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I'm still confused about this closed source issue. I noticed MQ2IC is gone of course, but MacroQuest.exe (the injector?) still seems to be closed source. Is that expected to change over time? I only ask because I noticed it's out of date for the latest patch and I'm trying to catch up with this version but probably missed the boat.
 
I'm still confused about this closed source issue. I noticed MQ2IC is gone of course, but MacroQuest.exe (the injector?) still seems to be closed source. Is that expected to change over time? I only ask because I noticed it's out of date for the latest patch and I'm trying to catch up with this version but probably missed the boat.
You need to download the new build after each patch. There is no auto update for MqNext yet. If you click the download button at the top right, you get the new zip.
 
The injector is also not a required component. It is separately licensed and no part of MQ depends on the injector, nor does the injector have dependencies on MQ. You can also use ANY injector to inject MQ, it doesn't have to be that one. We just provide that one for ease. But there are a few other ones out there.

In general, an easy way to think about it is that if your code depends on or uses things from the open source components of MQ, it is by license GPL. IC also fell under the GPL because it moved code from MQ into a closed source library and the copyright holders did not authorize a license change to make that possible. That's a very non technical summary.

The launcher from here does have a check for updates that runs on startup and will tell you if there's a new version, but as nookiecookie said, it doesn't update itself. That's not the exe being out of date though, in general the exe only changes if we add functionality to it.
 
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In general, an easy way to think about it is that if your code depends on or uses things from the open source components of MQ, it is by license GPL. IC fell under the GPL because it moved code from MQ into a closed source library and the copyright holders did not authorize a license change to make that possible. That's a very non technical summary.

I wanted to add to this a lesser understood component of the GPL: The fact that MQ2 requires MQ2Ic in order to run, makes it part of "the software" as a whole, regardless of whether it used GPLd code or not. GPL covers the whole "software", not just the part that is convenient for you!
 
I'm still confused about this closed source issue. I noticed MQ2IC is gone of course, but MacroQuest.exe (the injector?) still seems to be closed source.
I don't think this is the case. If you download the source from gitlab and compile it according to the instructions, you get fully functional macroquest. I thought the Redguides just provides a nicely pre-compiled program bundled with plugins. But I haven't studied the source carefully.

Is the injector really still separate and only distributed as a compiled program, just not required like IC was?
 
I don't think this is the case. If you download the source from gitlab and compile it according to the instructions, you get fully functional macroquest. I thought the Redguides just provides a nicely pre-compiled program bundled with plugins. But I haven't studied the source carefully.

Is the injector really still separate and only distributed as a compiled program, just not required like IC was?

It is, but based on Knightly's response it sounds like it's not necessary. I have my own injector I use for things, but I've been a little nervous about rushing in where angel's fear to tread. Maybe I should man up one day on a disposable account.
 
It is, but based on Knightly's response it sounds like it's not necessary. I have my own injector I use for things, but I've been a little nervous about rushing in where angel's fear to tread. Maybe I should man up one day on a disposable account.

Most of the code in the launcher (or "injector" as you call it) is for creating and managing autologin profiles. The "hidden" parts (if you want to call it that) are the auth components that are designed to dissuade distribution without re-compilation. We're looking at breaking this up into a more plugin-oriented architecture so that the featureful pieces are open source and support a plugin framework. No timeline on that yet, though.

Having said that, once macroquest is injected, the launcher isn't providing any kind of protections itself, so you don't need a disposable account if you want to try your own injector. You'll be missing the crash reporter, and some autologin features, thats about it.
 
For anyone wanting relaytells right now, I made a very basic Lua script so that it could function alongside other macros. First attempt at Lua, so be gentle :hfive:

Just edit the line with 'xxx' and replace with the character name that you want to receive the tells.

