TF2Idle - An easier way to idle

[maplemage]

Aha I solved my issue, just had to uninstall sandboxie, reboot, install a newer version, reboot, and shazam! It works.

[danielmm8888]

So, with around 11 accounts, how many items would I approximately get per week?

[9600bauds]

For all of you interested in naming your idle accounts:
[url]http://namingschemes.com/Main_Page[/url]

[gooooooooooogle]

[QUOTE=danielmm8888;38618878]So, with around 11 accounts, how many items would I approximately get per week?[/QUOTE]

one account gets 0.25-0.7ref per week (5-13 weapon drops), so with 11 accounts, you'll get at least 2.75-7.7ref every week (not incuding hat/misc or salvaged crate drops)

[Markers]

Anyone here idling with a 32 GB ram? How much accounts max can you run at a time?

[Eraserhead23]

[QUOTE=Markers;38626445]Anyone here idling with a 32 GB ram? How much accounts max can you run at a time?[/QUOTE]

I'm considering this too and I think you could idle with approx 150 accounts. Only limitation is that a server account can handle 32 clients max so you would have to run different instances of tf2idle or configure account 33 as server and after that point each client to that previous server account.

[ric20007]

[QUOTE=Eraserhead23;38627928]I'm considering this too and I think you could idle with approx 150 accounts. Only limitation is that a server account can handle 32 clients max so you would have to run different instances of tf2idle or configure account 33 as server and after that point each client to that previous server account.[/QUOTE]

When you have many accounts open it starts to lag, so the ram might not be the only think to upgrade.
And with 32GB the max would be 118 accounts (250 MB each, rough estimates)
And you would need groups of 32 accounts (1 server + 31 clients) so 4 groups/servers.

[Boben]

[QUOTE=ric20007;38628870]And with 32GB the absolute max would be 130 accounts (250 MB each, rough estimates)[/QUOTE]
Loled. So 16gb with 65, instead 31.

[ric20007]

[QUOTE=Boben;38629017]Loled. So 16gb with 65, instead 31.[/QUOTE]

In theory you should be able to idle with 55 accounts.

[[ToRn]]

[QUOTE=iviv;36613624]Also, open up your [B]server.cfg[/B] and add the following:[/QUOTE]

I can't find this folder at all.

Is there an alternative? Did they change this?

[Boben]

[QUOTE=ric20007;38630087]In theory you should be able to idle with 55 accounts.[/QUOTE]
Even in theory you wont count windows ram usage + XX steams + XX sanboxie proc's?

[blinkerz]

this program is now near perfect with the scaling fixed:).. but instead of launching x amount of clients blindly.. it needs to be checking the connection status of each one before proceeding to the next.. there are a number of errors that can occur if you just walk away ranging from 'this game is currrently unavailable' to steam authentication errors..

Also the checking of last item drop and then terminating the client to load the next one.. would save any input at all aswell as spreading out the loading of clients to prevent cpu bottlenecking..

Moussekateer i hope your still working on this idea:).. ive been saying this for a good few months. and i remember you saying there was alot of problems doing this ..:)

[ric20007]

[QUOTE=Boben;38636623]Even in theory you wont count windows ram usage + XX steams + XX sanboxie proc's?[/QUOTE]

I can't know for sure the exact amonut of ram usage, but you can calculate the best case scenario.
The problem is that there is always other things running that use up your resources

I idle 22 accounts with a virtual machine (7GB of ram) and no major performance drops, 12 GB total and in my best case scenario without the virtual machine I should be able to idle 38.

[Markers]

Your theories dont count CPU usages,connection lags and cpu spikes.

Here is a worst case scenario.

if you count 1 gb for windows + other resources and 300 mb for each account (Steam + Sandboxie + hl2.exe ) 32 gb should be sufficent to 103,3 accounts.Lets round that up to 100.

The question now is,what kind of cpu would handle all of that?

I am considering making a test run with my i5 750 2.67GHz and 16 gb ram,which should be enough to run 50 accounts at same scenario.

If CPU usage spikes a lot,or accounts start lagging on start after a point,we would need i7 at least.

Note:Creating all thoose accounts? Problematic.

