Ffxicaddie - Another Map App

Hey peeps :)

At some point, I found no worthy heir to ApRadar, and therefore went on a quest to create my own.

It's taken about 5 months so I hope you like it!

If you're interested, the application along with instructional videos and screenshots can be found here.

Hope you like it!

Regards,

greenshoe

That is looking very nice indeed, and seemed to come from nowhere with detailed tutorial videos in place from day 1, impressive :)

I like the fact that it uses the built-in maps so no secondary set of maps to maintain.

I wonder if it will work with a second monitor while the game runs in full-screen/borderless windowed mode.

I've been struggling with my ATI card allowing me to alt-tab away from fullscreen, it will always crash currently, whereas my nVidia based laptop has no problems (with all the same Windower settings). Perhaps there is an ATI optimised driver to use with FFXI, since I also get strange lines appear that look like the edges of a grid whenever avatars are on screen, but I digress...

Nice work there greenshoe, I hope it becomes a standard Windower add-on soon enough for even easier installs.

Cheers
Amarok

Hi Ama! Thanks a lot for the positive feedback bud :)

It works for me with 3 monitors. It does sound like a driver problem, but I really wouldn't know where to start with that ; ;

Hi.

We actually have some fairly strict rules (via Scragg) about third party applications here. Can you give me a brief rundown of what all it does/doesn't do? I can't watch an hour of YouTube videos right now, sorry :)

Looks neat, though

If it's really just a maintained ApRadar it's more or less fine with me (ultimately Scragg's call, though). Can't do VNMs anymore (as they're server side), and lottery NM camping isn't exactly a big thing anymore, so the big reasons ApRadar was sketchy don't reeeeally apply.

My real concerns are: is it actually more than that, and closer to bot-land, and we have someone who hasn't posted before, showing up with links to binaries. That's all.

EEveryone I know that has been hacked installed something from binaries.

General rule of thumb is, if it isn't source code (lua/windower) don't run it. And even if it is, read through the code yourself.

Hey Rooks :)

I hope I'm able to answer what you need to know here, that is, at least answer "what is does do". The "what it doesn't do" is harder, but I'll give it a try.

It is basically a displayer of data sent from a windower addon. There is absolutely no data going the other way, that in anyway could control the game/character. The only data sent to the windower addon is data required for establishing a tcp socket to communicate over in the first place. The data being sent to the application is the following:

* Player name, player id, player position, player direction, player server, player zone/subzone, whether the player is in the mog house or not
* Entity names, entity id, entity positions, entity direction, entity type (enemy, npc, trust npc, etc...), entity subzone

So it is really just data any other windower addon has access to.

That being said, it does enable the user to filter out data. That is for instance, a potential user could create a "Valkurm Emperor" filter and in that way maybe have an advantage over other players because he would not be spammed/confused by other regular entities like damselflies and snippers. I wouldn't wanna classify that as botting though.

Now, I have no clue what ApRadar did in the botting department, so if anyone knows, please let me know, and then I'll respond to that.

I don't think this application really helps much more than what a regular windower addon does, or ffxiah.com for that matter. ffxiah.com displays data in a manner people find useful, which is what I've been trying to do with this app.

I do realize I might have overstepped some boundaries here though, and if that's the case, I'm really sorry.

Kind regards,

greenshoe

Is there a reason to attach it to a windower addon when it's only reading from 2 well-known data structures..? It really shouldn't have a TCP socket at all. Furthermore, asking everyone to take your word that that's the only data being sent is sketchy at best.

Hey Comeatmebro :)

I'll try answer as best I can. I can see you have a sceptical nature and I welcome that. I am very much the same. Feel free to run my software through virus checks and inspect it using Wireshark (or similar network monitoring software).

I'll also try to answer some of your questions. I hope you find them satisfactory.


Yes it is. If the structures you are referring to at some point change (via a future update) the windower devs will be on it right away and have it fixed in a matter of hours, which means no maintenance for me ^^

There is also another reason for doing so. The windower devs have found a very stable way to access said structures. Most updates, data collected by windower just doesn't break. If I were to do it on my own, I would at the very least have to use the old memloc approach which broke nearly every time an update was issued.

Believe me, I have been contemplating trying to get this data with a sexier approach and also getting rid of the windower addon dependency. It's harder/more cumbersome for end-users to install both a windower addon and then another application, than to simply install one application. I found that in order for me to complete this project in a reasonable amount of time, I would have to have accept the tradeoff here.


