Map viewer utility

[Mag]

Hey all. I've been working very hard to get this program working and looking well enough to present it lol...there are other map viewing programs but what they seem to lack is the ability to plot your location and / or another location on the map. The program is completely passive and does NOT interact with the EQ client in any way - your /loc must be manually entered in order to plot it to the map. Not sure how useful this will be to anyone, but for me it is mostly for CR's. i tried to make the interface as simple and intuitive as possible. Panning is done by dragging the map around in the frame. This is a little finnicky because I've never coded anything like that before. Only thing you should take note of is if you alt-tab to and from the program it clears the map: just click on the map and it renders it again. I've included two uploads: one is the program and map files, the other is the entire VB.NET 2010 project. This does require .net framework 4.0 to run. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. If anyone wants to run a virus scan on this and post it, that'd be helpful. I would do it, but I don't see what that would accomplish, lol.

ETA: Mods, if you feel like this is against the rules, by all means, delete it. Figured I'd share a helpful utility, hopefully it isn't something that'll be frowned upon.

ETA2: ****There is now an option to read from EQ Log files. Simply click the 'Choose Log' button then check the 'Read Logs' checkbox and /loc in game. It will plot your current location (read from the LOG file, not directly interacting with EQ in any way).

ETA3: Made some more feature changes, as requested - Pause/Break switches between opaque and transparent overlay, pressing the Scroll Lock button minimizes it. Press Pause/Break to bring it back up. Added opacity bar, ranging from 20%-100% opacity. It's possible that a virus scan would see my call to GetKeyPress and flag this as a keylogger. If you feel that's an issue, download the source and build it in VS - an express version works fine. Fixed another zone loading bug. Added refresh delay control. Added a manual "Browse for map" button, use this if a map isn't showing up in the list for any reason.

ETA4: Improved functionality of some features - you can now change the size of the square that's plotted (defaults to 7px) - made a few UI changes - better layout / contrast.
Program & Maps:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5nqllucykkk0y80/Debug.zip
Program, Maps & Source:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zboggcj3tmj06gj/eqmapwsrc.zip

[holkan]

coming from someone who sucks at locs thanks. Hope there's no key loggers in this lol :P.

[Mag]

coming from someone who sucks at locs thanks. Hope there's no key loggers in this lol :P.

If you're concerned about that, you can download VS 2010 express, look through the project and build it yourself...there aren't any keyloggers in it, lol.

[holkan]

If you're concerned about that, you can download VS 2010 express, look through the project and build it yourself...there aren't any keyloggers in it, lol.

I was just joking :(

[Mag]

I was just joking :(

Oh, I wasn't trying to sound like an ass or anything. Just letting you know that it's an option if you're truly concerned about it. I don't blame anyone if they are concerned and that's why I included the source. I just hope someone gets use out of it, lol. I put a lot of work in to making it less buggy before releasing it, hehe.

[holkan]

Oh, I wasn't trying to sound like an ass or anything. Just letting you know that it's an option if you're truly concerned about it. I don't blame anyone if they are concerned and that's why I included the source. I just hope someone gets use out of it, lol. I put a lot of work in to making it less buggy before releasing it, hehe.

I certainly appreciate it I suck ass at loc's and my friend is always LIKE HAVE YOU FOUND THE DRUID RINGS YET?! -99999999 699999999 "im running in circles heres my loc you come to me".

[Mag]

I certainly appreciate it I suck ass at loc's and my friend is always LIKE HAVE YOU FOUND THE DRUID RINGS YET?! -99999999 699999999 "im running in circles heres my loc you come to me".

I WAS bad at locs...funny thing is now after having to research it so much, I don't reeeallly need this tool, but I'll use it anyways lol.

[Derubael]

the important thing to remember about /loc is that the coordinates are in Y X Z format, not X Y Z like most people are used to.

once you get that its pretty simple to look at the maps on wiki.project1999.org and plot a course across a zone.

looks like a good tool. as long as its not interacting with the EQ client in any way you're good to go.

[holkan]

the important thing to remember about /loc is that the coordinates are in Y X Z format, not X Y Z like most people are used to.

once you get that its pretty simple to look at the maps on wiki.project1999.org and plot a course across a zone.

looks like a good tool. as long as its not interacting with the EQ client in any way you're good to go.


welp no wonder i suck at loc's so much.

[murcielago200]

If it read your log files would that be wrong? Similar to ahungry.com?

So all you would have to do is hit /log and /loc then it could plot you?

[Cecily]

Omg omg that would be amazing.

[Silent]

Interesting tool to say the least, If allowed maybe it will finally help the /loc challenged people to actually know wtf they are going. Oh and from a AV scan https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/afec5fc56c54d9b667ced67927fc4cd592be8cad249218f76f 7ee975647a7065/analysis/1382792514/ and just a brief overlook of the source, Looks clean of keylogger or anything malicious but feel free to inspect it yourself.

Where are all these maps from? And any plans, or ways to add more to it?

[Mag]

If it read your log files would that be wrong? Similar to ahungry.com?

