Just looking for someone to explain this addon a bit for me. It looks like it is an alternative to Spellcast.
Is it going to be replacing Spellcast? In which ways is it better or worse. I don't know any programming but I've slowly learned more and more about spellcast and the 'language' used in gearswap is confusing to me.
It says it uses packets so it potentially could be more detectable? but does that also eliminate any lag that spellcast may encounter?
I plan on redoing my PUP xml to include pet casting sets thanks to the new addon petschool. I'm just not sure if it's worth it to just wait until gearswap gets more popular or to go ahead and do it in spellcast.
If anyone could give me more info I'd greatly appreciate it.
Gearswap Support Thread
Gearswap Support Thread
Well, here's something I wrote on BG, slightly updated:
As far as packet injection, many plugins and addons inject or modify packets (now). They basically fall into two categories:
1) Outgoing modification/injection - Questionably safe in theory.
2) Incoming modification/injection - Except in situations where you inject an incoming packet that generates an outgoing packet, very safe in theory.
Now, I say "in theory" above because the fact of the matter is that Windower has been doing outgoing packet injection for years and SE has yet to do anything about it. Every time lightluggage sorts your inventory or passes something, that's an injected packet. Itemizer/GearCollector moving crap around? Injected packets. When packet injection is done properly, it appears to be reasonably safe in practice. Now... you can probably still get banned for doing packet injection poorly and sending packets that the normal client would never have generated... in theory. In practice, I've sent a shitton of bad packets over the last few months, exceeded any kind of reasonable packets/second metric, etc. and never heard from a GM. It seems like SE is asleep at the wheel, but obviously it's safer to be conservative about this than to just go all willy-nilly packety-injecty, so afaik we're rejecting outgoing packet injection/manipulation addons from the repository that haven't been tested extensively.
Quote:
First I'll tackle Shortcuts and GearSwap. Before I can really explain what they are and how they're useful, I need to explain how Spellcast works.
Spellcast:
Spellcast loads your .xml file into memory. This file is interpretted each time Spellcast detects a relevant action in your outgoing text buffer. Spellcast iterates over the file once replacing all the standard variables (%Spell, etc.) and then once for each variable you use (in alphabetical order). This is monumentally inefficient, which is why some users experience lag when using complicated spellcast files.
Anwyay, it does all this replacement on the .xml text and then goes through and interprets the resulting logic, generating precast, midcast, and aftercast sets as relevant. It outputs these sets as a series of "input /equip <slot> <gear> <me>;" commands in console (with one /raw /prefix "spell name" <target> command), essentially as a temporary oldschool windower equipment swapping script. The wait commands between precast, midcast, and aftercast are determined by your cast/precast/midcast/aftercast delays and there is no logic after that.
The features can basically be broken down into this:
1) Interpret outgoing text (including shortened forms of spells, spells without prefixes, etc.)
2) Generate a script of equipment changing and dump it into console with the defined "wait" values and the associated /raw command
3) Remove the "/raw " and don't interpret anything prefixed with /raw.
4) Replace any instances of %variables in the outgoing text buffer (for example, %EquipMain).
Shortcuts:
Shortcuts handles the first feature of Spellcast. It does outgoing text interpretation, and I daresay it does it pretty well. It does:
1) Interprets the slugged form of spell names (cure4 = "Cure IV", these are just permutations of the spell names)
2) Default alias interpretation (c4 = Cure IV, these are aliases in the resources)
3) Creates targets if they aren't provided
4) Handles double "//" commands
5) Autocompletes targets -- If you handed Spellcast an invalid target, it would look up the potential targets in your party array and see if the invalid target could possibly be any of them. Shortcuts does this but also looks through the entire monster array. In the case of multiple results, priority will be given to names that start with the phrase you entered. If there are still multiple results, priority will be given to the closest character.
6) Handles single "/" commands -- /cure4 works the same way that //cure4 does. Saves you a character.
7) Handles ambiguous cases. -- /blizzard2 on SMN sub BLM would give you /pet "Blizzard II" <t> if you had Shiva out and the BP:Rage recast timer was below 2 seconds, otherwise it would give you /ma "Blizzard II" <t>. This also works for ambiguous monsterskills, blue magic, BST pet commands, etc.
