1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Express Navigation Tool

Discussion in 'Tools & Utilities' started by Fopsie, Mar 18, 2011.

  1. Fopsie

    Fopsie Active Member Pro Users

    Messages:
    772
    Likes Received:
    42
    Trophy Points:
    28
    I got a bit lazy with having to adjust my VTOL’s direction the entire time while doing long TP runs like Nea’s. :rolleyes:

    So ‘n picked up a book on C++ and created an application to calculate the direction in degrees between the two teleporters so that I can aim my VTOL spot on and not have to sit there for 25 min and adjust, TY MA for adding the compass with degrees into the VTOL hud..

    I was so exited to create my first application and not just script but soon ran into a wall when I got to the part where I wanted to create a GUI for the application. The next day ‘n picked up a book on C# and started to recode the application. This time working on the GUI and coding at the same time. Man how much simpler GUI is with C# ;)

    At first the application was aimed around making a simple calculator that determines the distance between 2 points and the direction in Degrees but soon evolved into calculating ETA and estimated fuel usage. This is about as accurate as it will get without working in acceleration and elevation (note elevation will include how high you have to go up from start point to clear all mountains before going down again and even that changes your fly speed). I have included the stats of all vehicles including land based vehicles just for interest sake.:p I haven’t seen the Helicopters HUD so I don’t know if it has a compass that displays in Degrees.

    I also included lists with all the teleporter names and locations for every continent and planet (foma and CP not included as its not needed there). It may be a bit out of date and have a few teleporters missing as I haven’t checked for new teleporters sins its creation a few weeks back

    Below is the application that came out of this. :cool:

    View attachment 459

    Note this app is basically still in its Beta phase though it does work fine. You will require Dot Net 4.0 in order to run the application at this moment as at the time of creation I did not know I have to select what Dot net framework to compile for and my copy of Visual C Sharp has expired. At the moment I’m flooded with work and will be for the next 2 weeks before I can resume work on this application and add new features and fix bugs and spelling errors.
    There is some know bugs in the application for example I haven’t implemented the Help screen yet even though a menu for it exists and sometimes when just randomly messing around with the application it crashes. It also does not have error handling in for when the location entry has been put in incorrectly (not entered as xxxx yyyy) and may crash.

    The file current version can be downloaded from HERE
    Any constructive feedback, questions or recommendations for this application is welcome.
     
  2. Cyborg Bill

    Cyborg Bill Well-Known Member Pro Users

    Messages:
    1,215
    Likes Received:
    141
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Haveing an auto pilot feature for tp runs and such would be nice.... However are 3rd party softwares not against the Eula any longer?

    Im a computer illiterte when it comes to software programming so for someone to write an outside program and get it to work within the game kinda makes me squirm and wonder if simple stuff like this can be done then major things can be as well. Then I go back to seeing the same names a few times an hour in the hof list when I am lucky to global 2 times a month and hof every 3 to 6 months and I start forming theories.
     
  3. TimUnleashed

    TimUnleashed Forum Official Pro Users

    Messages:
    1,173
    Likes Received:
    66
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Hey Fopsie,

    This looks good. I've been meaning to ask - when you've got the result and it tells you you need to go at 54.61 Deg, what do you do next?

    The best thing I can think of is to get my compass out and hold it over the screen and estimate, which isn't much more accurate than looking at the map and guessing in the first place. I might be missing the point though...

    Cheers,

    Tim.
     
  4. red

    red Member

    Messages:
    73
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    8
    I could use an auto-pilot feature. I often find myself wandering off to procure a snack.
     
  5. Jenny ferr

    Jenny ferr Well-Known Member Pro Users

    Messages:
    2,042
    Likes Received:
    150
    Trophy Points:
    63
    To you who asked what to do, I dont own a VTOL but I guess it's when you fly it in 1st person mode you see it...

    And Cyborg using this cant be illegal if it works as I think, as it has nothing to do with EU, unless you read the coordinates or something but if you put it in manually I doubt it's a problem
     
  6. Telgard

    Telgard Member

    Messages:
    281
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    18
  7. Jenny ferr

    Jenny ferr Well-Known Member Pro Users

    Messages:
    2,042
    Likes Received:
    150
    Trophy Points:
    63
    So it interacts with EU in any way?

    If not I fail to see how calculating the angle and distance between two points can be against EULA, as then you wouldn't be allowed to calculate this in your own head either
     
  8. Telgard

    Telgard Member

    Messages:
    281
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Oops..yea, its not scripting anything to occur. Its just calculating data outside of MA. Sorry, misread the op.
     
  9. Fopsie

    Fopsie Active Member Pro Users

    Messages:
    772
    Likes Received:
    42
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Hi Tim.

    On some of the vehicles (VTOL and Hovercraft) it is possible to view the degree your pointing in when in 1st person mode) Dont quite know about the other vehicles but buggy definatly dont have a compass in degrees

    VTOL

    [​IMG]

    Hovercraft

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Fopsie

    Fopsie Active Member Pro Users

    Messages:
    772
    Likes Received:
    42
    Trophy Points:
    28
    yes currently this appliaction does not interact with the game in any way. It runs offline and can only take coordinates out of a premade list or manual entry.
     
