I'd be curious to try this out, but what would be the advantage of using this over something like ISB? The virtual bars being more intuitive? More tailored to EQ, from what I'm gathering?
[REPOSTED after removing some sensitive information about the programs architecture, the less certain parties know the better! 
]
Hey!
Appreciate the interest! I would like to preface this by saying the
current iteration of IonBC is intended for use on multiple machines and/or on TrueBox servers.
I originally started developing the project around 2019/2020-ish when I was in college but it didn't come to full fruition until early 2022-ish. Since then, it's been expanded quite a bit so I can't go over
absolutely everything but I can definitely shed some light on the ISB comparison!
Where ISB is an agnostic platform for a wide variety of MMOs, IonBC is more tailored to be EQ-inclusive (though you
can use it for anything, and many people do, as there is no actual dependency on EverQuest). The base framework on IonBC is built upon fully customizable hotbar overlays that allow for the processing of commands over multiple clients without the need for manual intervention.
For example, here's a button I currently use on my live-test dummies for SHM buffs:
This button sends the command:
/tar PlayerNameHere ; /pause 10 ; /cast 6 ; /pause 70 ; /cast 7 ; /pause 80 ; /cast 8 ; /pause 65 ; /sit
To our Shaman client which then processes this command in a FIFO queue and performs all actions ; delimited.
There's many internal commands for specific things as well, a simple example would be a form group that uses /ibt to execute specific actions over specific clients:
Code:
/ibt host /invite GroupMember1 ; /ibt host /invite GroupMember2 ; /ibt host /invite GroupMember3 ; /ibt host /invite GroupMember4 ; /ibt host /invite GroupMember5 ; /pause 30 ; /ibt clients /keypress lctrl+i
This utilizes /ibt for in-line command targeting of specific clients in a button that would, otherwise, target all available instances to allow for dynamic group forming. Again, super simple example but with the macroing/command system you can do anything that's possible within EQ's and the internal's systems.
There's many other features as well such as:
1. Dynamic triggering based on events that happen in-game (think MQ2Events but without injection)
2. Repeater functionality for rebuffing, rotations, assists, etc. etc.
3. Multiple security level/anti-detection algorithms (nothing's perfect though!)
4. Full designer suite
And more!
Now lets move more into the
Live architecture of things and go over how that works a little bit.
IonBC 2 is a bit more involved when it comes to the local/live iteration. Where the KVM architecture does not touch EverQuest
at all, this just isn't something feasibly possible within the scope of a seamless end-user experience for multiple clients on one machine. As such, it is important to note that
IonBC 2 live injects directly into the EverQuest window (in a similar fashion to programs like ISBoxer NOT MacroQuest).
While we aren't directly modifying the game experience in the same way MacroQuest does and we are
much less aggressive (more akin to ISBoxer-style handling rather than MacroQuest-style), it is still important to note that we are using thread injection here albeit lightly and only native to DirectInput outside of hwnd modification.
Hopefully that sheds some light on things! We're a bit more EQ focused where ISB is a bit more agnostic, but both are fantastic platforms!
I am not trying to create a replacement to ISBoxer, the project moreso started to give a reliable suite of tools to end-users to alleviate the pain of manually boxing on TrueBox servers. From there, every feature that has been implemented (including the upcoming Local/Live suite) has been entirely community requested!
At the end of the day,
IonBC is sort of whatever the community wants it to be. While I do draw the line with certain, more aggressive MQ-style processing (think warping, full automation, etc. etc.), I have built and will continue to build on IonBC based on community feedback until I either no longer receive it or think the application is entirely complete!
As one final note, I'd highly recommend using the
Experimental of IonBC 2 over the current production version
(NOTE: Live/Local version isn't released yet, still multi-machine/TrueBox)! It is a much cleaner product due to rebasing and my increased experience working in software engineering (I was just a sophmore in college when the original project started). If you have any questions let me know!
