I am looking at boxing, but seem to have an issue running EQ in windowed mode. There is probably a setting I am overlooking, but when I go into window mode all my buff/chat etc windows dont scale. So what it looks like is these windows take up almost all my real estate. Is there a way to make these windows scale when you go into windowed mode?
No but you can look for custom UIs at http://www.eqinterface.com/ that are smaller. If you have the screen space you can stretch the window out to see more. Having your display resolution set up higher will make everything smaller as well. You can also try closing some windows you don't use much, like the Actions window (Alt+M), Extended Targets, extra chat windows (or minimize them, but trying to restore one that gets a ton of info, will sometimes crash the game, and generally lock it up for a short while, if it doesn't crash), songs, combat window, if you're not a melee (most hybrids can have the 8 set and not need to change them, nor see them, if they use the keys for them, or set them to a hot bar). Seems like there's some more that I'm not remember that are good to close. I use a UI with small buff icons, so it doesn't bother me to leave it up. Actually I leave most of them up, usually just overlap multiple chat windows instead of minimizing them. Yther Ore.
Yah you manually have to re-size your various bars, chat boxes etc., if you change resolution in this case. As others have said, there are modified UI’s that have “smaller” or “minimal” versions of bars or boxes etc. You can do that or you can simply do it yourself. Heck most of anything now can be completely modified vertically, horizontally,… I no longer need to use a moded UI other than 2 specific things I like. Running EQ in window mode is a labour of love. I cannot begin to tell you the work I have done to get it to work the correct way. For the longest time I ran 3 instances of EQ on one computer. Each was in windowed mode, each running 2560x1600 on my 30” monitor. Actually it’s not really 2560x1600 it would be a bit smaller since I manually changed the size of the windows to 2560x1568 so that it would sit on top of my task bar. I would switch windows using my mouse not the ALT TAB. I would also always have email, other stuff open so this gave me the option to do so… as I can always see my taskbar at the bottom. Again the resolution is based on YOUR monitor’s resolution so I am just stating mine. Once you run EQ and are on your character, in your options you can choose windowed mode and then the size of the window so 1920x1080, etc. whatever size your screen is. You can, if you have enabled “resize windows” in eq, physically change the size of window. I have had nothing but issues with this thus I manually change the resolution in the eqclient.ini file to the size I want. (What I said in the first paragraph). If you are using Windows 7, there is also a very annoying feature by default in Windows that “snaps” windows to certain positions which was soooo annoying. It’s under your control panel, Ease of Access, then Make it Easier to Focus on Tasks, then scroll to close to the bottom and find where it says “Make it Easier to Manage Windows”. MAKE SURE you click the “Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen”. This gives you full freedom as to how and where you can move your windows. Also going back to the EQClient.ini file, there is one more option there, and since I am at work I cannot give you the name but it’s I believe called “always on top”. You want that to be FALSE. Why? Because as EQ loads or you are zoning, if that is on TRUE in windowed mode, you cannot do anything else. If on the other hand it’s on FALSE, as things are loading I can move from account to account or email etc. Very important when boxing or anything really. Also you can change the size of text and text on hotbuttons now that helps. If you have a large resolution, using the /chatfontsize command (use 5 or 6) really helps to make text bigger if that is an issue for you.
Once you get your UI for a given screen size figured out, save the layout so you can get it back using the copy layout feature under options. The way to save is to camp out with the layout you want in place, then go into your Everquest directory and make a file copy of your UI_{charname1}_{server}.ini with a different name, like UI_{charname1}_{server}_50L.ini, to indicate it is your setup for when that character occupies the left 50% of the screen. When you later want to retrieve that layout, it should appear in the list of layouts available under Copy UI, using the "windowed" version. I don't use the same layout for the right side of the screen, I like more of a mirror image that groups all the hotkeys in the center of the screen for quick mousing between the two character banks of hotkeys. So I save the other character UI as UI_{charname2}_{server}_50R.ini, for the char played on the right 50% of the screen. I have a different set for three boxing, with UI setups for the left, middle and right 1/3 of the screen.