Edit-- Apparently we cannot upload .Lua to the site, so i'll just paste it in here.
Code:
local mq = require('mq')
local RelayTell = function (line, name, text)
    mq.cmd.tell('xxx', 'Recieved Tell at [',mq.TLO.Time.Time24(),'] from:',name,'-',text)
end

mq.event('Tellcheck1', "#1# told you, #2#", RelayTell)
mq.event('Tellcheck2', "#1# tells you, #2#", RelayTell)


while true do
    mq.delay(10)
    mq.doevents()
end
 
Next has been great to me. The two things I miss most are Easyfind and the auto-update patching. I am considering copying over the mq2spawnmaster to the Lua script Alert Master, but haven't done so yet. Everything is working great, but the first two quality of life enhancements has been my biggest suffering points so far (first world problems, am I right?!)

Everyone who has been involved in creating Next, thank you! Everyone who has been involved in MQ2 development, thank you! DBG may not like to hear it, but you are the reason I still play EQ. Without it, I would not be playing and they would be losing between 2-6 subscriptions depending on the time of year I play most.

Finally, thank you to everyone who has been answering my questions throughout my MMOBugs -> RG transition over the last few months. @Sic , @ChatWithThisName , @dannuic , @aquietone , @Redbot , etc, thank you!
 
Sorry if this has already been covered, but I'm having a hard time getting MQ2Nav to work with Next. I used the MeshGenerator tool to populate my Next folder /MQ2Nav with all of the mesh files, and they're in there. Get the "cannot navigate - no mesh file loaded" error. Any ideas?
 
Sorry if this has already been covered, but I'm having a hard time getting MQ2Nav to work with Next. I used the MeshGenerator tool to populate my Next folder /MQ2Nav with all of the mesh files, and they're in there. Get the "cannot navigate - no mesh file loaded" error. Any ideas?
resources\MQ2Nav is the folder you want. You don't have to create new meshes though, you can use your existing ones.
 
Is there a reference for / commands for mqnext? Is there a hud for its settings?

After a lot of digging and figuring out terminology, I found /framelimiter, which btw is awesome. It's performance > wire. /kudos I'm making the leap!
 
Is it possible to have all toons MQ chat output to one console? Currently, you have to toggle the console on all clients. If running 3 toons, you now have 6 windows because of the 3 extra windows opened for console. 6 toons becomes 12 windows.

Alternatively, it it possible to not have these consoles opening a new taskbar window? Using one monitor for MySEQ and the toons console outputs (if separated) would really enhance monitoring of everything.
 
I am finally getting around to testing this out and find that there is no way to compile it on Linux since it requires Visual Studio 2019 Community to open the project and build. I attempted (poorly) to use vscode on Linux, but found that it will not support building .sln projects, and I don't use IDE's so things started to get a bit f-ugly there just trying to figure the damn environment out. I always just code in vim at the terminal, and use the command line to compile... (yes I am old... get off my lawn!). I have no Windows system to use to compile on so I guess my question is am I stuck waiting on an official release to use this new version? Or is there some way I can get this building on Linux without the VS 2019 Community requirement? WineHQ shows Visual Studio as being in the "Garbage" state for the most part, so I do not even expect it to work, and am not going to waste my time trying.

My goal is to get this compiled and tested on Linux so I can update my Linux guide for when it is officially released to the community, maybe even release a build script. It would be great if we had a native compile option that did not depend on VS 2019, which would then also cross over to the Mac. Are makefiles or cmake an option for this?
 
I am finally getting around to testing this out and find that there is no way to compile it on Linux since it requires Visual Studio 2019 Community to open the project and build. I attempted (poorly) to use vscode on Linux, but found that it will not support building .sln projects, and I don't use IDE's so things started to get a bit f-ugly there just trying to figure the damn environment out. I always just code in vim at the terminal, and use the command line to compile... (yes I am old... get off my lawn!). I have no Windows system to use to compile on so I guess my question is am I stuck waiting on an official release to use this new version? Or is there some way I can get this building on Linux without the VS 2019 Community requirement? WineHQ shows Visual Studio as being in the "Garbage" state for the most part, so I do not even expect it to work, and am not going to waste my time trying.

My goal is to get this compiled and tested on Linux so I can update my Linux guide for when it is officially released to the community, maybe even release a build script. It would be great if we had a native compile option that did not depend on VS 2019, which would then also cross over to the Mac. Are makefiles or cmake an option for this?
virtualbox with win10
 
Yah I realize I COULD do that, but it is not optimal, and I really do not want to go out and buy a copy of windows just to compile MQ on.
Don't need to activate Win10 to use it. Win10 activation only unlocks customization and gets rid of the "Activate Windows" watermark. Everything else is fully-functional indefinitely.
 
