zalavaari
03-01-2012, 10:39 AM
About SoftXpand
SoftXpand is a multiseat desktop virtualization software, that allows multiple users to use the same
PC at the same time. Every user has its own screen(s), keyboard, mouse, speakers, microphone, etc.
It also makes it possible to run multiple games simultaneously, or even one game in multiple
instances. I've been experimenting with it for a while, so I decided to share my experiences with the
community.
Installation
The official installation guide can be found on MiniFrame's site, in the
knowledge base. (sorry, the forum does not allows me to insert links yet)
Gaming experiences
I made some performance tests with 3DMark06 to check if there are any measurable performance
difference between the workstations, and I found absolutely nothing. The workstation's performance
is like the same as it was before the installation, so it doesn't matter which workstation you are
sitting at. If the other workstations are unused, all system resources are yours.
My configuration contains an Intel i3 2100T processor, 4GB RAM, and an ATI Radeon 4850 HD
video card. We tested with Dragon Age: Origins and The Sims: Medieval in different combinations,
and we did not experienced any serious issues. Here are the results:
Workstation-1 (1600x1200) Workstation-2 (1920x1080)
Game FPS Game FPS
--------------------------------------------------------------
1 | Dragon Age (user1) 25-30 - -
2 | - - Dragon Age (user2)* 55-60
3 | Dragon Age (user1) 15-25 Dragon Age (user2)* 25-35
4 | Dragon Age (user2)* 30-35 Dragon Age (user1) 15-20
5 | - - The Sims Medieval 45-50
6 | Dragon Age 10-15 The Sims Medieval 30-40
* - the two users have different DA saves on different places, that's why the FPS is so different
I cannot insert screenshots or links, but I have an account at imageshack (account zalavaari), where you can check them. Find it :)
While somebody is playing, the windows desktop can lose from its responsiveness on the
other workstations. To avoid this you have to set CPU affinity.
Set CPU affinity:
If a game causes a massive slowdown on the other desktops, sometimes it may help, if you change
the CPU affinity for these games, and make sure that they are running on separated cores. This is
primarily true for some massive, single-threaded games (for example: The Sims Medieval, but also
for Heroes 4)
You can change the CPU affinity in the Task Manager: Right click on the corresponding process,
Set Affinity, and then select the cores which it can use. If it helps, you can create a batch file for the
game to start with this affinity in the future. For example I use these two batch files to run my
The Sims Medieval only on the core-3 for workstation-1, and only on core-4 for workstation-2:
tsm_workstation1.bat:
start /affinity 4 tsm.exe
tsm_workstation2.bat
start /affinity 8 tsm.exe
Where 4 and 8 are hexadecimal numbers:
4: (binary: 0100) means "only on core-3"
8: (binary: 1000) means "only on core-4"
More examples:
3: (binary: 0011) means "only on core-1 and core-2
C: (binary: 1100) means "only on core-3 and core-4
Use your HDDs wisely:
If you have more than one hard drive (physical drive, not partition) in your computer, you may want
to consider installing the applications you know that will be use simultaneously and may use the
HDD heavily into different drives. (you can think about this also if you cannot watch an HD movie
smoothly, because of somebody working on an another workstation – and assume the problem is not
the insufficient CPU power)
Multiplayer
LAN party with only one machine? Yes, it seems possible.
We tried Age Of Empires with TCP/IP connection on localhost, and it is worked out of the box.
The only problem I can think of, is when a game checks the clients for their serial numbers and
there is no chance to install the game multiple times, or run it simultaneously with multiple disks.
In SoftXpand 1.2 you can even set different – virtual – IPs for every workstation, but I think in most
cases it isn't necessary for gaming.
The Remote Desktop Problem
Every workstation – except one – appears to be a Remote Desktop for the applications, and there
are some games (for example Mass Effect 1-2) which check it, and if they find out that they are
running on a Remote Desktop, they will show a message and refuse to start.
SoftXpand is already prepared for these applications: There is a Task Manager panel in the the
Cluster Manager, where we can select the applications we want to hide Remote Desktop from.
