Patching Alternatives

[Doodman]

Originally Posted by Gameross

I've never quite understood why the Emu is so far behind live. Macroquest, which is quickly updated, would seem to have all the client structs defined you would need to make Emu compatible to live.

Well, obviously, you've never worked with the source of EQEmu/ShowEQ vs MQ. The client side structs and the line structs are vastly different. Plus, even if they were, the opcodes used in the packets to move the data back and forth between the client and server need to be discovered.

Originally Posted by Gameross

Of course, I'm no longer doing any programming and haven't dug into the code for this, but it seems like the hard work is being done by another project which distributes it source.

Perhaps you should dig a little more before spout off. Or, even better, if you feel it would be so easy, you are more than welcome to make EQEMu be live compatible and contribute it back.

[Gameross]

Originally Posted by Doodman

Well, obviously, you've never worked with the source of EQEmu/ShowEQ vs MQ. The client side structs and the line structs are vastly different. Plus, even if they were, the opcodes used in the packets to move the data back and forth between the client and server need to be discovered.



Perhaps you should dig a little more before spout off. Or, even better, if you feel it would be so easy, you are more than welcome to make EQEMu be live compatible and contribute it back.

Actually, I did rethink how the 2 systems are different and yes, I can see how MQ wouldn't help that much with your interfacing to the currently client. Just deleted that part of my post actually, but obviously not before you had read it.

But it still doesn't change the other points I brought up.

Is ShowEQ still around. At least it's a actual packet sniffer and certainly closer to what you need to make modding Emu to live.

[Doodman]

Originally Posted by Gameross

Is ShowEQ still around. At least it's a actual packet sniffer and certainly closer to what you need to make modding Emu to live.

Well, we've always had our own packet sniffer. I was actually actively involved in helping purple (from showeq) understand the network protocol and gave him my sniffer as a reference to help fix ShowEQ for the new network code.

Still, even tho ShowEQ needs the some of the same information that we need for it to work, it's a very small subset of what we actually need to make eqemu work. They can leave a lot of unknonw stuff as unknown since showeq doesn't need to show it. We cannot.

We actually, before we decided to work on stability instead of chasing a moving target, work pretty closely with the ShowEQ folks with exchanging information on opcodes and structures. The MQ devs feel that they are superior to everyone else and, every time I've asked, do not feel it's worth their time to play nice with other related projects.

Keep in mind, there are 300+ opcodes that we have discovered the value for in 0.6.2+ and over 200 structures, not to mention changes to items. That's 300+ opcodes we need to refind almost every patch and at least a dozen or so structures that SoE scrambles for no obvious reason. Chasing live is no trivial task. You might be able to log in with a live client with a small amount of work, but 75% or more of the currently working features would not work.

[Doodman]

Besides, in an indirect way we are working on live compat related issues.

FNW has some things in an experimental version (dev only) that should assist us in work on newer patches.

And, I've been working on x86 virtual machine to be able to process and fingerprint the dispatching routine in the client to try to be able to determine opcodes in newer executables by comparing the function signatures for the handlers of opcodes.

When these two are complete, it should help in being able to follow newer patches more closely but it's not a 100% match (right now I can find about ~60 opcodes automatically). But that does nothing for structures.

Things take time. We're trying to balance stability and new features with being able to chase other patches, but stability is currenly our preference.

If you are too impatient to wait or think you can do better, you are more than welcome to do so. This project is, after all, open source. You have the same tools and code that I do.

[microbrain]

I dont know about anyone else, but I am finding it incredibly difficult (and increasingly frustrating) to get hold of an eq client that works with eqemu.

All I want to do is run my own small LAN server for a few friends to play occasionally, but this is an impossibility as I cannot find a client that works with the eqemu server.

(I unfortunately stopped playing live in december, so my client was patched beyond the november freeze. I have a copy which according to EQVercheck should work with 0.6.0, but never gets past the login screen!)

If there was a version out there that would work with an unpatched installation of titanium, I would go out and buy it in an instant . I am sure I would not be the only one.

You guys have done some excellent work here. Chasing Live is a great idea, but I for one just want to have a working emu that I can play locally.

just my 2cp worth.

[Denethor72]

I agree with Micro; if there was a version that was compatible with a clean install, I would buy it as well, because I'm getting tired of not being able to find anyone that has a version that will work. All of my friends that still play live have the newest patch, so that won't work. And you can't ask anyone through these forums without violating the agreement, so that's out. I don't care about it being compatible with live as much as just having something that will work with a fresh out of the box install. I just want to setup my own private lan to play it on, because I quit playing live to get away from the idiot players and kill-stealers that seemed to be infesting the live servers more and more often. Just my 2cp worth, so it's probably worth less than that... heh.

[ndnet]

I support the option of moving towards compatibility on a clean-install primarily because I lost my prior compatible folder long ago in a disk corruption, my last backup DVD is from June'05, and I happen to own the Titanium set I purchased for a second live account ^.~