Key bindings in GCP

Essentially you are correct. I'll explain how GCP handles keys:

If a key has a command bound to it, then GCP runs the command (commands are created by wizards, spells, rotations, and - in broadcast mode - broadcast keys are really mapped to a GCP generated command). Which characters are affected by the command are determined by the command. If the command doesn't specify which characters are affected by it, then it will operate on the currently active character.

If a key is a special key (QWEASD by default - or changed by an in file command) then the affected characters are defined by the modifier. Without a modifier, the key is sent to the current character, with shift the key is sent to the alts, with control to the "assistant" and with alt to the "spare" - assistant and spare can be set by GCP commands.

If none of the above apply, then the key is sent to the current character.

The key pool only affects the "command bindings" as in case one. What happens is that when you create a command (remember commands are created by a number of different parts of GCP), GCP does the following:

The command is split into GCP code and game code. Essentially certain commands can be executed by GCP, and others (e.g. casting a spell) need to be executed within the game. GCP code is stored and run locally. Game code is written to the command GameCommandPro1.lua. When you reload the UI, this file is read and executed as a series of GCP mod commands (the GCP mod has its own pseudo language) which loads each of the game commands for each character into a special data construct. When the GCP mod loads a game command, it binds it to a key, and GCP "remembers" which key is associated with each command. Now, when GCP is executing a command, and gets to a "game" instruction, it sends the bound key to whichever characters are affected by the command, and because of the key binding, the GCP mod runs that instruction.

If you edit a command, and the game code is affected, GCP will prompt for an upload. If only GCP code is affected, it will not. This is why you only need to upload on certain occasions.

So the pool keys are keys that GCP can use for its internal purposes. You can still bind those keys in GCP (GCP input keys and output keys are completely separate). The only exception to this is if you wish to bind a key "In Game", GCP can't use it as a pool key.

All is well so far, but there is a problem. Say you bind a key to shift F1, and GCP chooses control-g as the pool key. This combination will work fine on the alts, but on the main it will fail. This is because the active copy of WoW scans the physical keyboard. So we send control-g, but WoW notices that the shift key is down, so will read it as shift-control-g. The inactive wow windows do not do this, and will work normally.

So, when you bind a key such as shift-F1, GCP has to use a pool key with the same modifier (i.e. shift-g is ok, but control-g, alt-g,shift-control-g etc are not) - as you can see, binding to shifted keys severely reduces GCP's choice of pool keys.

If you bind many modified keys, you can quickly exhaust the pool keys for that modifier, even though there are many keys still left in the full pool.

Currently we just use all pool keys as a single collection. I'm thinking that, if I add a priority to the keys, then I can control the order in which keys are allocated, thus saving keys such as shift-g until the less likely keys (such as control-shift-alt-g) have been allocated. Maybe GCP can scan the bound keys first, to assign the priorities (i.e. if you bind many shift combinations and some control-shift combinations, then GCP could make shift the lowest priority, control-shift next lowest, and leave everything else highest.

I'll have a go at this, and maybe load it into a "test" area of the site so you can have a play before I cause general mayhem by releasing it.

Phil

Thanks much!

~BlueGriffon

I was running into a similar problem after changing my 5-team's composition. The healer dropped out for another dps, and my former shadow priest took over the healing role. So I have an entirely new character on the team, and another got a new role. Got it working after an hour or so and the usual (and expected) hickups, like teaminvite for the new dude not working (everything else did...) - reloading WoW, and especially de-/actvating GCP repeatedly after every single change works wonders in making unexpected behavior (or none at all) go away. Really, after I figured this out (way back), my life with GCP became much, much easier.

But then running the heals setup for the new guy produced alot of "key pool exhausted" messages, combined with "key already in use". Changing the keybinding for F11 and F12 on GCP's virtual keyboard to the new character(s) helped with the "key in use" issue, but I can't seem to get rid of the old heal commands for the character not in my team anymore. As i understand it, these old commands are still occupying precious GCP keybinds? And the more spells I add to the heals command, the more key binds I need? Is there a way to get rid of old commands and thus free internal keybings, or am I getting something wrong here?

You can check this.

It's possible that the old stuff may be hanging around.

The way to test is as follows:

In "full mode", click views / advanced
Check the debug check box and hit preview. GCP will then list all the commands it's using. Further down, it will list all the stuff it's sending to each character.

Phil

Indeed, lots of old commands about. In fact, when launching GCP today, i got a bunch of "key pool exhausted" messages right at the login screen. Deleting all the outdated commands and rotations did the trick and got the show back on the road. Thanks!

Since probably not every user realizes what it means when this message pops up (and how to fix it), could I suggest to add a constructive note to the error message? Like "Key pool exhausted - please delete your old/unused GCP user commands to free up keybindings".

I know error messages are supposed to be - as a general rule - as little helpful and as misleading as possible, but maybe GCP could become an exception? :)

Good idea!

I'll add it to the next release.

Phil