I also run 3 instances of EQ on one machine, with one monitor @ 2560x1600 res. I do not resize the windows manually. Just Maximize them and it does not interfere with the Windows taskbar at all. Never had a problem with it. Also never had any interference with switching to background tasks. There's no need to hack the INI files. Windowed mode is the way to go.
Windowed mode doesnt work well for me. I cant change my resolution...nor the refresh rate nor bit depth. Everything runs choppier, and I feel like I run slower. I need it for game text triggers, though. Any suggestions?
What do you mean you can't change those settings? In-game? In-Windows Control Panel? Changing them in-game is not necessary in windows mode as it uses whatever resolution Windows is set at. In the old days I had a computer that I played maximized windowed mode and it would have a problem if not set to same size full screen as windows when in windowed mode. However, that was many years ago, and may have just been that particular video card and due to the limits of it. It was the minimum for many, many years. Anyway, more details, would help. Yther Ore.
When you do Window Mode for the first time I think it scales funky like 800x600 or something maybe even bigger than your moniter, but this should be an easy fix in the Options menu when you set a resolution again. No custom UI is needed, that is just silly advice. You have to find the right resolution AND maximize the window. Maybe posting a screenshot would help resolve this matter I just logged in and messed with resolution... What works for me is 1600x900 and then I click the "maximize" button top right corner, and everything looks good from there. Edit: actually most of them worked and I cant tell the difference between any of the big ones, once I click Maximize it all fits nice and snug:
When I switch to windowed mode, the pull-down menus don't work for me, I have nothing that actually will pull down, even though it looks like I should have something to pull down. Also, in windowed mode, I pretty much max the window to be as big as my screen, but I do lose a LOT of vertical space at the top of my screen.
I use WinEQ 2 for boxing 3 accounts in windowed mode with no problems. From the lavishsoft.com website: "Lite (free, with no purchase or trial required) features include forcing the game into windowed mode, session-switching hotkeys (two-way cycling and global activation), custom window titles, custom eqclient.ini and eqlsPlayerdata.ini for EQ1, automatic CPU round-robin (improving overall performance on PCs with multiple CPU cores) and more." I am usually wary of addons for obvious reasons, but this is no hack or cheat, just a config utility for running multiple instances of the game in windowed mode.
I have used WinEQ2 for years, and it is completely and 100% legal to use, SOE has said so in the past. On my newest machine I can run five accounts at the same time, with all settings maxed (except shadows, no machine can handle EQ shadows) before I start to see any video lag from spell effects. The free version works just fine, the premium version has a few more bells and whistles I prefer, like full screen emulated, which is windowed mode, but looks full screen. Using this program, you don't get the choppiness you would by running EQ alone in windowed mode.
I tried using WinEQ2 when I first got this computer, because EQ in Windowed mode has a ginormous titlebar up top that eats up too much space (Win 8.1). WinEQ2 always seems to have little wrinkles running across it in 2 or 3 places for me, that makes text difficult to read. Is there a solution for that, so I can go back to having EQ in windowed mode?
If you pay the subscription fee for WinEQ2, you can run in full screen emulated, which is just windowed mode with no window bar at the top. It's pretty seemless, and on my daughter's laptop running Win8.1 there is none of the creasing you mentioned. Of course, you could always use the cursor to move the window up so that the bar isn't but the slightest visible, and stretch the window down to fit the bottom of the screen. Honestly, the only solution that I know of that eliminates the problem of a window bar AND creasing, is to subscribe, so you will have to decide if that's something you are willing to do. They do have a trial I think, so you can test it for a week and make a more informed decision.
It's just the creasing in WinEQ2 that's an issue for me, when i use it. The huge bar is a problem when I just play in windowed mode of regular EQ.
winEQ2 works well simply for the ability to use key commands to swap between your boxes... (unless there's a way to do that in the standard game windowed mode that I'm unware of... I hate using the mouse to swap)
