[RELEASE] X3RPM - Remote Property Manager v0.8 - New Author

[mrsack]

Yeah, I somehow managed to forget the script that installs it as an AL Plugin

Just download it from here
and place it with the rest of the scripts in your X3 directory and it should work fine.

Sorry for this, it's a fairly annoying oversight on my behalf.

My site has the correction posted on it, I'd recommend checking the site occasionally for any updates/new releases, in case I find more bugs.

Hmm, well I put the script in "x3 - reunion\x3rpm-0.8\scripts" and still the same problem occurs. I restarted both the service and X3 again. Does the installation need to run to make this script work or something? Thanks for your help btw, I can't wait to have this plugin working!

[Doomed498]

Ah okay, you should copy all the scripts that come with X3RPM to X3 Reunion\Scripts to make it work.

[mrsack]

Ah okay, you should copy all the scripts that come with X3RPM to X3 Reunion\Scripts to make it work.

Well that brought up the plugin in Artificial Intelligence options and is set to "yes", but I still don't have any statistics. The page loads but everything is either 0 or "unable to determine rank".

[Doomed498]

Okay, so I'm guessing that your X3 directory is in a non-standard place? (not on C:\ drive).

You can set the directory through the "Settings" tab in X3RPM, however i would not recommend doing this at this point, as I've discovered a bug where this doesn't work properly and will possibly break X3RPM.

To change your directory, open the following file in a text editor (wordpad would be good):

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x3rpm-0.8\x3rpm\htdocs\inc\func.php

and find the section that looks something like this:

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function x3_directory () {
	return "C:/Program Files/Deepsilver/X3 Reunion";
}

and change the directory to that of your X3 installation.

This is fairly inconvenient, I know, I didn't realise it had this bug when I released it as it worked fine for me at some point, but I must've changed something without realizing it.

The next version of X3RPM will have a completely redesigned web interface and will not have this problem.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

[mrsack]

Sorry, I know this is taking a long time to debug. These are the changes I made, and still nothing is happening.

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function x3_directory () {
	return "C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/x3 - reunion";
}
function CSSDirectory() {
	return "/css/x3rpm";
}

[Doomed498]

Does the folder, "C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/x3 - reunion" contain the file, "log07850.txt"?

[mrsack]

Does the folder, "C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/x3 - reunion" contain the file, "log07850.txt"?

Yes, it contains "ReadText7851-3" and that's it.

[Doomed498]

Ah okay, I'm not sure what's going wrong then. I haven't tested X3RPM with a steam installation before so I'm not sure if that's the cause.

Replacing the contents of "log07850.txt" with the following and see if that works (just to check X3RPM can read statistics).

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Julian,1521368,125400,13223,1709,Nova Mk 2,M3,Alpha Centauri
100019,2325,1223,281,1660,100,null,null
1,0,0,0,1,0,null,null
11,0,0,0,0,2,3,1,5,0,0,0

Failing that, I'm not sure what the problem is, it sounds like it's a problem with the scripts not writing the statistics to the file. Maybe just leave the AL plugin running for a little while and try accessing X3RPM through a web browser?

I'm going to be gone for about a day, but I'll get back to you on anything when I return.

[mrsack]

Ah okay, I'm not sure what's going wrong then. I haven't tested X3RPM with a steam installation before so I'm not sure if that's the cause.

Replacing the contents of "log07850.txt" with the following and see if that works (just to check X3RPM can read statistics).

Code: Select all

Julian,1521368,125400,13223,1709,Nova Mk 2,M3,Alpha Centauri
100019,2325,1223,281,1660,100,null,null
1,0,0,0,1,0,null,null
11,0,0,0,0,2,3,1,5,0,0,0

Failing that, I'm not sure what the problem is, it sounds like it's a problem with the scripts not writing the statistics to the file. Maybe just leave the AL plugin running for a little while and try accessing X3RPM through a web browser?

I'm going to be gone for about a day, but I'll get back to you on anything when I return.