SoftXpand is a multiseat desktop virtualization software, that allows multiple users to use the same
PC at the same time. Every user has its own screen(s), keyboard, mouse, speakers, microphone, etc.
It also makes it possible to run multiple games simultaneously, or even one game in multiple
instances. I've been experimenting with it for a while, so I decided to share my experiences with the
community.
Installation
The official installation guide can be found on MiniFrame's site, in the
knowledge base. (sorry, the forum does not allows me to insert links yet)
Gaming experiences
I made some performance tests with 3DMark06 to check if there are any measurable performance
difference between the workstations, and I found absolutely nothing. The workstation's performance
is like the same as it was before the installation, so it doesn't matter which workstation you are
sitting at. If the other workstations are unused, all system resources are yours.
My configuration contains an Intel i3 2100T processor, 4GB RAM, and an ATI Radeon 4850 HD
video card. We tested with Dragon Age: Origins and The Sims: Medieval in different combinations,
and we did not experienced any serious issues. Here are the results:
Workstation-1 (1600x1200) Workstation-2 (1920x1080)
Game FPS Game FPS
--------------------------------------------------------------
1 | Dragon Age (user1) 25-30 - -
2 | - - Dragon Age (user2)* 55-60
3 | Dragon Age (user1) 15-25 Dragon Age (user2)* 25-35
4 | Dragon Age (user2)* 30-35 Dragon Age (user1) 15-20
5 | - - The Sims Medieval 45-50
6 | Dragon Age 10-15 The Sims Medieval 30-40
* - the two users have different DA saves on different places, that's why the FPS is so different
I cannot insert screenshots or links, but I have an account at imageshack (account zalavaari), where you can check them. Find it :)
While somebody is playing, the windows desktop can lose from its responsiveness on the
other workstations. To avoid this you have to set CPU affinity.
Set CPU affinity:
If a game causes a massive slowdown on the other desktops, sometimes it may help, if you change
the CPU affinity for these games, and make sure that they are running on separated cores. This is
primarily true for some massive, single-threaded games (for example: The Sims Medieval, but also
for Heroes 4)
You can change the CPU affinity in the Task Manager: Right click on the corresponding process,
Set Affinity, and then select the cores which it can use. If it helps, you can create a batch file for the
game to start with this affinity in the future. For example I use these two batch files to run my
The Sims Medieval only on the core-3 for workstation-1, and only on core-4 for workstation-2:
tsm_workstation1.bat:
start /affinity 4 tsm.exe
tsm_workstation2.bat
start /affinity 8 tsm.exe
Where 4 and 8 are hexadecimal numbers:
4: (binary: 0100) means "only on core-3"
8: (binary: 1000) means "only on core-4"
More examples:
3: (binary: 0011) means "only on core-1 and core-2
C: (binary: 1100) means "only on core-3 and core-4
Use your HDDs wisely:
If you have more than one hard drive (physical drive, not partition) in your computer, you may want
to consider installing the applications you know that will be use simultaneously and may use the
HDD heavily into different drives. (you can think about this also if you cannot watch an HD movie
smoothly, because of somebody working on an another workstation – and assume the problem is not
the insufficient CPU power)
Multiplayer
LAN party with only one machine? Yes, it seems possible.
We tried Age Of Empires with TCP/IP connection on localhost, and it is worked out of the box.
The only problem I can think of, is when a game checks the clients for their serial numbers and
there is no chance to install the game multiple times, or run it simultaneously with multiple disks.
In SoftXpand 1.2 you can even set different – virtual – IPs for every workstation, but I think in most
cases it isn't necessary for gaming.
The Remote Desktop Problem
Every workstation – except one – appears to be a Remote Desktop for the applications, and there
are some games (for example Mass Effect 1-2) which check it, and if they find out that they are
running on a Remote Desktop, they will show a message and refuse to start.
SoftXpand is already prepared for these applications: There is a Task Manager panel in the the
Cluster Manager, where we can select the applications we want to hide Remote Desktop from.