You want a reason on why things are taking so much time? Well here is my attempt to explain it in as easy to understand terms as possible.
If anything is unclear, please tell me, and I will try to clear it up.
For the legal issues that you may have heard about, skip to the Legal Issue Part down at the bottom.
Here we go:
You might have heard 'cluster fluttering' being thrown around a bit, but what does it mean:
Cluster fluttering is set in 2 parts:
Part 1:
If you have taken a Highschool math course, a matrix might ring a bell.
If not, please google.
Anyway, think of the first part like this: a matrix inside of a matrix, inside of another matrix... etc...
The values in this matrix vary greatly, and range from your HP ratio, to the player across the map from you, to the NPC you're talking to, to the item on the ground across the map. What we use to do is just find those usually alone, plain old numbers, text... Now it is harder to find them as they are hidden with other things that we might need or not; we can't tell easily.
Now, that's part one.
Part 2:
Those numbers, text, what-have-you is all lumped into one giant thing called an object. (techy term object array for part 1 & 2) This object is hiding what it is that we are trying to find. Think of it that you are trying to find a number (0-9) and what you are trying to find the number in is the letter equivalent (zero, one, two...) in say Latin mixed in with some Hebrew and Aribic text; it becomes really difficult to figure out what is what if you don't know what things mean.
With this: a number such as your HP ratio can appear as text, or something that only computers can read.
Cluster fluttering:
If you take the items in part one and add them with part 2, you get a matrix full of items that you can't really name or say what they are. This is cluster fluttering.
(techy notation: [[[[java/lang/Object)
That is what caused the original delay to the 22nd. The updaters had to figure this out and do things to well figure it out, which was/is not an easy task.
The Legal Issue:
This latest delay is because of what recently happened. The Runescape files that we used to use to get all the information suddenly got put into one giant file; that file is encrypted, or made so that you can't read it 'out of the box.' To read the files that we used to use, there are two keys. Jagex gives us these keys when you first load the game up in your browser. Long story short for those keys, to read the giant file, you have to have both these keys open the door of the file.
Once you open that door, we can do what we have been. This is a legal issue when you open the door.
That is the reason that it was pushed back to the 6th.
This is where we hit one of the drawbacks to 'hacking' Runescape, the legality.
In the Runescape file, there is a file that says, if you open this door using the keys we gave you, we will get the law to say "OH NO YOU DIDN'T!"
Please note: the legal file is down at the bottom of this post/blog entry.
This has been taken into consideration, and I am not aware of what has been decided. Update: The legal issues are not issues anymore, No detail was given.
This is coming from my knowledge and my attempt to create a loader/updater botting client.
If any of this is wrong, or anything isn't clear, please tell me and I will try to make it clearer.
~WinAwesome
This is located in the Runescape client as Software_Disclaimer.txt
Legal File said:
-----
IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE PLEASE READ
YOU ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO READ THIS STATEMENT, ALL TERMS, POLICIES AND AGREEMENTS OF JAGEX LIMITED AND TO ACT IN ACCORDANCE WITH SUCH MATERIALS AS WELL AS ALL APPLICABLE LAWS.
This software is Copyright Jagex Limited, 1999-2011. All rights reserved.
Jagex, RuneScape and the [Jagex Logo] are registered and unregistered trademarks and trade names of Jagex Limited, registered and/or used in the United Kingdom, European Union and United States of America as well as other countries.
THIS SOFTWARE IS ENCRYPTED AND ANY ATTEMPT BY YOU TO BREAK OR CIRCUMVENT THIS ENCRYPTION OR OTHERWISE INTERFERE WITH OR DISRUPT JAGEX LIMITED’S LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF ITS SERVICES AND GAMES MAY BE A VIOLATION OF CIVIL AND/OR CRIMINAL LAWS.
ANY REPRODUCTION, REDISTRIBUTION, OR MISUSE OF RUNESCAPE (OR ANY OTHER JAGEX LIMITED GAME) OR ANY SOFTWARE OF JAGEX LIMITED OR ANY USE OF THE FOREGOING OTHER THAN IN ACCORDANCE WITH ANY POLICY, AGREEMENT OR THE TERMS OF JAGEX LIMITED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, PRIVACY POLICY AND RULES PERTAINING TO RUNESCAPE (OR ANY JAGEX LIMITED GAME) IS EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED BY LAW, AND MAY RESULT IN SERIOUS CIVIL AND/OR CRIMINAL PENALTIES.
------
Questions & Answers:
Question:
The thing is, if I run the desktop client from Jagex, clearly their stuff has to get decrypted in order to run, it's just that THEIR open source client did it instead of this one.Having said that, it makes me wonder just how they can know which client did the decrypting. Unless they are grabbing some piece of code that they intentionally leave encrypted. If some client decrypted that code (like the legal notice) and they can retrieve that information, then they at least know that that particular player's client decrypted the code against J's legal disclaimer.
Answer:
Well, I think of it this way; an injection bot has to open the encrypted file to gain access to the things that it changes. and for say, RSBot, since we are an injection bot, injection requires us to open the file, breaking that legal file, so in reality, they can't know (as far as I know anyway.) But, if RSBot goes public, then they know that we 'unlocked the door' that's the legal issue.
