wolverine2710
Tutorial & Guide Writer
Probably most commanders have read this news dated 20140925) by Michael Brookes: "We're no longer allowing tools which scrape the data directly from the game or through its communications. We will be considering an external API for future development, but for now these tools are not permitted."
This killed EMDN which fed trading tools like Slopey's BPC and a few other trading tool websites. The BPC will be changed so that prices can be entered manually. But of course this is suboptimal.
Just wondering. Has any one been experimenting with (free) OCR tools to convert a commodities market screenshot into text. If that is feasible it would mean some kind of EMDN would be feasible in the near future. The above would be in compliance with FD if I'm not mistaken.
Edit: To clear this up I send a PM on the 11th of November 2014 to Michael Brookes. I asked for permission to share his response and was given permission.
His response:
I hope and trust you respect my wishes.
This killed EMDN which fed trading tools like Slopey's BPC and a few other trading tool websites. The BPC will be changed so that prices can be entered manually. But of course this is suboptimal.
Just wondering. Has any one been experimenting with (free) OCR tools to convert a commodities market screenshot into text. If that is feasible it would mean some kind of EMDN would be feasible in the near future. The above would be in compliance with FD if I'm not mistaken.
Edit: To clear this up I send a PM on the 11th of November 2014 to Michael Brookes. I asked for permission to share his response and was given permission.
Hello Mr Brookes,
I have created the "Has any one experimented with OCR tools for scraping the commodities" thread. Basically a commander takes a screenshot, which is automatically read by an OCR tool which then creates a text file with commodities market prices. This can be used for for example trading tool purposes. For example feeding the text to Trade Dangerous program or Slopeys the BPC. Both are based upon manually inputting of data. Lets make this totally absolutely 100% clear. The end goal will be an EDDN - Elite Dangerous Data Network. Basically Andreas EMDN but filled with data obtained from OCR-ing. NOT by scraping the ED program/protocols. Also when OCR-ing is successful it will most likely be extended to retrieve more information.
When FD's data access policy changed you wrote: "We're no longer allowing tools which scrape the data directly from the game or through its communications. We will be considering an external API for future development, but for now these tools are not permitted."
A commander stated he has a (near) working OCR solution. He is reluctant to release it because he's not sure it would violate the new FD data access policy. There are two possibilities.
With kind regards,
Wolverine2710 aka cmdr Wolverine
I have created the "Has any one experimented with OCR tools for scraping the commodities" thread. Basically a commander takes a screenshot, which is automatically read by an OCR tool which then creates a text file with commodities market prices. This can be used for for example trading tool purposes. For example feeding the text to Trade Dangerous program or Slopeys the BPC. Both are based upon manually inputting of data. Lets make this totally absolutely 100% clear. The end goal will be an EDDN - Elite Dangerous Data Network. Basically Andreas EMDN but filled with data obtained from OCR-ing. NOT by scraping the ED program/protocols. Also when OCR-ing is successful it will most likely be extended to retrieve more information.
When FD's data access policy changed you wrote: "We're no longer allowing tools which scrape the data directly from the game or through its communications. We will be considering an external API for future development, but for now these tools are not permitted."
A commander stated he has a (near) working OCR solution. He is reluctant to release it because he's not sure it would violate the new FD data access policy. There are two possibilities.
- OCR does violate FD's new data access policy.
- OCR does NOT violate FD's new data access policy.
With kind regards,
Wolverine2710 aka cmdr Wolverine
Please do NOT turn this into another pro vs contra third party (trading) tools thread. Those discussions for me are the equivalent of the trenches war of WWI. Nobody makes progress. If you want to discuss it, the perfect place is "Direct question for Michael Brookes". .Michael Brookes said:As long as the method doesn't alter or access the exe or the game resources then it is fine. So OCR isn't an issue for us, although trying to read the frame buffer directly could be.
I hope and trust you respect my wishes.
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