8) Autocompletes targets for non-battle commands -- /c, /t, /em, /pcmd, etc. It is glorious to be able to check the bazaar of a character named "Pooooooooooo" with /c po.
I've italicized the cases that are also handled by Spellcast. The others are unique to Shortcuts. Please let me know if you find something that is not working.
GearSwap:
GearSwap handles the second and third features of Spellcast. It interprets properly formed incoming chat commands and allows you to swap gear in response to them. However, the way that it does this is a little bit different from Spellcast.
First, GearSwap user files are written in Lua and loaded into memory as code chunks instead of text. When you write a GearSwap file, you are actually writing a part of the program that will load when you are on the relevant job. This means it's very fast and should not cause lag even on your Pentium III Craptop. You can use it like a real scripting language, because it is a real scripting language. There are also a bunch of guides for scripting in Lua because WoW used it for their addons.
Second, GearSwap is modular. Instead of having one file that you interpret once at one point in time and generate all your sets from, you have several functions in your GearSwap file that are called at specific points in time. This allows you to react to changing conditions. Do you want to change to your PDT TP set if your Utsusemi casting is interrupted? You can do that now.
Third, GearSwap defines its precast, midcast, and aftercast time points based on actual game information, rather than simply making them a predefined wait. This also allows me to include pet_midcast and pet_aftercast. Here's how they're defined:
1) precast - This function is executed before the spell is put into the outgoing text buffer, so before your ability. Some features (like cancel_spell or verify_equip) only work in this function.
2) midcast - This function is executed after receiving a "readies" action packet. If you were casting Fire IV, this would be the "Jim starts casting Fire IV" message. Instant actions (like JAs and pet commands) have no midcast.
3) aftercast - This function is executed after receiving the "result" action packet. If you were casting Fire IV, this would be the "Fire IV does 3250 damage to so-and-so" message. This also fires for failures, like "Yumcax is out of range."
4) pet_midcast - Pet midcast fires when you get a "readies" action packet for your own pet. So, "Shiva readies Heavenly Strike." or "Automaton starts casting Cure IV"
5) pet_aftercast - Pet aftercast fires when you get a "result" action packet for your own pet. So "Heavenly Strike does 9500 damage." This also fires for failures.
Fourth, GearSwap injects equip packets to change gear instead of pushing equip commands into the outgoing text buffer. This makes it so you can swap equipment with menus open, including your equipment menu (which lets you watch your gear change). This was a major pet peeve of mine with SpellCast. Also, no more "Equipment changed." messages.
Fifth, GearSwap rejects input for 1 second after sending an outgoing command. If you're a macro spammer (like me), then this will prevent you from accidentally swapping back to your precast gear after you put on your midcast gear. The server rejects input for at least 1 second after entering a command anyway, so this costs you nothing and helps ensure you're wearing the right gear. It doesn't do this anymore automatically, but the framework is still there and you can implement it if desired.
Sixth, GearSwap allows you to react to events that people formerly relied on AutoExec + Dummy spells + Spellcast for. These would be status_change (engaged, idle, etc.), buff_change (gain a march, lose a march, etc.) and self_command. Additionally, we intend to get windower.register_event() working in user files, which would let you basically react to any change with a little work. There's also an initialization (get_sets) and unload (file_unload) event.
Seventh, GearSwap actually tells you the number of each buff that is active on yourself. buffactive['march'] will either return 0, 1, or 2, for instance. This allows you to finally make automatic delay cap sets.
There are more differences, but these are the most immediately noticeable changes. Spellcast is a wooden bicycle with square wheels and GearSwap is a modern racing bike. Check out the documentation and example files, which download into ../addons/GearSwap/beta_examples_and_information.
-- Also, be aware that GearSwap is still in beta. I do not anticipate major API changes, but anything is possible. --
The fourth feature of Spellcast (%variable replacement in the outgoing text buffer) is currently unhandled. It's not a difficult addon to make, but I have made too many addons and can hardly support the ones that I've released. Someone else will have to take that one.
