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An EVE client window switcher tool created to aid playing with multiple clients in CCP game EVE Online

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EVE-O-Preview has new maintainer.

New forum thread: https://forums.eveonline.com/t/361804

New repository location: https://github.com/EveOPlus/eve-o-preview

Farewell Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/ujzlq5/eveo_preview_new_developer_needed/

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish


Overview

The purpose of this application is to provide a simple way to keep an eye on several simultaneously running EVE Online clients and to easily switch between them. While running it shows a set of live thumbnails for each of the active EVE Online clients. These thumbnails allow fast switch to the corresponding EVE Online client either using mouse or configurable hotkeys.

It's essentially a task switcher, it does not relay any keyboard/mouse events and suchlike. The application works with EVE, EVE through Steam, or any combination thereof.

The program does NOT (and will NOT ever) do the following things:

  • modify EVE Online interface
  • display modified EVE Online interface
  • broadcast any keyboard or mouse events
  • anyhow interact with EVE Online except of bringing its main window to foreground or resizing/minimizing it

EVE Partner

Under any conditions you should NOT use EVE-O Preview for any actions that break EULA or ToS of EVE Online.

If you have find out that some of the features or their combination of EVE-O Preview might cause actions that can be considered as breaking EULA or ToS of EVE Online you should consider them as a bug and immediately notify the Developer ( Phrynohyas Tig-Rah ) via in-game mail.

How To Install & Use

  1. Download and extract the contents of the .zip archive to a location of your choice (ie: Desktop, CCP folder, etc) ..* Note: Please do not install the application into the Program Files or Program files (x86) folders. These folders in general do not allow applications to write anything there while EVE-O Preview now stores its configuration file next to its executable, thus requiring the write access to the folder it is installed into.
  2. Start up both EVE-O Preview and your EVE Clients (the order does not matter)
  3. Adjust settings as you see fit. Program options are described below

Video Guides:

System Requirements

  • Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2+
  • EVE clients Display Mode should be set to Fixed Window or Window Mode. Fullscreen mode is not supported.

EVE Online EULA/ToS

This application is legal under the EULA/ToS:

CCP FoxFour wrote:

Please keep the discussion on topic. The legitimacy of this software has already been discussed and doesn't need to be again. Assuming the functionality of the software doesn't change, it is allowed in its current state.

CCP Grimmi wrote:

Overlays which contain a full, unchanged, EVE Client instance in a view only mode, no matter how large or small they are scaled, like it is done by EVE-O Preview as of today, are fine with us. These overlays do not allow any direct interaction with the EVE Client and you have to bring the respective EVE Client to the front/put the window focus on it, in order to interact with it.

Application Options

Application Options Available Via GUI

General Tab

Option Description
Minimize to System Tray Determines whether the main window form be minimized to windows tray when it is closed
Track client locations Determines whether the client's window position should be restored when it is activated or started
Hide preview of active EVE client Determines whether the thumbnail corresponding to the active EVE client is not displayed
Minimize inactive EVE clients Allows to auto-minimize inactive EVE clients to save CPU and GPU
Previews always on top Determines whether EVE client thumbnails should stay on top of all other windows
Hide previews when EVE client is not active Determines whether all thumbnails should be visible only when an EVE client is active
Unique layout for each EVE client Determines whether thumbnails positions are different depending on the EVE client being active

Thumbnail Tab

Option Description
Opacity Determines the inactive EVE thumbnails opacity (from almost invisible 20% to 100% solid)
Thumbnail Width Thumbnails width. Can be set to any value from 100 to 640 points
Thumbnail Height Thumbnails Height. Can be set to any value from 80 to 400 points

Zoom Tab

Option Description
Zoom on hover Determines whether a thumbnail should be zoomed when the mouse pointer is over it
Zoom factor Thumbnail zoom factor. Can be set to any value from 2 to 10
Zoom anchor Sets the starting point of the thumbnail zoom

Overlay Tab

Option Description
Show overlay Determines whether a name of the corresponding EVE client should be displayed on the thumbnail
Show frames Determines whether thumbnails should be displays with window caption and borders
Highlight active client Determines whether the thumbnail of the active EVE client should be highlighted with a bright border
Color Color used to highlight the active client's thumbnail in case the corresponding option is set

Active Clients Tab

Option Description
Thumbnails list List of currently active EVE client thumbnails. Checking an element in this list will hide the corresponding thumbnail. However these checks are not persisted and on the next EVE client or EVE-O Preview run the thumbnail will be visible again

Mouse Gestures and Actions

Mouse gestures are applied to the thumbnail window currently being hovered over.

Action Gesture
Activate the EVE Online client and bring it to front Click the thumbnail
Minimize the EVE Online client Hold Control key and click the thumbnail
Switch to the last used application that is not an EVE Online client Hold Control + Shift keys and click any thumbnail
Move thumbnail to a new position Press right mouse button and move the mouse
Adjust thumbnail height Press both left and right mouse buttons and move the mouse up or down
Adjust thumbnail width Press both left and right mouse buttons and move the mouse left or right

Configuration File-Only Options

Some of the application options are not exposed in the GUI. They can be adjusted directly in the configuration file.