Yep, stuff popped up after pasting that. I'll try a complete "reinstall" to see if that changes anything, and if that doesn't work I guess I'll talk to you when you get back. Thanks again for your help!

[Doomed498]

Okay, I'm back now, a reinstall sounds like something good to try. Have you copied all the files required from X3RPM to the X3 folder? Specifically, the "x3rpm-0.8\t" folder, to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\x3 - reunion\t"

See if copying the files again works if you have already copied them.

[mrsack]

Okay, I'm back now, a reinstall sounds like something good to try. Have you copied all the files required from X3RPM to the X3 folder? Specifically, the "x3rpm-0.8\t" folder, to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\x3 - reunion\t"

See if copying the files again works if you have already copied them.

oh crap, I didn't realize you had to copy those! I'm sorry man. I thought just the x3rpm folder had to be within my x3 directory . It works now, thanks!!!

edit: The only thing not working now seems to be x3hide. In the cmd after X3 is minimized and i rune the hide command to x3hide.exe, it says "Hiding done" but property and universe pages don't work. As soon as I maximize X3 though, the property and universe pages work. If this helps, am I also running Windows Vista 64-bit, dunno if that would affect anything.

[Doomed498]

That's okay, as long as it's working now!

x3hide is a pretty temperamental, I've found the one that comes with X3RPM not to work too well. It did work at some stage for me but now I can't get it to work. I did modify it a little, however I've only got it working for me so far.

You can download it at http://www.doomed.profusehost.net/files/x3hide.zip

It'd be interesting to see if it'll work for you, I'm not sure if the fact that you run Vista will affect it, I've only tested it on XP.

If it doesn't work the first time, just hide/show X3 a few times through x3hide to see if that works.

[Nil Einne]

I'm also having the problem with the function file/changing directory not working properly requiring it to be manually changed... But I got it working fine.

x3hide works okay. I can't see anything when I x3 show but if i alt tab and come back it's fine

My only problem is that I can't use SETA with x3hide, at least as far as I can tell. And while x3rpm may work fine with SETA, unless I'm missing something there doesn't seem to be a way to activate SETA with x3rpm. Would it be possible for either x3hide to activate SETA before it hides or for x3rpm to be able to activate SETA?

In any case thanks for the cool programs

Edit: Actually I found out there is a way. A bit annoying but for those that are interested you can set a scheduled task to run x3hide hide and then go back to the game and start SETA and wait for it. Anything else which enables you to run x3hide hide without deactivating SETA would be fine too I presume, e.g. if you have something which allows you to remotely tell x3hide hide to run.

[Doomed498]

Yeah, it's a bit annoying that pressing any key causes SETA to stop, but good to see you found a way around it, I hadn't thought of that.

I was thinking about dropping x3hide from x3rpm in the next release, as at the moment I can't see to get it to function properly on my machine and other have had problems to, it's very temperamental, but I might have a go at making it work more. You've given me the idea that I could possibly integrate it more into x3rpm, to allow it to be turned on and off remotely.

0.8 is coming along slowly, I guess we'll wait and see...

[Nil Einne]

Doomed498: Another idea would be to add a timer function to x3hide. So it will only do it's thing in a defined number of seconds (e.g. 'x3hide hide 15' will hide in 15 seconds). Actually now I want to be able to regularly save and keep SETA after saving, but the program is still working well. Indeed since I have a dual monitor I often use it while playing to monitor my ships etc due to the fact you don't get informed when they get killed, unless they warn you that they're under attack, other then in your message log (I find that very annoying, if there is a way to fix it do tell, I haven't found anything yet). Actually I just though of something, a function to monitor the number of ships might be useful if possible, perhaps you can set X3RPM to monitor say the number of TSes you have and if it becomes less then the set value to start flashing red (for dual monitors) and maybe play a sound (for non dual monitors although I don't know if this will work). You could use a seperate program for this I guess, all you have to do is monitor the webpage but it will be easier if the webserver/backend does it and flashes the main page...