So all you would have to do is hit /log and /loc then it could plot you?

This seems like an excellent idea- I'll look in to it.


Interesting tool to say the least, If allowed maybe it will finally help the /loc challenged people to actually know wtf they are going. Oh and from a AV scan https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/a...is/1382792514/ and just a brief overlook of the source, Looks clean of keylogger or anything malicious but feel free to inspect it yourself.

Where are all these maps from? And any plans, or ways to add more to it?


The maps are from the eq folder. Adding more maps is as simple as putting them in the maps folder included w/ the download. Additionally, you could place this inside the EQ folder and it would read from the /maps/ directory or you could copy the maps directory from the eq folder over to this folder. The way that it adds maps to the combo box is it checks a predefined list of zone short names against text files in the /maps/ directory - if the text file is present it adds the map to the list.

[Silent]

That's odd then, I did copy the maps from my EQ folder over. all of them I had, And the program won't pull any of them up or show them. Like burning woods for example. It is not on the drop down list, nor south karana, dreadlands etc theres about 60 maps it loads total. It just won't load the rest

[Mag]

That's odd then, I did copy the maps from my EQ folder over. all of them I had, And the program won't pull any of them up or show them. Like burning woods for example. It is not on the drop down list, nor south karana, dreadlands etc theres about 60 maps it loads total. It just won't load the rest

I've been testing it, too, and I found the same issue - it was an error that I made while defining the zone names. I fixed it - I'm updating the original post now with updated download links. Also, you'll note that there's now a "Read Logs" option - if you choose to use this, just click the choose log button, navigate to your logs folder and choose the correct log file, then check the "Read Logs" box. Now any time you /loc it will plot it on the map.

[Silent]

Cool, Neat tool for sure. If there were a way to implement it to auto read /log loc output that would be even helpful to those that know how to use loc. But I don't know if thats considered third party maphacks or whatever I wouldn't think so

[Mag]

Cool, Neat tool for sure. If there were a way to implement it to auto read /log loc output that would be even helpful to those that know how to use loc. But I don't know if thats considered third party maphacks or whatever I wouldn't think so

It's now configured to do just that - I don't believe it's violating any rules by doing so... if it is, I hope a mod will delete the thread and let me know that it's not allowed.

[Silent]

I sent you a PM, Also I am still having trouble with it not loading all the map files. I think maybe its something in the source related? Its loading like 40 maps or so, But if you look for zones like Timourous deep. You can't find it on the drop down, Is there also a way to possibly make it so you can load a map file ontop of everything else I suggested? I didn't take a look how its reading the map files or folder, or why its not loading them all etc. Theres 125 maps in this folder and only a quarter are on the drop down list(I realize some are 0kb or empty)

[Hastley]

Not classic

[Greegon]

Not classic

yeah isnt this what showeq does anyways?
*shouldnt this be illegal

[Mag]

yeah isnt this what showeq does anyways?
*shouldnt this be illegal

This does what I believe to be the *legal* part of ShowEQ. ShowEQ plots the location of all of the mobs in a zone, etc. This doesn't do anything without you giving it input. Whether that's by typing /loc, or manually inputting a location, w/e. Doesn't interact with the client directly in any way nor does it reveal the location of yourself, any other players or any npcs. It's just a map viewer that can plot a location.

[Derubael]

Show eq does a lot more than just plot a course across a zone.

Other staff can chime in here if they'd like, but i'd say this is a legal utility. You could do something similar with the wiki maps and ms paint if you really wanted.

[getsome]

bind loc to a movement key, so its input into your logs all the time. a few years back a guy made something very similar with locs and a map overlay, and included track range as well. It was a hosted solution and allowed multiple people to feed their locs and anyone could see where anyone else was in game. great for folks who get lost.

[Silent]

There is no way someone can claim this is similar to showeq or any type of hack, As said before it does none of that. It basically shows where you are by taking a map, adding your current loc and putting a dot onto the map to show where you are in relation to the zone

[Ravhin]

bind loc to a movement key, so its input into your logs all the time. a few years back a guy made something very similar with locs and a map overlay, and included track range as well. It was a hosted solution and allowed multiple people to feed their locs and anyone could see where anyone else was in game. great for folks who get lost.

I wanted to do something similar for the wiki, but never finished it.

http://wiki.project1999.com/Special:MapMyLoc?debug=true

I got as far as playing with SVG or Canvas to render the maps (with d3.js). These days, this can all be done in the browser, including reading from your log file, and also having the possibility to synchronize/share positions between players..

If anyone wants to do some JS / PHP work and finish the "MapMyLoc" for the wiki let me know.

[a_gnoll_pup]

This is fine and within the realm of classic. In 1999, if you made a VB application, it could do the same thing on SOE's server and SOE would not even know or care.

[Vandy]

Eqcompanion has this functionality. You have to configure each zone with each map so its a little more hassel to set it up. But once you configure your frequent zones all you do is have a loc key bound to something and you get a map pop-up with a directional Arrow if you are moving.

[Swish]

STAAHP!

http://i.imgur.com/apRp7TQ.gif