************************************************************************** EQ Macros v 1.4.0.27 October 1, 2000 written by: Ben Ziegler http://www.uorobot.com/eqmacros.htm ************************************************************************** ************************************************************************** INTRODUCTION EQ Macros (EQM) is the first software tool that provides recording & playback of keystroke and mouse macros under EverQuest(TM). EQ Macros takes the grunt work out of playing your game, and makes it more fun. EQ Macros now offers MANY features: - Macros (keyboard & mouse) - Triggers (macros that fire based on text in the log file) - On-screen Map - shows where you are in the zone!! - Waypoints - Compass - Night Vision Scope - Zoom Window - Web Browser (BETA) - EQM Screen Capture (captures EQ screen + all EQ Macros windows) - Timers ************************************************************************** SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS - Microsoft Windows Operating System (Win2000, 95, 98, 98SE, ME) - Microsoft DirectX v7.0+ - MS Internet Explorer 5.0+ FULL VERSION* (for Web viewing support) * FULL Version means you have downloaded the MSHTML ActiveX control, which is the default when you do a full install of IE - EverQuest (Normal or Ruins of Kunark) EVERQUEST REQUIREMENTS - 640 x 480 screen resolution (higher resolutions will be supported in future versions). You can play EQ in higher resolutions, but the EQM mouse will not be able to reach outside of the 640x480 box. The normal EQ cursor can still move outside the box, but not the 2nd EQM cursor. - Game Options must be set to DirectX mode (Primary Display Driver). Glide mode is currently not supported. Using Glide will render all EQM GUI windows invisible. There is a file in your EQ directory called "eqdevice.txt". Open this file with Notepad, it should display "Primary Display Device". ************************************************************************** INSTALLATION & SETUP Using WinZip (or any compatible zip utility) Unzip the ZIP file into a directory. Make sure the "Use Folder Names" option is enabled to create the subdirectories. You can unzip into any directory, but it is suggested you use: C:\Program Files\EQ Macros You will need to create this directory if it does not already exist. To run the program, view the directory with Windows Explorer. You should see an Application called "EQMacros.exe" (or "EQMacros_Trial.exe" if you are using the trial edition). Double click the application to start the program. The first time you run the program, a shortcut for EQ Macros will be created on your desktop, and the readme file will be launched. ************************************************************************** EQ MACROS CONFIGURATION The first time you run EQ Macros, you will want to select some configur- ation options. On the "Options" tab there are two choices: - Change Window Caption. This will change the window caption to whatever you want. This is a "Stealth" feature so that other programs can't illegally detect you are running EQM. - Always show EQM mouse cursor - ON by default. This will show EQ's cursor and EQM's cursor. This is nice because you will easily know when the two are out of synch and you need to calibrate. They are out of synch when you see TWO cursors. When the are in synch they overlap and you can only see one cursor. You may turn this feature off if the second cursor is annoying. There is one option on the "Maps" tab: - Map Directory. Make sure this points to the directory where all of your map files (*.map) are located. The map feature won't work if this isn't properly set. If you installed to the default directory, and properly unzipped EQM, then the default value here is correct. - Links to download maps. Click on the link to open up a browser for those map websites. "Registration" tab: - Order ID. (Registerd users only). Enter your OrderID here. If you are using the trial version, this will say "TRIAL". - License Key. (Registered users only). Enter your License Key here. if you are using the trial version, this will say "TRIAL". - Version. This lets you know what version of EQM you are running. "Links" tab: - Links to the EQM Main Page, News Page, and Message Board - Also has a link to the Customer Downloads page (Full Version Only) "Diagnostics" tab: - Displays any errors that occurred the last time EQ Macros ran. "Main" tab (the first tab): - Press the "Start" button to start EQ Macros. If you haven't entered your OrderID or License Key yet, it will prompt you to enter those. - If EQM can connect to the license server and verify your license information, EQM will start. You may now launch EverQuest. ************************************************************************** GENERAL FEATURE OVERVIEW All EQ Macro general features are accessed by pressing the "]" key and then a letter key. GENERAL COMMANDS: ]E - Main