If you find problems, please report them: https://github.com/Byrth/Lua/issues
Spellcast:
Spellcast loads your .xml file into memory. This file is interpretted each time Spellcast detects a relevant action in your outgoing text buffer. Spellcast iterates over the file once replacing all the standard variables (%Spell, etc.) and then once for each variable you use (in alphabetical order). This is monumentally inefficient, which is why some users experience lag when using complicated spellcast files.
Anwyay, it does all this replacement on the .xml text and then goes through and interprets the resulting logic, generating precast, midcast, and aftercast sets as relevant. It outputs these sets as a series of "input /equip <slot> <gear> <me>;" commands in console (with one /raw /prefix "spell name" <target> command), essentially as a temporary oldschool windower equipment swapping script. The wait commands between precast, midcast, and aftercast are determined by your cast/precast/midcast/aftercast delays and there is no logic after that.
The features can basically be broken down into this:
1) Interpret outgoing text (including shortened forms of spells, spells without prefixes, etc.)
2) Generate a script of equipment changing and dump it into console with the defined "wait" values and the associated /raw command
3) Remove the "/raw " and don't interpret anything prefixed with /raw.
4) Replace any instances of %variables in the outgoing text buffer (for example, %EquipMain).
Shortcuts:
Shortcuts handles the first feature of Spellcast. It does outgoing text interpretation, and I daresay it does it pretty well. It does:
1) Interprets the slugged form of spell names (cure4 = "Cure IV", these are just permutations of the spell names)
2) Default alias interpretation (c4 = Cure IV, these are aliases in the resources)
3) Creates targets if they aren't provided
4) Handles double "//" commands
5) Autocompletes targets -- If you handed Spellcast an invalid target, it would look up the potential targets in your party array and see if the invalid target could possibly be any of them. Shortcuts does this but also looks through the entire monster array. In the case of multiple results, priority will be given to names that start with the phrase you entered. If there are still multiple results, priority will be given to the closest character.
6) Handles single "/" commands -- /cure4 works the same way that //cure4 does. Saves you a character.
7) Handles ambiguous cases. -- /blizzard2 on SMN sub BLM would give you /pet "Blizzard II" <t> if you had Shiva out and the BP:Rage recast timer was below 2 seconds, otherwise it would give you /ma "Blizzard II" <t>. This also works for ambiguous monsterskills, blue magic, BST pet commands, etc.
8) Autocompletes targets for non-battle commands -- /c, /t, /em, /pcmd, etc. It is glorious to be able to check the bazaar of a character named "Pooooooooooo" with /c po.
I've italicized the cases that are also handled by Spellcast. The others are unique to Shortcuts. Please let me know if you find something that is not working.
GearSwap:
GearSwap handles the second and third features of Spellcast. It interprets properly formed incoming chat commands and allows you to swap gear in response to them. However, the way that it does this is a little bit different from Spellcast.
First, GearSwap user files are written in Lua and loaded into memory as code chunks instead of text. When you write a GearSwap file, you are actually writing a part of the program that will load when you are on the relevant job. This means it's very fast and should not cause lag even on your Pentium III Craptop. You can use it like a real scripting language, because it is a real scripting language. There are also a bunch of guides for scripting in Lua because WoW used it for their addons.
Second, GearSwap is modular. Instead of having one file that you interpret once at one point in time and generate all your sets from, you have several functions in your GearSwap file that are called at specific points in time. This allows you to react to changing conditions. Do you want to change to your PDT TP set if your Utsusemi casting is interrupted? You can do that now.
Third, GearSwap defines its precast, midcast, and aftercast time points based on actual game information, rather than simply making them a predefined wait. This also allows me to include pet_midcast and pet_aftercast. Here's how they're defined:
1) precast - This function is executed before the spell is put into the outgoing text buffer, so before your ability. Some features (like cancel_spell or verify_equip) only work in this function.
2) midcast - This function is executed after receiving a "readies" action packet. If you were casting Fire IV, this would be the "Jim starts casting Fire IV" message. Instant actions (like JAs and pet commands) have no midcast.
