Shoutbox

Alright, I'm stubburn. I was looking forward to animating DPs, so animating DPs is what I wanna have. So I started thinking. MSN Messenger doesn't allow for them in any way maginable. So, as it doesn't allow for, for example, packet sniffing á la Notifier etc, I wanna make it possible using a seperate executable, with a custom protocol sending animating DPs.

I'm sure I'm going to get flamed now by some =P By the way, my ambitions always far exceed my talents.. Sucks being a perfectionist..

Anyway, anybody who's interrested in giving me a hand in this ?

~lhun

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Changelog and development status :

Project laDp : Lhunath's Animating Display Picture

Status : Finding a way of sending the image

DONE :
- Decided how the animated image will be sent and received.
- Build a program that can read the contents of chunks in PNGs
- Build a program that adds a chunk to a PNG containing our animated gif
UP NEXT :
- Investigating how the PNG can be sent to the other client without loosing the "laDp" chunk.
        Options:
          - Making the local client skip the IMG => RAW => PNG step, and adding the special PNGs manually
             => PROs: Neat and structural. Using the protocol itself. Few security flaws possible.
             => CONs: Unable to implement as of yet. Large DPs. Need protection against Buffer Overflows?
          - Using the top row of pixels to include the WAN IP of the local user, then set up a P2P to retrieve the animation data.
             => PROs: Open for later expansion of functionality. Implementable.
             => CONs: Connection issues (firewalls/...). Security/Privacy issues (IP). Open for remote control vulnerabilities. Image Corruption.

TODO:
Find a way to dock the picture in the Display Picture area
Find a way to set and get the display picture


Project Status: On Hold

Wait are you saying you're gonna keep sending different pics to make it look animated? Because if thats what you're planning then people with slow connections might not be able to use it

No, he's planning to make his own P2P connection to the other contact so he can send animated-gifs. (both contacts will need this addon)

But how he is going to do that without knowing the other's IP, I dunno.

humsers, how about I send a packet with a IP request which only the plugin understands. Would solve it. Or not an IP request, but simply one with the IP, and a connect request.

Though to inject it in the MSN packets, that's not going to be easy hmm.. maybe I might find some way, lemme have a browse through the net

*mumbles under breath*
Oh joy, what do you think of this, the plugin sets the DP to a special png which is recougnised by the client on the other side. That client then sends the IP to the first one, who hides it from the user. (Once in a convo or on DP change, maybe as long as a conv's open send a sync sign every minute or so.) That way both IPs are known and a P2P connection can be established.

From that point on it's bare easy.

PNGs can be animated. I doubt Messenger will show them properly, but the PNG format allows for animated images.

If the PNG can contain comments, why not put an animated GIF as the comments? People without the plugin will see the normal display picture but those with the plugin can see the "secret" animated GIF.

I thought there was already a plugin for this, but both of the users have to have it....

if i am wrong i'm sorry, but search the forum, there are many threads bout animated display pictures

quote:

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Originally posted by Nick2588
PNGs can be animated. I doubt Messenger will show them properly, but the PNG format allows for animated images.

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No, PNG's can NOT be animated. You're talking about the other format called MNG (which MSN Messenger doesn't use), which is based upon the same imageformat, but is an entirly different fileformat.

quote:

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Originally posted by Nick2588
If the PNG can contain comments, why not put an animated GIF as the comments? People without the plugin will see the normal display picture but those with the plugin can see the "secret" animated GIF.

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Possible, although not so easy to implement (extracting, showing, hooking, whatever, ...)
Putting another file in the comment tag of a image is easy on itself though, that's not the problem...

quote:

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Originally posted by traxor
I thought there was already a plugin for this, but both of the users have to have it....

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No, there isn't any plugin to do that, (although there exists a Korean addon van MSN Messenger called PowerPlus, but that's something different, although related)

And both users will always have to install such plugins/addons. Either for putting up the image, either for showing the image...

Right, so what I do is find a way to insert a gif in the comment of a PNG, that PNG will be displayed for those who do not have the plugin, for those that do, the plugin will extract the gif and show it instead.

The docking or replacing of the image itself isn't going to be easy so I might just start builing a little viewer that shows the included gif.. We'll see from there.

Edit:
Right, so I found an easy way to encode a gif in a png.
With imagemagick :
mogrify -comment "@[uri-to-gif]" [uri-to-png]
Then; the produced png is to be set as DP
Afterwards, the other side receives the png, and does this :
identify -format "%c" [uri-to-png] > [uri-to-gif]

Well; something like that anyway.

Y not make the display pic Display as GIF? so the file will be sent once then it will be animated?