How to launch a second session of Fantasy Ground Unity on Mac

[Tzorn]

Hello,
I would like to launch a second session to use for 2 reason
1. see what player see during development of a campaign (LoS, etc)
2. During game using a screen in the middle of the table to give info to the players (map, images, etc)

Thank you for your help

[sstarsslayer]

In a command prompt (open the application called "terminal" if you don't know how). Type,

open -n /Applications/SmiteWorks/Fantasy\ Grounds/FantasyGrounds.app

You now have an instance of FGU running.
Then, hit up arrow to bring that command up again and hit enter.
You now have two instances of FGU running.

[sstarsslayer]

Don't listen to me though. There are other ways. With this way, both instances of FGU would write changes to the same xml files in your user's ~/SmiteWorks/Fantasy\ Grounds directory which would be bad, depending on what you are doing.

*edit* I tested it. It works fine if one GM and one as Player.

[OneEyedNinja]

Will this allow opening one instance as GM to Host Campaign and the other as Player to Join campaign?
I understand with PCs you need to launch the second instance using localhost, but with the mac do you need to do anything similar to have the Player instance connect to the GM instance?

[sstarsslayer]

Yes, you could do this to join your own game. Connect to yourself with "localhost" (or 127.0.0.1) exactly the same as on Windows or Linux.
If you were instead to host the same campaign twice, both as GM, I'd fear you could mess up the campaign files that store your customizations and progress but with one connected as player, I'd bet it's fine.
Personally, I'd just back up my campaign first and give it a try.

[pollux]

Don't listen to me though. There are other ways. With this way, both instances of FGU would write changes to the same xml files in your user's ~/SmiteWorks/Fantasy\ Grounds directory which would be bad, depending on what you are doing.

I play on Windows and Linux, and unless something is wildly different on OSX this is not an issue provided you:

1. Run exactly zero or one instance of FGU in host mode
2. and simultaneously run exactly zero or one instance of FGU in join mode

If you run multiple instances in host mode, or multiple instances in join mode, then yes, you'll either get an a startup error or corruption. But the host and join modes write to different areas of the data directory and are intended to be run concurrently, and doing so is safe.

[sstarsslayer]

I play on Windows and Linux, and unless something is wildly different on OSX this is not an issue provided you:

1. Run exactly zero or one instance of FGU in host mode
2. Run exactly zero or one instance of FGU in join mode

If you run multiple instances in host mode, or multiple instances in join mode, then yes, you'll either get an a startup error or corruption. But the host and join modes write to different areas of the data directory and are intended to be run concurrently, and doing so is safe.

Excellent, thanks. Go ahead and use open -n on OSX then, like I show above.

[fieldson]

Howdy Tzorn
I do this, for pretty much the reasons you mention, using a MacBook (currently running Mojave) with 2nd monitor, and an Apple TV, which I set to one of the two screens.
I use the first instance of FantasyGrounds to Host the campaign and keep this on my big monitor. I use the 2nd to Join the campaign, with "localhost" to connect, and keep it on my MacBook's screen and share that to a TV via Airplay. This works for me, but it does run my MacBook pretty hard, and occasionally crashes.

Adding to Sstarslayer's directions (which works), you can use Apple's Script Editor to create an App script that executes this for you. If your install is in the default location, the attached AppleScript App may work for you.

Hello,
I would like to launch a second session to use for 2 reason
1. see what player see during development of a campaign (LoS, etc)
2. During game using a screen in the middle of the table to give info to the players (map, images, etc)

Thank you for your help

[sstarsslayer]

FGU's performance issues aren't really helped by limiting to running only one instance, even on fairly old Macs. Unless they improve it in the future, FGU pretty much leaves all your cores except one idle even when it's maxed-out loading something. (Occasionally, FGU will use a little more than 100 out of 1,600 % on mine or 100/800% on my eight-year-old one). Unless someone has only 2 cores and no hyperthreading, they shouldn't be afraid to run two instances This makes all 2010 and newer models safe to run two FGUs. Anything older should be running classic anyway.

Howdy Tzorn
but it does run my MacBook pretty hard, and occasionally crashes.

[qdwag]

As a passing note, I just installed FG Classic for the first time to join a group's Hellfrost game. Classic on idle takes up almost 0% CPU bandwidth - it's amazingly smooth.

FGU on idle on the other hand, 50% CPU.