Plugin Deprecation - For Real This Time

For a while now Windower has tried to move away from plugins and towards addons. The reasons for that are the following:

1. Addons are written in Lua and Lua is easier to develop in than C++. It's easier for new developers to get a hang of it and contribute.
2. Addons do not need to be recompiled. After a FFXI update plugins break and it takes hours to recompile all of them. However, we only need to recompile LuaCore and all addons will work again.
3. Addons are more stable. Errors in Lua won't usually crash the game, but instead just report an error and abort the current operation. Hence, less frustration for users after updates.
4. Addons are all open-source and our Lua API is open as well. Plugins have to be maintained by Windower devs and as the game loses its appeal, so does the Windower team lose its members. Maintaining the entire plugin base is too much for us, and this way the community can help out.
5. Windower 5 (which is still being worked on) may not have C++ plugins at all anymore, which is why addons will be easier to port from Windower 4, since they're already in Lua

To this end, we have now decided to remove a few plugins that have had addon alternatives to replace them. A full list of currently removed plugins and currently deprecated plugins as well as plugins that will be deprecated in the near future can be found here:

https://gist.github.com/z16/f73d0912e5c5ed02c58b

Guildwork and FFXIDB will almost certainly remain plugins for the foreseeable future to protect the intellectual property of the parties involved. DelayMeNot and Unlimited will need to remain plugins for technical reasons, but this may change. Timers can certainly be reimplemented as an addon, but no one has attempted to do this yet.

In any case we won't drop support for plugins until suitable replacements are available.

The addon version of TParty is kinda weird.

The target HP percent is farther left than the plugin, and kind hits up against that box that pops up when you're locked on.

But the thing that really messes with me, is that the value only shows your current target, and doesn't change when subtargeting. I use the switch target subtarget to look at other mobs HP%'s while engaged, so it's kinda jarring when it doesn't change.

Yeah the subtarget change sucks, but you can tweak TParty.lua line 18 and move the HP% slightly. I don't know if/when this will be overwritten but I changed mine to 125 and it lines up better.

Will Windower 5 be compatable with newer versions of Windows. I have to use Ashita because Windower 4 doesnt work on Windows 8 :(

Both these bugs have been reported. The sub-target issue has been fixed on dev, the alignment issue is being looked into. Apparently there's some kind of issue with either our text handler or our text library. The reason I haven't fixed it yet is because it works fine for me, it aligns perfectly with the plugin... still, I will look into it today.


It should be. We don't know why Windower 4 does not work on Windows 8 for some people, it works for all of us, that's why we had no luck in debugging it yet. But to be honest, it's not too surprising, since the Windower 4 code is pretty awful in lots of places. That was the reason why Windower 5 development was started, because "fixing" Windower 4 would just be too much work. Windower 5 has been remade from scratch, it's all new code and it's already better than Windower 4 in some respects.

I wish we could fix that issue for Windower 4 still, but like I said, none of us can reproduce the error and no crash dumps have been very helpful so far.

So, you mentioned Windower 5. Will it have any new special features over Windower 5, for just a ground up rebuild to streamline everything that is existing?

Good to hear. I considered the subtarget issue to be the larger concern in any case.

A few, the most notable of which will be a customizable GUI, so you can make proper user interfaces instead of having mere text boxes with colored text floating around. You can make buttons, input lines, window elements, etc. We can, for example, replace the chat log with a much better version that handles different fonts, sizes, colors, is draggable on the screen and can be split into any number of chat boxes, and so on.

It will also have many quality of life improvements. For example proper updates while in-game, without having to go through the launcher, updating Windower files while launching POL to save time, being able to log out back to POL again and automatically generating detailed crash dumps on crashes (without having to do any kind of setup) to name a few.

It also significantly improves addon performance since we use LuaJIT and have a much better Lua infrastructure on top of it. For example, currently if you want to get a player's ID you have to call the windower.get_player function, which loads all kinds of information about the player, even if you're only interested in the ID. This is very wasteful, and this will be done much more efficiently in Windower 5.

The Lua API will also improve, and the memory requirements for resource loading will go down significantly. You'll be able to save up to hundreds of MB per FFXI process, depending on how many addons you use. Currently every addon that needs item resources (which are a lot of addons) need to load the resources themselves, which are about 20 MB. This will change so that all resources are stored globally and all addons can access those, so if you have 15 addons that need those resources, you'll need 300MB for it in Windower 4, but only 20MB in Windower 5.