Note: Do any changes to the configuration file only while the EVE-O Preview itself is closed. Otherwise the changes you made might be lost.

Option Description
ActiveClientHighlightThickness
Thickness of the border used to highlight the active client's thumbnail.
Allowed values are 1...6.
The default value is 3
For example: "ActiveClientHighlightThickness": 3
CompatibilityMode
Enables the alternative render mode (see below)
The default value is false
For example: "CompatibilityMode": true
EnableThumbnailSnap
Allows to disable thumbnails snap feature by setting its value to false
The default value is true
For example: "EnableThumbnailSnap": true
HideThumbnailsDelay
Delay before thumbnails are hidden if the General -> Hide previews when EVE client is not active option is enabled
The delay is measured in thumbnail refresh periods
The default value is 2 (corresponds to 1 second delay)
For example: "HideThumbnailsDelay": 2
PriorityClients
Allows to set a list of clients that are not auto-minimized on inactivity even if the Minimize inactive EVE clients option is enabled. Listed clients still can be minimized using Windows hotkeys or via Ctrl+Click on the corresponding thumbnail
The default value is empty list []
For example: "PriorityClients": [ "EVE - Phrynohyas Tig-Rah", "EVE - Ondatra Patrouette" ]
ThumbnailMinimumSize
Minimum thumbnail size that can be set either via GUI or by resizing a thumbnail window. Value is written in the form "width, height"
The default value is "100, 80".
For example: "ThumbnailMinimumSize": "100, 80"
ThumbnailMaximumSize
Maximum thumbnail size that can be set either via GUI or by resizing a thumbnail window. Value is written in the form "width, height"
The default value is "640, 400".
For example: "ThumbnailMaximumSize": "640, 400"
ThumbnailRefreshPeriod
Thumbnail refresh period in milliseconds. This option accepts values between 300 and 1000 only.
The default value is 500 milliseconds.
For example: "ThumbnailRefreshPeriod": 500

Hotkey Setup

It is possible to set a key combinations to immediately jump to certain EVE window. However currently EVE-O Preview doesn't provide any GUI to set the these hotkeys. It should be done via editing the configuration file directly. Don't forget to make a backup copy of the file before editing it.

Note: Don't forget to make a backup copy of the file before editing it.

Open the file using any text editor. find the entry ClientHotkey. Most probably it will look like

"ClientHotkey": {},

This means that no hotkeys are defined. Edit it to be like

"ClientHotkey": {
  "EVE - Phrynohyas Tig-Rah": "F1",
  "EVE - Ondatra Patrouette": "F2"
}

This simple edit will assign F1 as a hotkey for Phrynohyas Tig-Rah and F2 as a hotkey for Ondatra Patrouette, so pressing F1 anywhere in Windows will immediately open EVE client for Phrynohyas Tig-Rah if he is logged on.

The following hotkey is described as modifier+key where modifier can be Control, Alt, Shift, or their combination. F.e. it is possible to setup the hotkey as

"ClientHotkey": {
  "EVE - Phrynohyas Tig-Rah": "F1",
  "EVE - Ondatra Patrouette": "Control+Shift+F4"
}

Note: Do not set hotkeys to use the key combinations already used by EVE. It won't work as "I set hotkey for my DPS char to F1 and when I'll press F1 it will automatically open the DPS char's window and activate guns". Key combination will be swallowed by EVE-O Preview and NOT retranslated to EVE window. So it will be only "it will automatically open the DPS char's window".

Compatibility Mode

This setting allows to enable an alternate thumbnail render. This render doesn't use advanced DWM API to create live previews. Instead it is a screenshot-based render with the following pros and cons:

  • + Should work even in remote desktop environments
  • - Consumes significantly more memory. In the testing environment EVE-O Preview did consume around 180 MB to manage 3 thumbnails using this render. At the same time the primary render did consume around 50 MB when run in the same environment.
  • - Thumbnail images are refreshed at 1 FPS rate
  • - Possible short mouse cursor freezes

Credits

Maintained by

  • Phrynohyas Tig-Rah

Created by

  • StinkRay

Previous maintainers

  • Makari Aeron

  • StinkRay

With contributions from

  • CCP FoxFour

Forum thread

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/4202

Original repository

https://bitbucket.org/ulph/eve-o-preview-git

CCP Copyright Notice

EVE Online, the EVE logo, EVE and all associated logos and designs are the intellectual property of CCP hf. All artwork, screenshots, characters, vehicles, storylines, world facts or other recognizable features of the intellectual property relating to these trademarks are likewise the intellectual property of CCP hf. EVE Online and the EVE logo are the registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights are reserved worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. CCP hf. has granted permission to pyfa to use EVE Online and all associated logos and designs for promotional and information purposes on its website but does not endorse, and is not in any way affiliated with, pyfa. CCP is in no way responsible for the content on or functioning of this program, nor can it be liable for any damage arising from the use of this program.

Additional information for users from Russia and Belarus