IN-game server scanner

[rundll.exe 12]

Hi,

A while ago I started playing with kegetys incredible arma-lib, and I got the idea to make an IN-game server scanner, that allows you to find your playing friends while you are on another server or playing SP.

I got quite a bit of it working, but it needs a lot of more work to make it usefull to the public.

Here's a screen:

This tool uses zyklones Arma statisics site and ArmaLib

My plan is to make an addon that gives you the ability to view if, and where your friends are playing. You can define friends by name or teamname on a website.

So would there be any interest in this? Or isnt it that usefull?

Im wondering if I should continue this or move on to another project... (being web-to-ArmAserver chat)

[Commando84 0]

woah dude! thats awesome!!!

Switching servers like that would be much more easier and less time consuming than the current method, hope Bis can get some ideas of this for Arma 2

[The_Captain 0]

This would be VERY useful!

Heck, one of the things I don't think you can do in arma is check the name of the server you're *currently* on.. another thing that makes telling friends to join your server difficult.

Could this be added as a dialog that opens if you press the appropriate button on the 'players' screen? If you need to add an addon to use this, it could make it quite convenient to use in game as an addition to the current interface.

[.kju 3245]

very nice mate

[rundll.exe 12]

Heck, one of the things I don't think you can do in arma is check the name of the server you're *currently* on.. another thing that makes telling friends to join your server difficult.

Could this be added as a dialog that opens if you press the appropriate button on the 'players' screen? If you need to add an addon to use this, it could make it quite convenient to use in game as an addition to the current interface.

Adding the server name you are currently on should be simple (ill just search for the player name)

As for adding a button to the P screen... I really dont know how to do that (if its possible). Does anyone know?

[kremator 1065]

This would be great ! Please develop it.

[TAO] Kremator

[The_Captain 0]

You can go into UI.pbo and find the mp players screen.. I'd have to do digging to find the specific one.

If this is an addon you run clientside, integrating into the shell means missionmakers don't have to integrate it into the mission, or you don't have to use a key handler to detect when someone wants to view the screen.

For the players' screen, you can add a button to the dialog in UI.pbo and have it hide existing components & show yours, or possibly open a new dialog (I'm not sure).

I know it's possible as I heard of someone adding a 'mp missions search' to the server missions scanner (it would filter missions based on a text string you entered).

Heck, done properly you could probably edit the game's actual in game server browser with a friends' list, but one step at a time...

I can look up how to do this exactly and try to post something this weekend, potentially...

[rundll.exe 12]

Any ideas the Captain? I might want to add a button to the "esc" screen is possible (seen RTS 4 do it)

anyway, here's an update: Double clicking in the server screen now gets you the details, and all players on there with their scores:

Development is slow, but it works...

next idea is to make a join button, that would actually crash your arma, and start a new one with the -connect parameter...

[.kju 3245]

What about a second option to copy the IP/server name in the clipboard.

So you could exit the game and use filter / remote.

[rundll.exe 12]

That should be easy, Armalib supports clipboard set and get.

[colligpip 0]

woah if you can make it so you can switch servers in game we could have a multi connected arma world you could jump from saharani to avagini etc ingame would this be posible with this - arma could become a huge mmo like warcraft or somink.

[Spliff 0]

sounds great and looks cool.... but....how will this effect a server as in people ingame checking the stats or looking for friends every two minutes....would it mean more red chain of doom for the actual server as its making more work ......am just curious but an exellent tool and idea...hope it works

[rundll.exe 12]

This is all client side, and the actual work is done by my own webserver. The data transfer is only a few bytes per query. Its quite an inefficient way of getting the data time-wise, but it makes the scripts simpler and the data verry small.

Querying all servers isnt possible yet, since the processingtime would exeed the timeout time of Armalib.

It now searches the 30 most crowded servers. I could add an option to search the next 30 if needed.

[oktane 0]

Hey I'm famous! Awesome rundll! Nice idea.. I think wonderful things will be made with ArmaLib.. detailed Warfare stats logging/dynamic difficulty/costs adjustment via web anyone?

You can go into UI.pbo and find the mp players screen.. I'd have to do digging to find the specific one.

Actually, the mp listing screen uses RscListBox which nobody has figured out how to populate the extra columns with data. It appears that RscListBox has controls for those columns that can only be accessed via BIS code. I really wish you could use those in dialogs.. it would make things look a lot nicer in the warfare gear dialog for instance.

Example: a list of items with "their name <-dynamic spacing-> cost"

So the name would be aligned to the left, and the cost aligned to the right. Nobody has been able to do it with ListBox that I know of, and we have no string functions to format perfectly spaced strings.

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....listbox