[ric20007]

[QUOTE=Markers;38636999]Your theories dont count CPU usages,connection lags and cpu spikes.

Here is a worst case scenario.

if you count 1 gb for windows + other resources and 300 mb for each account (Steam + Sandboxie + hl2.exe ) 32 gb should be sufficent to 103,3 accounts.Lets round that up to 100.

The question now is,what kind of cpu would handle all of that?

I am considering making a test run with my i5 750 2.67GHz and 16 gb ram,which should be enough to run 50 accounts at same scenario.

If CPU usage spikes a lot,or accounts start lagging on start after a point,we would need i7 at least.

Note:Creating all thoose accounts? Problematic.[/QUOTE]

oh wow, I didn't even remember the steam usage and I complained about it being too high a couple of months ago

[NPhect]

After 30 accounts, source engine becomes crappy, and you might get errors. Don't ever think to run more then 40-50 at the same time on the same maschine. Maybe with Virtual Maschine is possible.
I barely run 20 accounts, with i5 2.4ghz and 8gb RAM.

Also the CPU doesn't matter, mine never passed 50% with 25 accounts (but it was very laggy due lack of RAM ).

[Dr.Blade]

Hello, can i just idle which 1 account?
Also, it says to the log if i press "Idle unsandboxed" Could not resolve steam vanity ID
Can you help me?

[DigitalGibs]

Really awesome program,thanks Moussekateer.been using from 1.6 and have had no problems idling my 8 accounts once a week.

for guys that dont have much ram i suggest you increase your pagefile.when i start all my accounts i have about 5 gb ram used but after a while nearly all of that gets transferred to the pagefile.another tip for guys struggling with payment options,try entropay,virtual credit card,deposit cash into your account and create unlimited visa cards.very handy

[bestbwise]

Another great option for upgrading accounts now is the Upgrade To Premium Gift that you can buy in the MannCo Store.

You can buy them from your main account effectively bypassing the PayPal/Credit Card linkage restrictions.

Or, if you have ways around the linkage restrictions, buying the gift to create your premium account and then trading the gift to another one of your F2P account can essentially upgrade 2 accounts at a time.

[url]http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Upgrade_to_Premium_Gift[/url]

[radek]

[QUOTE=bestbwise;38643965]Another great option for upgrading accounts now is the Upgrade To Premium Gift that you can buy in the MannCo Store.

You can buy them from your main account effectively bypassing the PayPal/Credit Card linkage restrictions.

Or, if you have ways around the linkage restrictions, buying the gift to create your premium account and then trading the gift to another one of your F2P account can essentially upgrade 2 accounts at a time.

[url]http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Upgrade_to_Premium_Gift[/url][/QUOTE]
3.74€, not worth it

[danielmm8888]

Is it better to have each account make their own listen server, or is it better to just make 1 listen server and have other accounts connect to it?
Also, does anyone here know the name of a good US VPN? I need it to put dollars instead of euros into the steam wallet of my idle accounts, since I live in europe and there's this whole 1€=1$ steam thing. It would be much cheaper to me to just put 5 dollars instead of 5 euros on every account.

[Eraserhead23]

Making a listen server and the other accounts connect to that server is better because that way you use less memory. I used my own VPN server to buy from the store. You can create your own if you have a linux VPS.

[NPhect]

[QUOTE=danielmm8888;38648582]Is it better to have each account make their own listen server, or is it better to just make 1 listen server and have other accounts connect to it?
Also, does anyone here know the name of a good US VPN? I need it to put dollars instead of euros into the steam wallet of my idle accounts, since I live in europe and there's this whole 1€=1$ steam thing. It would be much cheaper to me to just put 5 dollars instead of 5 euros on every account.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, then add 5 dollars, buy 1 item and you won't be able to get the Premium Gift backpack shitty.

[danielmm8888]

[QUOTE=NPhect;38651675]Yeah, then add 5 dollars, buy 1 item and you won't be able to get the Premium Gift backpack shitty.[/QUOTE]

What do you mean?

[QUOTE=Eraserhead23;38650119]Making a listen server and the other accounts connect to that server is better because that way you use less memory. I used my own VPN server to buy from the store. You can create your own if you have a linux VPS.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, and sadly I don't have a VPS, nor do I know anyone who has a VPS. Also, what payment option did you use to add dollars to your steam wallet? And did you enter a fake address that's inside the US?

