Curse

imkey · May 10, 2009, 04:22 AM // 04:22

I want to share this project with the community. An open source (GPLv3 license) program to make opening multiple copies of Guild Wars simpler. There is also support for multiple Texmodded Guild Wars and experimental support for opening multiple Guild Wars of the same copy. (no need to make extra copies for quick mule sessions)

The instructions are in the readme.txt file distributed with the binaries. It does not make any changes to any Guild Wars files, so you don't have to worry about updates breaking it or you breaking the TOS.

Requirements:

Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 (server editions may also work)
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0+

Update - 2010/04/11:
v0.6 (2010/04/11)
* Fixed "-character" switch argument passing for shortcuts
* Shortcuts to launch individual copies may need to be remade to be compatible with new version
* Allows storing multiple profiles of same path
* Enables associating different arguments with same copy
* Added arguments wizard
* New art for buttons (less intense colors)

Notes

Video tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orwCDttJ3Iw

External hot keys notes
If you have using Vista/7, due to increased security policies of Windows, it is necessary to run the program that will be catching "key presses/clicks" at the same or greater privilege level as gw/gwmultilaunch. This means that if gw/gwmultilaunch is ran as admin, programs such as teamspeak or vent will also need to be ran as admin for it to be able to intercept hotkeys.

Vista/7 notes:
short version: Run the launcher as admin if the second guild wars window does not show up.
long version: See readme.

GWx2 notes:
If you have previously used GWx2 before, you may need to retrieve a fresh untainted gw.exe. Easiest way to do this is download the gw client from arenanet and start the installation. You only need to let it to download the first parts (you only need gw.exe). When it starts to really download lots of files, stop it. Move/copy over the gw.dat file from the original folder overwriting the much smaller gw.dat file in the new folder.

Download v0.6 - 32bit
Download v0.6 - 64bit
(Official links hosted by Google Projects)
http://code.google.com/p/gwmultilaunch/

The C# project solution source code is open for viewing/auditing.

Please post any suggestions here.
Please post bugs at the Issues Page if you have a Google account.

Older Updates

Update - 2009/09/26:
v0.6RC (2009/09/26)
* Fixed registry path setting for certain setups of Guild Wars on 64-bit oses (requires admin)
* It is strongly recommended not to install GW to "Programs Files (x86)" folder on 64-bit operating systems since this causes GW to set keys in the "Wow6432Node" node which requires admin access to write to.
* Fixed edited arguments not being used if "Launch" button is clicked while cursor still in arguments textbox
* Moved "Launch" button to left side and increased size
* Added warning message to confirm copy removal

Update - 2009/08/25:
Video on how to use for people still having trouble. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orwCDttJ3Iw

Update - 2009/08/23:
Wanted to refresh the UI on this to look more modern. It is also more multi-lingual with help of icons. If you are happy with old UI, stay with v0.5. This is mainly a refresh with one new feature. Master shortcuts. It reduces the need to create multiple shortcut. The create regular shortcut functionality was left in since it is still useful for situations in which you want to launch a specific account with specific augments. Useful for situations in which you made a shortcut to launch a copy with account A and one to launch the same copy with account B.

Also, I added preliminary compatibility with gw.exe which were modified by GWx2. I only did a quick test. Could use feedback on whether this works on your GWx2 modified exe.

Under the hood, the code was re-factored to be cleaner and more efficient.

v0.6b (2009/08/23)
* Interface refresh
* Changed functionality
* Clicking "Start TexMod" will also set the path and clear mutex, saves two clicks
* New feature
* master shortcut: shortcut to launch additional copies, automatically picks unlaunched copy
* compatibility with gwx2 modified exes

Update - 2009/06/12:

v0.5 release is now available. Main change made was making the registry path setting function set both LOCAL_MACHINE and CURRENT_USER if possible. This resolves issues with certain setups which result in gw.exe reading from one or the other path when locating gw.dat. Again, thanks to all who helped me track down the bugs to get to this release.

Update - 2009/05/22:
v0.5 release candidate is now available. If there are no more bugs, this will be identical to the final v0.5 release. There are separate builds for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. The 32-bit version will only work properly for 32-bit operating systems. The 64-bit version will not run on 32-bit Windows. Again, thanks to all for helping me tweak this so it runs on every edition of Windows (2000 and newer).

Update - 2009/05/22: Preliminary testing with 64 bit version is good. Build coming soon (today or tomorrow) for those running XP, Vista, or Win7 64 bit. Will do a joint release of a new 32 bit build using the same more-robust codebase.

Update - 2009/05/17: Fixed possible bug introduced in v0.4 and v0.42 with NTQueryObject possibly hanging the namedpipe thread under certain setups.

