Difference between revisions of "ISBoxer 41"

Revision as of 12:18, 4 April 2013

ISBoxer 41 is currently available for Beta testing

ISBoxer 41 requires Inner Space build 5799 or later. Build 5799 is currently the live version of Inner Space, as of 2013-03-12.

New Menu system

A Menu with a Grid template, sized to fit World of Warcraft's Action Bars

ISBoxer 41 introduces a new fundamental system for Menus, which are essentially a blend of Key Maps and Click Bars.

ISBoxer Menu concepts

• Template - The Template defines the number of Menu Buttons available for a Menu, as well as its visual appearance and layout. Template styles currently available include Grid (similar to Click Bars), Radial (a popup Menu that centers on your mouse cursor when activated), and XML (fully customizable)
• Button Set - A Button Set defines behavior (e.g. Actions performed when a button is activated) and appearance for each of a set of Menu Buttons
• Hotkey Set - A Hotkey Set defines a set of Hotkeys that can be assigned to a Menu. Hotkey Sets are not required, but can be used to activate Menu Buttons without clicking on the GUI.
• Menu - A Menu is a combination of Template, Button Set and Hotkey Set!

Random tidbits about Menus

• Menus are designed to simplify ISBoxer configuration management and eliminate problems associated with configuring Key Maps and Click Bars, such as...
  • FAQ: I added a new Key Map but the Key Maps toggle does not disable it? - with Menus, it is possible to use a single "pause" and "unpause" to temporarily disable the assigned Hotkeys for all Menus
  • Dynamic Click Bar buttons, like the default Key Maps and Repeater toggles, can't be placed in additional Click Bars without specifically setting up new Actions to handle the new buttons. With Menus, it is possible to reuse Menu Buttons in more than one Menu or Button Set, with any dynamic changes to the original Menu Button automatically propagating to each!

Due to the new Menu system, ISBoxer 41's Quick Setup Wizard will generate a different configuration style than ISBoxer 40.

New Quick Setup Wizard

ISBoxer's Quick Setup Wizard is getting an overhaul.

• The Characters page is now unified and improved.
  • A tree of available/generated Characters is provided
  • Game and Profile selection is now done on a per-Character basis
• CPU Strategy selection provides a better preview of CPU load balancing and offers a better suggested setting (e.g. one that fully utilizes all CPU cores) than simply defaulting to round-robin strategy in all cases
• A new configuration style page replaces the Key Maps and Click Bars check boxes that previously donned the final page
  • Different types of games will have a different configuration style suggested than others, so for example a configuration generated for games like Diablo 3 would favor Broadcasting Mode, while for games like World of Warcraft it would favor Key Maps and Menus.
  • Common hotkeys and game Key Bindings (including per-slot Targeting) can be configured at this stage of the wizard
  • Key Maps and Action Target Groups can also be selectively assigned from existing or suggested ones
• FTL Modifiers are automatically generated for RIFT; previously this required manual configuration by following RIFT: Basic Multiboxing Macros Walkthrough

Other changes implemented

A new skin for the in-game ISBoxer Control Panel

• The ISBoxer Control Panel and other in-game GUI received a facelift
• Fixed a bug with Broadcasting the " key on various keyboards
• The Quick Setup Wizard no longer selects "Other" by default, making it less likely to forget to select the right game when necessary...
• The Window Layout Wizard no longer allows you to click Next without selecting a Window Layout
• Menu State Action can load or unload a Menu, clear all loaded Menus, Pause or Un-pause all Menu Hotkeys
• Menu Style Action can change the Hotkey Set on a Menu, or apply a Button Set to the menu (optionally at a button offset within the menu)
• Menu Button Action can adjust individual properties of a Menu Button either directly in a live Menu, or within a Button Set (propagating changes to active Menus!)
• Volume Action can adjust per-instance volume levels, such as to mute background instances
• The Transparency and Masking options for Click Bar images (which are no longer just for Click Bars) should now work
• Click Bar Buttons editor now includes updated labelling for the Grid and Cell sizing, to reduce confusion
• An FTL modifier option has been added to Keystroke Action, Variable Keystroke Action, and Named WoW Macro Action. At this point this seems more appropriate than applying to an entire Mapped Key or Key Map...
• Multiple Keystroke Actions within the same Step used to be combined (e.g. any Keystroke being passed to the same Target as another) and placed at the end of the Step, sometimes resulting in a different order of events than expected. Now the behavior is to combine them into the first Keystroke Action matching that target, at its defined position in the Step.

Other changes coming

The following changes have not yet been implemented, but will be coming to ISBoxer 41

• Customizable Window titles (taskbar button names)

Other changes considered

The following changes have not yet been implemented, but could be coming to ISBoxer 41

• Additional Menu-related Actions may be available to dynamically alter or apply Menus, Button Sets and Hotkey Sets (the guaranteed ones are now built in; request new features if needed)
• Management of live Virtual Files (meaning the ones that exist and are on your disk)
• Out-of-game management of widget data saved while in-game (Click Bars, Repeater Regions, Video FX)
• Ability to import Click Bar images (which are now additionally used for Menus)
• User-Configurable variables to go along with those currently available (e.g. {SLOT} {CHARACTER} {CHARACTERSET})
• A Character Set option could automatically Mute background windows, as can be done Volume Actions