Menu - Brings up window with list of other commands. Use this one if you forget the key command for another feature. ]M - Toggle Map - Brings up an on-screen transparent map of the current zone. ]S - Toggle Map Select screen ]Y - Toggle Waypoints ]L - Toggle Location - Brings up an on-screen display of location (X, Y, Z co-ordinates) and compass. ]N - Toggle Night Scope - Off / Small / Large. Brings up display that enhances brightness & contrast - helps see in the dark. ]Z - Toggle Zoom Window. Defaults to zooming the experience bar. ]W - Web Browser (BETA) ]H - Help Window ]I - Timer Window ]A - Macro Window See below for an in depth description of these features. ************************************************************************** MACRO FEATURES RECORD: Press the "[" key and a number key (0-9) to start recording, you should a wav file played saying "Recording". When finished recording, press the "[" key TWICE, you should hear a wave file saying that recording has stopped. PLAYBACK: Press the "]" and a number key (0-9) to start playback, press "]" key TWICE to stop looped playback. OTHER COMMANDS: ]C - Auto Calibrate. Calibrates the mouse so that EQ Macros knows where it is. Do this if you see two mouse cursors, or EQ Macros can't seem to locate the mouse. ]P - Pause/Unpause playback ]V - Toggle sound on/off [L - Next macro recorded will be a "Looped" macro [S - Next macro recorded will be a "Single-playback" macro [B - Next macro recorded will be a "Both Mouse & keyboard" macro [K - Next macro recorded will be a "Keyboard-only" macro [U - Undo last record (restores last overwritten macro) NOTES FOR MOUSE SUPPORT To get the best results, you should calibrate EQ Macros before recording any mouse macros. This is very easy, simply move the mouse pointer to each of the 4 corners of the screen. EQ Macros will detect this, and calibrate automatically. You can now safely record a mouse macro. For best results start a mouse macro with the mouse in the upper left corner of the screen. Some keystrokes will automatically pause a macro. This allows a player to type a quick message, reply to a tell, etc. while a macro is playing. The enter and slash ("/") keys will both pause and resume playing macros. The "R" and "T" keys will pause a macro, but not resume it. Note that EQM now supports up to 100 macros (0-99). However, only the first ten macros (0-9) are accessible through the keyboard. See the section on "Macro List" ("]A") for information on accessing the macros in the slots ten and above. ************************************************************************** COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS The following command line parameters have been added: /C "Caption" Enter any stealth caption you want to use /R Pick a random caption. Don't use with /C /S Press the "Start" button automatically /L "C:\Program Files\EverQuest\EverQuest.exe" Launch file after startup. Also, if this is used the first two dialogs will be clicked automatically by EQ Macros. So you won't have to press the "Play Online" button or the "I Accept" button. Advanced users will probably want to use this command line: /R /S /L "C:\Program Files\EverQuest\EverQuest.exe" Using Command Line Parameters You can edit your EQ Macros shortcut. Right click on the shortcut and get the properties. You should see the top edit box says "Target" and is filled in with: "C:\Program Files\EQ Macros\EQMacros.exe" Simply put those parameters at the end of that string. And make sure their are some spaces. Something like this would work: "C:\Program Files\EQ Macros\EQMacros.exe" /r /s ************************************************************************** DESCRIPTION OF GENERAL FEATURES ******************** - Main Window Press "]E" to open the Main Window. The main window has buttons to launch all the other EQ Macros windows. If you can only remember one keystroke for EQ Macros, remember "]E"! Also, using the Main Window is the only way to access the EQM Screen Capture tool, which doesn't have a keystroke defined. ******************** - Map Feature Press "]M" to open the Map window. The map is the coolest new feature to EQ Macros. When you enter a new zone, EQ Macros detects this from the log file and loads a new map. Note that you must have logging turned ON for this to work. EQ Macros gets the zone name from the log file. It then scans all of the map files in your map directory. If it finds a matching map, it displays the map. If it can't find a map, it displays an error where the map would be. EQ has a bad habit of using different names for the same zone. For example, when you enter a zone it might say "West Cabilis", but when you do a "/who all" command it will call the zone Cabilis West. For this reason, a feature was added to switch the zone name to what it should be. Just do a /say I am in zone XXX. Where XXX is the proper zone name (which is found in the map file). EQ Macros will detect