Frequently Asked Questions (and their answer!)

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Why WowOpenBox?

Blizzard changed the rules to eliminate bad actors in mutiboxing making it hard to play my hobby (while leaving bots and farmers rampant!). I used to use ISBoxer (though not what I considered the automation features like timers or doing more than one action per key press unlike most "pro" setup) but with the new rules I decided enough is enough and we need the best possible software to be open and that some competition can only make the space better.

Compare WowOpenBox with other solution

See comparison page.

I heard WOB is safer than JMB, how so?

WOB is safer because it doesn’t require running as admin, doesn’t launch the games, doesn’t intercept their 3d output, doesn’t have input hooks, doesn’t phone home, is unrelated to innerspace, doesn’t force you to type your game password while it’s watching.

The chain Keyboard->OS->Game->OS->Display is never touched in any way by WOB/OMB, your keys go directly to the game, the game 3d goes directly to your screen; Unlike the competition, WOB never intercepts or manipulate anything meant for the Game - it just positions Windows and let you select which gets the input.

Also everyone and anyone can check the source code of WOB while no one can't see what's inside JMB.

Is Multiboxing bannable/reportable in World of Warcraft?

No it is not. Source: https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/24258

Didn't something change about Multiboxing in World of Warcraft in November 2020?

Yes Blizzard said you can't use software broadcasting anymore (send actions to more than 1 wow at a time)

Is Wow Open Box compliant with the new rules?

Yes, that is the exact goal, to have something verifiably compliant. WOB doesn't send anything to the game, it just helps windows and focus management and let you swap windows/change focus/set mouse follow focus mode, and all the cool features....

Note that your individual behavior (disrupting or abusing the game) can get you banned, don't hide behind software or addons, they aren't a shield.

See also #134 (If you know someone at Blizzard, please help confirm our assumptions)

Are WoW addons doing Follow me etc against the rules? Can I be banned because I use Wow addons?

Addons like https://github.com/mooreatv/MAMA-multiboxing are using the LUA sandboxed API provided by the game and thus can only do what that API allows. If Blizzard doesn't like some features they usually get rid of the feature (protect it) not ban the players.

Note that your individual behavior (disrupting or abusing the game) can get you banned, don't hide behind addons.

I get Access is denied trying to capture my World of Warcraft window

Make sure you exit the battle.net app fully and restart it not as Admin If you are still having problems, come on discord

I get access denied when trying to capture my SWTOR window

SWTOR itself runs as admin, so you need to right click "Run as admin" the OpenMultiBoxing.exe

When I swap windows my smaller window stay pixelated/low resolution

You can either make sure your window is set to "Fullscreen (Windowed)" before capturing it (best way is to launch with bnet app, set that as below, and exit to save it)

And window size is set to Default

Or you can be in windowed mode but the size shown must be the right one (shown in WOB) and the render scale must be 100%

Can I change the overlay color, position, transparency?

Yes, click "Overlay Config" for a UI to configure these settings (since Release 1.15.3)

My accounts are on multiple battle.net, how am I suppose to launch my WoW windows?

You can have multiple bnet apps open, and launch from any number, without having to retype your password, then capture the windows with WOB

make sure that last checkbox ^ is checked so you can have more than 1 open at a time

I don't want to use bnet, I want all my wow windows started right away

Download https://github.com/WowOpenBox/WowOpenBox/blob/main/launchwow.bat and edit for your number of windows, wow path, classic vs retail etc (you can make multiple copies for different setup)

Then double-click to launch and use and hold the WOB Capture hotkey to place all you windows at once: Ctrl-Shift-C by default

The first time this will copy your WTF\Config.wtf into Config-WOB1.wtf, Config-WOB2.wtf... so you can save individual settings per window (including save account email and license id).

Make sure this box is checked:

I want to change a hotkey or remove one completely

That's the one thing that there isn't yet a UI for and also may require to exit and restart WOB after editing the settings (but you can exit WOB at anytime and it just resumes where you left of, never a need to restart the games).

Click Edit Settings and search for the hk,... entries

For instance the line that says

	hk3,swap	Ctrl-Shift-F3

is to swap the window #3 to the main area (window 1 initial position). Change to anything you like. Use "" (empty string) to disable the hotkey entirely.