3) aftercast - This function is executed after receiving the "result" action packet. If you were casting Fire IV, this would be the "Fire IV does 3250 damage to so-and-so" message. This also fires for failures, like "Yumcax is out of range."
4) pet_midcast - Pet midcast fires when you get a "readies" action packet for your own pet. So, "Shiva readies Heavenly Strike." or "Automaton starts casting Cure IV"
5) pet_aftercast - Pet aftercast fires when you get a "result" action packet for your own pet. So "Heavenly Strike does 9500 damage." This also fires for failures.
Fourth, GearSwap injects equip packets to change gear instead of pushing equip commands into the outgoing text buffer. This makes it so you can swap equipment with menus open, including your equipment menu (which lets you watch your gear change). This was a major pet peeve of mine with SpellCast. Also, no more "Equipment changed." messages.
Sixth, GearSwap allows you to react to events that people formerly relied on AutoExec + Dummy spells + Spellcast for. These would be status_change (engaged, idle, etc.), buff_change (gain a march, lose a march, etc.) and self_command. Additionally, we intend to get windower.register_event() working in user files, which would let you basically react to any change with a little work. There's also an initialization (get_sets) and unload (file_unload) event.
Seventh, GearSwap actually tells you the number of each buff that is active on yourself. buffactive['march'] will either return 0, 1, or 2, for instance. This allows you to finally make automatic delay cap sets.
There are more differences, but these are the most immediately noticeable changes. Spellcast is a wooden bicycle with square wheels and GearSwap is a modern racing bike. Check out the documentation and example files, which download into ../addons/GearSwap/beta_examples_and_information.
-- Also, be aware that GearSwap is still in beta. I do not anticipate major API changes, but anything is possible. --
The fourth feature of Spellcast (%variable replacement in the outgoing text buffer) is currently unhandled. It's not a difficult addon to make, but I have made too many addons and can hardly support the ones that I've released. Someone else will have to take that one.
If you find problems, please report them: https://github.com/Byrth/Lua/issues
As far as packet injection, many plugins and addons inject or modify packets (now). They basically fall into two categories:
1) Outgoing modification/injection - Questionably safe in theory.
2) Incoming modification/injection - Except in situations where you inject an incoming packet that generates an outgoing packet, very safe in theory.
Now, I say "in theory" above because the fact of the matter is that Windower has been doing outgoing packet injection for years and SE has yet to do anything about it. Every time lightluggage sorts your inventory or passes something, that's an injected packet. Itemizer/GearCollector moving crap around? Injected packets. When packet injection is done properly, it appears to be reasonably safe in practice. Now... you can probably still get banned for doing packet injection poorly and sending packets that the normal client would never have generated... in theory. In practice, I've sent a shitton of bad packets over the last few months, exceeded any kind of reasonable packets/second metric, etc. and never heard from a GM. It seems like SE is asleep at the wheel, but obviously it's safer to be conservative about this than to just go all willy-nilly packety-injecty, so afaik we're rejecting outgoing packet injection/manipulation addons from the repository that haven't been tested extensively.
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Thanks much for your response. I understood *most* of what you said. haha. It was exactly what I was looking for.
The advantages of gearswap makes me want to at least try to figure some of it out. I think I'll just start by building new gearsets for any possible situation I can think of and then try to slowly implement them into a file.
Out of curiousity can gearswap differentiate between the automaton nuking or healing. Or maybe even get more advanced than that? Like read pet_midcast and then depending on the type of spell choose which gear to change into?
As far as the master I assume you set the specific JA/etc in the precast and then follow up with the appropriate midcast(similar to spellcast), but if pets only have midcast I just wasn't sure if it could read the spell and immediately know what midcast to use?
Not sure if that makes sense, like I said I'm not very educated on programming.
I'll be sure to read the documentation, I'm sure it will answer a handful of questions. I'm just at work right now and rather wait to jump into it when I can fiddle with it with ffxi open too.
The advantages of gearswap makes me want to at least try to figure some of it out. I think I'll just start by building new gearsets for any possible situation I can think of and then try to slowly implement them into a file.
Out of curiousity can gearswap differentiate between the automaton nuking or healing. Or maybe even get more advanced than that? Like read pet_midcast and then depending on the type of spell choose which gear to change into?
