Sign in to follow this  
Drakeling

Run multiple WU clients - No Sandboxie or VM required

Recommended Posts

So I find it interesting no one else has bothered posting this. Not sure if they were just reluctant to share the information or what. It doesn't seem like anything that requires a great deal of technical knowledge to do, but I've seen nothing about it posted so far. So I figured I'd shed some light on it and enlighten those of you who don't already know how to do this.
 
There are some caveats to this of course, the main being that if you're going to run multiple clients to connect to different servers and you want your friends to join your game, it's only going to try and connect them to the last one that you've connected to.
 
This guide will demonstrate how to run multiple instances of the same Wurm Unlimited copy with just using one steam account, no VM or other 3rd party software required. So without further ado here is the guide:
 
So with an instance of Wurm Unlimited already running do the following steps:

 

  • Open task manager (ctrl+shift+esc will you get you there the quickest)
  • Go to the 'Details' tab from within task manager.
  • Find the 'SteamService.exe' click on it once and hit the 'End task' button located on the bottom right hand corner of task manager.
  • Find the 'Steam.exe' process and once again click it and 'End task'
  • Check to see if GameOverlayUI.exe is running, if so end task on that process as well.
  • Now just relaunch Steam and login as usual and launch Wurm Unlimited (Steam doesn't know about the previous instance running anymore :))
  • Repeat these task for however many clients you would like to run.

Notes:

  • Always make sure to close SteamService.exe first, if you close Steam.exe first it will automatically close your game with it!
  • You'll need to have administrative privileges on the Windows account you're running on. (By default on a standard Windows install the first user created will by default have admin privileges)

Here is a quick batch file I threw together in order to automate the process of having to close steam and relaunch it. This batch file will atuomatically close all steam processes running and then relaunch steam, login (if you set the credentials), then automatically launch Wurm Unlimited for you.
 


 

 

@echo offrem ------------- Variables ------------------SET Wurm=366220SET Steam="%programfiles(x86)%\Steam\Steam.exe"rem -------- Kill the 3 steam processes -------taskkill -f -im steamservice.exetaskkill -f -im steam.exetaskkill -f -im gameoverlayui.exerem ------- Start Wurm  Unlimited --------------call "Steam" %STEAM%:LAUNCHtimeout /t 1 /nobreak >nulstart "Steam - Wurm Unlimited" %STEAM% -applaunch %WURM% >nul 2>nul || goto LAUNCHexit


 
Copy the code above into a text editor (Notepad, Notepad++ or the like), then save the file as WurmUnlimited.bat to a place of your choosing. You can rename it from WurmUnlimited to whatever you like, just note the .bat you'll need to make sure you change the file type under save as to *.* . Once saved right click and run as administrator.
 
Notes:

  • This batch file requires that you use the 'Remember my password' check box on steam at least once prior to using this batch.
  • This batch assumes that you install Steam to the default location (Program Files (x86)\Steam\). If you've changed this, then you'll need to change the variable Steam to reflect the correct path.

 
Let me know if you all have any questions or suggestions, or if you found this useful :-)

 
Edit: Additional info added.

Edit: 10-28-2015 - Updated the batch file, thanks to Steam user Fattox on the Steam forums for improving it to use the cached saved credentials that Steam stores,
now uses a more secure way to handle saved credentials! Updated with a few additional notes.

Edited by Drakeling
  • Like 18

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was sceptical, couldn't believe it was that simple, but it is.


 


Presently running 2 clients on my LAN server, just make sure you launch the batch file as administrator and it just works.


  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh Man that's dirty. Now i have to worry about people's alts running all over the place again. 


  • Like 7

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So lets get this straight you are using this to allow friends to play with you?


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So I find it interesting no one else has bothered posting this. Not sure if they were just reluctant to share the information or what. It doesn't seem like anything that requires a great deal of technical knowledge to do, but I've seen nothing about it posted so far. So I figured I'd shed some light on it and enlighten those of you who don't already know how to do this.

 

There are some caveats to this of course, the main being that if you're going to run multiple clients to connect to different servers and you want your friends to join your game, it's only going to try and connect them to the last one that you've connected to.

 

This guide will demonstrate how to run multiple instances of the same Wurm Unlimited copy with just using one steam account, no VM or other 3rd party software required. So without further ado here is the guide:

 

So with an instance of Wurm Unlimited already running do the following steps:

  1. Open task manager (ctrl+shift+esc will you get you there the quickest)
  2. Go to the 'Details' tab from within task manager.
  3. Find the 'SteamService.exe' click on it once and hit the 'End task' button located on the bottom right hand corner of task manager.
  4. Find the 'Steam.exe' process and once again click it and 'End task'
  5. Check to see if GameOverlayUI.exe is running, if so end task on that process as well.
  6. Now just relaunch Steam and login as usual and launch Wurm Unlimited (Steam doesn't know about the previous instance running anymore :))
  7. Repeat these task for however many clients you would like to run.

