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Backstory: My friends and I go are both pc gamers and go round each overs houses (not anymore obviously) for sleepovers. Because we are on pc there aren't many games we can play together.

Problem: We are both massive Minecraft lovers and we were wondering if we are able to play Minecraft together on the same machine with different accounts with different input devices so theoretically we could play on the same server together? We have searched everywhere and didn't find much. We were wondering if we could do this through a Virtual Machine maybe? It's just the only issue is that we cannot have the same window open at the same time...

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    Sending signals to two windows at once will be the real issue. Please add information on which operating system you're using, because the answer will heavily depend on that. It might even be a better question for superuser.com, reworded as "how to send mouse/keyboard inputs to two windows at once" or similar. I have definitely seen a Windows tool for two mouse cursors before, but even that is not guaranteed to work with Minecraft's custom mouse handling. Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 21:12
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    Partially related though that question is about using 1 account for 2 Minecraft clients
    – Unionhawk
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 0:23
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    I don't see a practical way not to use a second machine (a couple impractical, sure). The other machine might be very weak though, a quite antique laptop or a really lousy PC running Windows XP or such. Use Remote Desktop or similar 'remote computing' software to connect to the "good" machine, and use the laptop as thin client, sending key/mouse events and receiving screen data from the other machine.
    – SF.
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 8:38
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    @SF. How does that differ from just plugging in a second mouse and keyboard into the first computer? There is fancy stuff like a multi-mouse mode in X11VNC, but again, this depends on the operating system, and might not work well with Minecraft. Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 15:54
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    I'm not aware of ability to have 2 separate user sessions simultaneously locally on any Windows computer - but you can have a local and a remote session just fine. And I don't think the asker uses Linux.
    – SF.
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 16:01

3 Answers 3

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If you have multiple graphics cards, it is theoretically possible to pass through the mouse and keyboard as well as one GPU to the VM, and then set it up as fullscreen on a second monitor. This worked for me in QEMU/KVM on Linux, but on Windows it may be impossible. I used this tutorial on Ubuntu 20.04.

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  • This still requires a lot more information to be usable with e.g. a keyboard and mouse instead of a GPU like in the tutorial. Also, this answer fully depends on that website staying available, which is not very appreciated on SE. Normally you're supposed to include everything necessary for your answer in your answer itself, but in this case that's a lot of work, so for now here's at least an archive link that should be more reliable: web.archive.org/web/20210113201541/https://mathiashueber.com/… Commented Feb 3, 2021 at 10:41
  • And I'm pretty sure it should be possible to find or create a tool that sends inputs to multiple windows at once or alternatively detect which input it is and select the window accordingly, at least on Linux. xdotool for example can send inputs to arbitrary windows. But that would be a different answer. Commented Feb 3, 2021 at 10:43
  • If you can make another awnser, Please do! I know my awnser isnt great, thats why I added a bounty. This is something I have always wanted, so I want every awnser possible. Commented Feb 5, 2021 at 6:15
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+100

It's possible to play with two keyboards/mouses at once. However, this might be a bit too complicated to install and laggy, plus the way I do it requires a premium software, so I think it would be way easier for you to find a different solution to your predicament. However, this could help out some other people, so here it is.

The tutorial I used for this is here. I didn't get a virus in the process, so it should be safe to use the software. Nevertheless, don't be an idiot and at least be careful. I'm not responsible for anything you do!

  1. There's a great multiseat software called ASTER, which you can get here.

ASTER is a paid program: however, it does have a 30 day trial that you could try out, and there are other alternatives listed here that would work out as well. Note that you'll need Windows 10 for the the steps below.

  1. You'll need two sets of a keyboard and a mouse, an extra monitor, and you'll probably also need a great PC if your game is very high resolution and has good graphics that will lag you out. If you don't own an extra PC monitor, you can also use a television as your extra monitor. Having another monitor is required for the software. Also, you'll probably need at least half an hour of time on your hands.

  2. After you get your materials, plug everything in and make sure that your monitors are connected to the same graphics card. According to the tutorial I used, apparently ASTER crashes your system if you're using a NVIDA graphics card with Geforce Experience, and you have to uninstall Geforce Experience for this. I'm not exactly in the most trustworthy parts of the web currently, but it's your decision whether or not you want to trust them or not. I personally don't use a NVIDA graphics card.

  3. Download the installation software. Create a backup in case your computer crashes either using another software or by checking the box in the the bottom left hand corner of the software that says "Create a restore point". After doing this, download ASTER from the installation software by going through the instructions on the installation program, and then restart your computer. After restarting your computer, start up ASTER again, press OK when it asks to update, and then press the correct option for getting a software key.

  4. Press on the "Workplaces" tab and set up "Place 1" and "Place 2" by dragging the icons representing hardware for each respective player into the places you want them. If you're not sure what the icons represent, hover over them to see what you're using. For instance, if I want to set my first monitor for me and the second monitor for my friend, I'll drag one monitor into Place 1 and another into Place 2. It's very important that you make sure the icons you're dragging are the pieces of hardware you're using to play.

  5. If you get a warning message about sharing monitors, ignore it. There may be more keyboard icons than you actually have keyboards: these are other USB devices that you have connected to your computer. You should make sure that you have the right hardware in the right place by hovering over the icons and checking the hardware names. You wouldn't want to connect your microphone instead of your keyboard!

  6. Click apply, and then enable ASTER workplaces on the general setting tabs. Also, change "How to run workplaces" in the settings and change it to manual, so you won't have a problem turning it on/off.

  7. Click on "Enable ASTER and Reboot PC". Every time you want to turn ASTER on/off, you'll have to reboot using ASTER.

  8. If everything has gone well, your second monitor should've switched on and you can now login and launch your games as if the two monitors were connected to two different computers. When you're done playing, simply press the reboot button on ASTER to switch the two workplaces off. Enjoy :)

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  • is there an alternative to ASTER for Linux? Commented Feb 6, 2021 at 0:22
  • @valkyrie_pilot lightofdawn.org/wiki/wiki.cgi/LinuxMultiSeat is a resource you could use to start off, I think multi-seat for Linux is already built in and you can code it in using a few commands. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything else useful.
    – Hacker
    Commented Feb 6, 2021 at 2:08
  • Also, @Micz please upvote this answer or set it as the official answer if you find this useful. If not, please comment and tell me if it isn't working.
    – Hacker
    Commented Feb 6, 2021 at 2:17
  • you deserve the bounty. Take it. Commented Feb 6, 2021 at 2:25
  • :D Nice, now I can actually comment on other people's answers.
    – Hacker
    Commented Feb 6, 2021 at 2:29
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Yes it is possible by running 2 minecraft. But the real problem is the active windows or only one keyboards. So it isn't possible. I'm sorry to dissapoint you.

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    What now, possible or not? Also, I'm pretty sure that there is some way to do it, it's just software. In the extreme case it would have to be newly programmed. So "impossible" is extremely unlikely to be true. Also, please only write your answer once, the other post is redundant. Commented Feb 1, 2021 at 12:48
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    It is not possible. You need another computer to play with your friend or use minecraft bedrock edition to crossplay with your multiplayer server. Also that post below isn't made by me. Don't assume that it's me if it doesn't even have WolfPlay013 in it. Commented Feb 2, 2021 at 14:49
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    @WolfPlay013 you edited the other post and made it a duplicate of yours, that's what he meant.
    – Penguin
    Commented Feb 2, 2021 at 16:41

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