Changing eqgame.exe priority

[serberus]

Can anyone tell me how I can get eqgame.exe (run through eqwindows) to run at a low/idle priority, I hate having it running at normal because it makes everything else run badly.

Thanks

Serberus

[serberus]

Notice this thread is getting views but no replies, can anyone else post and verify that they can't change the priority on eqgame?

Do most people do this? EQ is a total CPU hog and I always lower it otherwise it hurts to do other things.

Thanks

Serberus

[LordCrush]

Rofl - most people would like to start it with RealTime Prioirty ...

but you can use



START ["Titel"] [/Dpath] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE | /SHARED]
[/LOW | /NORMAL | /HIGH | /REALTIME] | /ABOVENORMAL | /BELOWNORMAL]
[/WAIT] [/B] [Befehl/Program]
[Parameter]


in a batch with the parameter /BELOWNORMAL and /LOW (2k and XP only)

Or use taskmanager to do it manually

[serberus]

thanks crush, already tried that, problem is you're starting eqw.exe with the start command so that has the low priority set which then launches eqgame.exe which starts with normal.

I just found a fix though, essentially doing what it does above, but using the windows task manager:

Start EQW, lower priority on eqw.exe and click the 'Start EQ' button, eqgame.exe starts with low priority.

As a general interest question. why would you want it to run in realtime? that would mean EQ is the only thing that could run, for anyone that finds webpages and programs in general run badly when they're playing EQ, try setting the priority down...

Serberus

[serberus]

spamming the hell out of this thread.

One thing I didn't mention in the first post is that you can't change the priority on eqgame.exe once it has launched for the same reason you can't hook a packet sniffer into it once it has launched, total pita.

but all solved now.

re-reading the original post sounds like I don't know how to change program priorities =P

Serberus

[baelang]

Originally posted by serberus
Notice this thread is getting views but no replies, can anyone else post and verify that they can't change the priority on eqgame?

Do most people do this? EQ is a total CPU hog and I always lower it otherwise it hurts to do other things.



most people that could answer this question would be over at the eqwindows forums. not the showeq forums.

we answer questions about shwoEQ here, not eqWindos. many (most) of us don't even use eqWindows.

[gore]

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

Makes the NT task manager look like crap.

[LordCrush]

Hmmm that realtime thinggy was a joke ;) - i meant most people rather want eq to run faster than slower :p

and that sysinternals proggy rocks really, but i never tried to change the priority of a program with it - no need !

[serberus]

sorry, didn't even think to post at the EQW forums despite looking there for an answer, I find those forums are pretty dead and usually full of the hackersquest style of posters.

Serberus

[RetroTZ]

Can I ask why you would want EQ to run slower? Just for testing purposes or something? Doesnt seem to make much sense to want EQ to run any slower than it already does. :P

[fgay trader]

Originally posted by gore
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

Makes the NT task manager look like crap.

Not that tough to do, since NT task manager already IS crap :p
I love those guys at Sysinternals. I use PSTools (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pstools.shtml) all the time.

[gore]

If I'm doing something CPU intensive while I run EQ in a window at its default priority, keyboard/mouse input gets lagged but framerate remains smooth. Dropping EQ to low priority causes the game to stutter a bit, but the system runs better in general and the control is smoother.

[Virusmaster]

A person might want to lower the priority of EQ if they have it windowed on a second box to run a vendor in the bazaar and still want the PC to be usefull for web browsing or running another utility (SEQ on a virtual machine to monitor their main computer, for example).

I've found in the past that when I don't understand why someone wants to do something it's not always because they are stupid, but because I am lacking the imagination or computing power to do what they are trying to accomplish :)

A box that would run EQ windowed, and seq on a virtual machine would need to be pretty beefy, personally, I'd just build a third machine. I've seen some major eq addicts running 5 or more machines!

[mudtoe]

Here is the lowdown on eqgame.exe priority. First, starting EQW.EXE or Everquest.exe at low or idle priority doesn't have an effect. eqgame.exe is started as a seperate process and runs at normal priority regardless of the priority of the process that spawned it. Up until the last patch you could use taskmgr (under Win2K or WinXP) to reset the priority of eqgame.exe to idle once it was started. After last weeks patch they did something to the process to make windows think it was a system type process which resulted in getting an "access denied" message from taskmgr when attempting to alter the priority, even if you were running taskmgr logged on under the administrators group.

However, there is a work around for this. If you use the AT command to schedule taskmgr to run at a future time, say one minute from the present time, it will run with the operating system's credentials rather than the logged on user's credentials, because the process was spawned by the operating systems's scheduler rather than the user directly. The operating system (LOCAL Security userid) has more privledges than an administrator, and taskmgr can alter the priority of a system type process when run using the operating system's credentials. As a side note this is an obvious security hole in WinXP as it allows a user to easily gain more authority than their userid should be allowed. I haven't verified whether or not you can exploit this hole if you aren't a member of the administrators group to start with, so if not, then the hole isn't as large as it might otherwise be. An example of how to use the command is as follows (assume the current time is 18:36):

AT 18:37 /INTERACTIVE "taskmgr.exe"

The interactive option allows the started process to interact with the desktop (i.e. the currently logged on user).

Someone also asked about why you would want to lower the priority of EQ, and the answer is that apparently the directx api's the progam uses are a type that continously loops while waiting for an event. You can see this behavior in all directx games. If you are running EQ in a window and want to do something else this looping slows down the windows UI enough to be irritating. I have a second account that I just use for selling stuff in bazaar. I use EQW with that account, and lower the priority so I can do other work on the machine at the same time. In fact, unless you do something that uses a large percentage of the processor you can lower the priority of eqgame.exe and never notice any slowdown effect. Whoever designed those directx api's needs to be smacked in the head for writing code with spin locks waiting for events rather than using a wait/post type logic.

[Cryonic]

That is normal Microsoft Coding behavior. Look at the task manager, notice that task called the System Idle Process. It's whole purpose is to do nothing but wait for events. This basically means your CPU is running at near full speed all the time.

Linux and other OSes don't have this poor behavior. As such my P150 laptop that will get too hot to use running Win95, will be fine to put on my lap running Linux under a light load. Increase the load to > 1 and it heats up again because of the heat the processor generates when it is actually doing something.

[gore]

/boggle

Why do all that, when you could just use Process Explorer?

-gore

[mudtoe]

I believe process explorer would have the same security limitations as taskmgr if it were running under the logged on user's security credentials. Have you tried using it within the last week or so to change the priority of eqgame.exe? Taskmgr worked fine until the last patch. Only then did they do something to make windows think eqgame.exe was a system type process (e.g. a service or driver).