this in your log file, and try to load a map based on that name. When the map appears, it displays transparently on top of your game window. The map is vector based, and usually shows the zone border. Sometimes the main paths are marked, as well as merchant huts, etc. At the bottom right corner of the map are some buttons: - Select - Displays Map Select window (see section below) - WayPt - Displays Waypoints window (see section below) - Size - Click & drag to resize the map window - Move - Click & drag to move the map window - Zoom Out - Click & hold to zoom out, until you can see the entire map if desired. - Zoom In - Click & hold to zoom in. Will zoom down until one map pixel on screen equals one loc unit (from the /loc command) - Pan - Click & drag to change the center of the map. When you release the map will snap back to center on your character. Also, while panning the pan marker /loc is displayed. This is useful to quickly find the /loc of points on the map. The map uses information from the Location window to determine your characters location. See the section on the Location window for info regarding accuracy. Maps are currently included with my distribution. Note that these maps were NOT developed by EQ Macros. They were developed for an open-source project called ShowEQ. These folks have kindly released their maps and the map format to the public. The EQ Macros team (me!) does not produce any map content. However, if you find some fixes or enhancements to make to a map file, you can email me the file and I will include it in my distribution. I also highly encourage you to upload the map file to one of the ShowEQ map sites. If you want to download the latest map files, go to these websites: http://www.crushandswill.com/mapfiend/ http://www.hackersquest.gomp.ch/ ******************** Map Select Window To select a map press "]S". A window will pop up with a list of all maps in your map directory. Double click a map, or click on a map and then click "Select". ******************** Waypoints Press "]Y" to open the waypoints window. This window will display the points of interest and waypoints FOR THE CURRENT MAP. The following buttons are displayed for this window: - "Select" waypoint button - shows: distance, ETA, steering angle, & line to target on map - "None" button - turn off current waypoint - "Add" button - Set current /loc as a waypoint (autonamed "User_#") - "Delete" button - deletes user waypoints (can't delete map points) - "Rename" button - rename user waypoints (can't rename map points) - "Close" - close the window User waypoints stored in a file with the same name as the map file, but with an extension of ".USR". When a waypoint is selected, the map screen will display a dotted green line from your character (in the center of the map) to the waypoint. It will also display the distance (in loc units) and ETA (estimated time of arrival). The ETA is in seconds, and is calculated using the running speed. Note that the location window must be on for running speed to be calculated. Finally, an "Angle to Target" arrow is displayed. Simply turn until the angle to target is pointing straight up. You are then facing the right direction, and can move towards the waypoint. When you get very near your waypoint (50 loc units or less), the angle to target line will start to shrink, until you are directly on top of waypoint. ******************** Location Window - Location Window - press "]L". This window shows: - Current Position (x, y, z) in /loc coordinates - 360 degree Compass, with N, S, E, W markers - Current Time - Frames Per Second (FPS), calculated using last 30 frames - Running Speed (in loc units per second) - Transparent background to maximize view area. You can still resize the location window to provide a background if its hard to read. Note: The location window displays statistics based on the camera, NOT the statistics of your character. When you are in 1st person view, then the camera matches your character's location. If you switch views though, you will see that the position & direction (and even running speed!) are those of the camera. For best use of the location view, press F9 until you are in 1st person view. ******************** Night Scope Window Open by pressing "]N". This will toggle Small window, Large window, and off. The night scope just enhances a portion of the screen by turning up the brightness and contrast values. It is useful to find your way around at night or deep in a dungeon. The night scope feature is highly CPU intensive and will reduce your framerate (especially the large window). Turn off the feature unless needed. ******************** Zoom Window When you turn on the zoom window, two windows appear. One is a small, transparent window that you can move around the screen and resize. The second window displays whatever is beneath the zoom window, but larger. If you resize the display window, you can zoom in as much as