API madness! WvW, Dungeon and Raid status tracking!

Hi!

Here's a nice big update for you guys just before next week's WvW changes hit. With the API key input added in the last build for the TS3 fixes, there was nothing in the way anymore for me to start poking in the GW2 API.

Important note: all of the new features below will require for you to enter a GW2 API key into TacO.

I present to you the fruits of this labor, in the order I got finished with them:

Dungeon Progression Tracker

This new window will let you track which dungeon paths you have finished today already. The paths colored green are the ones you have finished. The yellow border around the rectangles shows which paths have been completed for the Dungeon Frequenter achievement. This feature requires that your API key has the "progression" feature enabled. Should any new dungeons be added to GW2, this window will automatically update (as soon as they add the dungeon to the API). The display checks the GW2 API every 2.5 minutes. You might need to wait as long as 5 minutes for the status to update, since the GW2 API is heavily cached.
The Dungeon Tracker window is not open by default, you'll need to open it from the TacO menu and move it to the desired position by enabling window edit mode in the TacO menu as well.

Raid Progression Tracker

This window is very similar to the dungeon one - it tracks which raid encounters you have finished over the week. This could come in handy for people with several accounts :) Works the same as the dungeon tracker, requires the "progression" feature in your API key. This window will also update automatically as soon as a new raid is added to the API. You might need to wait for up to 5 minutes for the status to update since the GW2 API is heavily cached.
The Raid Tracker window is not open by default, you'll need to open it from the TacO menu and move it to the desired position by enabling window edit mode in the TacO menu as well.

WvW Markers and Status

There have been several overlays with similar features out there already, and the appearance of a new one just last week (the flatteringly named GW2 Burrito) made me re-think implementing this feature into TacO as well. After some news hit about WvW upgrades I set aside this weekend to add support for the game mode to the overlay.
WvW markers show up without an API key, but they won't have any color information. To identify the world you're playing on, you need to enter an API key with the "account" feature enabled.
Marker location and status information both come from the official API, so in theory if ArenaNet moves things around or adds a new map or anything similar happens, the overlay should automatically stay up to date.
The markers will display the name of the objective (you can toggle this off in the TacO menu), the current owner of the objective (as the color of the icon) and if the objective has been flipped in the last 5 minutes, it'll show a timer when it can next be captured. The markers also become more transparent the more center on the screen they are so they don't add too much additional clutter to WvW. The display checks the API every 5 seconds if you're on a WvW map.
You can toggle the individual WvW marker categories the same as before from the TacO menu.
Sadly Edge of the Mists doesn't have an API endpoint to gather information from, but the white markers will still show up to help you keep oriented.
One note: the position of Langor Gulch is invalid in the official API (it's copypasted from Bravost Escarpment), so I did a bit of a manual workaround, which is why the marker might be in a bit of an odd position (the objective was captured on my world and I couldn't get near to do a precision job). This will also fix itself automatically once the API sends different information, I contacted ArenaNet about the bug.

TacO startup

I also did some work on the performance of the overlay. Startup should now be a lot faster, especially if you have a lot of marker packs in your installation.

You can download the new build here.

Change log:

• Replaced the xml parser with a faster one
• Further optimized the loading of POI data
• Added GW2 API key input
• Added API key based Dungeon Progress tracking
• Added API key based Dungeon Frequenter achievement tracking
• Added API key based weekly Raid completion tracking
• Added API based WvW markers and objective status displays (API key required for world identification)
• Added minSize and maxSize parameters to markers. These can be set in pixels.

TeamSpeak 3 fixes, Guild Race pack

Hi.

It's been a while, life got pretty busy these last couple months. I managed to make a bit of time for TacO now though and by some small miracle I wasn't utterly tired either, so... Progress!

This update contains two things.

The first is the much requested fix for TeamSpeak 3 support. What happened was that a new release of TeamSpeak updated the ClientQuery plugin that TacO is using to access TS3. The update wasn't big, but it did add mandatory API key authentication to all applications using the plugin, this is what basically broke TacO. There's no nice way around this, I had to include an API key input field.

You can find the API key entry menu in the TacO menu. Now that it's in place, in the future I'll probably use this input method to access the GW2 APIs as well. If you still have a TS3 build pre 3.1.3, it should still work like before, but I'd appreciate a heads up if anything went wrong with older builds.

The second addition is a marker pack by Xenophy - routes for the Guild Races! This one needs no explanation I think, it's just pure awesome. I had this one for a while, but never got around to releasing it.

You can download the new build here.

Change log:

• Added an API key input interface
• Added ability to enter TS3 ClientQuery API keys
• TS3 connection will now authenticate
• Added notifications to the TS3 window if authentication fails
• Added Guild Race marker pack courtesy of Xenophy

Mentioned by a Dev

Hi!

Quick note on the legitimacy of TacO. During a heated debate on GW2 addons, TacO came up, and a dev replied, addressing the overlay specifically.

Here's a link to the original comment.

This semi-endorsement shows that the development of the overlay is on the right track. I specifically develop TacO with very strict rules in mind to keep it as EULA compliant as possible. This will not change.

Super Adventure Box Galore

Hi everyone,

since Easter (and the weeks before) is traditionally a very busy time for me, and this year it heavily coincided with SAB, I couldn't keep up with all the stuff that has been going on in GW2. That being said, I came home to see that ArenaNet has been tweeting about videos that showcase TacO. I'd like to thank everyone who started creating and sharing their marker packs, helping others along the way.

Tekkit in particular did a bunch of videos on TacO, including a tutorial:

And a series with Tribulation mode routes, that all have links to the marker packs used:

I'm quite sure that many other marker packs have been created in the last couple weeks. I'd like to list them all here, so that in the coming years people have access to all these resources. Let me know if you have something to list.

On updating the TS3 overlay: now that I'm home I'll need a bit of rest, and I'll look into fixing it in a week or two.

TS Overlay Issue with latest TS3

Hi.

Quick note: the latest TS3 update broke the display in TacO. This time I'm unable to supply a quick fix as I'm swamped with other projects until after Easter. The issue is known and I'll look into it as soon as I can. Thank you for your patience.

Maintenance Update

Hi!

The patch yesterday broke TacO due to some minor changes in the Mumble Link data format. This hotfix is meant to address this issue. It also includes a long standing debt of mine, the fix for some crashes that occur when marker packs have markers in them that have spaces in their names.

Important: if you're someone who created their own marker packs or placed markers with categories that contain spaces, those will need to be looked over. The marker format will no longer accept category names to contain any type of space or special character. There is a newly added field for markers and categories called DisplayName that allows you to add a pretty name for the category to be displayed in the TacO menu. See the updated poi files supplied with TacO for reference.

A new marker behavior for winterberry farm type markers has also been added that will track the triggering of markers daily and per character.

You can download the new build here.

Change notes:

• Updated the parsing of the Mumble Link data so markers work with the new build.
• Fixed the crashes coming from toggling the visibility of marker categories that have spaces in their names
• Updated the supplied marker packs with pretty names
• Added a new marker behavior, (behavior="7") that tracks the triggering of the marker so it resets daily, tracked separately for each character (useful for Winterberry farm type stuff)

A Crack in the Ice

Hi!

Quick update courtesy of Xenophy: markers for the collectible chests and quaggans for the new map, Bitterfrost Frontier. He also updated his jumping puzzle markers.
No code updates this time.

You can download the new build here.

Change notes:

• Added markers for collectible chests and Quaggans in Bitterfrost Frontier, courtesy of Xenophy
• Updated JP markers courtesy of Xenophy