[blinkerz]

I notice red tape recorder still flashes up as being a tool for item drop

[NPhect]

[QUOTE=danielmm8888;38652252]What do you mean?

Thanks, and sadly I don't have a VPS, nor do I know anyone who has a VPS. Also, what payment option did you use to add dollars to your steam wallet? And did you enter a fake address that's inside the US?[/QUOTE]
Well if you charge the min of 5$ dollars to get premium, you must buy an item say 55 cents, You have left 4.45$, with 4.45$ you can't buy another premium backpack. So it's 5 dollars per account as for euros, is 5euros for 2 accounts (1 item = 0.50E and backpack premium is just 3.74E ).

[danielmm8888]

[QUOTE=NPhect;38652769]Well if you charge the min of 5$ dollars to get premium, you must buy an item say 55 cents, You have left 4.45$, with 4.45$ you can't buy another premium backpack. So it's 5 dollars per account as for euros, is 5euros for 2 accounts (1 item = 0.50E and backpack premium is just 3.74E ).[/QUOTE]

Well I was thinking of just adding 5 dollars to one account, buying 2 keys or something else; trading that to my main account and then just doing the same for the second account, then the third, then the fourth ect
But your idea sounds great! I'd only need about 25 euros instead of 50 for 10 accounts.

[Mikal]

Alright, having a few problems with this executable on version 1.9.0.

Problem #1: Items won't log, even when provided with a Vanity ID. As an example, on one of my idling accounts (while using TF2Idle) I got an Escape Plan, and a Bonk! Atomic Punch. Last message I got in my drop log was the Started Logging prompt on said account, with the account alias you provide and the system time. All of my accounts have individual Steam IDs and Vanity IDs. I have an API Key that was provided by my primary account into the settings of TF2Idle.

Problem #2: Automatic sign-in on sandboxed Steam processes don't seem to work if passwords have spaces in them. I have to manually sign in to them. Not sure if this is the cause of the first problem.

Also, I have a question. instead of using a listen server per account, any way to make all the accounts connect to one listen server set up locally (to optimize memory usage) by using console commands?
e.g. Idle Account #1 sets up a listen server
Idle Account #2 to 31 connect to the local server.

Besides all of the problems I've listed, this is a pretty solid program. I like how you provide an encryption option instead of saving the configs as plaintext.

Thanks in advance.

[QUOTE=Maxus;38589438][B]I finaly FOUND A FIX FOR "VALIDATING GAME CACHE FILES" !!!![/B]

First of all, you start tf2 on your main account - if it works and you can play - good. Just quit the game like you normaly do.

Then you go to Library >>> and press RMB on TF2 then Backup Game Files...

Make backup of tf2. After that, go to yours Idle acounts steamapps folder (folder you have mlinked to before) and CUT every gcf file in there (should be 13 files) [url]http://scr.hu/0eva/egjoo[/url] and put theme in some other folder (doesnt matter what folder, just not steamapps).

Then go to your tf2 backup folder, right click it and run in sandbox (any idle account sandbox).

Install TF2 through that and voila - TF2 should launch on every account without validating! If it is working correctly you can delete gcfs you have previously cut - it's a waste of disk space.

This is the only solution that have worked. I have defragged and optimized my entire disk. I have deleted every file except Steam.exe and steamapps folder. I have done many, many things but only this have worked (I suppose that you could just re-download instead but backup might be faster if you have slower Internet connection).

I have tested it and I can idle with my main account on and my Idle accounts running in the background.

Let me know if it worked![/QUOTE]

You can't cut certain .gcfs (such as sourceinit) while Steam is running, AFAIK.

[Moussekateer]

[QUOTE=Mikal;38657545]Problem #1: Items won't log, even when provided with a Vanity ID. As an example, on one of my idling accounts (while using TF2Idle) I got an Escape Plan, and a Bonk! Atomic Punch. Last message I got in my drop log was the Started Logging prompt on said account, with the account alias you provide and the system time. All of my accounts have individual Steam IDs and Vanity IDs. I have an API Key that was provided by my primary account into the settings of TF2Idle.[/QUOTE]

Are you sure your accounts can be accessed at backpack viewer sites? For example, http://tf2b.com/tf2/<vanityid>. If so, is there a tf2idle_exceptions.txt file? Can you paste the contents into pastie.org, and remove any sensitive information if it exists.