Update - 2009/05/16: Fix for making copies in Vista/7. Vista/7 stores the Templates folder under user\documents\guild wars\

Update - 2009/05/16: Beta release is finally here. Added the last few features in before the feature-lock which is beta. There is no need to download this copy if you are happy with 0.35a. I hope I did not introduce any bugs. I am probably going to let this release sit for a week or so, then release a 0.5 stable release if there are no issues.

# Added ability to drag and drop into list of copies
# Added ability to make copies of Guild Wars from the gui.
# Added super experimental "Force gw.dat unlock" for launching the same copy multiple times (new graphics will only load in the gw copy with active file lock on gw.dat)

Update - 2009/05/14: Few updates. Changed how registry path is set to be more compatible with new updates. If you are having trouble updating multiple copies, definitely grab this release! I hope to have these bugs ironed out by this week. Will probably move to beta releases next week. Thank you all for testing.

Update - 2009/05/12: New version ready. 0.2a should be more compatible with Vista and Windows 7 now. Thanks go to Moriz for testing the first release in Win7! Please report any bugs as you find them.

Update - 2009/05/10: As mentioned further down in this thread, there seems to be issues with using it in Windows 7 and possibly Vista. Will look into these as soon as I have these installed. Please post if you are having trouble using it in XP as well.

moriz · May 10, 2009, 05:28 AM // 05:28

the program managed to run EXACTLY once on windows 7. any subsequent attempts to open it will just give you the "this program has an error" window. even when it ran, it failed to open two GW instances. now all this program has done for me, is somehow make my GW client always open in windowed mode.

imkey · May 10, 2009, 05:54 AM // 05:54

moriz:
Sorry, I do not have a Windows 7 or Vista box to test this on yet. I will look in downloading the RC for Windows 7 so I can test it. I suspect, it might be a security model thing. Might have to run in admin mode or compatibility mode since this program closes a handle which belongs to the Guild Wars process.

It shouldn't be hard to make the regular gw open in full screen. Just open the gw client through your regular shortcut, not the one this program made. Or if you don't have one, just open the gw.exe file directly. Once you maximize it once, guild wars should remember to open in full screen.

The running once part, are you talking about the launcher program not opening anymore or the shortcut not working out?

moriz · May 10, 2009, 07:21 AM // 07:21

it doesn't remember to run in full screen. it now opens in windowed mode each and every time. compatibility and admin mode changes nothing, since the program does not start.

personally, i think its broken because of some registry interaction with the ini file.

imkey · May 10, 2009, 07:36 AM // 07:36

Concerning the windowed mode issue, can you check shortcut properties? There isn't a "-windowed" argument in the target right? The "-windowed" switch forces gw into window mode. I have it as the default switch for new shortcuts made by the program, but it shouldn't have modified the original shortcut you had to gw.

Ini file:
It may be the ini writing/reading function then. I am using a windows api function to write/read the ini files. Not sure if it works differently in windows 7. Can you delete the ini file that is in the gwmultilaunch folder? That should allow you to launch it again. The ini file being there should be the only difference between first and later launches.

Once I get my Windows 7 installed, I should be able to test it myself. I may switch over to the xml format for storing the data instead if ini file is causing issues.

Proff · May 10, 2009, 07:40 AM // 07:40

Kind of useless since you still need a second copy of guildwars. Saves you a couple minutes I guess since you don't have to manually close the handle. When I used Process Explorer to run two copies, the second copy became useless after an update, as far as I can remember, I'm not sure if this is what you meant by updates not breaking it now.

If you could make it so I didn't have to keep making copies of GW then it'd be amazing.

moriz · May 10, 2009, 07:44 AM // 07:44

alright, deleting the ini file allowed the program to start. however, it still does not work. only one GW instance opens. any attempts to open the second one, whether through the program or the shortcut results in nothing.

imkey · May 10, 2009, 07:49 AM // 07:49

I don't think there is a way around having a second copy of guild wars. This is due to the way guild wars interacts with the gw.dat file. It locks on to the file and won't let another program touch that copy. Kind of how when you have a word document open, and you try to open the same document again, it is "read only".

You shouldn't have to keep making copies of GW since this programs sets the registry path before it launchs gw for you. The gw updater looks at that entry and updates it for the copy that was just launched. Again, I haven't tested this thoroughly yet, but this has been the behavior I have seen so far.

The con to this is, when a new update comes out and you launch multiple gw.exes, the update will be downloaded multiple times applied to their respective gw.dat file. There shouldn't be a need to copy the .dat over from one of the copies after an update.

One more thing, under expert control, the "close mutex" button basically does what you would do with process explorer in closing the handle to that mutex.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Proff

kind of useless since you still need a second copy of guildwars. Saves you a couple minutes I guess since you don't have to manually close the handle. When I used Process Explorer to run two copies, the second copy became useless after an update, as far as I can remember, I'm not sure if this is what you meant by updates not breaking it now.