There are still a number of issues we're undecided on, but keep discussing. All said, there are a ton of changes, they're pretty much different applications. We do want to implement a compatibility layer though, which will make Windower 4 addons run on Windower 5, which is another reason why we plan to port as many plugins to addons as possible right now, so they all immediately work on Windower 5 as well.

Iryoku can probably name more changes than me, since he's been working on it pretty much by himself so far, so he has the better insight into the current state and feature list of the program.

Wow, all that sounds awesome. You guys do a great job, keep up the good work.

Arcon pretty much hit all of the major points that users will care about. There are a few planned features that addon developers are going to really love, but I would prefer not to disclose them quite yet, as I'm not sure if they will make it into version 5. There are a number of other features, but they're primarily internal details, intended to make our lives as developers easier.

However, I really don't want you guys to get too excited. Windower 5 is still very much in the early stages of development, with no planned release date. Things are progressing, but it's a big project, and I'm working on it alone during the little free time I have. Arcon has his hands full keeping Windower 4 up and running, while simultaneously working on his PhD (I honestly don't know how he does it).

The Unlimited plugin was also deprecated just now. Its functionality was added to the Config plugin. The "FrameRateDivisor" setting determines the game's FPS cap. To increase cap to 60, set that setting to 1, to remove the cap entirely set it to 0.

Where can we see a list of commands for the Config plugin?

In the settings file (Windower/plugins/settings/Config.xml). I'll see if I can add an option to list all available settings in-game.

is organizer or whatever still being worked on? byrth said he was working on it and it was basically an instantish gearcollector?

Yes it's not finalized (I already enquired)

I know this probably isn't the right spot to ask, but I have looked for the answer in numerous places and can't find it.

Anyone have or can show me the link for FFACE.dll please

it's not.

However it's not been updated as you need to post on their site, in their forum regarding whats broken with it as they don't play much.

Nor do they use it all.

Any reason why Config is changing the aspect ratio every hour or so? I have <AdjustAspectRatio>false</AdjustAspectRatio> set in Config.xml, but whenever Config reloads the aspect ratio gets set back to 5:4 or something. I play at 16:10. To get it back, I have to go to Config (in game) > Misc. 2 and toggle the Aspect Ratio off of 16:10 to 5:4 or 16:9 and then back to 16:10. The aspect ratio doesn't change until Config reloads (somehow)

If the reloading of Config is due to Update, I do have that set to every hour. I just wish it wouldn't change the aspect ratio. I just use Config for drawdistance.

is wincontrol doable as an addon? I find it absolutely necessary, only way to get FFXI onto my middle monitor in my setup

You couldn't discern this yourself? >_>

That's why it's resetting, although I agree it's a useless thing to have in there.

Config will still update the aspect ratio even if that is false, only it won't determine the correct aspect ratio anymore but will instead let you specify it yourself. Go to the <AspectRatio> setting and enter the aspect ratio you're using in there (16:10 would be 1.6).

And just ftr, while you may be used to playing at that aspect ratio it is technically incorrect. Config determines the right ratio based on your resolution. Most people simply don't know how to determine the correct aspect ratio, so they either leave the default setting or change it to something they like, but more often than not it results in the wrong value.


It's not, but we won't be deprecating it for that reason, so WinControl will remain.

Can you make lua communicate with external programs that implement a lua interface?

Doesn't even need a Lua interface, but inter-process communication is generally pretty hard and both programs need to be aware of it. What did you have in mind?

So you're telling me this is my monitor's correct aspect resolution? This is after reloading config with the following settings




Compared to when I toggle it back to 16:10 in the game:



I'm just gonna not even bother with config if I have to mess with this everytime it updates/I log in. No offense as you do alot, but that's just blah. It does the exact same thing with aspect ratio set to false.

I can confirm I also had this issue.

Uninstalled Config myself as thats just awful.

No, it's not. This looks like a bug. Can you tell me your resolution and UI scale value?


Like I said, you don't have to. Just set it to the right value explicitly. In your case it would be 1.6.

Whoops, I just noticed that the config value was incorrectly renamed. The <RenderOptions> value should actually read <AspectRatio>. That's the place where you can set the value explicitly. Just divide your x resolution by your y resolution there to get the optimal value. That's what Config should do automatically when you set <AdjustAspectRatio> to true. I'll change the name of that value and push an update. But I'd still appreciate you telling me your resolution and UI scale so I know why the plugin screws up.