In-game Thottbot Browser

mrbrdo · 12-24-05, 04:28 PM

Hello guys..

I would like someone to try out my mod that makes you able to surf Thottbot in-game..

How it works:
- you enter /tbsearch something and a window should pop up, only clicking works, you can't type in anything (you don't need to anyway) - so you can still move around in the game..
- if you hold the CTRL button, you can click trough the window (so you click on the thing that is under the window)
- if you right click on the grey title bar the window minimizes into the titlebar (this is useful because the game runs a bit more laggy when the window is open, but when it is minimized into the titlebar it's not any slower)
- you can drag the window around by clicking the titlebar, dragging around and releasing (with the left mouse button)

How to install *IMPORTANT*:
You have to extract all the files into the World of Warcraft directory. When you want to play the game with the browser enabled you MUST run WoWeb.exe INSTEAD of WoW.exe! It does not work if you use WoW.exe (you will also see you cannot turn this "addon" on\off in the game). When the game starts up, you should see a notification in the upper-left corner of the game window, that WoWeb has loaded. Sometimes it fails to load (but this is very rare.. 95% of the times it does), but i am still working to resolve this. Just make sure you use WoWeb.exe

There still may be some minor bugs so please tell me if you find any.. I hope it works for you.

MrB.

Guillotine · 12-24-05, 04:39 PM

Please not that this program has NOT been scanned for viruses nor been approved by any of the WoWI admins. Use it at your own risk. I personally scanned it and found nothing, but that doesn't mean that it is safe. Please scan it with your own virus scanners and post anything found here.

This is also used in place of WoW.exe so it may well steal passwords. For now, I would suggest not using it.

mrbrdo · 12-24-05, 04:44 PM

Yes i agree it is a risk because it is an exe file, so i would like to ask the administrators to approve my files. I would assure you they are OK, but it wouldn't make any difference, would it

About password stealing, i guess check if the program connects to any other sites than thottbot.com (which it does not). But anyway, hope you like it after it's checked.

MrB.

Guillotine · 12-24-05, 05:37 PM

Why don't you just post the source? Let us compile the program ourselves

***Cairenn*** · 12-24-05, 06:13 PM

mrbrdo, we don't allow links to off-site mods on this site. If you would like to submit your mod, complete with source code for us to check, you are welcome to host it with us.

mrbrdo · 12-24-05, 07:43 PM

I will publish the source code only if and when I, me and myself decide to. I also do not need any hosting (i don't know where you got that idea) and last time i checked you're not the one doing me a favor, but it's rather like wise. I don't see how you can determine anything from the source code if you can't do basic things like scanning network activity, which is perfectly enough for your needs. There's nothing i hate more when someone is demanding source from me. When you understand that seeing someone's code is not a right, but a privilege, then call yourself an admin of a good site. Not to mention the fact that the code could easily be used for abuse and misuse.

Goodbye

coder_1024 · 12-25-05, 08:01 AM

can't you just alt-tab to a browser while playing? I play WoW in windowed mode and frequently alt-tab over to my browser. it shows over top of the game so I can still see whats going on while playing. I don't think you need an addon to do this. Granted, the browser doesn't appear as a WoW frame in-game, but the result is the same, you're seeing your browser over top of the game.

Andeh · 12-25-05, 08:26 AM

yeah this idea is pretty useless, and seems like such a blatant attempt at getting other peoples accounts. Befor I realised what a waste of time a mod like this is, I still never bothered trying it due to the simple fact that it uses an external .exe to launch the game, which in games like WoW, is a huge no no.

coder_1024 · 12-25-05, 08:45 AM

come to think of it, the general idea could be useful. i.e., a utility which would provide communications between the game/lua world and the "outside" windows world, allowing you to tie out-of-game actions with in-game script behavior. so you could have something in-game which triggers an Email getting sent for example. Granted, I'm not entirely sure where Blizzard's policies would fall with this sort of thing, but purely from a technical standpoint, I could see the use.

so although this particular application, viewing a web page, might not be all that useful, building a generalized tool to do this sort of thing could be.

I agree with the author that no-one can make them release the source for their code. I also agree with the site admins that no-one can make them host an AddOn which doesn't comply with their rules. Bottom line is that releasing the source would probably be the only way to get widespread use of such a tool.

Gello · 12-25-05, 10:19 AM

Granted, I'm not entirely sure where Blizzard's policies would fall with this sort of thing, but purely from a technical standpoint, I could see the use.

so although this particular application, viewing a web page, might not be all that useful, building a generalized tool to do this sort of thing could be.

They don't discuss policies often, but it would be frowned upon if it was done in the OP's method. Maybe not to a point to put it on Warden's watch list, but it would circumvent extreme effort on Blizzard's part.

There was no lua or xml at all in the original program. To get the slash command to work the program has likely modified/scanned the game client. Even something as roundabout and seemingly harmless as planting an entry in SlashCmdList that triggers an event seen by an outside polling program is bad. Simply adding a SlashCmdList entry with an executable is like breaking and entering. I have a hunch the program didn't go this route, and immediately thought of the alternatives when the OP mentioned the potential for abuse of his source.

Having an executable to start WoW is also bad karma. Cosmos' patcher does this and it's fine and legal, but the patcher only runs, then starts WoW and ends itself. It's a glorified .bat file. The executable in the original program likely stuck around to modify the game client.

Overlay programs like the teamspeak and winamp ones are fine since they don't touch the game client at all. They don't depend on WoW and don't even care about WoW running. A generalized tool should look in that direction. I'm sure we'll eventually see a top-level browser in some form, but to be legal it shouldn't add slash commands to the game and it should try not to require changing which executable starts WoW.

Source code revealed or not, I don't think this program belongs on a legitimate mod site.

mrbrdo · 12-25-05, 12:37 PM

Also, you are mistaken in quite a lot of things. Firstly, the EXE program does not stay and run in the background at all. Secondly, i don't know what SlashCmdList is, the only thing i do is reroute the GetMessage API and check keyboard input before passing to the rest of the chain. And yes, i don't know if it's legal or not, probably it is not as far as the method of injection is concerned.. If it is possible to load a dll by script, please tell me about it and i'll be happy to give it a try. Then there will be no need for the exe file at all. Note that WoW.exe or any other World of Warcraft files do not get modified in any way. Only memory is patched. I would assume that the Winamp control program uses a similar method of injection.

cheers