EVE General Discussion

Sending the account details to your service would be against the EULA. This includes typing it in once connected (you could log keystrokes or whatever).

Other than that, it would be a fantastic service. Would be rendered almost totally moot if CCP would hurry up and let us update skills via SpaceBook, but whatevs.

It's great that you know how to do that yourself. :)

However, I'm sure there are some players that don't know how to do that, or might not always want to leave their computers running. This service would be for them.

For example, I *always* turn all all my computers and physically unplug them from the electrical outlets and internet lines whenever I leave on vacation (even if just a few days). The thought of my computers crashing due to power failure or bad storms disturbs me.

I filed a petition to get CCP's input on this.

Here is the revised design plan for this service. Thanks for everyone that has provided feedback so far.





The design is to setup a server running EVE Online on top of Linux + WINE + VirtualGL + TurboVNC + Website + SSL. This would allow users to login and manage / play their EVE Online characters when not at home. Some examples I can think of, but are not limited to: military deployment, gaming from mobile phones, checking skill queues from work, using EVE while on vacation, users that do not have a video card that supports Shader Model 3, etc.


=== Here is how the Website will function from the user's perspective ===

Users would go to the website and register for an account there (this would be a private account just for the website and is separate from the EVE Online account which the user has). The purpose of this account is to track how much CPU time was consumed by a user, so an ISK bill can be presented to the user (or ISK can be deducted from a pre-payment made by the user).

One logged in, the user gets a "landing" page. Here they can:
* Start new EVE Clients
* Stop existing EVE Clients
* Attach to / switch between existing EVE Clients
* Define default configuration settings.

If they choose to start a new EVE Client, then a new TurboVNC server session is started and the EVE Client is launched (using VirtualGL) within that session. That new session is then displayed on the "landing" page, for the user to attach to. Each time an EVE Client is started, a new user is dynamically created to run that EVE Client under. (This effectively isolates all EVE Clients from each other). Please note that the EVE Client is only started, not logged into. There are no provisions in my plan to allow auto logging into the EVE Client on the user's behalf. The user would need to switch to the EVE Client started and manually log themselves in.

If they choose to stop an existing EVE Client, then that TurboVNC server session is killed off and the EVE Client terminates. The user account that ran the EVE Client is also removed from the server.

Each existing EVE Client for that user is displayed as a thumbnail that they can click on. These thumbnails are listed vertically on the left side of the screen. Thumbnails will auto-refresh once every minute. Each thumbnail is linked with a hidden DIV tag. The DIV tag contains the TurboVNC viewer java applet that auto logs into the TurboVNC server session for that EVE Client.

Users can attach to / switch between existing EVE Clients just by clicking on a thumbnail. This action hides all other DVI tags and shows the DIV tag for the thumbnail just clicked. In this manner, users can switch quickly between their existing EVE Clients. This effectively creates a poor mans version of multiboxing.

Users can also define some default configuration settings that will apply to all EVE Clients. Such configuration settings would be the resolution of the TurboVNC server, the FPS rate exposed to the user (how many FPS are transmitted over the network), the TurboVNC viewer settings (protocol, jpeg compression, jpeg chrominance subsampling, jpeg image quality, zlib compression, double buffering, etc). Additionally, users can override these settings on a per EVE Client basis at the time of starting a new EVE Client.


=== Here is how the backend technology will function - this is pretty much hidden from the user ===

Linux was choosen due to its security and my expertise with it.

WINE is a pre-requisite needed to allow EVE Online to run under Linux.

VirtualGL is a software solution to utilize a video card for off-screen rendering of 3d accelerated games. For network performance, VirtualGL can limit how many frames per second are displayed to the user, while allowing the 3d accelerated game to run at full speed. Example: When I am at work (lunch breaks), I usually set VirtualGL to display 1 frame every 5 seconds (to conserve on work's bandwidth). When I am at home on my wife's slow and wireless laptop, I set VirtualGL to display 1 frame per second. When I am at the console of the server, I usually set VirtualGL to display up to 30 frames per second.

TurboVNC is a spinoff of the TightVNC project which improvements specific for handling 3d accelerated games. It includes a java based viewer applet that can be embedded within a webpage.

SSL is the Secure Socks Layer, most familiarly associated with the HTTPS:// protocol. I am using SSL to encrypt all communications with the website and with all TurboVNC server sessions. This ensures that all data passed between the server and the end user is encrypted and not sniffable.

You mean the one presented by the Game itself? I'm not sure how to get around that. Any ideas?

I just setup an SSH tunnel and VNC in, works great, and no going through any third-party servers with my login credentials.

If you are truly serious about a business venture make it legit with CCP. They have been much talk about the new API/Carbon REST which is I believe what Dust is using and the Vita app and they are interested on getting third party developers to join.

Well, turns out that this would violate an item in the EULA and Terms Of Service. Bummer. It was a good idea though. I will not be creating this.