you want. Defaults to zooming the experience bar (if you are in Inventory mode). This way you can see how many *pixels* until the next level. ;) You can also zoom MOBs off in the distance, but they look very blocky. ******************** EQM Screen Capture This tool is accessed from the Main window (]E), then press the "Capture" button. This utility will capture the screen image and save it to your EQ Macros directory in BMP format. The capture will include the EQ screen, and all EQ Macros windows (except for the capture window itself). ******************** - Timers Press "]I" to bring up the timer window. This window shows the following buttons: - Start - Stop - Reset - sets the timer back to its starting point. This is some number of minutes for countdown timers, and back to zero for "normal" timers. - Alarm - pick the alarm for the timer. The choices are: - Overlay+Wav - Flash a text overlay on the screen, and play "Timer" WAV - None - do nothing - (Time) - No alarm, and timer type is "Normal" and not countdown. Note the time will look funny when selecting this alarm type, because the time is counted up. When you switch to the other alarm types the time will look normal again. - Window - show the timer window when the countdown reaches 0 - Overlay - flash a text message on the screen - Beep - do a system beep - WAV file - play the Timer.wav file - Overlay+beep - flash a text message, and play the system beep - Add - Press this button to add a new timer - After pressing add, it will ask you the name for this timer. - Next it will ask for the timer length in minutes. You can enter a decimal value (e.g. 3.5 = 3 minutes 30 seconds). - Delete - delete a timer Timers can be useful to time all sorts of events, including: - time a certain buff will last - time until a skill re-enables (e.g., 6 minutes for Mend) - time until a MOB will spawn ******************** - Macro List Press "]A" to bring up the macro list. If you haven't created any macros yet, this list will be empty. This window shows the following buttons: - Edit - Edit an existing macro. Displays the Edit Macro window (see below) - Play - Play a selected macro - Record - Record a new macro. You will be prompted for the macro number (0-99). This will overwrite the existing macro if there is one. - Stop - Stops playing or recording - Delete - deletes the selected macro - Copy - Copies a macro to a new location. Will prompt for the destination number (0-99). The Macro Edit window lets you modify any of the macro's properties. This window displays the following information in list form: - Description - a user description of the macro, e.g. "Practice Feign Death" - KeyboardOnly - True means the macro will playback keystrokes only. False means the macro will play mouse movements & clicks, as well as keyboard. - Looped - True means the macro will loop. False will play only once. - CanOverride - If True, then the macro can trigger even when another macro is currently playing. - Triggers - Text that, if found in the log file, will automatically play the macro - CancelText - Text that, if found in the log file, will automatically stop the macro if it is playing - RestartText - Text that, if found in the log file, will automatically restart the macro from the beginning if it was playing - TriggerSet - This is a new property that can toggle when triggers are activated. Macros can be grouped into one TriggerSet (by setting each macros TriggerSet property to the same value). Then, when one of the macros is played, only macros in the TriggerSet (and also macros with a TriggerSet value of "ALL") can trigger. This is a useful feature for bards that need to have multiple macros that trigger off of the same text, but need to fire under different circumstances. - NumLoop - The number of times the macro will loop on playback. Zero (0) means loop continuously. Enter a number (e.g. 20) to limit the number of loops. - (Length) - Read-only - The playback length of the macro in seconds - (Last Edit) - Read-only - The date/time the macro was last changed This window also displays two buttons: - Edit. This is a generic edit button for each property. Pressing the edit button behaves differently depending on the current selected property. - If the selected property is a boolean value (True/False), such as the CanOverride property, then its value will be toggled to the opposite value (False becomes True, True becomes False). - If the selected property is a string or number value, then an edit box will pop up, and you can enter the value there. - If the selected property contains multiple string lines (Triggers, CancelText, RestartText), then the edit button will pop up an edit window that allows editing multiple lines of text. Note that if you close this window by pressing the "X" in the upper right corner, your changes will NOT be saved. YOu must press the "Save" button for your changes to take affect. - Save. This button will save your