The hotkey doesn't work. I have an international keyboard

So for instance on a French keyboard, you can't use Ctrl-Shift-& (the top left key) you have to use the key code instead so Ctrl-Shift-0x31

Check first if the key has a name below and use that, otherwise you can get key codes on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/inputdev/virtual-key-codes

As time permits we'll try to add a UI for setting the hotkeys by simply pressing them (contributions welcome!).

I get an error that the hotkey is already taken

Check you don't have programs running that registered the hotkey, for instance AMD/ATI Radeon Software is know to take very basic hotkeys like Ctrl-Shift-C that WOB/OMB uses by default, you can turn that off in its settings.

What special key names can I use in the Round Robin key list?

In addition to any single character, you can enter one of:

ACCEPT ADD ALT APPS BACK BACKSPACE BKSP BREAK BROWSER_BACK BROWSER_FAVORITES BROWSER_FORWARD BROWSER_HOME BROWSER_REFRESH BROWSER_SEARCH BROWSER_STOP BS CAPITAL CAPSLOCK CLEAR CONTROL CONVERT DECIMAL DEL DELETE DIVIDE DOWN END ENTER ESC ESCAPE EXECUTE F1 F10 F11 F12 F13 F14 F15 F16 F17 F18 F19 F2 F20 F21 F22 F23 F24 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 FINAL HANGEUL HANGUL HANJA HELP HOME INS INSERT JUNJA KANA KANJI LALT LAUNCH_APP1 LAUNCH_APP2 LAUNCH_MAIL LAUNCH_MEDIA_SELECT LCONTROL LEFT LMENU LSHIFT LWIN MEDIA_NEXT_TRACK MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE MEDIA_PREV_TRACK MEDIA_STOP MENU MODECHANGE MULTIPLY NEXT NONCONVERT NUMLOCK NUMPAD0 NUMPAD1 NUMPAD2 NUMPAD3 NUMPAD4 NUMPAD5 NUMPAD6 NUMPAD7 NUMPAD8 NUMPAD9 PAUSE PGDN PGUP PRINT PRIOR PRTSC RALT RCONTROL RETURN RIGHT RMENU RSHIFT RWIN SCROLL SCROLLLOCK SELECT SEPARATOR SHIFT SLEEP SNAPSHOT SPACE SUBTRACT TAB UP VOLUME_DOWN VOLUME_MUTE VOLUME_UP

I have more than 10 windows, how do I setup hotkeys for them?

By default WOB only puts sample hotkeys using F1-F10 for focus and swap of individual windows. But you can edit the settings and add

	hk11,focus	some-key-sequence
	hk11,swap	another-key-sequence

etc for 12, 13... as you see fit (note that the settings are sorted alphabetically so settings for window 10 is between 1 and 2, not after hk9 as you might expect when searching in the file)

What is that RR direct keys field?

See the release notes for v4.6.3 where it is explained in some details. If you still need help, ask on discord.

My games are lagging

Make sure you check and set a maximum FPS for each of your game windows (if you are playing Wow, best to launch a single wow, make all the settings and exit so it saves to config.wtf that will then be used by all your windows)

For fastest switch you would use same value for max foreground and max background fps; with your graphic settings low enough that you reach that target fps on all windows at all/most times. In particular check you don't have expensive Anti Aliasing set nor a rendering scale above 100%, no MSAA etc in Advanced settings. Also try both DX11 or DX12 depending on your machine one may be smoother than the other. Check under performance monitor that you never hit 100% on any of GPU, CPU, Memory or it will lag.

Make sure while testing you have Ctrl-R on all windows to see in game FPS.

My game allows broadcasting, do you have a solution?

Yes, see the sister project https://github.com/OpenMultiBoxing/OpenMultiBoxing#openmultiboxing (Recently full key broadcasting support, replacing Round Robin there, was added in OMB 7, as well as left and right click broadcasting)

Are there videos?

Yes:

Tutorial/demo by the main author https://youtu.be/s4sCBdkXqUk

Confessor's custom classic instance run setup: https://youtu.be/InHlFNRqTBc

Furyswipes' comparison and ShadowLand Mythic boss downing: https://youtu.be/pwnpqsBt8rU?t=492