Volte: Ingame/Out-of-game Display + Parse/Timer Sharing Channels

maokomeeb · 04-30-2010, 08:30 PM

(from original thread here)

Current version details: 1.0.6.2
Last updated: 8/01/2010

If you get a "The application cannot be used at this time," you may need to install a Windows hotfix.
Win7 / Win2008 R2
KB-article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976462
Installer: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/KB976462
Windows Xp/2K3/Vista/Win2K8
KB-article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976394
Installer: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/KB976394

Volte provides ingame and out-of-game displays of parses and timers. It also provides remote access to parses and timers via message channels. ACT users can create channels for Volte clients to listen on. Remote users receive the ingame overlay displays, out-of-game windows, and/or voice callouts .. all configurable by each user.

Here are the details:

First of all, special thanks to Shakkra of Mistmoore for the artwork. Also thanks goes out to the following testers:
Elaot
Kairen
Deskye
Sahila
(those who have responded in this thread .. thank you so much!)

A demonstration video is found here:
http://www.deriven.com/media/games/eq2/Volte.html
The timers are in the top-center of the video.

Release notes here:
Volte Release Notes

A Volte primer can be found here:
Volte Primer

The ACT plugin can be found here:
Volte.Act.Plugin.zip
This plugin is for people who want to give callouts and parses.

And the client here:
Volte Client Setup
This is for people who want to receive callouts and parses.
Click the easy (Volte) button to configure it.

To use, just connect to the same channel (or channels) that the ACT plugin is connected to. For instance, Maokomeeb has ACT running on a channel called Volte with a password Volte. The client users can receive the information by adding that channel and password to their channel list on the client.

Be sure you have the latest DirectX redistributables (June 2010):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

NOTE: The Volte server is backed up every other night around 3:30am-ish EST. It goes down for about 10 minutes for the backup process and then comes right back up.

NOTE: If you update your Volte client and it gives you an error, uninstall Volte and then reinstall it from the web site. I noticed this happened on my Windows 7 machine for some reason.

Tested on:
Windows Vista 64-bit
Windows XP 32-bit
Windowx 7 64-bit

Hardware tested:
nVidia mobile and desktop GeForce cards
ATI Radeon 5970

maokomeeb · 05-03-2010, 11:40 AM

For ACT broadcasters, you must extract the plugin files in the ACT folder. (Thanks, Elaot of Mistmoore, for the feedback.) The primer has been updated with this information.

Thundolfe · 05-04-2010, 06:58 PM

We use Guild Connect for this type of thing, however, if we ever decide to not pay the monthly cost you've basically built the same thing into ACT.

Really well done and quite impressive, bookmarked.

Opeth · 05-05-2010, 12:10 AM

Since you have people getting the directx files can i assume this will do timers in full screen also?

maokomeeb · 05-05-2010, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thundolfe

We use Guild Connect for this type of thing, however, if we ever decide to not pay the monthly cost you've basically built the same thing into ACT.

Really well done and quite impressive, bookmarked.

Thank you. Yeah, I didn't know about GuildConnect till after I started beta on Volte. heh

If anyone has feature suggestions, please let me know. I plan on adding a few slash commands (e.g. \volte addchannel blah/blah) for ingame configuration, for instance.

maokomeeb · 05-05-2010, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Opeth

Since you have people getting the directx files can i assume this will do timers in full screen also?

Yes. Full screen and windowed mode -- and you can toggle without concern of crashes. Also I've been able to open 4 instances of EQ2 with all 4 having the same overlays.

The video linked is full-screen mode by the way, recorded with Fraps. (So it doesn't interfere with Fraps either if anyone was wondering.)

maokomeeb · 05-10-2010, 01:24 AM

Some testers and I found a problem with the channel connections. I'm working on a fix right now. Thank you all for your feedback!

maokomeeb · 05-10-2010, 04:59 AM

Client v1.0.0.13
ACT.Plugin v1.0.0.1

Broadcasters, download the latest plugin! Listeners, next time you start Volte you will be asked to get the latest files.

Wow! The server-side communication had a silly flaw in it that would only create ONE channel .. period! Meaning only one person could use it at any given time! Oops! Also the ACT plugin, even though using the same communication layer as the client, would never connect to the server because of another silly flaw that would not read the configuration file correctly. /sigh Sorry about all that.
On my TO-DO list is to get rid of the need to click the Volte button every time you start it followed by clicking the Close button to connect to the servers. This is just a temporary thing. I know it's annoying.

maokomeeb · 05-12-2010, 03:02 AM

Seems to be good to go. We tested tonight. Had to make one more change on the server-side. Other than that, Volte is working.

One tester and I had a few suggestions. Please let me know what you think:

Allow the ACT broadcaster to enable/disable clipboard export
Allow the ACT broadcaster to enable/disable spell timer export
Allow the ACT listener to enable/disable clipboard export per channel
Allow the ACT listener to enable/disable spell timer export per channel
(or) Allow the ACT broadcast to have a clipboard channel and a spell timer channel, separate from each other

Also Elaot of Mistmoore found a neat option for parse exports. If you unchecked the General Options | In-Game Export Options | Combatant summaries as Text to past into EQ2 chat check box in his ACT, Volte will not send clipboard stuff like parses. But you can use "\act clip last" ingame and it will send the clipboard. That way you can send only the clipboard data you want.

maokomeeb · 05-14-2010, 09:52 PM

Tonight the Volte server will be offline while I upgrade my RAID drives. It will be back up tomorrow night most likely.