changes immediately to the macroXX.txt file. Note that if instead of pressing "Save" you press the "X" in the upper right corner, your changes will NOT be saved. Note that the first ten macros (0-9) are special since they are the only macros that you have keyboard access to play and record (e.g., by pressing "]" and then "0" to "9"). The other macros can only be accessed by using the Macro list window and pressing the Play or Record button, or through triggers. ************************************************************************** EDITING MACRO FILES (Note - this section is now obsolete since macros can be editing in the game with the Macro List window. However, it is being left in the readme in case some users still wish to edit macro files outside the game.) After exiting EQ, each of your macros is saved in your EQ Macros directory in the format macroX.txt (where X = 0-9 depending on the macro number). These files are simple text files that you can edit with Notepad. Advanced users can edit the macro files for increased capability. Note that improperly editing a macro file can cause EQ Macros to crash on start up (as it tries to load the invalid macro file). Use caution when editing these files. The files are saved using Delphi's internal component streaming. When entering string values that have a tick mark in them (ASCII 39), you must enter the tick mark twice in the file, since Delphi normally uses the tick mark to mark the begin and end of a string. Example: Triggers.Strings = ( 'JoeTwink says, ''Buff me Bro''') Note that there are no " (quotemarks - ASCII 34) in the line above. If it looks like a quotemark, its really TWO tick marks. Macro File Format: - "Triggers" property - used to trigger a macro from the log file. See "TRIGGERS" section below. - "Looped" property - If true, the macro will continually loop until stopped. Otherwise it will run just once. - "KeyboardOnly" property - If true, this macro will not playback any mouse movements. This is useful to have a "background" macro playing that doesn't interfere with using the mouse. - "CancelText" property - If you enter a value for this (by editing the MacroX.txt file), then the macro will automatically stop if it detects this text. - "CanOverride" property - If set to true, then the trigger text for this macro can trigger even if another macro is running. Normally a macro can't trigger if another macro is running. - "RestartText" property - Enter a value here to automatically restart the macro when certain text is found in the log file. This is useful for bards to twist songs. ************************************************************************** TRIGGERS Currently the only way to add a trigger is to edit the macro.txt file after exiting EverQuest. You simply set the trigger to whatever trigger text you want (e.g., "Buff me"). Then restart EQ Macros & Everquest, turn on your log file (with /LOG). The next time any lines in the trigger text are found in the log file, that macro will be played automatically (just once, not looped). Please check back to the EQ Macros website for more info on triggers. http://www.uorobot.com/scripts/WebBoard.dll/ViewMessage?MessageID=599 ************************************************************************** TRIAL VERSION LIMITATIONS The trial version is limited to a total of two minutes of total macro playback time. Playback will cease after two minutes worth of macros have been played. Other features are seperately timed for two minutes. So you can use the Web Browser for two minutes, then the map viewier, for two minutes, etc. ************************************************************************** WEB BROWSER LIMITATIONS The web browser does not support frames. The EverQuest main site uses frames, so it will not display properly. Many other popular EQ sites do not use frames though, and they work fine. Interaction with the web browser is limited to using the mouse. It won't accept any keyboard input. Therefore you can't do things like perform custom web queries, or write email using this browser. When in certain views in EQ, the background will blink for a few frames if you move the browser. This is because the background isn't refreshed each frame, and the browser draws over it. This only happens in certain views of EQ (which can be changed by hitting F10). Before running the web browser under EQ, its best to go into Internet Explorer options and turn off all scripting and JAVA support. Some web pages that have scripts (especially interactive scripts), may hang when being viewed under EQ, which will force you to quit EQ and restart. You don't have access to your favorites menu (I may add that feature in the future, but its not there yet). So you must set your home page to a page that can get to all the links you need to get to. I created my own start page with my favorite links to jump to, this is probably the best way to start. So create your own