Mouse-like turning using CInputControl?

[xpl0itz]

Can CInputControl be used for turning with the precision and, perhaps more importantly, speed of mouse-turning?

I'm looking to do this since I want to be able to have one character replicate the movement of another, without sending keystrokes or the like because that would mess up the synchronization.

Merry Christmas everyone!

[rootguy]

No, you'll need to use a setfacing routine.

[Cypher]

No, you'll need to use a setfacing routine.

Actually, you can use CInputControl.

Precision? Definitely.

Speed? Well.. it depends...

You could do it, but you'd have to ramp up the turn speed CVar, then reset it when you're done turning.

[abuckau907]

edit: removed a lot of fluff code: warning: this is stripped down, will cause unexpected results!

     Private Sub RightClickTurn(ByVal gamePoint As worldPoint, ByVal asGhost As Boolean)
        If gamePoint.TurnDistance() <= 0.2 Then Exit Sub 'already facing point, exit sub
        'Move cursor to right-click-turnable point on wow.gui
        modPublic.SetCursorPos(GOOEY.RCTP.X, GOOEY.RCTP.Y)
        Threading.Thread.Sleep(350) 'sleep because setcursorpos() takes a second, if I didn't sleep it would mouse_down at the wrong location
        mouse_event(MouseFlags.RIGHTDOWN, 0, 0, 0, 0)
        While gamePoint.TurnDistance > 0.05
            If gamePoint.TurnDirection = "left" Then
                If gamePoint.TurnDistance > 0.2 Then
                    mouse_event(MouseFlags.MOVE, -30, 0, 0, 0)
                Else
                    mouse_event(MouseFlags.MOVE, -5, 0, 0, 0)
                End If
            Else
                If gamePoint.TurnDistance > 0.2 Then
                    mouse_event(MouseFlags.MOVE, 30, 0, 0, 0)
                Else
                    mouse_event(MouseFlags.MOVE, 5, 0, 0, 0)
                End If
            End If
                       Threading.Thread.Sleep(150) ' needs some time of sleep -> or will over turn
        End While
        ' right_click_up to return mouse to a normal state..we're done turning
        mouse_event(MouseFlags.RIGHTUP, 0, 0, 0, 0)
      
    End Sub

It has a few bugs/problems, but..
1) Wow must be active window because I just use mouse_event..it doesn't send to 'wow.exe' it sends to 'active app'
2) it turns by 5|30 px which works for me..could be refined ?
3) I could have checked Wow's Form.Location + .Width to make a 'best guess' for where to move the cursor to 'turn-click' but I use a ' GUI callibrate ' form, so..depends on your needs really.

** it would be 100% better if wow didn't have to be the active app, but it works for me, a private bot for when I'm asleep: It REALLY can be annoying to have the bot basically own ur pc and not be able to use other programs -> probably not what you want...

[ostapus]

you can look into WoWX sources (you can find it on forum), project is using right click mouse movement (like in above post) which can be remade to use CInputControl. Dunno about CVar.
Cypher, what CVar name to control turn speed ?

[rootguy]

Actually, you can use CInputControl.

Precision? Definitely.

Speed? Well.. it depends...

You could do it, but you'd have to ramp up the turn speed CVar, then reset it when you're done turning.

You are right, it is possible. It is however far more difficult to aproach the precision and speed of the setfacing routine. If you can use the input control class you might aswell go for the easiest solution right?

[amadmonk]

You are right, it is possible. It is however far more difficult to aproach the precision and speed of the setfacing routine. If you can use the input control class you might aswell go for the easiest solution right?

I second this; setfacing is *easy* and doesn't look "bottish" at all. From a safety point of view (ie, Warden), afaik it is no more or less safe than just using CInputControl directly.

Just use setfacing.

[abuckau907]

[filler/repost]

(dumb question?) but.. SetFace() would require you to write to wow memory? I'm just trying to stay as out-of-process as possible, so far 100% only mem_read 0% mem_write--> no technical background, but isn't that ..safer? I mean..apparently they don't monitor it yet, but...yet? Hehe.

Q. Which is easier/possible to detect: mouse_event or mem_write ??

[Nesox]

You don't need to overwrite any memory to set your facing altho it might be the easiest way in your case, you can always call the function too

int __stdcall SetFacing(float)
0x0096E010

Or you could take a look at Babbot and steal the key based SetFacing function or just do it the proper way and rape wow with needles aka, injection

Edit: if you got CInputControl::ToggleControlBit(...) working you could use that it's just like turning with keys but without having to bitch with window handles etc.

[amadmonk]

[filler/repost]

(dumb question?) but.. SetFace() would require you to write to wow memory? I'm just trying to stay as out-of-process as possible, so far 100% only mem_read 0% mem_write--> no technical background, but isn't that ..safer? I mean..apparently they don't monitor it yet, but...yet? Hehe.

