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Ideas for bored programmers
#1
I have a couple ideas for useful programs, but I don't have the time to implement them. So if there are any programmers looking for something for useful to make, here are a few things I'd like to see:

1. An APQ blacklist checker. We have an APQ blacklist and go through the trouble of adding people to it, but how many APQ leaders actually check it? This program would run in the background, listening on some key or key combination. The APQ leader would copy a potential party member's name to the clipboard using the option when you right-click someone and press the key or combination that triggers the program. When it gets triggered, it would get the text currently on the Windows clipboard, scan a blacklist file for that name, and play a different sound depending on if the name was found in the blacklist, not found in the blacklist, or some error occurred (like the blacklist file couldn't be opened). This way, the blacklist could be checked without windowed mode or alt-tabbing and without having a browser open. People who lead APQ's would have to regularly update their blacklist file.

2. A screenshot cropper. My buddy list and guild often say rather amusing things that I screenshot and post to the guild forum. The only important part of the screenshot is the chat. Posting the whole screenshot takes up more more space, both in terms of bytes and screen real estate, but it's time-consuming considering how many screenshots I'd have to do that for. What would be nice is a program that integrates with Windows Explorer, so you can select a bunch of screenshot files, right-click, and choose an option that will crop the image so it has only the chat. The original image would be kept in case you still want it.

3. A general-purpose Maple Story calculator with all known formulas and easy access to the most frequently used ones (eg accuracy needed to hit a monster). And open-source please, so it can be updated after the original author no longer cares about it.

I'd do 1 and maybe 2 myself over winter break, but if I have the time and energy to program, I'll be working on openMSsig.
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#2
Spaz Wrote:I have a couple ideas for useful programs, but I don't have the time to implement them. So if there are any programmers looking for something for useful to make, here are a few things I'd like to see:

1. An APQ blacklist checker. We have an APQ blacklist and go through the trouble of adding people to it, but how many APQ leaders actually check it? This program would run in the background, listening on some key or key combination. The APQ leader would copy a potential party member's name to the clipboard using the option when you right-click someone and press the key or combination that triggers the program. When it gets triggered, it would get the text currently on the Windows clipboard, scan a blacklist file for that name, and play a different sound depending on if the name was found in the blacklist, not found in the blacklist, or some error occurred (like the blacklist file couldn't be opened). This way, the blacklist could be checked without windowed mode or alt-tabbing and without having a browser open. People who lead APQ's would have to regularly update their blacklist file.

2. A screenshot cropper. My buddy list and guild often say rather amusing things that I screenshot and post to the guild forum. The only important part of the screenshot is the chat. Posting the whole screenshot takes up more more space, both in terms of bytes and screen real estate, but it's time-consuming considering how many screenshots I'd have to do that for. What would be nice is a program that integrates with Windows Explorer, so you can select a bunch of screenshot files, right-click, and choose an option that will crop the image so it has only the chat. The original image would be kept in case you still want it.

3. A general-purpose Maple Story calculator with all known formulas and easy access to the most frequently used ones (eg accuracy needed to hit a monster). And open-source please, so it can be updated after the original author no longer cares about it.

I'd do 1 and maybe 2 myself over winter break, but if I have the time and energy to program, I'll be working on openMSsig.

Number 3 has been done already and is posted somewhere here. I'll dig up a link to it in a bit.

As for the others, I guess I'll take a shot at number 1. Doesn't sound too difficult and I think I have enough time to do it.
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#3
Spaz Wrote:I have a couple ideas for useful programs, but I don't have the time to implement them. So if there are any programmers looking for something for useful to make, here are a few things I'd like to see:

1. An APQ blacklist checker. We have an APQ blacklist and go through the trouble of adding people to it, but how many APQ leaders actually check it? This program would run in the background, listening on some key or key combination. The APQ leader would copy a potential party member's name to the clipboard using the option when you right-click someone and press the key or combination that triggers the program. When it gets triggered, it would get the text currently on the Windows clipboard, scan a blacklist file for that name, and play a different sound depending on if the name was found in the blacklist, not found in the blacklist, or some error occurred (like the blacklist file couldn't be opened). This way, the blacklist could be checked without windowed mode or alt-tabbing and without having a browser open. People who lead APQ's would have to regularly update their blacklist file.

2. A screenshot cropper. My buddy list and guild often say rather amusing things that I screenshot and post to the guild forum. The only important part of the screenshot is the chat. Posting the whole screenshot takes up more more space, both in terms of bytes and screen real estate, but it's time-consuming considering how many screenshots I'd have to do that for. What would be nice is a program that integrates with Windows Explorer, so you can select a bunch of screenshot files, right-click, and choose an option that will crop the image so it has only the chat. The original image would be kept in case you still want it.

3. A general-purpose Maple Story calculator with all known formulas and easy access to the most frequently used ones (eg accuracy needed to hit a monster). And open-source please, so it can be updated after the original author no longer cares about it.

I'd do 1 and maybe 2 myself over winter break, but if I have the time and energy to program, I'll be working on openMSsig.

#1 sounds like a third party program attaching itself to maple, and thus bannable. o.o Plus, it would probably require a bit of knowledge with SQL (or any other databasing language, not that i've heard of any). I'm 70% sure you can't do something like that with C++. o.o I don't know SQL. xP

#2: Uh...photoshop? Lol.

#3: Been done, if i remember correctly.
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#4
Comments...

1.) I remember someone doing this with a h4x0r database of sorts. I'm not sure what happened to it, but I think it's safe to say that it lost popularity.

2.) This seems a little difficult. You would need an app that could interface with .jpgs, then you'd have to write a program that can recognize the chat box. I'd bet the easiest way to do that would be to find the track bar on the right side of it and figure out the cropped picture from that. Or if there isn't any track bar in the usual spot, then assume a different set of coordinates to take the cropped image from.

