EPTBy now you have your 2 PC's fully functional and you're ready to explore different ways of making production easier. After all, you only have two arms to use. You're probably already finding that having two keyboards and mice on your desk is really difficult to control and use efficiently. Let's be honest, it fucking sucks. For nearly a year and a half this is how I operated a 2 PC Streaming setup, and it is by far a painful process in production.
So I set out to find a new way to make this easy. And there were plenty of hurdles to tackle. Here we take a look at the available options, tell you why you won't use those options, and then give you the ONE option to rule them all. Yes that's right. I'm telling you that you can just scroll down past all this shit and just get the fucking program Mouse Without Borders. But if you ACTUALLY cared about the topic, or are interested in learning just WHY that program is the best. You should keep reading.
Option 1: KVM Switch - A KVM Switch is typically a little box where you plug shit into it like two keyboards, two mice, monitors, sometimes even audio and other USB devices. It allows you to "switch" between multiple computers while continuing to use a single monitor, mouse, and keyboard. That's pretty fucking cool. In fact anyone who's worked in IT has probably thought at least once or twice about kissing a KVM switch or possibly even touching it in an incredibly inappropriate way. Having worked in IT for so long, I definitely have used the shit out of a KVM switch.
WHY A KVM SUCKS BALLS:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yj2Bi.jpg)
LOOK AT THIS SHIT... You already have enough fucking wires if you've setup your cameras, audio, and other wiring. Why do you want to do this to yourself. You don't. This option really sucks. THIS IS OLD ASS TECHNOLOGY. Sure you could get out your VCR and watch old recorded episodes of Saturday Night Live with Dana Carvey but are you GOING TO? NO NO NO. It's a horrible option and I hope if you DO use one, we're about to fix that!
Option 2: FUCK OPTION 2, it's pointless. We're not even going to talk about it.
Option 3: Get another person. Production is not a one man job. Many of us make it that, but the rule of thumb is that more people working on a production is better. Of course, TOO many can be worse, but most streamers don't have that luxury.
With that being said, try to find it. I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that I operate at my full 100% best when the show is "being run". You ultimately want to move away from the solo thing and get someone to help you run your rig. Option 3 is great, but at the same time, Option 3 isn't always viable... but it had to be mentioned.
HERE IS THE RIGHT ANSWER:
MOUSE WITHOUT BORDERS (Download)
I could give you the 5 page explanation of who wrote this and how it came to be, but you can just watch the video I'll source at the bottom of this chapter. LET ME TELL YOU WHY THIS PROGRAM FUCKING ROCKS:
- It's a virtual and "automatic" KVM that allows you to seamlessly travel from one PC to another networked PC with your mouse and keyboard. So you move your mouse to the end of your main screen on the right, and it instantly pops up on the 2nd PC with control. This function should be called "THE BEST THING EVER" but it's called "easy mouse".
- YOU CAN DRAG AND DROP SHIT... - Yeah, for any streamers out there who aspire to use the 2PC setup, that feature probably just made you wet yourself. In an awesome way. Some may say that I'm getting excited over nothing, but honestly, when you're in the middle of production and you need to quick copy something or a graphic is on the wrong machine. WHO FUCKING CARES! Now you can just drag that from one PC to the next.
- YOU CAN SHARE A GOD DAMN CLIPBOARD - Rejoice! You get a link on one PC, you paste it in another one. As always, you can disable this.
- Now... I know what you're saying, "what about when you're trying to OBSERVE in StarCraft 2 and you scroll to the right of your screen and that shit totally fucks up your game and then everyone in chat is like OMFG these guys suck and then you are trying to move your mouse back but it's stuck on the other side of the screen and the most epic battle is happening where fucking zerg is like winning a game versus a protoss and you just fucked it up WHEAT cause of this program" - I thought about that, and it was the first thing I tested and you can actually use hotkeys to do a number of very important functions. For example, turning off the "easy mouse" feature where your mouse travels from 1 monitor to the next, and then using hotkeys to SWITCH between the PC's. So when I'm speccing or playing SC2, it turn the "easy mouse" off and then use CTRL+ALT+F1 / F2 to QUICKLY switch between the two PC's.
- You can network up to 4 computers this way.
- You can change the orientation of how the mouse travels (for you sicko's who use vertical monitor setups and stuff)
- Now I'm not sure if you guys are quite ready for this, but it has an ALL PC MODE. Which means that I can control 2 computers with one mouse. And you're thinking that I'm out of my mind. But no... You can hit CTRL 3 times quickly to activate ALL PC and this will also disable it. I setup my winamp, and my XSPLIT scene switch (or you can use the on-screen keyboard + a hotkey) and put them in the same location on the two PC's. So when I goto break, I can actually BAM BAM BAM my CTRL, hit the "PLAY" button on my Winamp, which then automatically switches to the correct slate in XSPLIT. Then BAM BAM BAM, you're out of ALL PC MODE and you're good to go.
- It has a ton of other features like wrapping your mouse, but I think if you have 2 PC's and you want an easy way of doing it. BAM, you just found it.
This program is so amazing I just had to share it. The setup is easy, and anyone with 2 PC's should give this a shot. If you have any questions about it I'll try to answer it here. I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I do!!!
SOURCE:
Mouse Without Borders Download and Video
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