Q. Which is easier/possible to detect: mouse_event or mem_write ??

Yes, SetFace would be vulnerable to a stack-check, but I can (almost) guarantee you that not only is Warden not doing this right now, it's unlikely (for technical reasons) that they'll be doing it any time soon.

Frankly, I'm mildly more scared of CTM than things like SetFace and SetFlags (whatever y'all call it), since as Cypher and Apoc and others have pointed out, it would be *very* easy to just stash off the "last write event" to CTM, and then have Warden periodically look at what's there vs. what should be there. Blammo, you've flagged about 90% of the bots out there in one scan.

Ultimately, passive bots (memory reads and key/mouse event injection) are the only thing remotely approaching "safe" (as long as Blizz plays nice and stays in their own process). They're also very ungainly and difficult to optimize (I have a lot of very personal experience on this; with a memread/keystroke injection bot, I coulndn't get navigation much better than the weaving of a drunken sailor. My current injected bot is snappy and precise)

[RoKFenris]

That is why I love using Linux:

1 - Patch Wine so it uses just received events to determine mouse position, and never queries X.
2 - Hijack all input going into WoW's window.
3 - Filter out input you don't want to reach the client, and add any fake input you want (including fake mouse movement).
4 - ???
5 - Profit.

Although my project is just a radar, I use this process to tweak the mouse and keyboard controls in order to "correct" little snags I have with them when running WoW under Linux, and to make WoW believe the mouse is over any unit I click on my radar without actually moving the real mouse pointer.

[amadmonk]

That is why I love using Linux:

1 - Patch Wine so it uses just received events to determine mouse position, and never queries X.
2 - Hijack all input going into WoW's window.
3 - Filter out input you don't want to reach the client, and add any fake input you want (including fake mouse movement).
4 - ???
5 - Profit.

Although my project is just a radar, I use this process to tweak the mouse and keyboard controls in order to "correct" little snags I have with them when running WoW under Linux, and to make WoW believe the mouse is over any unit I click on my radar without actually moving the real mouse pointer.

Oh, nice. I was gonna do this a while back. I went so far as to d/l the sources, get the build setup working, and put in a couple of little test patches to wineserver. Sounds like you're *way* further along...

You could probably even do some really spiffy API spoofing in Wine in general, since the wineserver is just basically the kernel (as far as the apps are concerned) anyway... Et voila, kernel hacks without the pain in the ass of writing/maintaining Windows drivers.

[RoKFenris]

You could probably even do some really spiffy API spoofing in Wine in general, since the wineserver is just basically the kernel (as far as the apps are concerned) anyway... Et voila, kernel hacks without the pain in the ass of writing/maintaining Windows drivers.

Yep. But not just the kernel, also the whole complement of DLLs Windows comes with. Besides, just the debug output can already be pure gold in the hands of someone who knows what he is doing.

For example, prepend your wine invocation with "WINEDEBUG=-all,opengl" and you can watch in real time every opengl command WoW uses (which makes it easy to take a look at WoW's render path). I once went as far as modifying the debug functions in order to deference the pointers and print whatever parameters they point at, and change objects using specific textures (detected by CRC checks) to wireframe.

Also, don't forget about LD_PRELOAD. I have right now a library that can dump every texture (or just specific size/format ones) to blp files as they are loaded, which I did just to test how preloading worked

I sometimes think about doing a bot with just input manipulation and OpenGL API interception, as a proof of concept, but I'm too lazy to tackle it right now

[amadmonk]

Yep. But not just the kernel, also the whole complement of DLLs Windows comes with. Besides, just the debug output can already be pure gold in the hands of someone who knows what he is doing.

For example, prepend your wine invocation with "WINEDEBUG=-all,opengl" and you can watch in real time every opengl command WoW uses (which makes it easy to take a look at WoW's render path). I once went as far as modifying the debug functions in order to deference the pointers and print whatever parameters they point at, and change objects using specific textures (detected by CRC checks) to wireframe.

Also, don't forget about LD_PRELOAD. I have right now a library that can dump every texture (or just specific size/format ones) to blp files as they are loaded, which I did just to test how preloading worked

I sometimes think about doing a bot with just input manipulation and OpenGL API interception, as a proof of concept, but I'm too lazy to tackle it right now

Eeenteresting. Once my curent project is complete, I may have to reinvestigate Wine...

[nitrogrlie]

I haven't done this yet because it's the holidays and I'm on visiting family and friends all the time, but has anyone tried to use the protected WoW Lua functions for turning/moving? Advantages and disadvantages? Experiences?

I assume precision is somewhat of a problem as the turns would be time-based and I'm guessing that the turn speed isn't all that great...