New Client

[Seaxouri]

I am not sure why you are mixing Sony and Mapfiend maps. Don't most folks pick one set or the other? It seems illogical to overlap the two sets... and I can certainly see that causing more problems down the road.

For example, this is a link to GFay at mapfiend: http://eq.mapfiend.net/map/gfaydark/3129

In there are THREE layers, gfay_1.txt, gfay_2.txt and gfay_3.txt. File 1 has just lines, File 2 has labels, File 3 has lines.

There is zero overlap of labels. All of these come from Mapfiend. If you also have the Sony map in there, it would be labeled gfay.txt. The client only loads gfay.txt OR gfay_1.txt, it never loads both. It also never loads any _2 or _3 files, period.

So if you are getting double images, you need to post the labels in your map files.

Here is a link to the source code used in the client you all currently use:
http://seq.cvs.sourceforge.net/seq/m...cs?view=markup

And here is the relevant code:

 // Try it as a LoY map first
1643 if (!loadmap(f + ".txt"))
1644 {
1645	 // If it didn't work, try an SEQ map
1646	 if (!loadmap(f + ".map"))
1647	 {
1648		 bool foundmap = false;
1649		 for (int mapnum = 1; mapnum <= 3; mapnum++)
1650		 {
1651			if (loadmap(string.Format("{0}_{1}.txt", f, mapnum)))
1652			{
1653			 foundmap = true;
1654			 break;
1655			}
1656		 }
1657		 //... Missing map
1658		 if (!foundmap)
1659		 {
1660			map.loadDummyMap();
1661			this.Text = BaseTitle + string.Format(" - Couldn't find a map for the zone: {0}", si.Name);
1662		 }
1663	 }
1664 }

Here you can see we first would try and load gfay.txt. These are the Sony maps if you copied them from your EverQuest/maps folder. If that is not found, it then checks for gfay.map. These are the old SEQ format maps that you used to get from Mapfiend. These existed before EQ had an in-game map. Most folks should not have any of these anymore. If that is not found, it tries to load gfay_1.txt, then gfay_2.txt then gfay_3.txt.

Of course it should never get to _2 or _3, since folks should have either gfay.txt, gfay.map or gfay_1.txt in their map folder.

In any case, we never load more than one file ever, so having double images means you must have some hacked map from somewhere.

[kunark]

i notice tho in the client that most maps it loads is layer 3 while like i said lables are in 2 atm on a few zones ( mostly tss ive downloaded ) but if Mapfiend is still giving us maps in layer 3 and lables in layer 2, dunno how that will work.

Far as double zone lines etc also checked on it, like gfay had sonys in 1, mapfiend in 3 with lables also so im getting double print slightly off on mapdraw ( i can work with it tho in zones that do that by editing the files no biggy)

guess what i was trying to say ( done that post at 5am lol ) is

with lables in 2 and lines in three how would we be able to see camp spots etc without editing the files or using the ingame map ( i know you will prob say use ingame ) but better to see where spots, mobs and peeps are all at the same time ( to me anyway ) without trying to see this spot 2/3 way up on left near this line then looking at client etc lol..( like looking at a mob, named spot not in alert ) and seeing if up or not.. ( maybe an option to load layer 2 and 3 at same time or turn layer 2 on and off, thats if mapfiend is going to keep lables in layer 2, dunno if even worth the time )might not make sense

far as my client showing layer 3 on most of them, it does maybe i have a setting wrong dunno or corrupted files, but i have ( too many i need to redo them ) all the old seq maps, sony and all 3 layers ( going to delete all and redownload them tomorrow.

and what i mean by showing double layers i see now some ( older maps ) have double text and double lines in them ( me redoing entire list will prob fix that part )

anyway i do thank you for looking into my mess and suggestion, and cant wait till new comes out.

[kunark]

heres a suggestion, i dont know if possible or what not, but if there is a way....

can you make the old alert files editable or w/e, for example a lot of the old zones have alerts that many of us dont need, or dont care for, an exp of that would be skyfire it alerts all of the chroms in the zone.

like i said may or maynot be possible but i for one would love to be able to change some of the old alerts.

thnx

ps redoing the maps as i said above fixed the layer 3 showing up etc, have no idea how they got corrupted maybe downloading dunno anyway thought i would let ya know. Still would like to be able to load lables with map tho lol however that can be done.

[Seaxouri]

The alert files are all editable already. They are all just text files. File like 'filters_gfay.conf' are default filter files for gfay made by BlueAdept. We ignore regexp stuff, anything like 'Name:[^:]giant[^:]:;26-28' would be ignored. However I added logic in last year that helps try and parse what it can from these files.

Anything you add to the zone would go in 'custom_gfay.conf'. This way we keep the two separate in case there was an update to the default ones.

To remove the default ones, just delete the filters_ version... or edit it to suit your needs.

With the changes I have made to the new beta, adding filters should no longer impact performance. I have rewritten all the logic that process spawns, spawnlist, spawn timers and alerts (and more). When new spawns are detected, the new client consumes very little CPU power to process it, and it only processes it once.. not over and over again like it did before.

Spawn timers also now save across zone loads, so you no longer need to see a mob pop twice and die once to get the spawn timer. You do need to see it spawn once and die once, however... but that is another story. I think I can add the capability, for static spawns only, such that you only need to see them die once upon zone in, but I have to work on that a little.

My next goal is to optimize the rendering engine, which needs a little work.

[bobster]

Would it be possible to make the spawn collector a little "smarter" ? as in displaying the respawn timer / "spawning in" as a result in minutes&seconds, instead of just seconds ?

[Seaxouri]

Yes I probably will. I hate the seconds thing too.

[chiquitaturbana]

First off, a HUGE thanks to Seaxouri for all the effort put in to keep this fine program going. I'm all for efficient small software and not speaking of small efficient software, myseq server works on Vista for what it's worth. Haven't tried the client but don't expect any problems.

I personally hate all the labels on most maps. I mean, I can see every mob in the zone and use the quick find or spawn list if I'm looking for some quest mob or something. Some zones have so many labels I can't see anything so just open them in a text editor and delete the full lines that contain the stuff you don't want to see. Makes for nice, clean maps of each zone. Also, if you don't like the extra label files...delete the whole file and you no longer have all those labels. Just a few ideas, making the client auto manipulate maps and filters is doesn't make sense when they can be manually edited so quickly and easily and very rarely change, especially the map files.

Just my 2 coppers and keep up the good work.