3.) I've seen a general-purpose calculator geared for Bowmen. It was pretty cool.

Maybe someone can program a ping app that can speedily tell if you might or are suffering from l4g. L4g is one of my most hated enemies >_>


Takebacker Wrote:#2: Uh...photoshop? Lol.

I used Paint.NET for all of the equip images in my LOLPALLY guide. That took over 14 hours at the very least.
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#5
KajitiSouls Wrote:Maybe someone can program a ping app that can speedily tell if you might or are suffering from l4g. L4g is one of my most hated enemies >_>

That would create lag, would it not? o_o
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#6
Takebacker Wrote:That would create lag, would it not? o_o
It would take up a little bit of bandwith, yeah. But for the purposes I'd have in mind, you'd be hardcore bossing, which means you'd have a good computer in order to consistently enjoy the activity. Chances are you'd already have internet speeds that are far more than adequate for MapleStory.
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#7
photoshop? paint.NET? geez, no one uses normal paint for the simplest of cropping? i mean by the time paint shop pro loads, i can get the part of an image i want using paint <_<
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#8
Sn1perJohnE Wrote:photoshop? paint.NET? geez, no one uses normal paint for the simplest of cropping? i mean by the time paint shop pro loads, i can get the part of an image i want using paint <_<
I still use MS Paint too xD

Main reason I used paint.NET is because it actually reads Alpha instead of painting all the "white space" black. Another main reason I used paint.NET for my stuffz is because you can easily switch between images without using multiple windows for a large image cropping operation of sorts. A minor reason I used paint.NET for my cropping operations is so the computer can do some of the calculations for me when center-aligning something.
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#9
Takebacker Wrote:#1 sounds like a third party program attaching itself to maple, and thus bannable. o.o Plus, it would probably require a bit of knowledge with SQL (or any other databasing language, not that i've heard of any). I'm 70% sure you can't do something like that with C++. o.o I don't know SQL. xP

It wouldn't be attaching itself itself to maple. I use Winamp's global hotkeys to adjust Winamp volume while playing maple; this is the same thing. You don't need a database for something this simple, just a simple list of names, 1 name per line.

KajitiSouls Wrote:2.) This seems a little difficult. You would need an app that could interface with .jpgs, then you'd have to write a program that can recognize the chat box. I'd bet the easiest way to do that would be to find the track bar on the right side of it and figure out the cropped picture from that. Or if there isn't any track bar in the usual spot, then assume a different set of coordinates to take the cropped image from.

There are libraries for manipulating images - whatever language you'd want to write this in, there's probably a libGD port for it. The tricky part is figuring out where the chat box is.
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#10
For #3:
 Created by JoeTang on MapleTowers
JoeTang's post copied exactly as it appears here.
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#11
#3. There's no opensource one. Mine's the closest thing to what you're asking for, and I only started to put more work into it today, since my last update, since I was busy with school. And today is a bad day since I had a final, and one tomorrow morning. It will be updated well though, hopefully by Christmas. But I do intend to keep it updated. Only constrains are my pomegranatety computer's low processing speed, making coding it difficult at times due to the intensive requirement of the GUI editor in particular.

And I'm here too, by the way, tzk.
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#12
Speak of the devil?

About using Paint for cropping, it doesn't have transparency and makes for pomegranate quality when saved.

Microsoft should make Paint support at least basic GIF-style transparency... it's just too important nowadays to neglect >_>
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#13
Hi Joe. Haven't seen you in a while. While you're updating, people can use the old one.

Aside from those, can someone figure out why a lot of people's scrol lock buttons aren't working in MS to take screenshots? There's no slight lag after I press the button and the screenshot doesn't show up even when it's set to send to desktop. This problem's been here forever and no one (I've seen) has a solution yet.
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#14
Russt Wrote:Speak of the devil?

About using Paint for cropping, it doesn't have transparency and makes for pomegranate quality when saved.

Microsoft should make Paint support at least basic GIF-style transparency... it's just too important nowadays to neglect >_>

I agree with the quality. Paint messed up my sprite art so badly.
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#15
tzk221 Wrote:Hi Joe. Haven't seen you in a while. While you're updating, people can use the old one.

Aside from those, can someone figure out why a lot of people's scrol lock buttons aren't working in MS to take screenshots? There's no slight lag after I press the button and the screenshot doesn't show up even when it's set to send to desktop. This problem's been here forever and no one (I've seen) has a solution yet.
I've encountered this problem at 3rd body Zakum (lol Vista lol).

A work-around is to set MS into Windows mode and press PrtSc, then ctrl+v in Paint. It's what FelixTM does with his Papulatus SSes.
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#16
I use Fraps trial version for my screenshots.
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#17
The only tricky bit #2 is to determine the coordinates of the chat box. The rest is easy.
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#18
KajitiSouls Wrote:I've encountered this problem at 3rd body Zakum (lol Vista lol).

A work-around is to set MS into Windows mode and press PrtSc, then ctrl+v in Paint. It's what FelixTM does with his Papulatus SSes.
I've been using that for two years now, but it's really inconvenient. Pressing scroll lock would be much easier.
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#19
KajitiSouls Wrote:I've encountered this problem at 3rd body Zakum (lol Vista lol).

A work-around is to set MS into Windows mode and press PrtSc, then ctrl+v in Paint. It's what FelixTM does with his Papulatus SSes.

Indeed. I Prtsc + Paste (into Photoshop) every single one of my MS screenshots. It's no problem for me (window modo love), it's easy to crop them and they're better quality.
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#20
Rollback/update/reinstall your video card drivers was one of the possible solutions to that issue.
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