EQ File Patcher

**Shin Noir** · #1 09-20-2009, 05:18 AM

Ok, so something I felt EQEMU private servers have been lacking is a respectable patcher. I play a lot of various private servers, and enjoyed Neoncube's Ragnarok Online patcher.

Neoncube can be visited via this link.

I took their source and modded it to support an everquest like setup.

Here is a link to my EQ modded version. This is early alpha mind you and I expect more changes.

http://gigaplox.com/EQPatcher0.zip

I'll hook up whomever wants my edited source if they would like to make it more respectable! Neoncube is GNU released anyways.

One of my favorite parts about neoncube is how easy it is to edit their patcher's look, and how slick it is with mouse over buttons and such:

This is the default UI.. Here's one of my old RO server did up

Note the bottom section is actual HTML and can be used to show what the updates do, and such. You'll see if you try it out.

**Shin Noir** · #2 09-20-2009, 05:40 AM

It's technically possible to utilize this to ensure the user's eqclient.txt file is properly set, or if you have custom eqg files you have done, this patcher should be able to support it.

There is a buit in RAR extraction tool however I had some complications with it, as originally this tool was made to combine patch files into a RO-specific game file package called a GRF. If I get the RAR extraction done, your patch file can look like:

1 RAR 08-08-09.rar
2 RAR 09-10-09.rar

or whatever, and each rar could contain all files you want modified, it'll extract it to your client's EQ directory. That's for another programmer, or for me at another time. :P

**trevius** · #3 09-20-2009, 05:40 AM

Looks like some neat stuff, but patchers have been somewhat of a debated topic on if they should be allowed to be discussed/shared on this site or not. It would be great if we could come up with something official, but I think the main question is the legality of it all. Patching files is a gray area at the very least around here.

I think there are valid points to both sides of the argument. It would be nice if the emulator site here had something that would create the shortcut and maybe edit the eqhost.txt file automatically so new players would only have to download a file and run it in order to play on the Public EQEmu servers for the first time. I can make a batch file to edit the eqhost.txt file easy enough, but making a good shortcut that would work for everyone is a bit more complex via batch files only. Being able to switch from server to server that each use custom files without having to run from separate directories would be good as well.

At the same time, distributing at least some certain client files (eqgame.exe for example) is pretty-clearly illegal and not even allowed to be discussed on these forums. While an official patcher wouldn't mean that EQEmu was actually providing these illegal files, it would mean that we were providing a way for people to potentially distribute them easily. An analogy to this would be like the company that made Napster to originally distribute music illegally getting into legal issues. And we try to steer as clear as possible from any legal conflicts.

I just don't want you to waste too much time on something that might not be allowed to be distributed or discussed here or something. Drakelord made a nice universal server patcher a while back that seemed to be nearly completed here:

http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/showthread.php?t=28269

He even took it as far as asking SOE legal about it, to which he got a reply saying that they are not at liberty to say either way if it is ok or not.

**Shin Noir** · #4 09-20-2009, 05:45 AM

If this post goes due to potential gray area issues I understand. Though to me it seems interesting about the general legality at bay here. The agreement you click each time you utilize the EQ client says a lot of details I can't possibly fathom a private server being able to veer away at pure innonce from.

But, this isn't really for me to debate, and like I said, take it down or keep it up, I just felt like sharing it.

**Shin Noir** · #5 09-20-2009, 06:02 AM

I just read over the link you provided Trev. I can't see why a patcher specifically designed to provide files legally (such as textfiles etc) can be considered an illegal tool. If a server admin decides to utilize my patcher to release copyrighted material, and SOE thinks it's a bad act of distribution, they are free to contact me and I will immediately terminate all actions related to the project. Due to the general availability of file hosting online especially to the masses in manners such as torrenting, I don't see how my tool can be considered a device that enhances illegal use more than any of those. It seems quite a few people have contacted SOE on that post, and have come up with "maybe's" and "dead ends". So, I can't see why it's illegal. :/ Even if SOE decided they wanted to press charges and spend the money on court costs or try to get me jailed or fined, I don't foresee the jury seeing my actions as implicitly going against the rules and regulations devised by Sony.

But once again, feel free to delete the post if you feel it isn't worth the headache.

**Rogean** · #6 09-20-2009, 10:49 AM

I like the napster comparison, but napster was directly being used to connect to the people who were sharing the illegal files.

On the other hand, I don't think it would be a big problem to advertise a patcher program, so long as A) The patcher isn't actually hosted here, and B) Its purpose is for patching completely fresh custom files (Whether or not it is used to that extent is not our problem).

**Shin Noir** · #7 09-20-2009, 04:32 PM

the real question is, what's the demand for a project such as this? I mean, this is only useful for servers who actually want to use it. XD

Will see if anyone speaks up about wanting it before I work on it more.

pfyon · #8 09-20-2009, 04:47 PM

Sounds neat. As for who would use it, anyone with custom spells could use this to make sure their spell file is up to date.

Pandaman · #9 09-20-2009, 05:36 PM

So you're going with a WoW type feel?

Their patcher, upon opening, if there is a patch, will auto-download it, if it's required to play the game.

Not necessarily WoW's idea, EQ did it too, except it wasn't really a patcher.

Regardless, it's a cool premise.

Fritzism · #10 09-20-2009, 06:19 PM

I like the idea of a working patcher, honestly feels like one of those things we should have had a long time ago.

**Shin Noir** · #11 09-20-2009, 11:09 PM

Someone pm'd asking for the source. Here's the file. Very minor edits overall.
http://gigaplox.com/main.cpp

Fritzism · #12 09-21-2009, 07:03 AM

Awesome, thank you. Ill see what I can get done about the RAR extraction. (no promises though

)

Speedz · #13 09-21-2009, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trevius

It would be nice if the emulator site here had something that would create the shortcut and maybe edit the eqhost.txt file automatically so new players would only have to download a file and run it in order to play on the Public EQEmu servers for the first time. I can make a batch file to edit the eqhost.txt file easy enough, but making a good shortcut that would work for everyone is a bit more complex via batch files only. Being able to switch from server to server that each use custom files without having to run from separate directories would be good as well.

I have a tool that I think would fit this description, but I am having issues with megaupload in trying to host it and it's source to you guys. Here is a screeny that shows its basic function. It is written in C# (as everything I'll ever make is).

As it shows, you enter one or more url at a time and can save it to a master list, select on the list and move it to a temp display that shows how the host will look. Then can save it or save and play. This also automatically passes the "patchme" so you never have to create a EQ shortcut. Just launch the game from here.

Speedz · #14 09-21-2009, 05:40 PM

woohoo figured it out, got it to upload finally. I guess it didn't like rar format or something....but anyway it will be in another thread.

Fritzism · #15 09-25-2009, 12:57 PM

Just something quick about the RAR extraction here, I just realized you can get it to dump the contents of a RAR into the EQpatcher.exe dir by changing the lines in patchlist.txt from (for example):

1 RAR patch1.rar to 1 FLD patch1.rar.

The only issue about that method I can see is that the RAR (patch1.rar in this example) isn't being deleted after you finish the patching. Is that what you were having problems with?