CityBinder for Homecoming / Blog: Recent posts

The latest file upload is of my unfinished v0.2, which is for reference purposes and not fully functional.

As a hobbyist when it comes to programming, I haven't been able to make the app reach the great potential I saw in it, especially after starting a full-time job almost a year ago. I also had trouble getting Lua to do what I wanted.

A dev is working on a successor app based on CityBinder called "BindControl", which can be found here: https://github.com/emersonrp/bindcontrol. There's also a thread about it here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/38674-bindcontrol-05-alternative-to-citybinder/ ... read more

Some updates for the future 0.2 update:

• The virtual keyboard will now highlight selected keys
• It will now accept typing input in addition to the original input of clicking on the buttons
  • For duplicate keys (like numpad, shift, alt, ctrl), IUP can't differentiate numpad keys from normal ones and isn't recognizing left vs. right modifier keys, so if you want to assign those keys by typing, an extra key press will give a third option. Ex. Press "1" once for "1", again for "NUMPAD1", and again for neither.
• A "Clear Binds" button makes unassigning binds faster and easier
• A new logo! Each dialog window displays it as well.... read more

Still working on the version 0.2 overhaul (I'm a hobbyist, so it's slow going having to learn and experiment a lot. I'm currently adding more functionality to Inspiration Popper so you can set binds for team insps), but in the meantime, I did upload a version 0.1.1 that has a few features not in 0.1 like...

• a module to set basic camera commands
  • these can be changed directly in the game's settings, but if you already have a bunch of binds and want to keep them in the same text file to avoid potentially accidentally overwriting key binds (CB will check bind keys for conflicts) or whatever, now you can set the settings here
• some camera commands with more options in the Power Binder (accessed via Simple Binds module)
• option to add your Global handle to the beginning of chats started by shortcuts defined in the "Typing" module
• All three options for Quitting can be accessed via Power Binder... read more

Still working on the version 0.2 overhaul (I'm a hobbyist, so it's slow going having to learn and experiment a lot. I'm currently adding more functionality to Inspiration Popper so you can set binds for team insps), but in the meantime, I did upload a version 0.1.1 that has a few features not in 0.1 like...

• a module to set basic camera commands
  • these can be changed directly in the game's settings, but if you already have a bunch of binds and want to keep them in the same text file to avoid potentially accidentally overwriting key binds (CB will check bind keys for conflicts) or whatever, now you can set the settings here
• some camera commands with more options in the Power Binder (accessed via Simple Binds module)
• option to add your Global handle to the beginning of chats started by shortcuts defined in the "Typing" module
• All three options for Quitting can be accessed via Power Binder... read more

It's been grueling, but I learned a lot of things in finally getting IUP 3.30 working with CityBinder.

• I got the Makefile properly updated, which means I can build the new CB as an EXE.
• I still need to learn more if I want to compile it for anything other than 64-bit Windows.
• I learned how to add a manifest to make it DPI Aware, so now the interface works in 4K and uses the default Windows 10 style... of course that means the UI got squished and I've had to overhaul it, but with shiny new commands in this version of IUP, I was going to do it anyway.... read more

It's slow going and extremely frustrating. I just want to get these libraries working with VSCode so I can use Intellisense, debug, compile, and build this into an .exe! I've been on StackOverflow, Reddit, and finally joined the Lua mailing list trying to get help for this, and it's all left me very irritated with programming in general since I keep wondering why this crap is made to be so damn convoluted and difficult! Sometimes I feel like I'm trying to infiltrate some kind of mystery cult that carefully guards its secrets (although if I were tinkering with something popular like Python or Java, I bet answers would be a lot easier to find). I wish programmers would make things more intuitive or straight-forward so fixing problems doesn't spawn more problems and more of my days go down the drain as I get lost in a maze straining my normally good Google-fu on quests to solve seemingly trivial crap that I have a feeling they take for granted. And I have to get lost on stupid quests because I don't want to get accused of being lazy and "not doing research" or potentially sit and wait for days for answers that may never come. Sometimes, I don't even know what the hell I'm looking for because I don't know the jargon to express the problem! I just want to get back to using IUP to add features, not this grueling set-up BS!... read more

In order to implement some of the features I want (like adding a copy button when the code is generated), I needed to update Lua and IUP. I spiraled down a rabbit hole trying to figure this out along with other things like how a Makefile works (I ended up downloading VSCode and found some info on generating and using these) and how to use that to turn a script into an executable. Now, I need to figure out why citybinder.c isn't finding my IUP library files. Then I may have to update a bunch of code since "getn" was depreciated and that comes up in the app's original code a lot and while the solution for getting the length of an array is easy (use "#"), it's convoluted for key-value pairs. Sorry my update isn't more exciting, but I'm excited for the possibilities that being able to use new features in the updated code will provide.... read more

I started trying to hook up a "macro maker" feature but it's a lot more complicated when integrating functions originally created by someone far more experienced than me than when I was starting from scratch making the files in the CoX_Macro_Maker folder in the CB4Hv0.1 download. I'd like to add an icon selection feature for image macros, but for now I'm starting with basic plain macros and will build from there. I can make the code-generation box return the name that the user types and I've got a Power Binder button in the window so you can choose commands, but I'm stuck on trying to pass the Power Binder's code to the macro code.... read more

I wish I could move faster, but I've been stuck on a few things so I've had to ask for help in forums. As far as the wiki, I want to add more screenshots, but I'm having a weird resolution problem with my 4K monitor where any screenshots I upload here (or view in Windows 10 Photos) show up blurry and inflated. Yet, they look fine in other apps. They also look weird on other computers, which doesn't make sense.... read more

It was grueling, but I finally got my addition of camera commands to the Power Binder working. In order to avoid cluttering the command list with camera commands, I wanted to put the options under "Camera Settings." Since these commands have different ways of being written (ex. "mouselook" can be used via holding a key, toggled, set to on or off, while camera distance requires a number, while other commands just require their names), I had to think of a way of accommodating that. My solution was to divide them into sections that could be enabled by radio buttons labeled "Use This Command:" You can check that out in the attached screenshot. ... read more

I've condensed and formatted the change log for the Wiki. I also added some changes/fixes that will be featured in the next release. I started adding pages to the Wiki, though most of them are blank at the moment.

This is what the typing notifier I set up with an emote and afk message looks like in-game.

I've made my first CityBind module! Camera settings will be available in the next update. Soon, I'll have to figure out how to fit all the modules I have planned since there isn't much space left for buttons if I were to continue stacking them vertically. Another problem is that I haven't figured out how to control the order in which they appear.

AN UPDATE TO CITYBINDER:

"CityBinder" ( https://sourceforge.net/projects/citybinder/ ) is an extremely useful app for the "City of Heroes" player, so I was disappointed to find that, unlike "Mid's Hero Designer" (another amazing app), it hadn't been updated in several years. I started experimenting with the source files of CityBinder v0.76 to update it for the version of City of Heroes hosted on the Homecoming servers by adding new and missing powers and archetypes. I hope to make further improvements as I learn more about Lua and how this app is put together. I also wanted to develop an image-macro-generating app to add on to this, which I'm working on.... read more