I guess I should say I am looking for a NATIVE Linux solution vs. going the Windows VM route. I would like to keep everything within my normal workflow environment so I can be a productive contributor to the project using the resources I use every day. Which in the end may help grow the Linux user base for this project. There is nothing gained here if I just go the 'easy' route, and run up a Windows VM with VS 2019. I run all my EQ instances under wine as well as MQ2. I would like to do plugin development in Linux rather than swap back and forth.

I just installed MonoDevelop https://www.monodevelop.com/ on my system. It loaded the MacroQuest.sln file, and brought in the project. However, there are a bunch of items marked as 'project type not supported' which indicates I 'may' have to find the proper plugin to support this. Any input from the MQNEXT DEVS would be appreciated.

Screenshot from 2021-06-16 10-22-19.png

For anyone that would like to play along the process for getting Monodevelop up and running on an Ubuntu 20.04 system was:

INI:
apt install gnupg ca-certificates
apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
deb https://download.mono-project.com/repo/ubuntu stable-focal main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-official-stable.list
apt update
apt install mono-devel
apt install apt-transport-https dirmngr
apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
deb https://download.mono-project.com/repo/ubuntu vs-bionic main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-official-vs.list
apt update
apt install monodevelop
 
I'm interested to check out MQNext. I was curious(and I apologize if this information was posted earlier and I missed it), but are there any "standard" QoL plugins we've come to expect that are not currently working in MQNext? Examples I could think of would be MQ2MoveUtils, MQ2Melee, etc.
 
I'm interested to check out MQNext. I was curious(and I apologize if this information was posted earlier and I missed it), but are there any "standard" QoL plugins we've come to expect that are not currently working in MQNext? Examples I could think of would be MQ2MoveUtils, MQ2Melee, etc.

If you download the MQ2Next folder (upper right side of this thread) it has the majority of MQ2 plugins available in it. The only QoL one that I could find missing is RelayTells compared to what I used naturally in VV.
 
I guess I should say I am looking for a NATIVE Linux solution vs. going the Windows VM route. I would like to keep everything within my normal workflow environment so I can be a productive contributor to the project using the resources I use every day. Which in the end may help grow the Linux user base for this project. There is nothing gained here if I just go the 'easy' route, and run up a Windows VM with VS 2019. I run all my EQ instances under wine as well as MQ2. I would like to do plugin development in Linux rather than swap back and forth.

I just installed MonoDevelop https://www.monodevelop.com/ on my system. It loaded the MacroQuest.sln file, and brought in the project. However, there are a bunch of items marked as 'project type not supported' which indicates I 'may' have to find the proper plugin to support this. Any input from the MQNEXT DEVS would be appreciated.

There is no native linux solution, because it requires the Windows SDK and the microsoft toolchain. There *might* be a way to do it with a custom build of clang, but you're in unexplored territory there.
Monodevelop is for building c# projects. You'll want to use a virtual machine, there is no way to avoid visual studio.
 
Is it possible to have all toons MQ chat output to one console?
You can do this with dannet or EQBC by relaying all of your MQ text to one character. It would take some effort to set up but it's possible.

I guess I should say I am looking for a NATIVE Linux solution vs. going the Windows VM route. I would like to keep everything within my normal workflow environment so I can be a productive contributor to the project using the resources I use every day. Which in the end may help grow the Linux user base for this project.

While noble, and I applaud your efforts, the base you're talking about is pretty small being that it would consist of people who use Linux as their primary driver, don't have access to windows, and still want to compile themselves. There are several issues you're going to run into even if you can get the toolchain up and running.

The first step is you're probably going to want to generate cmake packages for all of the things you're compiling. The cmake tools have converters for SLN files, but you can also just use cmake on the vcxproj files. You'll still need to get the windows SDK installed and usable, but I believe you can do that with a cmake package.