As far as the master I assume you set the specific JA/etc in the precast and then follow up with the appropriate midcast(similar to spellcast), but if pets only have midcast I just wasn't sure if it could read the spell and immediately know what midcast to use?
Not sure if that makes sense, like I said I'm not very educated on programming.
I'll be sure to read the documentation, I'm sure it will answer a handful of questions. I'm just at work right now and rather wait to jump into it when I can fiddle with it with ffxi open too.
Check out the summoner example file that downloads when you activate gearswap in the launcher.
I pass in exactly the spell/ability to the pet_midcast function, so you can even macro Cure III and IV differently if you want.
I pass in exactly the spell/ability to the pet_midcast function, so you can even macro Cure III and IV differently if you want.
[+]
Byrthnoth said: »
From BG yesterday:
The above code would prevent your first 3 attempts to start a new action after initiating an action. The below code just adds the 1 second midaction delay back in, for those that liked it:
Code
function precast(spell,abil)
if midaction() then
midaction_counter = midaction_counter + 1
if midaction_counter > 3 then
midaction(false)
midaction_counter = 0
else
return
end
else
midaction_counter = 0
end
endCode
function precast(spell,abil)
if midaction() then
return
else
windower.send_command('wait 1;gs c midact')
end
end
function self_command(cmd)
if cmd == 'midact' then
midaction(false)
end
end
Lakshmi.Byrth said: »
From BG yesterday:
The above code would prevent your first 3 attempts to start a new action after initiating an action. The below code just adds the 1 second midaction delay back in, for those that liked it:
Code
function precast(spell,abil)
if midaction() then
midaction_counter = midaction_counter + 1
if midaction_counter > 3 then
midaction(false)
midaction_counter = 0
else
return
end
else
midaction_counter = 0
end
endCode
function precast(spell,abil)
if midaction() then
return
else
windower.send_command('wait 1;gs c midact')
end
end
function self_command(cmd)
if cmd == 'midact' then
midaction(false)
end
endWhat file would you paste that into?
[+]
Phoenix.Chomeymatt said: »
What file would you paste that into?
Blargh...now I must learn the ways of writing scripts for Gearswap as I was just getting the hang of Spellcast...is there somewhere where I can read up on what the hell it all means? Its gibberish to me at the moment.
[+]
Hades.Triet said: »
Blargh...now I must learn the ways of writing scripts for Gearswap as I was just getting the hang of Spellcast...is there somewhere where I can read up on what the hell it all means? Its gibberish to me at the moment.
Im kinda in the same boat.. I was able to frankenstein an existing gearswap to work basics on WAR, but things like locking twilight when weak still escape me
[+]
anyone able to help clarify what it is I am doing wrong? I keep getting error "...lua:3: '=' expected near 'Affinity'" error when I try to load Gearswap, here is the line:
Code
sets.precast.ChainAffinity = {head="Mavi Kavuk +2"}
Don't think you can use . twice like that in one line, change it to
I'm new to lua so I'm still finding the way it handles objects/associative arrays strange too
Code
sets.precast['Chain Affinity'] = {head="Mavi Kavuk +2"}I'm new to lua so I'm still finding the way it handles objects/associative arrays strange too
Miang said: »
Don't think you can use . twice like that in one line, change it to
I'm new to lua so I'm still finding the way it handles objects/associative arrays strange too
Code
sets.precast['Chain Affinity'] = {head="Mavi Kavuk +2"}I'm new to lua so I'm still finding the way it handles objects/associative arrays strange too
Locking isn't as easy as spellcast at the moment, but one of the ways I'm seeing being suggested is as follows:
Code
equip({head="Twilight Helm",body="Twilight Mail"})
send_command('@wait 0.5;gs disable head body;')
My bad, looking at Byrth's examples, we need to define the sub table as a table first:
Just tried that and worked on mine
Code
sets.precast = {}
sets.precast.ChainAffinity = {head="Mavi Kavuk +2"}Just tried that and worked on mine
You can do that, you just have to define the precast table first.