[QUOTE=Mikal;38657545]Problem #2: Automatic sign-in on sandboxed Steam processes don't seem to work if passwords have spaces in them. I have to manually sign in to them. Not sure if this is the cause of the first problem.[/QUOTE]

Derp, I never accounted for passwords having spaces. I'll put up a fixed version in here soon.

[QUOTE=Mikal;38657545]Also, I have a question. instead of using a listen server per account, any way to make all the accounts connect to one listen server set up locally (to optimize memory usage) by using console commands?
e.g. Idle Account #1 sets up a listen server
Idle Account #2 to 31 connect to the local server.[/QUOTE]

Yes. Change the launch options for the chosen account to launch it as a server (it will override the main launch options in settings), and then change the main launch options so that all accounts connect to that server.

[Mikal]

[QUOTE=Moussekateer;38657836]Are you sure your accounts can be accessed at backpack viewer sites? For example, http://tf2b.com/tf2/<vanityid>. If so, is there a tf2idle_exceptions.txt file? Can you paste the contents into pastie.org, and remove any sensitive information if it exists.
[/quote]
Derp, said account is friends-only, and my main account (which I'm always signed into) can access the information. Will test after I re-download TF2.

[QUOTE=Moussekateer;38657836]
Derp, I never accounted for passwords having spaces. I'll put up a fixed version in here soon.
[/quote]
Thanks.

[QUOTE=Moussekateer;38657836]
Yes. Change the launch options for the chosen account to launch it as a server (it will override the main launch options in settings), and then change the main launch options so that all accounts connect to that server.[/QUOTE]
I know that the first account would obviously have the normal launch parameters, but the other 1-31 accounts would need a way to access said server or vice-versa. Can I just use the -connect <ip> command?

---

Edit: Also, found another problem. Editing multiple accounts at once in TF2Idle that have Sandboxie paths assigned to them will overwrite with the text "Multiple Values" and try to search for that path. Just a heads-up.
It also happens with group names (occasionally, very glitchy) if more than one group set of accounts are being edited at a time.

I did some research and made this combination of scripts.
Adapted server.cfg file (based off of the guide posted in the OP)

hostname "Private Idle Server"
fps_max 30
rcon_password <rconpwhere>
sv_password <pwhere>
sv_minrate 13000
sv_maxrate 13000
sv_minupdaterate 20
sv_maxupdaterate 20
sv_mincmdrate 20
sv_maxcmdrate 20
sv_region 255
mp_waitingforplayers_cancel 1
mp_disable_respawn_times 1
mp_timelimit 9999
mp_allowspectators 1
mp_idledealmethod 0
mp_idlemaxtime 9999999
sv_pure 2

So let's say I wanted to make the server localhost:27015 (which is default with the current configuration)

I'd just use connect <default-local-router-ip>:27015.

Edit 2: Adjusted the launch parameters for this, for those who want to use it.
First of all, make sure that if you're using the guide in the OP, you want to save the file as listenserver.cfg and not server.cfg. It will not read the server.cfg file unless specified at the command line.

The account that creates the server (remember, default maxplayers is at 24):

+exec idle.cfg +exec listenserver.cfg -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -width 640 -height 480 +map itemtest +exec listenserver.cfg

You'll notice that it's the default. Add this to the accounts that will be making a server. The two listenserver execs are safeguards in case TF2 doesn't want to load your .cfg.

Change the original default to these (the accounts that join the server):

+exec idle.cfg -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -width 640 -height 480 +connect <ip>:27015

Obviously, you'll want to boot the account that makes the server first, so the others can join. You could also edit the above to make the bots pick a team and class so you can... farm stranges or something. I don't know.
I'd put these in their own individual groups, just for self-reference. Enjoy.

Edit 3: Do not forget to save the .cfg in the account name of whichever account you want to idle in, in /tf/cfg.