start page, and then set that as your home page. The start page I use is: http://www.benziegler.com/BenLinks.htm ************************************************************************** TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE - If you are having major problmes, try reinstalling EQ Macros. To do this properly, first delete any existing EQ Macro files. - Make sure you have the latest version of DirectX installed. Currently 7.0a for Windows 98. - Start EQ Macros BEFORE running EverQuest. - Remember to press the "Start" button. When the "Stop" button is enabled, then it is connected & running. - Do not try to use any recording or playback features until you are "in the game", i.e. until you've passed all login and character selection screens. EQ Macros wasn't designed to work with the login screens, etc. - Be sure to calibrate the mouse (see documentation). - Start recording macros with the mouse in the far upper left corner of the screen. - Be sure to record & play macros in 640x480 screen resolutions. Higher resolutions will cause problems (support for higher resolutions is coming) - When recording use "[" + "#" (0-9) to start recording, and press twice to STOP recording. Pressing "]" to stop recording could cause unexpected results. - To playback macros use "]" + "#" (0-9) to start playing, and press twice to STOP playing. Example: Press "[1" to record macro #1, and press "]1" to play it back. - EQ Macros has been tested & verified to work under Windows 98 and Windows 2000. It has not been tested under Windows Millennium. - If you can't hear the WAV files, it is a sound card issue, and your sound card doesn't support playback from multiple sources. You could delete or move the WAV files out of the EQ Macros directory, then EQ Macros will default to playing the system beep instead. Once again, depending on your sound card you may or may not hear the system beep. - You must use DirectX mode, you can't use Glide mode. - Web: Be sure to turn off scripting and JAVA support in Internet Explorer - Web: Set your home page to something simple (with no scripts). Prefer- ably just a normal page with a table of links. - Web: Test to see if you can use the browser in the simulator. Run EQGUISim.exe and then hit the "Browser" button. Another window should pop up (minimize it), and then you should see a browser window that works. ************************************************************************** KNOWN BUGS - Web Browser still crashes under certain conditions. Use with caution. I plan to migrate to a more stable web control. - Some macros that have tick marks (ASCII 39) in the CancelText property crash EQM on loading. For now remove the tick marks if it crashes on you. ************************************************************************** PRIVACY INFORMATION The program (Full Version) communicates with a license server, and only one copy of each license is allowed to run at a time. Information sent to the license server includes program version, OrderID, and License Key. ************************************************************************** PURCHASE EQ MACROS EQ Macros is $20. Buying now ensures you free bug fixes and upgrades until the next major version. Your purchase helps ensure the continued developer support of the product. Go to the following URL to purchase EQ Macros: http://www.getsoftware.com/cgi/verify.gs?cart=1770.0 Guild & bulk discounts are also available. Send me an email for details. ************************************************************************** FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information, please visit the EQ Macros website. This website features a news page, FAQ, Troubleshooting guide, and message board. EQ Macros Official Home Page http://www.uorobot.com/eqmacros.htm Latest news & updates on EQ Macros, go to: http://www.uorobot.com EQ Macros message boards: http://www.uorobot.com/scripts/WebBoard.dll/ViewGroup?GroupID=21 ************************************************************************** PLEASE READ I love helping everyone use and understand EQ Macros. However, my time is limited. Please fully read the instructions, FAQ, and troubleshooting guide before sending me any questions by email. Also, it is highly preferred to ask any questions using the EQ Macros message board. Thank you for evaluating EQ Macros. It was a true pleasure and labor of love developing EQ Macros. Thank you to all current (and future) EQ Macro users! I hope it makes your experience playing EQ more enjoyable! If you have friends or guildmates who might like EQ Macros, please tell them about it! ************************************************************************** COPYRIGHT Copyright(c) 2000 by Ben Ziegler. All Rights Reserved. Please do not make any illegal copies of EQ Macros (Full Version). Violators will be prosecuted to the full extend of the law. Please report any known violations to me (bziegler@radix.net).