (Score:2, Interesting)
"she has a cute little notebook.... what amounts to a passing phase."
Are this condescending to your fiance directly, or just when she is not around?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A relationship obviously not built on respect (Score:5, Funny)
"Are this condescending to your fiance directly"
Aww, you meant to say "are you this condescending..." but your little rage took over and the keyboard and the words got all confusing and it was all a bit much wasn't it? But it's okay, we knew what you meant, and it's just adorable that you tried so hard!
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Are you a full time femenist or just a whiner over the internets?
Oh come on now anonymous coward. Why can't I be both?
Priorities out of line (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude, wtf? You aren't going to be married long with this line of thinking. Get off of it and buy your woman a fantastic gaming machine and forget this crap. It shows you care. Priorities, man. She IS paying attention to your choices.
Seriously. WTH.
Re:Priorities out of line (Score:5, Funny)
I bought my g/f a PC (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't let her get into mmo's. (Score:5, Funny)
Its not worth it. She'll gain 20 pounds, lose her job, and end up blowing her 19 year old guild leader when she takes a trip to go "see her parents" so she can get some extra dkp.
I'm not bitter.
You need a server (Score:3, Informative)
Desktop environments - especially WINDOWS desktop environments - will not allow two people to log onto the same hardware at the same time.
Oddly enough, most Linux distros come with an X-server installed. Just create an account for her, she can log in, then direct the video output to her own netbook, or to a second monitor, or whatever.
To do anything similar on Windows, you MUST install a Windows Server, whether it be Win2K, Win2003, or Win2008. You CANNOT log multiple people on at the same time with Win9x, ME, XP, or Vista or Win7. Microsoft won't allow it, you ain't doing it without some SERIOUS hacking.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.google.com/search?q=multiple+remote+desktop [google.com]
Can it be done? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure. Is it worth it? No.
It's never worth while (Score:2)
Really, to use that program, or things like it, you still need a second video card. And even if you don't, by the time you have the input devices, speakers, screen, and game licence, what have you saved? You've saved about $400 of computer. Maybe $800.
If you planned to die tomorrow, then the $800 loss wouldn't matter. If you don't, then the $800 of extra hardware will eventually come in useful, even if she never plays again.
But most importantly, if you want her to enjoy it, and you want her to start gam
I've done it. (Score:2)
I have an idea that isn't RDP! (Score:2, Informative)
Multisteating Windows is crap. But heres an idea of how it could be done with Windows. This idea does not involve Virtual Machines (not suitable for games) or RDP (also NOT SUITABLE FOR GAMES FOR THE LAST BLOODY TIME!).
He could use the BeTwin software which appears to give direct graphics access (good for games) - and then to deal with the fact that a lot of games (Like WoW) don't like to run two different sessions at once (unless you are on Wine) you can also do some Application Virtualization using Sandb
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
False premise (Score:2)
I am reticent to buy a new gaming computer simply for what amounts to a passing phase.
The underlying statement here is: "if it's a passing phase, the money will be wasted because the new PC will be gathering dust".
But actually that's totally up to yourself. If it turns out to be a passing phase, you can simply sell the computer.
Champions (Score:3, Interesting)
Games are demanding (Score:3, Informative)
VM still lacks support for GPU, so it won't work either.
The cheapest solution would be a cheap overclocked system. Buy a reliable motherboard from Asus and overclock an Intel Dual-core CPU.
I bought an Intel dual-core E4300, 1.8 GHZ almost 2 years ago and at 3.2GHz is still able to give me 60FPS in almost any new game.
Ask People Over 40 (Score:3, Funny)
What kind of a geek are you? (Score:5, Insightful)
I am reticent to buy a new gaming computer simply for what amounts to a passing phase.
It works like this: She gets your current gaming computer, you then reluctantly get to go out and buy a quad core with 8 gig of RAM and a gig video card. This is the way of the geek relationship.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Cant do that without Windows Server. You've never been able to do that (well, it was in a beta of XP and I think in a beta of a SP once, but it got removed) on a desktop edition of Windows.