 

Notes:

  • Always make sure to close SteamService.exe first, if you close Steam.exe first it will automatically close your game with it!
  • You'll need to have administrative privileges on the Windows account you're running on. (By default on a standard Windows install the first user created will by default have admin privileges)

Here is a quick batch file I threw together in order to automate the process of having to close steam and relaunch it. This batch file will atuomatically close all steam processes running and then relaunch steam, login (if you set the credentials), then automatically launch Wurm Unlimited for you.

 

 

 

@echo offrem ------------- Variables ------------------SET SteamUserName=USERNAMESET SteamPassword=PASSWORDSET WurmUnlimited=366220SET Steam="%programfiles(x86)%\Steam\Steam.exe"rem -------------------------------------------rem -------- Kill the 3 steam processes -------taskkill -f -im steamservice.exetaskkill -f -im steam.exetaskkill -f -im gameoverlayui.exerem -------------------------------------------rem ------- Start Wurm  Unlimited --------------start "Steam" %STEAM% -login %SteamUserName% %SteamPassword% -applaunch %WurmUnlimited%

 

Copy the code above into a text editor (Notepad, Notepad++ or the like), change USERNAME and PASSWORD to those of your own, then save the file as WurmUnlimited.bat to a place of your choosing. You can rename it from WurmUnlimited to whatever you like, just note the .bat you'll need to make sure you change the file type under save as to *.* . Once saved right click and run as administrator.

 

Also, this is saving your steam account password in plain text on your computer, so if you share you're computer this is not advised, unless you're comfortable with those people potentially knowing your steam password. If you don't want to store your steam password on your computer then just remove %SteamPassword% from the batch file. Steam will just prompt you for it once it launches.

 

Let me know if you all have any questions or suggestions, or if you found this useful :-)

 

Edit: Additional info added.

 

 

just so it doesnt go anywhere.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So lets get this straight you are using this to allow friends to play with you?

 

I'm using this because on Wurm Online I played with a few different priest characters at once. I wanted to bring that same ability and experience over to my own Wurm Unlimited server. I don't see  why it wouldn't be right when I'm able to do the same thing on Wurm Online. My feelings are the devs, given the ability to (since steam is what limits this), would offer  a solution to run multiple clients. Since it can't be done due to limitations of Steam, I work around Steam altogether.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Only if you use this method to circumvent games that have DRM protection.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Can your steam account get banned for this?

I've multi boxed for years on steam games, and non-steam games. There's nothing really stopping it. Some MMO's discourage, others encourage it. A lot of people also see it as shady.

Personally, I do it for the challenge (multiboxing, not playing two characters) as it requires greater control and knowledge of what your doing (while also buffing your damage ect up)

But officially, as far as its concerned, It's allowed.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hmm...no such processes running on any of my machines. Just steam.exe and steamwebhelper.exe, but all 3 of my machines have recent steam installs. Looks like those processes have been replaced by steamwebhelper.exe.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

How does this affect the dedicated server?  Does killing the steamservice make your server un-listed from the server browser?


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The dedicated server can operate entirely independent from the Steam application on your computer. Or, in other words, you don't even need steam anymore, after you've installed Wurm Unlimited dedicated server, to launch and run the server.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hmm...no such processes running on any of my machines. Just steam.exe and steamwebhelper.exe, but all 3 of my machines have recent steam installs. Looks like those processes have been replaced by steamwebhelper.exe.

 

Check that the path variable in the batch file matches the actual path on your hard drive. I had same problem until I played with this.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Check that the path variable in the batch file matches the actual path on your hard drive. I had same problem until I played with this.

Not using the bat...just looked in taskmanager -no such processes. nvm -found them -lol -got to love processkiller

 

and the bat works just fine. Cool.

Edited by sunsvortex

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hmm...no such processes running on any of my machines. Just steam.exe and steamwebhelper.exe, but all 3 of my machines have recent steam installs. Looks like those processes have been replaced by steamwebhelper.exe.

 

 

Steam.exe is the one you'll want to close then, if it's not already running the SteamService.exe

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

An interesting effect with any of our methods is, that the WU server will stop listing you as an online player once you kill or disconnect the associated Steam process from your client. So even though you're online on your server, it'll say 0 out of N players online. Not sure what that really is about, but it's not causing problems as of now.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That's because those numbers that show up in the server listing are being handled by steam, not from Wurm Unlimited server itself. The Wurm Unlimited Server will still report the correct numbers if you open the stats.xml file in your Wurm Unlimited Server directory look for 'players="#"'.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

oh yeah, now i can make bridges!

 

You can make bridges already in WU. Go to the tile where you would normally have someone hold the rangestick. With the range stick active, right click and plant it.

 

Now go to the other tile where you would normally use the dioptra to plan the bridge. Proceed to do so.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this