Run multiple game instances

Hi,
I'm not completely familiar with the anti cheat, anti macro or some other protection code in it.
Do games like 3D shooter(quake, doom etc.), sports games (EA stuff) have this kind of protections?
Do you know about a 3D game that allow this multiple option?

Thanks,
Noam.

Quote:

Original post by Noam Adika I'm not completely familiar with the anti cheat, anti macro or some other protection code in it. Do games like 3D shooter(quake, doom etc.), sports games (EA stuff) have this kind of protections? Do you know about a 3D game that allow this multiple option?

Quake and Doom are set to run only one instance of the game at a time, but for those kinds of games the "protection" isn't intended solely for protection, exactly; it's done moreso to conserve memory and processor time, if anything, as those games usually require large amounts of both. For any game that plays online, though, the single-instance-only protection is put in to disallow players from having two characters in the game world at the same time, which could lead to a plethora of cheating, especially in MMO's.

As for any 3D game that allows multiple instancing... I can't think of any. As I said, most games will put in the single instance checking just to keep the use of system resources to a minimum. Also have to keep in mind the fact that only one instance will be receiving player input at a time (rare exceptions excluded), making the other instance(s) worthless.

If you still want to run multiple instances of a game, though, it would be helpful to know what exactly you're trying to achieve and why, then we can work from there.

Thanks for the detailed reply.
I'm really interested in what G cluster doing (http://www.g-cluster.com/).
They offer gaming-on-demand for broadband networks. Their architecture is a PC like server which located on the cable operator headend, which runs the game from the commands that are sent from the end user at home.
The server is running the game and then it compressed it to standard MPEG2 and send it over the cable network.
I know that they say they can run multiple instances (more than 5 and for simple games even more than 20) on a single PC.

Do you have any idea how it can be done?
Is there a chance to do this without any hacking at all to game?

Thanks,
Noam.

I use multiple instances for debugging network code sometimes. I built a system in the code for enabling/disabling multiple instances. The second instance is usually running much slower and that's why I run that instance with degraded gfx etc.

Cheers

Quote:

Original post by Noam Adika Thanks for the detailed reply. I'm really interested in what G cluster doing (http://www.g-cluster.com/). They offer gaming-on-demand for broadband networks. Their architecture is a PC like server which located on the cable operator headend, which runs the game from the commands that are sent from the end user at home. The server is running the game and then it compressed it to standard MPEG2 and send it over the cable network. I know that they say they can run multiple instances (more than 5 and for simple games even more than 20) on a single PC. Do you have any idea how it can be done? Is there a chance to do this without any hacking at all to game? Thanks, Noam.

What is the reason why you'd want to do this? Is it so you can play the games on your TV or something?

You can run two (or more) copies of Quake II on the same computer at the same time!

FYI, EVE-Online, a MMO, permits to runs X instances of the game at the same time on the same computer. You can't just be loggued with the same account.

Viktor,
With regard to the blade option - do you mean that each blade holds one CPU and one GPU? If yes that not what I'm looking for. I'd like to run multiple users on single system (CPU+GPU).

With regard to third option (virtualization framework (vmware vsx server)), I guess that the game performance will be hurt much, right? Will it be possible in term of performance to use this option and run multiple 3D games?
Thanks for the help.
Noam.

Yes you can (multi-tasking operating system), but most new games will check if an instance is already running. If there is, it will focus that window. Otherwise, it will launch a new instance.

WoW(World of Warcraft) lets you. The reason is that WoW requires not very many resources, and also their fanbase expects to be able to play 2 or 3 characters at once.

On the old Mac OS, if you wanted to run the same program twice, you just made a copy of the executable and slightly renamed it. I'm not sure how Windows apps keep from running twice -- a lockfile will circumvent this method, but it should beat a simple process-name check.