I actually found a somewhat easier way to do it. Rather then having to schedule a task everytime which is obviously rather annoying, I just made a batch file which runs it in 15 seconds, as shown below in case anyone is interested:

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@ECHO OFF
ECHO.
echo This will hide X3 in 15 seconds, REMEMBER TO SET SETA
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
PING 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 15000 >NUL
x3hide.exe hide
echo Should now be hidden!

If anyone doesn't know what to do with this, make a new file and call it "hide15.bat" or something. The ".bat" is the important part. You will also need to have turned of the "hide extensions" option in Windows. Put it in the same directory as x3hide and run it.

When you run it, you will get a message, go back to X3 so start SETA or whatever and just wait.

BTW, 15000=15000miliseconds=15 seconds. This time limit works fine for me even when I screw up but if you have a slow computer of are slower, adjust it accordingly.

Also, this is a bit of a 'hack' as there is apparently no good way to delay with batch files by default in XP. Various addons improve this but I couldn't be bothered so just used ping I found recommend on the web. I think Windows 2k can use choice which is not available by default in XP. Ping should work fine provided the IP I used (1.1.1.1) doesn't exist. In certain LAN environments, it may exist in which case this won't work (it will be nearly instantaneous). Also, I suspect that in some cases this may be recorded in firewall logs. This may be an issue if you're in a corporate situation although I doubt anyone will care that you're trying regularly to ping 1.1.1.1. Just don't blame me if your IT department asks you what you're doing.

[Doomed498]

That's a great idea, how's this look?

I don't need to worry about any pinging this way, the wait is written into the program.

This version of x3hide does introduce a change in the usage syntax.
Now to hide x3, you would type:

Code: Select all

x3hide.exe -o hide

Instead of:

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x3hide.exe hide

Also, the amount of time waited can be set by using:

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x3hide.exe -o hide -t <time in seconds>

This argument is optional and if omitted, will default to 15 seconds.

Suggestions/bugs, etc for both X3RPM and x3hide are more than welcome!

[MadACR]

Hey Doomed498,

How would you like a hand with this project, went through the php and I can already think of a few improvements. I actually changed some stuff around on my side to make things a little more configurable on the web side of things.

Hopefully your new hide will work so I can start looking at the non-static items to see what I can do there.

If you would like to share your current progress let me know.

[Doomed498]

Hey MadACR,

I'd be more than happy to have your contribution to the project. The project is moving forward slowly at the moment and another person will hopefully speed things up a bit. Also it'll be good to have an opinion of what features are good, and what are a waste of time.

Would you be able to PM me your email/msn/something so we can keep in contact about this?

As far as changing version 0.8 of x3rpm, most of the web ui is being completely rewritten. This should hopefully give more flexibility and fix some critical bugs.

Just out of curiosity, what sort of skills do you have (SQL, web design, X3 scripting, etc). Obviously you already know php, but how experienced are you? (Don't worry, I didn't know php before I started working on this)

[MadACR]

I sent you a pm with my info. Once again I will be happy to help, Even if it is just a fresh perspective type of deal

[xTemon]

I'm toying with rewriting the web component in Python, so I guess I'll see how that goes. I almost gave up on the whole complex building thing too, however after seeing Cycrow's Custom Gui project had the ability to manipulate input, I'm starting to think it might be possible.

I like the idea; good to see a few changes made to it too. I hdisagree with your choice of scripting language--Python--for the web component though; I believe Asp, Perl, or Delphi would make better--and more secure--choices for this purpose. In my experience--as an Open Source software user--Python is both flawed in functionality and compatibility with Windows; it also seems to generate a significant amount of errors - most of them random. Asp would likely be the best choice, with Perl being a secure and relatively solid option, and Delphi being functional and relatively appealing--if less common, and possibly less secure--alternative. My experience with Delphi being somewhat limited; I have nevertheless noticed that it seems to have rather nice visual styles. While Python may be the scripting language of choice for many open source solutions; it does have a questionable degree of reliability in my opinion.

Asp is also quite compatible with both Windows, PHP, and the .net framework; making it the a likely-first choice