Networked computers for addons - Tip

[Turbine777 13]

Hi guys, I only share sim interests with a couple real life friends and recently saw one of their home setups. Like a lot of people, he runs a few of his addon's on another comp. I was caught off guard when he called me asking what kind of KVM switch I used (Keyboard, Video, Mouse). After seeing his setup, I was very surprised he wasn't using the free "Synergy" tool. If you run addons on a networked comp and want to share the mouse and keyboard over a network it's easy. You set it up on both comps, and just like with multiple monitors you move the mouse from one to the other but over TCPIP. He was having to run back and forth between comps just to start his addons, then again to add settings etc... Quite frankly, was making me dizzy. I figured since he wasn't aware of it that a few of you might not be either. I've used it at work for years, and it's great for dealing with a networked addon rig also. Just move the mouse to the side of the screen and it appears on the other comp, then start whatever you need, change settings, etc... You can also use it for data on your clipboard, but only text, not whole files. It's free and spam free, so if you're also running back and forth a lot between your networked rigs, then it's a must. You can find it here. I just checked and there a few youtube videos as well, but setup is pretty simple and isn't really needed.

[Dougal 165]

Hi guys, I only share sim interests with a couple real life friends and recently saw one of their home setups. Like a lot of people, he runs a few of his addon's on another comp. I was caught off guard when he called me asking what kind of KVM switch I used (Keyboard, Video, Mouse). After seeing his setup, I was very surprised he wasn't using the free "Synergy" tool. If you run addons on a networked comp and want to share the mouse and keyboard over a network it's easy. You set it up on both comps, and just like with multiple monitors you move the mouse from one to the other but over TCPIP. He was having to run back and forth between comps just to start his addons, then again to add settings etc... Quite frankly, was making me dizzy. I figured since he wasn't aware of it that a few of you might not be either. I've used it at work for years, and it's great for dealing with a networked addon rig also. Just move the mouse to the side of the screen and it appears on the other comp, then start whatever you need, change settings, etc... You can also use it for data on your clipboard, but only text, not whole files. It's free and spam free, so if you're also running back and forth a lot between your networked rigs, then it's a must. You can find it here. I just checked and there a few youtube videos as well, but setup is pretty simple and isn't really needed.

Hey Dan, I must say a HUUUUUUUUUUGE thanks for this pointer. I have a couple of PCs and a laptop networked for my FSX setup and a whole mess of wires with my KVM switches, and two sets of keyboard and mouse!!!! A nightmare.Although it took my poor brain a long time to get it working, Synergy is brilliant!Thank you so much

[Turbine777 13]

Glad you like it Phil :) It is a great app, one I would never want to part with.

[Dougal 165]

Glad you like it Phil :) It is a great app, one I would never want to part with.

HOWEVER.... is there a way of using it while FSX is in 'fullscreen' mode?If I run FSX in full view mode, when the cursor leaves the screen, FSX minimises to the taskbar, never to be seen again :(

[Turbine777 13]

HOWEVER.... is there a way of using it while FSX is in 'fullscreen' mode?If I run FSX in full view mode, when the cursor leaves the screen, FSX minimises to the taskbar, never to be seen again :(

That's a negative I'm afraid. That's not an FSX thing or a Synergy thing, but a windows thing. You can bring fsx back up via task manager (switch to). I normally run in windowed mode but have it maximized so never had the problem. Besides that, after I get all of my addons going I don't often need to touch them other than maybe look at ASA's metar reports.

[Dougal 165]

That's a negative I'm afraid. That's not an FSX thing or a Synergy thing, but a windows thing. You can bring fsx back up via task manager (switch to). I normally run in windowed mode but have it maximized so never had the problem. Besides that, after I get all of my addons going I don't often need to touch them other than maybe look at ASA's metar reports.

Okay thanks. Shame though - I loose 50% of my already insubstantial frames when running in windowed mode.I'll just have to plan ahead better like you say, to have everything setup early.A great piece of open source though.This should go into 'Tips & Tricks' in the main forum area.

[Turbine777 13]

That's awesome! I'll have to note that down. Been a while since I used full screen here.Thanks for the info!

[aentwis 61]

Dan!Thanks for the pointer... one of the guys in my office mentioned this for Linux, I hadn't got around to checking it out for Windows...This would be really nice on my setup at home, as the USB KVM I use has some strange side effect that blocks the sound of FSX (only FSX affected though, not FS9) when I switch between computers... I haven't been able to find out so far if it is because of the key required to switch (2X Scroll lock) or whether it is a hardware interrupt issue with IRQs being shared and so on...Andrew

[Dougal 165]

It actually is possible to use FSX in fullscreen mode while using synergy. You just have to tick the box in front of 'Don't take foreground window on Windows servers' in the Synergy options menu. It works great now!

Yo! Way to go Kevin :( Thanks

[Flamin_Squirrel 71]

Slightly off topic - what are the advantages of running addons on another machine?

[Turbine777 13]

Slightly off topic - what are the advantages of running addons on another machine?

I'm currently running them off of a single box since I just gave two of my comps to fam. But, I used to always run 2 or 3 comps, even with fs2002. Back then it was because of cockpit building and using epic boards. I had a comp for my project magenta software, widefs and certain addons, my main comp with FS, and a comp for other addons with widefs.Depending on the addon, it reduces a great deal of overhead. Hard drive access times being done on two or more separate comps still means you have your main rigs cpu and memory being used about the same, but it is better. The main reason I did was I had 3 video cards in my main rig and 2 in each of the others. Now a days most cards have two outs per, back then you didn't see that until the Matrox G400. So, to make a long story longer,,, if you have 2 monitors hooked to your comp, and one running your ASA and other addons like STB (SuperTrafficBoard), you can run them while having the resources not be interfering with your FS rig. So with my current rig I have a GTX295 and a GTX260, this is normally for other games where I have the GTX260 for PhysX. I normally run in windowed mode for FSX so I can display certain addons on my other monitor, but on a second comp I could do this and still have the luxury of running full screed and benifiting from less system drain being given to what I'm doing on the others. WIDEFS is as remarkable as FSUIPC, and there are tons of benifits but it really can only be weighed with what you yourself have in mind to use it for. At the same time you are illiminating certain resources, with adding to the mix networking you also add a couple. So I guess the main reason for starters would be having a second comp with it's own video, that has its obvous benifits, and then second to ease the strain on memory and hard drive access between your FS platform and your addons. Rex2 runs great networked, but if your loading a full texture set with all the water classes and have "Made by MaTTel" hardware, you may not like it, but most addons don't send that much data between apps, or that frequently so having a network handshake isn't as bad as the system handling it all. Again, it really depends what you want. Back a few years ago, I had a sweet setup and the software took more advantage of networked rigs (for cockpit builder reasons with PM), so even if I didn't have all my comps in diffrent places right now I probably wouldn't have the same set up as then, but would definitely be running 2. Lastly, most of the time the alternate rigs need not be that great and hand-me-down comps are more than adequate, but again that would depend on your use of it.Sorry if this sounds rambled or confusing but it really depends on your intentions of it, kind of like when people ask "Will I get 30FPS from this comp?" haha.

[Turbine777 13]

Just read my last post here and boy, can I ramble,,, hope it isn't that confusing.I just wanted to add, right now my current configuration is #2 Western Digital VelociRaptors, one with my OS, and the other is just FSX and addons.