Hello, here is how to
practically run multiple D2R clients on a single PC, let say 8 accounts, without virtualization / without sandboxing solutions. This does
not include how to control clients at once (broadcasting to multiple windows).
This is guide for 'medium' skilled people. The powershell script explained below does not have proper error/exception handling, use at your own risk.
Use case:1 PC
No virtualization / no sandbox
8 accounts (MF in your own pace, rushing yourself, XP boost) - everyone knows advantages of having more people in the game, mainly the no-drop chance reduction
Requirements for 8 clients - to actually be able to play and enjoy the game, not just to run it with 10 fps:modern CPU - 8 cores+
RAM 64GB
VRAM 24GB / modern GPU - Nvidia RTX etc - some folks mentioned a certain success with GPU shared memory, where you can have 8GB physical memory chips on GPU and get some more from DRAM -
https://superuser.com/questions/1546634/shared-gpu-memory-can-i-turn-off-this-feature8x D2R license (currently 8x 30€)
220 GB hard drive space
Admin rights
8x email account / 8x battle.net account - be sure you number them properly so you orient yourself when operating them (name1-8, some reasonable passwords etc)
I recommend 2x wide screen monitor. So you have 4 windows on one monitor, 4 windows on the second.
Overall workflow:a] start first battle net Launcher with account1, start D2R client 1, click intro and let it finish Battle.net login -> you get into character screen
b] Close handle (run powershell script)
c] start second battle net Launcher with account2, start D2R client 2, click intro and let it finish Battle.net login -> you get into character screen
d] Close handle (run powershell script)
... repeat
Implementation:1) Create 8x copy of game folder - 220gb, just copy and rename (
do not install it again)
2) Create shortcuts on your desktop leading to each game copy Diablo II Resurrected Launcher.exe, number it (if one client crashes, you need to be able to orient yourself), process explorer helps to show you which crashed - Make sure in your battle.net client - Setttings - Advanced Features - you have "Allow multiple instances of Battle.Net" enabled ( this is where you can find it -
https://i.imgur.com/ab6PV9X.png )
- Uncheck Battle.net auto login
Go into first game copy folder, right click on Diablo II Resurrected Launcher.exe - Create shortcut -> D2R1
1 -> "F:\Diablo II Resurrected
1\Diablo II Resurrected Launcher.exe"
Go into second game copy folder, right click on Diablo II Resurrected Launcher.exe - Create shortcut -> D2R2
2 -> "F:\Diablo II Resurrected
2\Diablo II Resurrected Launcher.exe"
etc
3) After you start D2R (D2R window opens with intro), a handle which prevents other instances from running is created, it is described here, so you need to kill it:More details, credits to those guys:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d2r/t/running-multiple-instances-of-d2r-on-the-same-computer/9899/103It is very impractical to do this manually via Process Explorer every single time so I solved that by using SysInternals handle utility + powershell script as follows:
- Create a folder on your desktop or somewhere, something like D2Rhandle_del
- Download and put handle64.exe in that folder - get it from the official site:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/handle - Create a powershell script called
D2Rhandle_del.ps1 with the code below (what it does? it will invoke the script as admin to be able to kill process handles, it will dump all D2R process handles into d2r_handles.txt file, it will enumerate through that file to find the process id and handle id, if there is one, it will start handle64 utility and kill it which allows you to spawn next instance on the same PC, otherwise when you click in battlenet to start D2R it will just switch to your already existing window)
- Create a shortcut to this script, so you can execute the overall workflow
C:\Users\<user>\Desktop\D2Rhandle_del\ folder structure:
- handle64.exe is coming from the official site, explained above
- handles txt file is created as a temp file with all D2R processes / handles, every time you run the script
-
D2Rhandle_del.ps1https://i.imgur.com/QpHi3lo.pngD2Rhandle_del.ps1:
Code
if (!([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal][Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole] "Administrator")) { Start-Process powershell.exe "-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File `"$PSCommandPath`"" -Verb RunAs; exit }
& "$PSScriptRoot\handle64.exe" -accepteula -a -p D2R.exe > $PSScriptRoot\d2r_handles.txt
$proc_id_populated = ""
$handle_id_populated = ""
foreach($line in Get-Content $PSScriptRoot\d2r_handles.txt) {
$proc_id = $line | Select-String -Pattern '^D2R.exe pid\: (?<g1>.+) ' | %{$_.Matches.Groups[1].value}
if ($proc_id)
{
$proc_id_populated = $proc_id
}
$handle_id = $line | Select-String -Pattern '^(?<g2>.+): Event.*DiabloII Check For Other Instances' | %{$_.Matches.Groups[1].value}
if ($handle_id)
{
$handle_id_populated = $handle_id
}
if($handle_id){
Write-Host "Closing" $proc_id_populated $handle_id_populated
& "$PSScriptRoot\handle64.exe" -p $proc_id_populated -c $handle_id_populated -y
}
}
read-host "Press ENTER to continue..."
This is how it looks when it closes the D2R "Instance" handle as intended:
https://i.imgur.com/BnQL6vN.pngI am sure handles can be killed via API programmatically, I just did this fast hack way to make it work, not worth my time to do this in C# or so.
4) I recommend that in Graphics settings (outside of your main client) you lock fps to max ~40, it will make your main game running smoothly and also to disable sound so you don't hear things multiple timesI experimented with legacy graphics but it does not reduce VRAM usage, so I do not believe it will help
4 windows per monitor, sort it nicely so you can switch windows and find if something crashed:
https://i.imgur.com/zcGIAlM.pngIf you have a particular issue or question PM me. But as I said, if you do not understand what is process explorer or how to run a powershell script this might not be for you.
If you found it helpful for what you wanted to achieve, a tip is appreciated.
This post was edited by Chobot on Dec 6 2021 03:13am
D2:R