Macro hangs on notebook

[justsomechump]

Greetings,

few things,

Yes I am new to MQ
Yes I have read the readme's
Yes I have created my own macros (they even work yay!)

Pardon if this is in the wrong forum, I searched using the following keywords: latop, hang, macro slows, slow macro, hangups. I did not find what I needed.

Question: I have two pc's, the macro is very basic, it's a modification of combine.mac. It works great on my standard pc. Althon 950 blah blah. The same macro with the same exact video settings on my notebook causes the whole screen to go in "slow mo". I waited approx 90 seconds and then issued /endmacro and the screen returns to normal flow.

The PC is WinME (be kind, I'll put xp on it sometime)
The Notebook is 2K.

Thought it might be a video driver issue so got latest drivers and reinstalled DX8.1 No help

Does anyone have similar laptop issues?

Thanks in advance, and kudos on a wonderful project. The readme was damn dry, but PACKED with great info!

JSC

[justsomechump]

my bad, wrong driver set.
it's fixed

JSC

[rizwank]

:) a) thx for rtfm before you asked :)
b) glad you got it fixed

c) how can i make the manual less dry.. id LOVE some suggests :) im always looking for ideas...

[Fippy]

Riz since ya asked ya could write a tutorial in a more chatty style with a bit of humor. Not easy ill admit but ya did ask :-)

sorta like this maybe.

Code: Select all

Prerequisits for this guide
---------------------------

Firstly a lot of MQ's commands do work using EQ's New UI. However none of the commands for clicking on windows such as your inventory slots work under the New UI so I am going to assume you are using the Old UI. You can change to the old UI by changing the NewUI=TRUE to NewUI=FALSE setting in your eqclient.ini file. I find it helpful to put a shortcut to the eqclient.ini file on the desktop to make switching this setting less painful.

Since EQ is supposed to run full screen only you can not edit your scripts and run them without constantly stopping and Starting EQ. There is however  a way around this and that is a program called EQW by a talented individual called Just Some Dude. You can get it at http://www.eqwindows.com/ if you run this you can have EQ running and your favorite text editor running at the same time and switch between the two for editing and testing. Always make sure that your script has stopped running in the EQ Client before you make changes to it. If your script is still running and you make changes and save it when you run your script again in the EQ Client then your newly editied script will not be the one that runs. The previous version that is still in memory will run instead and none of your changes will take effect. This will lead to you questioning your sanity, shouting at your computer, or kicking the dog because your script still doesnt work.

I am also going to assume that you have started MQ logged into EQ and MQ is working. In fact to check it is working type the following MQScript line at the EQ command prompt.

   /echo Hello World

The /echo command just outputs text to the screen. All MQ output is prefixed by [Macroquest] so if you see the following Output in the default EQ chat window.

   [Macroquest] Hello World

MQ is working fine so we can begin. 


What are Scripts?
-----------------

A MacroQuest script is a series of MQScript commands saved as a plain text file with a .mac file extension. Scripts are stored in the \Macros directory below the directory where you have installed MQ. You can get a list of available macro's from within your EQ client by using the command.

   /listmacros
   
This will display a list of all macros in alphabetical order.

To run a macro you use the following command.

   /macro <Filename>
   
The Filename is the name your macro is saved as (duh) you dont need to add the .mac extension if you dont want.

Hello World
-----------

We are going to start by writing our own macro and then running it. It is very simple. In fact you have already used the MQScript command once to check MQ was working. To create scripts you need to use an Editor that produces plain text file's. Notepad is perfectly suited to the task or if you are of a mind to you can go get one of the more feature rich editord like PFE or TextPad. Ok start you text editor and then enter the following 3 lines.

   sub main
      /echo Hello World
   /return

Save this as HelloWorld.mac into your \Macros directory.

Ok in your EQ Client type 

   /macro HelloWorld 
   
You will see the following output.

   [Macroquest] Hello World

Look familiar? Yes it exactly the same as test you did before but you probably noticed that you typed 3 lines to make this script whereas before you only typed on line. Well for our script to work MQ needs to know where to start and stop. Heres the script again with some explaination.

   sub main              <- This line signifies that this is where our script starts.
      /echo Hello World  <- This line is actually our script code
   /return               <- This line signifies that this is where our script ends.

Well that is a very simple example to get you started. Next we will look at some more usefull commands.


Money
-----
So your in EQ wandering through a zone an you see somebody auctioning a Crown of King Tranix for 2K. Well you know that is too good a deal to pass up but do you have enough cash in the bank. Well its a long way to the bank and by the time you get there and check it may have gone. Fear not we can write a small script to tell us how much money we have. Here it is. Just enter this into your text editor and save it as balance.mac.

   /sub main
   
      /echo Cash in the bank
      /echo Copper $char(copper,bank)
      /echo Silver $char(silver,bank)
      /echo Gold $char(gold,bank)
      /echo Platinum $char(plat,bank)
   
   /return

Ok within EQ type

/macro balance

and you will see the following output.

   [Macroquest] Cash in the bank
   [Macroquest] Copper 10
   [Macroquest] Silver 28
   [Macroquest] Gold 15
   [Macroquest] Platinum 18000
   
Of course your axctual values will depend upon what you really have in the bank. As you can see I shouldnt have any trouble affording the Crown :-).

Of course you might not have enough in the bank alone but you are carrying money too so we can change the script to show the money you are carrying too. You could of course just look at the inventory screen but here it is in the script, Open you balance.mac script in your text editor. Make the following changes and save it again.

   /sub main
   
      /echo Cash in the bank
      /echo Copper $char(copper,bank)
      /echo Silver $char(silver,bank)
      /echo Gold $char(gold,bank)
      /echo Platinum $char(plat,bank)
   
      /echo Cash on you
      /echo Copper $char(copper)
      /echo Silver $char(silver)
      /echo Gold $char(gold)
      /echo Platinum $char(plat)
   
   /return

Ok once again within EQ type

/macro balance

and you will see the following output.

   [Macroquest] Cash in the bank
   [Macroquest] Copper 10
   [Macroquest] Silver 28
   [Macroquest] Gold 15
   [Macroquest] Platinum 18000
   [Macroquest] Cash on you
   [Macroquest] Copper 23
   [Macroquest] Silver 38
   [Macroquest] Gold 134
   [Macroquest] Platinum 415

again of course the numbers will vary.

Fippy

[rizwank]

holy jesus.

its nice.
thanks ill add it.