C# Multi-box Software - New Project of mine.. Devs input wanted :)

[Imdsm]

Whai hallo thar..

I'm a fellow wow player for the last 3 years, and a programmer for the last 10.

Today I got bored waiting for wotlk and decided I'd try multiboxing. Then realising how both a) annoying and b) annoying it would be to use a ready made program and set it up and shit like that, I decided I'd have even more fun and write my own software for it!

So I began writing Boxpress, a C# 2.0 project for multiboxing. So far it only works with two screens, having a master and a slave, though upgrading it for x more screens would be simple.

So far it very simply listens for keys D1 to D0 on main window and passes them to the minimized slave window.

On the slave char I have macros, e.g. /target Main /assist /cast X and one for /target Main /follow etc.

My question is this, in the current software available, how do you manage:
- looting
- aoe spells (such as flamestrike, which requires a target destination)
- talking to quest masters
- melee
- equipping items

I read somewhere that you have to loot individually, and for the others i'd guess that would be true too.

But is there a melee option?
Or do you just roll a spellcaster so you can take hits on one char and spellcast with the others.. like DIE!!!231247 :cursing:



Muchos graçias for any replies!

Imdsm / Murphi

[Imdsm]

alright I guess I'll just have to dig through and find out myself.

Thanks for the help guys..

[Midol]

Can't automate looting, but you could broadcast clicks.

Ditto for quest helpers.

However, I just change windows.

[Freddie]

Section 4.B.(iv) of the EULA says third-party programs can't connect to the WoW client or service. I take this to mean that third-party programs can only send input to WoW by doing the same things as a user: pressing keys, pressing mouse buttons, and moving the mouse cursor.

(However there's at least one programmer here who disagrees with me. If I understand him he thinks it's okay to hook DLLs.)

So my answer to all questions of this type is that your program is supposed to do it by pressing keys, pressing mouse buttons, and moving the mouse cursor. You don't need any special advice for that. Just watch your fingers when you play the game normally and wherever possible, make your program do the same thing.

[Imdsm]

(However there's at least one programmer here who disagrees with me. If I understand him he thinks it's okay to hook DLLs.)

Well it is the easiest way to do it.

Section 4.B.(iv) of the EULA says third-party programs can't connect to the WoW client or service.

I'd take this to mean a socket connecting to the wow server, a packet tap program, or something like the CS1.6 hacks - attaching to and modifying the running wow app.

My way gets the window handles for WoW master and slave, and filters any keys meant for master hwnd and sends them to slave hwnd.

[Freddie]

I'd take this to mean a socket connecting to the wow server, a packet tap program, or something like the CS1.6 hacks - attaching to and modifying the running wow app.

The word "Game" has a special meaning in the EULA. It's defined in the first sentence of the second paragraph, and it's always capitalized to indicate that it has that special meaning. It means the client plus documentation.

Then 4.B(iv) says:

"Under no circumstances may you connect, or create tools that allow you or others to connect, to the Game's proprietary interface other than those expressly provided by Blizzard for public use. "

Because of the way "Game" is defined, that sentence most certainly refers to the client, not the server. But does it refer to the interface between client and server or the one between client and user? It doesn't say. It simply says interface. It's possible that it was intended to mean the interface between client and server, but that's not what Blizzard's lawyer wrote. It could just as well be applied to the interface between client and player.

As for "tools", the only "tools" expressly provided for public use for input into that interface are keyboards and mice.

If you're writing software for your own use, you're free to interpret this language however you like. In fact you're free to ignore it completely. There's little risk that Blizzard will look at your program, and if they do, you're the only one who's affected.

But if you're publishing software for the public then I think there is a responsibility to protect your users from even the slightest chance of getting their accounts banned, and the rules have to be read soberly and not optimistically.

[eqjoe]

Section 4.B.(iv) of the EULA says third-party programs can't connect to the WoW client or service. I take this to mean that third-party programs can only send input to WoW by doing the same things as a user: pressing keys, pressing mouse buttons, and moving the mouse cursor.

(However there's at least one programmer here who disagrees with me. If I understand him he thinks it's okay to hook DLLs.)

So my answer to all questions of this type is that your program is supposed to do it by pressing keys, pressing mouse buttons, and moving the mouse cursor. You don't need any special advice for that. Just watch your fingers when you play the game normally and wherever possible, make your program do the same thing.

Of course you can hook DLLs... the question is, which ones? You also need to define "hook". Hook as in detour or hook as in make use of API. I have heard that term used for both.

There is a good argument that anything Microsoft is fair game, including DX libs.

-j

[Freddie]

There is a good argument that anything Microsoft is fair game, including DX libs.

If you arrange things so WoW calls your code when it thinks it's calling a DirectX library, I think you're violating 4.B.(iv) of the EULA. I already explained my reasons. You can take this as an example of a "hook."

You say there's a good argument why I'm wrong but you don't tell us what it is. Why don't you tell us? I'd like to hear it.

[eqjoe]

There is a good argument that anything Microsoft is fair game, including DX libs.

If you arrange things so WoW calls your code when it thinks it's calling a DirectX library, I think you're violating 4.B.(iv) of the EULA. I already explained my reasons. You can take this as an example of a "hook."

You say there's a good argument why I'm wrong but you don't tell us what it is. Why don't you tell us? I'd like to hear it.[/quote]I am not saying that you are wrong. Fact is, we don't know what is or is not cool with Blizzard. Other game developers maybe more straightforward... Blizzard wants to be as ambiguous as possible.

I will leave the arguments for the guys who actually know how that software written.

-j

[Freddie]

I agree that we don't know what Blizzard would do about a widely used program that hooks API calls in the sense I described. I think it's possible that they don't know themselves since, like any company, they probably make most of their decisions when they have to take some particular action or other.

But we do know what the EULA says. Which is not say it's easy to interpret. Nobody would be happier than me if I'm interpreting it wrong. I could write better software if that were the case. In the meantime, though, I feel a responsibility to my users to read the EULA as carefully as I can and stick to a conservative interpretation.