Re:RDP (Score:4, Informative)
Or just use a modified termsrv.dll [wordpress.com]
Now run along kiddo, this is grown folks business.
aEN
Re:RDP (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just wrong. Yes, it will let you connect multiple people to the same computer. However, you'll need another computer with which to connect from, completely defeating the purpose.
On top of this, it doesn't allow any sort of 3d acceleration, and if you somehow get it to work it would be a slideshow. Your grown folks business of hacking DLL files is dated, lame, and childish.
The posters only option is in Linux with multiple GPUs. MPX will allow it on a single screen, otherwise it's separate X servers.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, only Windows XP Home does not support a remote desktop connection.
In Windows XP Prof. you just have to change one single registry setting
(HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Terminal Server/fDenyTSConnections set to 0)
Re:RDP (Score:5, Interesting)
A tip for both you and the submitter: fiance is the groom, fiancee is the bride.
There's also an accent on the first e, but I'm not going to attempt it because Slashdot eats my unicode for breakfast.
Re:RDP (Score:4, Informative)
> because Slashdot eats my unicode for breakfast.
In theory, the accent should get mapped to ISO8859-1 - no need for unicode. Let' see: é.
And for the OP: forget it. It is possible with certain OS if you have low demands, but I think 3D acceleration never works on both monitors. Getting a slightly oldish PC and adding a cheap mid range graphics card would be a better approach.
Re:RDP (Score:4, Informative)
As someone who actually does this - I have one system with 3 monitors, another with 2 - it's possible. Is it easy? No.
First of all, all I know is linux. I have no clue about Windows.
If you have a separate GPU per monitor, you can get full acceleration. There's some voodoo you have to pull off to separate the GPUs in xorg, but the info is out there.
If you have a dual-dvi card with a single GPU, you won't get acceleration on either one as you have to run Xephyr on top of your X server.
If it's just a "passing phase", I'd go down to your local computer recycler, buy a relatively recent box for $100, and be done with it.
Right now Xorg is in a state of flux and maybe in 6 months or a year true multiuser will arrive with the rootless X server, but I'm not holding my breath. The xorg devs are doing a fantastic job, but it's a big job....
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
A) Just have her remote desktop into your computer, log in as another user, and play that way
B) fiance... fiance.... SPEND TIME WITH HER
A) Last time I checked, RDP has trouble with accelerated video. Has this changed?
[...and why is it always about "her" wants? Get a two way relationship for heaven's sake.]
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
i Remote desktop 4 windows 2003 servers atm, trust me no way in hell you are gonna play games over that its just way to slow to support such an operation.
Re:RDP (Score:5, Funny)
step 1: buy lots of old computers
step 2: buy some serial cables
step 3: beowulf the computers
step 4: use the rs232 cables with appropriate mices.
step 5: make sure you are using linux
step 6: direct the serial signals appropriately
step 7: either use a vm xp or linux to play the game
step *: never give up trying to make it work, remember, your time is infinite - spending $300 for a dell vostro is like spelling the word "DEFEAT" in a snowbank with dead penguin bodies.
Re: (Score:3)
RDP is NOT designed for 3D Games :-)
Really, the best option will be a second computer. You can buy great video cards just shy of $100, throw it in any computer with a PCI-Express slot, and be able to play CoH on pretty high settings.
Re:RDP (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Solution (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't know the answer that's fine, but don't cloak it by telling people to go outside. If I wanted to go outside I wouldn't read Slashdot!
Re:Solution (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Solution (Score:4, Interesting)
No. If they are trying to do something stupid or pointless the deserve to be told so. Also people should read this [catb.org] before asking questions.
Specifically this poster should have read this [catb.org] and done number 5.
Re:Solution (Score:4, Informative)
We can collectively stop answering these things with "don't" when people stop asking questions where it is the most appropriate response.
The answer to this question is definitely "don't".
There are ways to do it, but pretty much all of them involve far more money and/or time than just buying a reasonable PC for his fiancee. Hardware isn't all that expensive and solving a problem like this isn't easy, cheap, or particularly effective.
Slashdot gets a lot of these sorts of questions because for things where the answer is "don't" you generally don't find a lot of useful information from a google search and so people ask here instead. We tell them, don't, which is the best advice they can get.
