As I stated in another thread I have written a small program that runs in the background while playing PE. It samples damage done and stores it in a database. It’s a fairly simple program, but useful if you want to make damage statistics for large quantities of data. So:
[size=3]Project discontinued[/size]
[b][u]What can it do?[/u][/b]
-Sample damage you inflict
-Sort damage after what weapon you use
-Calculate some statistics about the damage (weapon based)
-Export results to a convenient .txt-format
[b][u]How?[/u][/b]
The program takes screenshots on part of your monitor (chat window) and uses a simple text recognition algorithm (OCR) to extract damage dealt. The frequency is set to ~5 samples/second, which should be enough for any weapon ingame, but slow enough not to affect the computer performance.
[b][u]Is it allowed with third party programs?[/u][/b]
This is the reply I got from PE support when asking about the matter.
Case *case number removed* History
[b]2005-09-01 [/b] *my irl name removed*:
Is it allowed to use third party programs such as GrabClipSave, Fraps and ANY OTHER programs taking screenshots/record videos for documentation/artistic/statistic use?
[b] 2005-09-02 MindArk Support:[/b]
As I said before, third party programs that do not effect or modify Project Entropia is allowed to use yes.
/REgards
I think it's clear enough that it's allowed.
[b][u]How do I sign up for beta test?
[/u][/b] [left]Just send me a PM and I will tell you how to get a copy of the program. The only demand I have is that I get good feedback and opinions. I will launch the "open beta" in the next few days.
Known issues:
-Changing brightness in options will make the program sampling fail (because it’s very dependant on the RGB values on screen).
-Using antialiasing on your graphics card will make the program sampling fail.
-Some graphics configurations can make RGB value deviate too much. If you notice you get weapons with very low ID numbers (1-3) the sampling most likely won’t work, and certainly not sort the damage after weapon. The weapon ID is a simple tag connected to what weapon you use. It should be ~200.
-When entering weapon data it does not accept decimal points on non-swedish computers.
These issues will be taken into account in the next update.
(Further questions can be posted in this thread.)
[/left]
Interesting. Maybe you should compare some notes with the little BAHQ program. Does the same thing but can also view hofs, globals, times of hofs/globals and notice trends like the 3 globals that always come at a certain time or the hofs based on certain times cycles. But there is a major bug in ours becasue of the ORC not reading the background correctly. Would be interesting to see what dll you used or if you wrote a custom library. Might get in touch about that.
You have problems with the background? Be sure to preprocess the image map with a filter that enhances the colors used for the text. I only have 1 bit color depth (black and white) when I use the OCR and it works fine. Only problem is when a pixel in the background has the exact same RGB value as the text in chat window, but that happens very rarely.
I got high hopes on this program.I personally think people with lets say 6k rifle does almost the same average as someone with 3k if they use identical weaponry.
The background transparency is one color, the chat text another, the global/hof text another color, the skill gain text yet another color, FL sign ins another color and background scenery… and you can see why black and white doesnt work. OCR will try to read anything it thinks is a character. Stand next to a dead mob and see if the OCR doesnt try to read the mob contures and text as one. There is no way to turn taht area totally black, only transparent and no background.
A way around is to make it match text patterns to determine what is a dmg msg and what is a no loot message and black and white it all.
My Soc m8 will be very interested in the OCR part to overcome his problem. Thanks for info
[QUOTE=Jove]
The background transparency is one color, the chat text another, the global/hof text another color, the skill gain text yet another color, FL sign ins another color and background scenery… and you can see why black and white doesnt work.
[/QUOTE]
Black and white does work. Just apply a filter that makes all the relevant colors white, and all other colors black. Not very hard. And you don’t have to check the whole screen (unless you want to spend a lot of cpu doing so). You only have to look at the chat window.
[QUOTE=Azrael]
I’m currious, what software language did you write it in ?
Thanks
Az
[/QUOTE]
It’s a very simple program, and it was not initially intended to become a “real” program. It’s written i vb.NET, which is not the optimal language, but it was very fast to write it once I had the basics covered.
I am working on a similar, but more advanced program, more like the BAHQ one, but with even more functionality, but that one is C#.
[QUOTE=Knuckles]
I got high hopes on this program.I personally think people with lets say 6k rifle does almost the same average as someone with 3k if they use identical weaponry.
[/QUOTE]
Black and white canonization was used. But there is a problem related transparent font: when moving in PE world, the so called relevant colors of chars in console deviate way too much from their predefined values. Not even sampling neighbour pixels did help …
[QUOTE=Rony]
Black and white canonization was used. But there is a problem related transparent font: when moving in PE world, the so called relevant colors of chars in console deviate way too much from their predefined values. Not even sampling neighbour pixels did help …
[/QUOTE]
If you don’t use antialiasing (which you shouldn’t if you wish to use an OCR) the relevant colors in the chat window has a specific RGB value. Some graphics configurations might cause them to deviate a little, but not more than ±1 or 2 on each 8-bit R,G and B. They are not semi-transparent, or atleast they shouldn’t be.
If you are using antialiasing I can understand there might be problems with the OCR.
My inbox got filled when I was somewhere between my work and my home. I am happy so many people are willing to try it.
Never noticed, and yes it would affect very much.