I guess it could be implemented using other technologies. However, the lua api windower is offering only supports the LuaSocket library and named pipes from what I've been able to gather from the windower devs. I tried to go for named pipes at first since it seemed easier, but I just couldn't get it to work.


I'm sorry I came across that way. That wasn't my intention. My intention was to point out that the application doesn't send any data that controls your ingame character in anyway, which will be clear to anyone that that uses the software, or takes the time to watch the videos I've made.

Kind regards,
greenshoe

Apradar has broken twice in the last year, and both times they were less than 5 minute repair jobs. The signature commonly used for looking up entity data hasn't changed in years and analyzing the structure itself is extremely simple. It's completely open source, completely functional, and doesn't rely on IPC. Just seems like you're making an extremely complicated replacement with less-than-convenient documentation and limitations that apradar never had.

Hi again :)


I have never been able to do memloc updates in less than 5 minutes, but it has never been my strong suit either so I wouldn't know how the pros do it. The fastest I've been able to do it using tools like ArtMoney and Cheatengine is in the 2-6 hour ballpark and even then I've been unsure as to whether or not the memloc would actually hold for the next week.
I do however remember that it could take several days before Apnea got Apradar fully functional back in the days and I wanted to avoid that kind of time frame. I also remember traversing the web frantically for new map packs on every update. From what you're saying the apradar code has probably changed to the better since then and such a time frame is not needed anymore. I didn't know. Like I said, I did consider making some sort of smart pattern search algorithm, but it just didn't fit with my social life.

Also, you'll have to consider that the windower addon isn't sending me world coordinates (which I would guess is what ApRadar is using since it uses custom map packs). Since I don't have the zone resolution available (which I need since I don't rely on mappacks), I'm getting actual map coordinates from the windower addon (which I have not been able to find using tools like cheatengine and the like). The windower devs also told me that these map coordinates are aquired using the client's own functionality, that is you can ask the game to convert world coordinates into map coordinates for you if you know the address of the function providing that ability. The upside to this approach is that my users don't have to wait for another mappack when SE decides to add another zone. It'll just work from the get go.


That's all right bud :) You don't have to use it and I suspect you won't from what you've said ^^ I'm just saying, I had what I regarded as compelling reasons for doing so. About the less-than-convenient documentation, I felt it was the easiest way for me to convey the features of app. It's my first release of anything really, and I do agree it's frustrating for those that hate video tutorials, but I've also gotten some positive feedback. The good old try/fail tactic should work just aswell for the more impatient souls out there ^^

Kind regards,
greenshoe

Haha! Don't think it didn't cross my mind! But I stopped touching that code the minute I got it to work lol. I've haven't been experiencing any latency problems yet, so hopefully doing it over tcp won't be a problem in the future. Famous last words!

Kind regards,
greenshoe

Just updated the website to show the stand out features of the app (so you don't have to watch the videos to find out).

New version available:

• Added setting: Bring to front on active provider

• Added setting: Display ffxicaddie version number

• Added setting: Set manipulation tool after metadata shape has been created

• Filters dialog: Added the possibility to store/reuse filters

• Change reference card keyboard shortcut to Ctrl+D (Was Ctrl+C which resulted in copy/paste issues)

http://www.greenshoe-magic.net/php-bin/ffxicaddie.php

Cant watch youtube at work but it looks like in the screen shot you can draw on the map,,,thus allowing people to make custom maps?

I have for the longest time wanted to make custom maps but cant find a good application for it, this would be nice if it allowed me to edit/save maps.

That is correct :) You can make custom maps as long as you're content with drawing points, drawing rectangles (possibly rotated), drawing ellipsoids (possibly rotated) or free draw. That is, it's got a basic "mspaint" included. You can also attach labels and other useful information (also web addresses) to said shapes.

New version available:

• Added setting: Remember map location

• Added setting: Remember map size

• Fixed the bug where ffxicaddie sometimes would disconnect from the provider

http://www.greenshoe-magic.net/php-bin/ffxicaddie.php

Does anyone happen to have a version of this still? Please contact me? Thanks guys.

Bump

Quick google search found an older repository

Yeah this seems to just be the lua and not the actual launcher that runs alongside it :/ was all i was able to find too!