  11. Fopsie

    Fopsie Active Member Pro Users

    Messages:
    772
    Likes Received:
    42
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Sorry for taking this long to reply guys. Further development into this was halted for the time being and kind of forgot to checkup on this thread again.
    I still have some plans for the application to expand it futher (some extras comming in a month or so, New TP list will also be included as soon as I get the time [Arkadia / space / Chug on Calypo / whatever els I missed) After everything is up and running and im satisfied with the entire application I may reliese the sorce code so others can expand on it futher or include simular capabilities in their own applications.

    Spoiler alert (somewhat if you can figure out the meaning of what im saying below :p )
    The next addon will be something out of the ordinary using two sets of dinamic information <No will not break the EULA and will be doublechecked with MA before reliese> (Math is kind of a pain on this one so give it some time, on paper it looks good but there is still a lot of holes to cover in a running enviroment when coded)
     
  12. david1steven

    david1steven New Member

    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    1
    This is looking interesting tool. is this tool able to find the Longitude and Latitude?
     
  13. Fopsie

    Fopsie Active Member Pro Users

    Messages:
    772
    Likes Received:
    42
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Hi David.

    The application currently only extracts Logitude and Latitude that was saved in a formated file and can accept manual input of those values.


    Just a note on the futher development of this application. I Lost all source code to this application due to hardware failure (dont save the only copy on a cheap flashdisk) and will have to rewrite the application from scratch before I can do further work on it. Atleast having a fresh start on this will allowe me to laydown the ground work for the more advanced features from the start instead of having to try and addapt the current application to support the new features. Varuable names wore also setup quite stupidly and used a few diffrent naming formats in the original appliaction making it confusing espessialy for adding in new featsures.
     
  14. TimUnleashed

    TimUnleashed Forum Official Pro Users

    Messages:
    1,173
    Likes Received:
    66
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Damn Fopsie, that must be really frustrating for you. But a blessing in disguise if you can stick with it - for quality, there's nothing quite like a first draft that you thought was going to be the finished product, and having to start again! Good luck!
     
  15. Fopsie

    Fopsie Active Member Pro Users

    Messages:
    772
    Likes Received:
    42
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Application TP list and vehicles updated and uploaded. Main post updated with new download link https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/100552745/Navi/ExpressNavigation.zip

    Arkadia is now officialy in the TP list of the Application (Arkadia will become default continent in next update of the application code) :)

    Edit: damnit forgot space in the TP list :facepalm: :tired::coffee::surrender:
    Ill update in a bit
     
  16. Drifter007

    Drifter007 Member

    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    8
    This looks very cool and useful :). Anybody know where i can download this currently ? The download link says there is no file and i would love to be able to use this :(.
     
  17. Chris | Arkadia

    Chris | Arkadia Arkadia Tech PAF Administrator Planet Arkadia Official

    Messages:
    418
    Likes Received:
    68
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Hi Drifter.

    The account on 4shared went inactive and scraped the download. Ill look if I can find the application somewhere on one of my HDDs and re upload it.

    I haven't payed any attention to this application after losing the code for the app, might be time to redo the application and do the changes I wanted to do in the past. I'm gonna have to figure out how I got direction in degrees using two sets of lon/lat again. If anyone has any ideas or extras to add in let me know.

    Just encase this seems odd coming from ME and not the OP. This was my account back when I was still a player and not a Dev.


    Regards,
    Chris
     
  18. Drifter007

    Drifter007 Member

    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Awesome ! Though for a second the application was lost forever :). lol yea i was wondering why someone else was posting. Gl hopefully you can find it somewhere.
     
  19. sarrob

    sarrob Member

    Messages:
    30
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    8
    View attachment 8125

    Copy of my version attached, not sure if it is exactly the same one as Chris last posted however.

    Is/Was? a pretty cool application, hope you do remake it in some form Chris.
     
  20. Chris | Arkadia

    Chris | Arkadia Arkadia Tech PAF Administrator Planet Arkadia Official

    Messages:
    418
    Likes Received:
    68
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Cool that someone still has a copy of it and thanks Sarrob for uploading it. I haven't had any luck finding it on any of the HDDs I brought over with me.
    This looks like the second to last version of the application. The last version had some small modifications to the text and fixed an issue with reloading content correctly and also included All Arkadia TPS and some more vehicles. The TPS / vehicles can however be added in by modifying the txt files.

    Hmm Ill spend some time on redoing this application and doing some work on my other applications over the next few weekends to make it more user friendly with the new stuff I learned in C#. Some of the new things I learned can be found on the Trading application I wrote earlier this year. Perhaps Ill even merge the two into one application or a suite.

    Edit* I uploaded the file onto the net and fixed the links to point to it.
    Regards,
    Chris