The next problem you're going to run into is that all of the build scripts that help get you prepped call "powershell.exe" which isn't going to work for you. However, all of the scripts themselves will work on powershell core, you just need to install it and convert the commands to use it. The paths will all be different and you can't use the VS helpers that we have to so you have to convert all of that manually into your own build process.

The other two issues are minor, you have to install vcpkg and make sure you're calling the scripts we have as part of your build setup, and you have to use mq2auth.exe under wine to generate your auth file.

I can help you if you get stuck, but be forewarned that we made a decision to NOT be platform independent for the build chain about two years ago because it was a niche case and allows us to automate more of the build process, so there's no guarantee that you won't get stuck again on something we change in the future. That said if you did get everything setup, I would be willing to test builds in our CI tools to tell you when something we changed would fail (but I would not personally work on fixing it).
 
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While noble, and I applaud your efforts, the base you're talking about is pretty small being that it would consist of people who use Linux as their primary driver, don't have access to windows, and still want to compile themselves. There are several issues you're going to run into even if you can get the toolchain up and running.

The first step is you're probably going to want to generate cmake packages for all of the things you're compiling. The cmake tools have converters for SLN files, but you can also just use cmake on the vcxproj files. You'll still need to get the windows SDK installed and usable, but I believe you can do that with a cmake package.

The next problem you're going to run into is that all of the build scripts that help get you prepped call "powershell.exe" which isn't going to work for you. However, all of the scripts themselves will work on powershell core, you just need to install it and convert the commands to use it. The paths will all be different and you can't use the VS helpers that we have to so you have to convet all of that manually into your own build process.

The other two issues are minor, you have to install vcpkg and make sure you're calling the scripts we have as part of your build setup, and you have to use mq2auth.exe under wine to generate your auth file.

I can help you if you get stuck, but be forewarned that we made a decision to NOT be platform independent for the build chain about two years ago because it was a niche case and allows us to automate more of the build process, so there's no guarantee that you won't get stuck again on something we change in the future. That said if you did get everything setup, I would be willing to test builds in our CI tools to tell you when something we changed would fail (but I would not personally work on fixing it).

I appreciate the feedback. This looks like quite the deep dive that will take a lot of time to dig into. I already have my auth key as I did the mq2auth.exe part under wine prior to even attempting all of this. I guess I will have to put this on the back burner for the time being until a large window of free time opens up for me. Thanks again!
 
Not sure if this has already been addressed but was unable to find anything definitive on the forums; is there a guide to the steps needed to make the transition from "Live" to "MQNext". Currently using CWTN plugins and an .ini for a bard and just wondering what needs to be done to make the switch now that the plugins are being supported. Any information would be great as some of the stuff is not over intuitive and so far it's been great with the set up I'm currently using but seeing as how MQNext is the up an coming freshness, wanted to get going with from the ground floor.

I know there is a pull down selector on the launcher but beyond that, not sure if anything else needs doing or if it's just magical switched over.
 
Not sure if this has already been addressed but was unable to find anything definitive on the forums; is there a guide to the steps needed to make the transition from "Live" to "MQNext". Currently using CWTN plugins and an .ini for a bard and just wondering what needs to be done to make the switch now that the plugins are being supported. Any information would be great as some of the stuff is not over intuitive and so far it's been great with the set up I'm currently using but seeing as how MQNext is the up an coming freshness, wanted to get going with from the ground floor.

I know there is a pull down selector on the launcher but beyond that, not sure if anything else needs doing or if it's just magical switched over.
Knightly wrote a migrator to move all your config files

>>> here <<<
 
DAMN YOU SIC I WAS TRYNA BE HELPFUL

giphy.gif
 
You're just too quick to the draw. I'm starting to think that you're a RedGuides AI.
 
I tried to setup Next and it was missing so many things that I gave up and just deleted the folder I had it create. I don't think I ran the migrator though.
 
I tried to setup Next and it was missing so many things that I gave up and just deleted the folder I had it create. I don't think I ran the migrator though.
yeah migrator definitely is a huge help in making an as-seamless-as-possible swap
 
Sorry I haven't been keeping up with this. Is Next going to be mandatory in the future? Is this replacing MQ? or another option?
 
Vanilla - Very Vanilla MQ (Live Servers)

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