Two Instances of FG running? Bad or Ok?

[Mytherus]

Good morning all...

Just a simple question -- I've noticed I can launch fantasy grounds more than once on my system -- creating multiple instances. I quite like the idea of this because my dual monitor setup is that I have a 27" in vertical orientation (makes it amazing for reading documentation or long form websites) the main monitor sitting to the right of the other is a traditional "landscape" orientation of a 34" screen. So with that in mind I've being toying with the idea of one instance goes to the vertical display and I use that as my "reference materials" --- look up stuff in DMG, PHB, MM, etc. (its only good for reading...not good for maps in other words) . At the same time the "main" monitor is where all the business would happen.... aka the "normal" FG setup --- story, encounters, maps, chat box, etc. etc.

My question is -- is this foolish from a "you are asking for file corruption or crash galore" perspective? Or should I be ok?

I have 16 GB RAM in my system....but I have plans to double that soon (after holidays soon...not soon soon) .....

Thanks.

Have a good weekend.

[Trenloe]

You can, in theory, do this - as long as you are launching the second instance using another campaign and don't have any players connecting (if you're launching in GM mode and are playing face-to-face) or are joining the first GM instance as a player (using a server name of localhost to connect).

The reason you can't, as standard, have 2 GM instances running when other players are connecting is that both instances will be listening for connections on the same port (TCP port 1802) and it can't be guaranteed which instance your players will connect to. You could launch the second instance and change the port number (using the -pXXXX command line argument) to avoid this - making the second GM instance totally stand alone with no one connecting to it.

[damned]

You cant have two apps listening on the same port at the same time.
The second instance just wont have an active listening port.

[Mytherus]

thanks

[General06]

I am trying to open two instances of FG but can not figure out how. I run on the Mac Client. Can anyone help me figure out how to open 2 instances of FG. One I will run as GM, and the other as a player on a different monitor. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[Zacchaeus]

I believe the only way to do this on a mac is to install the demo and run that as the second instance. More here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33458-Issues-Trying-to-Run-a-second-instance-of-FG-on-Mac-for-Testing&p=282653&highlight=instance+%2Bmac#post282653

[damned]

Its not the only way but yeah - you have to have two separate installs on the Mac...

[Bidmaron]

Or you can use Parallels or some other VM. This is what I do, and I run multiple instances on my Mac all the time.

[General06]

Thank you all for your input. I have parallels, so I tried that and it works perfectly.

Happy hunting, and may you loot more than you can carry!