If you could make it so I didn't have to keep making copies of GW then it'd be amazing.

Proff · May 10, 2009, 07:49 AM // 07:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by moriz

alright, deleting the ini file allowed the program to start. however, it still does not work. only one GW instance opens. any attempts to open the second one, whether through the program or the shortcut results in nothing.

You have to select and launch them individually.

I shouldn't have said useless above, it's a great start and hopefully you'll keep working on it.

imkey · May 10, 2009, 07:53 AM // 07:53

The second copy you are trying to open is in another folder right? Just making sure. If that is the case, the only thing that would prevent the second copy from even showing is the mutex handle closing failing somehow.

I suspect this is due to the tight process to process security restrictions implemented in Vista/Windows 7. Again, I will try to test this once I get Win7 installed and hope to have a resolution for that.

Thank you for testing this out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by moriz

alright, deleting the ini file allowed the program to start. however, it still does not work. only one GW instance opens. any attempts to open the second one, whether through the program or the shortcut results in nothing.

Fril Estelin · May 11, 2009, 10:33 AM // 10:33

Hey, good job on a first alpha. No source code yet?

imkey · May 11, 2009, 01:35 PM // 13:35

http://code.google.com/p/gwmultilaunch/source/checkout

Use the SVN checkout procedures, or hit browse. Everything in under trunk, just a few files.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fril Estelin

Hey, good job on a first alpha. No source code yet?

Fril Estelin · May 11, 2009, 05:51 PM // 17:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by imkey

http://code.google.com/p/gwmultilaunch/source/checkout

Use the SVN checkout procedures, or hit browse. Everything in under trunk, just a few files.

Sorry, my bad, thought it was like on sourceforge. Reinstalling Tortoise as we speak

.

Arduin · May 11, 2009, 06:38 PM // 18:38

Nifty application. For some reason, GWx2 fails to launch after the first time, so I'll be using your program form now on

Thanks a lot!

...need to buy me a bigger (wider) screen ^^

Sjeng · May 11, 2009, 07:18 PM // 19:18

Looks great, but I'll keep using GWx2 untill the bugs are sorted out and the community has deemed this safe

Good job though, keep it up.
(gonna need multiple screens Arduinna

)

imkey · May 11, 2009, 10:04 PM // 22:04

Yes, safety was one of the primary goals of this project. Also why I made it open source.

I learned a bit while digging into the nt kernel documentation with this project, so I hope the process handle killing code can also be a resource to others. The meat of what makes it possible is in HandleManager.cs file. It was not as straightforward as I had originally thought.

Also, since the source is open, anyone can pretty much download it and compile their own copies with one click in Visual Studio. Please be aware that I can only guarantee safety for copies downloaded from the Google project page because of the ease of making a "modified" version from the open source.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sjeng

Looks great, but I'll keep using GWx2 untill the bugs are sorted out and the community has deemed this safe

Good job though, keep it up.
(gonna need multiple screens Arduinna

)

imkey · May 12, 2009, 03:08 AM // 03:08

hey moriz,

I just got windows 7 installed. I experiencing the same Guild Wars starts not in full screen mode if u take it into window mode just once. This is an issue if you use the "X" button to close.

But I don't think my program is causing it since I got this behavior and I haven't even ran gw multi-launcher yet in Windows 7. Still installing VS2005 at the moment to debug the real win7 issue.

I think this is a Guild Wars <-> Windows 7 issue. I was able to resolve this with a little playing around though. Once you maximize gw, don't use the "X" button to close GW. Sometimes the "X" doesn't make GW save the window state setting in windows 7. If your at the login screen now in window mode.

Do this:
1) Maximize GW.
2) At login screen, put the cursor in the account name box, then password box
(this step forces proper focus into the program)
3) Use Alt+F4 to close.

This seems to work for me in getting Windows 7 to save the window state of the gw window.

I hope that helps!

Quote:

Originally Posted by moriz

alright, deleting the ini file allowed the program to start. however, it still does not work. only one GW instance opens. any attempts to open the second one, whether through the program or the shortcut results in nothing.

moriz · May 12, 2009, 03:29 AM // 03:29

i've already solved the problem by deleting the ini file, and then making sure -windowed is not used as a tag afterwards. however, this also removed the -perf switch permanently. it's not a big deal, fortunately, since -perf doesn't tell latency.

imkey · May 12, 2009, 03:57 AM // 03:57

Glad it works out for you then. You should be able to use any of the switches though.

I am debugging it right now in windows7 to see if I can resolve the crash issue. Hope to have it resolved sometime this week.

Sierraa · May 12, 2009, 04:57 AM // 04:57

I have Vista 64x and it works fine for me. :]

Can't seem to open texmod though. "Unhandled exception has occurred in your application - Path cannot be the empty string or whitespace. Parametere name: path."

I could just be retarded though.