Phasing

[stoneharry]

Before I start I will explain for people who do not know what phasing is:

Phasing is a technique commonly used in MMORPGs. This refers to the technique of having a certain area look different to different characters.

So I've recently been experimenting with phasing and how it works. This is what I've discovered so far:
I spawned 14 boars, and 14 gameobjects (the 14 objects were in all phases infront of them so that I knew which was in each phase). I put each boar in a seperate phase up from 1-14.
I then put my self in each phase from -1 to 14 and counted which ones showed:

-1 = all
0 = 0
1 = 1
2 = 2
3 = 1 + 2
4 = 4
5 = 1 + 3
6 = 2 + 4
7 = 2 + 5
8 = 8
9 = 1 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...
10 = 2 + 3 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...
11 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...
12 = 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...
13 = 1 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...
14 = 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...

Can anyone notice a pattern? I just get cunfuzzled once you each 9. Either the logic is fairly messed up or the phasing is messed up on emulators, either way this is what we have to work with, and I'm using it quite effectively despite this.

In terms of in game and phasing, there are multiple ways to actually do this.
In ArcEmu, you can target a npc and do .npc phase x
x = the phase you want.
To make the phase permenent, you simple do .npc phase x 1 much like spawning gameobjects.
The same happens with gameobjects, but it is .go phase x 1.
You can change the phase of your character by targeting yourself and doing .char phase x.
Your character will stay in that phase after restart/relog etc until you put it back.
There are a couple of Lua commands that I use a lot for quests:
:GetPhase()
:SetPhase(x)

Also the default phase for players and the world in general is 1.
I hope some people find this information useful.

[Appled]

I found this very useful, but you posted already everything on msn
Great job anyway

[Ground Zero]

Thanks for this, if I find anything out ill post it.

[mag1212]

thx for this

[Dynashock]

SPECULATIVE
It's probably got to do with bits and bitmasks. I'll try to explain. >_>

100000000	= 256
 10000000	= 128
  1000000	= 64
   100000	= 32
    10000	= 16
	 1000	= 8
	  100	= 4
	   10	= 2
	    1	= 1

Using this we can find out which phases can see.. which phases.

90 for example would be 1011010, which is 1000000 + 10000 + 1000 + 10, which in turn translates to 64, 16, 8, 2. (thus making up 90; 64 + 16 + 8 + 2 = 90) Meaning 90 technically should be able to see phase 64, 16, 8 and 2.

Therefore with the numbers I listed above we can make ANY number up to 256, the numbers (can only be used once, as in binary a bit is either a 1 or a 0).

However, somehow this doesn't always seem to be the rule on the emulator Stone ran some tests on (ArcEmu). Is it the emulator? Is it inproper usage? Is it inproper logic? Did I make a mistake?

Sidenote: visibility of each other is checked through a bit operator AND (ampersand in C++). Thus (m_phase & obj->m_phase)

[AzolexX]

This is like flaggin if you write 3 it will contain both 2 and 1 ( Gossip and Quest ) btw isn't it easier to read Mask ? This is common stuff in programming!

EDIT1:
Mhm, something is wrong here:

-1 = all
0 = 0
1 = 1
2 = 2
3 = 1 + 2
4 = 4
5 = 1 + 3
6 = 2 + 4
7 = 2 + 5
8 = 8
9 = 1 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...
10 = 2 + 3 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...
11 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...
12 = 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...
13 = 1 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...
14 = 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14...

5 = 1 + 3 => 1+4
7 = 2 + 5 => 1+2+4
9 = 1 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14... => 8+1
10 = 2 + 3 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14... => 8+2
11 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14... => 8+2+1
12 = 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14... => 8+4
13 = 1 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14... => 8+4+1
14 = 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14... => 8+4+2
15 = 8+4+2+1
16 = 16

I hope this above helped

EDIT2:
For C++ scripters use "|" instead of "+" so it would be SetPhase( 8 | 4 |1 );

[Hellgawd]

What Dynashock & AzolexX said; Can't really add anything else to that.
And yeah, after 9 it kinda messes up.
I know that with Aspire hwen it first supported phasing it only worked up to 8, but I thought that was fixed shortly after.
Might be the same problem here.

[AzolexX]

In my algalon i use phase 17 that is 16+1 and no its not broken you just don't know bitwise flags/mask, you can go to sizeof uint64 soooo we can say no limits for phases( if you have limit gz lol )

[Dynashock]

In my algalon i use phase 17 that is 16+1 and no its not broken you just don't know bitwise flags/mask, you can go to sizeof uint64 soooo we can say no limits for phases( if you have limit gz lol )

The phase is stored in an uint32. Which basically still is unlimited for phases. :P

[TheSpidey]

It actually means 32 phases and 2^32 combinations

</nitpick>

[stoneharry]

I still don't understand quite why it isn't how it is supposed to be in game on ArcEmu (which I tested it with) and I didn't go up to phase 17 (which I will test later) but either way this is what we have to work with currently. Made this post since so many people don't know that phasing is even supported, and if they do they don't understand it is so simple to use.

[AzolexX]

Stoneharry it does work @Dynashock: did not know if it is uint32 or 64 i tough it is 64

[andy012345]

Of course it's 32bit, or the set phase aura would be pretty useless :P

[mgX]

Of course it's 32bit, or the set phase aura would be pretty useless :P

why? you can still have a 64, 128 bit int etc on a 32 bit OS... Its just a matter of how much memory it occopies. Doesnt really matter though, it could be a 16 bit int and it would still work. It all depends on how it is actually coded and what the bitmask look like