Better UX by removing the manual loading screenshots step

[twy30]

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo4/comments/19cxffr/comment/kj4fonr/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

From u/Miles_Adamson :

Not sure if this is plausible. Can you pop up a window with whether the item matches the filter every time you press printscreen? A bit like how awaked poe trade pops up an overlay window whenever you press ctrl+d on an item.

That way, you could just mouse over, press print screen, see "not a match", move mouse to next item, repeat. Would be much faster than actually moving the screenshot file

[twy30]

My immediate thoughts:

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo4/comments/19cxffr/comment/kj5xa3b/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

@ u/Miles_Adamson

Great idea for a much better user experience -- the short answer is Maybe-Yes-but-Cant-Promise

The long answer:

(1) We can first rule out any approach that actively, directly interfaces/hooks-up with the Diablo4 game or the "pressing the PrintScreen key" event -- because it is like stepping into a minefield and playing hide-and-seek with Blizzard's anti-cheat system.

(2) Now we look at a passive, indirect approach -- what if we just monitor for new screenshot files appearing in the Screenshot folder? (assuming the screenshots are produced by players manually pressing the PrintScreen key)

This is technically possible -- however, the user would now have to allow a 3rd-party app at least "read" access to the user's local file system (so the 3rd-party app could monitor the Screenshot folder). This approach itself can be a huge security risk, too, if that "read" access is not carefully controlled, limited, and enforced.

(3) If the user is willing to accept the risk mentioned in (2), then Yes, it likely is possible -- possibly with Chrome extensions' support for access to user's local file system. I will have to look into it.

Again, great idea. Thanks! I filed #4 to track this.

[twy30]

Actually, there is another way!

(1) We can run a simple HTTP server to provide well-controlled read access to the screenshots folder

(2) .NET, Python, Node.js are all reputable runtime environments and they all support simple HTTP servers.

(3) Today D4pi can already load images by URL (this is how the existing Demo works)

We just need to

(a) Verify that the simple HTTP servers support some sort of directory listing functionality

(b) Provide guidance on how to set up a simple HTTP server -- one command line will do.

(c) Give D4pi some sort of polling capability -- so it can detect changes in the screenshot folder

[twy30]

(a) Verify that the simple HTTP servers support some sort of directory listing functionality

Yes, all of the following supports directory listing:

• Python 3.12 http.server ( https://docs.python.org/3/library/http.server.html )
• Node.js 20 http-server 14 ( https://www.npmjs.com/package/http-server )
• .NET 8 Microsoft.Extensions.FileProviders, FileServerOptions, EnableDirectoryBrowsing

[twy30]

.NET ships with Windows: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/migration-guide/versions-and-dependencies

[twy30]

One more user has mentioned this UX improvement idea:

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo4/comments/19cxffr/comment/kj77pve/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

It would be cool if the app could monitor the screenshots folder of the game ( Documents\Diablo IV\Screenshots) so every time we press print screen key and a new file is deployed there, it would automatically trigger the process. Although this would only work on PC version.