Re: (Score:2)
That's not true. In fact, DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 hardware support it's one of the advertised features of VMware Fusion [vmware.com]. Indeed, Fusion can even provide exactly what the submitter is looking for [vmware.com] (see the section "Two" Computers in One)
However, to actually do this I'd suggest a pretty beefy computer, like a Quad Core Mac Pro with at least 4GB of RAM, and that's going to set you back quite a bit. It would be very significantly cheaper to, as s
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Umm what?
Linux could handle this just fine in 1994, so I think you are confused. Either that or basic functionality has been torn out between now and then, which doesnt seem very likely.
Re:Try having sex with your Fiance instead (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, unlike what virgins living in their mom's basement may imagine, sex is only a small part of the time spent together in a relationship.
For a start, you can't keep it up all weekend. (Cue the willy-wavers to come swear they keep it up 24/7;)
Second, a woman tends to get unflattering ideas if your interest in her starts and ends at sex.
Third, humans generally, that is, including men, have more needs than sex. Look at Maslow's pyramid sometime. There's stuff in there like safety, confidence, respect, self-esteem, etc, which are actually antithetical to the role of being just a pussy on legs. You can't get much of a feeling of security of the family if, for all you know, you're just a perfectly fungible sex object in that family.
Basically I dare say that if your wife's interest in you started and ended at sex, you too would probably get insecure and unsatisfied eventually. I mean, what hint would you have that you're not just there until she finds someone with a bigger tool or more stamina?
Re:Try having sex with your Fiance instead (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, stop being sensible on Slashdot, you're spoiling it for the rest of us..
Re:Try having sex with your Fiance instead (Score:5, Insightful)
Well they say sex is like air, is a much bigger deal to people deprived of it :-)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
For a start, you can't keep it up all weekend. (Cue the willy-wavers to come swear they keep it up 24/7;)"
Going with the assumption that this is a young couple, not even married yet, if they were more towards the norm, sex WOULD be one of the primary items on the agenda. I mean, that is normal early in the relationship. Think about dating, you're primarily there to
Re:Try having sex with your Fiance instead (Score:4, Insightful)
Going with the assumption that this is a young couple, not even married yet, if they were more towards the norm, sex WOULD be one of the primary items on the agenda. I mean, that is normal early in the relationship. Think about dating, you're primarily there to try to get in her pants. And usually...good sex leads the guy to thinking marriage might not be bad 'cause he'd like to keep that to himself on a perm. basis. The deep relationship that you're talking about, that comes along later after you are 'trapped' so to speak in marriage and are stuck together. If it doesnt' develop, the marriage isn't gonna work.
Good graciousness! Absolutely everything about this is backwards! Honestly, this is at the root of everything that's wrong in the world now. And it's not just the obtuseness of how to go about interacting with women, lest you misunderstand me. It's the complete abdication of anything resembling acting like an adult, and taking a long-term, responsible view of the future.
You DATE to find out if it will work. The SEX is just a side benefit. Try thinking with your BRAIN for a change. If the sex is good, you'll think ANY woman would be a good wife, and that's just STUPID. I know. Been there. Done that.
(Full disclosure: Happily married to the perfect wife and mother for 15 years. 3 kids. Deliriously sated with what happens behind closed doors. Did nothing but smooch until we were married.)
Re:Try having sex with your Fiance instead (Score:5, Insightful)
Good graciousness! Absolutely everything about this is backwards!
Has it occurred to you that different people might have different needs and interests in a relationship?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I can tell you all that as a girl (check real quick...yeah okay, I am in fact a girl) I would prefer to have sex. I tried to play NWN with my programmer boyfriend only to realize that though we were in the same room together, on the same designated server.....I still needed an upload of something else.
Sex is a HUGE part of EVERYTHING! Girls do want it, trust me. Monogamy, though unnatural (I am a biologist), does not ruin sex. I try on a regular basis to get the goods from my geek, only to be ignored for
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I'll have you know that thanks to my many years of tantric training, I am capable of...
Oh shit, I forgot my wife reads Slashdot. Excuse me, I have something on the stove.
Re:Try having sex with your Fiance instead (Score:4, Funny)
Fixed.