sets.precast = {}
sets.precast.ChainAffinity = {head = ""}
sets.precast.ChainAffinity == sets.precast['ChainAffinity'] == sets['precast'].ChainAffinity == sets['precast']['ChainAffinity'], you can use whatever
sets.precast = {}
sets.precast.ChainAffinity = {head = ""}
sets.precast.ChainAffinity == sets.precast['ChainAffinity'] == sets['precast'].ChainAffinity == sets['precast']['ChainAffinity'], you can use whatever
Yeah I have that line before the Chain Affinity one. I used the Byrth_MNK.lua as a template and worked in my BLU sets. Those are the 2 lines I have it just keeps giving me that error. I even tried spacing between the Chain Affinity and nada. D:
Here is what I have atm. (Don't judge my gear atm lol)
Here is what I have atm. (Don't judge my gear atm lol)
I find that specific error is often thrown when the line # before the line shown has a syntactic error near the end of it.
Edit: Looking at the file, sec.
Edit: Looking at the file, sec.
Line 11, you forgot a { after =
I would love to get into figuring out gearswap because it sounds so much better than spellcast! Where can I find all of Byrth's examples? (or even more examples!)
I've only found this thread on BG. I only really see Motenten and some others posting their gearswaps, which are extremely helpful but I need a bit more examples since I'm really horrible at this kind of thing! I don't really go on BG very often so I'm not exactly sure where to find everything there D: it's hard for me to search for since gearswap is a really common term! I tried looking at guildwork too but I'm not familiar with that site either.
Sorry and thank you! D:
Edit: Gah, it was inside the gearswap folder .~. but if there are other completed ones too, that would be awesome to look at! (WHM would be really fantastic!)
I've only found this thread on BG. I only really see Motenten and some others posting their gearswaps, which are extremely helpful but I need a bit more examples since I'm really horrible at this kind of thing! I don't really go on BG very often so I'm not exactly sure where to find everything there D: it's hard for me to search for since gearswap is a really common term! I tried looking at guildwork too but I'm not familiar with that site either.
Sorry and thank you! D:
Edit: Gah, it was inside the gearswap folder .~. but if there are other completed ones too, that would be awesome to look at! (WHM would be really fantastic!)
Quetzalcoatl.Crystalchan said: »
[+]
Curious if there is a link to a collection of .lua files like they had for .xml's for spellcast on pastebin (or wherever it was). Getting lost with the ability commands and what not. D:
Byrthnoth said: »
The fourth feature of Spellcast (%variable replacement in the outgoing text buffer) is currently unhandled. It's not a difficult addon to make, but I have made too many addons and can hardly support the ones that I've released. Someone else will have to take that one.
Tah-dah, done. No reason to ever use spellcast.
After reading all this, I want to transition to gearswap, but my god, I'm not following all this yet, (I'm a ***coder) I read that Sylow was making his to be stupid-proof by commenting the crap out of them, but his aren't done yet, are there any ready-ish easy-to-adjust XMLs (would love even a rather basic one) out there? Would love one for every job as I to some extent play them all, sadly.
[+]
Exactly what I was wondering. I ended up taking Byrth's MNK .lua (as a sort of shell .lua) and adjusted gearsets to my own for a couple jobs (MNK, basic melee BLU, and PLD). Also, someone on here sent me a PM with their .lua (for BLU) and I am looking it over atm trying to decipher what I can.
A question. Does gearswap have any special effects on things that take "time" to show up? Things like wyvern hp and such?
I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, but GearSwap shows you the value in memory for everything except equipment, which it keeps its own registry of. So if you're, for instance, using Release on SMN. You would have to wait a second for your avatar to disappear before you'll officially not have a pet. This is just a limitation of the game and I'm not interested in programming and documenting the hundreds of special exceptions.
[+]
not sure what I'm doing wrong here, but it must be on a fundamental level. I assume there's uncountable errors, mostly because it won't load the file passed line 9.
error i'm getting right now is:
User file problem: *path*:10: '}' expected (to close '{' at line 9) near 'head'
error i'm getting right now is:
User file problem: *path*:10: '}' expected (to close '{' at line 9) near 'head'
At least you made it to 9. Lol mine stopped at 3
[+]
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