Hello, capsuleers!
I’ve been getting a ton of messages across all the platforms about how EveVision is meant to be used, what it actually is, as well as some common problems people are running into. The user count is RAPIDLY increasing, so I wanted to get this info out ASAP so it can be shared to those that need it.
While the README pretty well explains everything, there’s things that this community was particularly concerned about that I would like to address for everyone in one easy to read spot.
You can also visit the EveVision Discord if you have any questions or want to say hi. I’m always in there!
For those of you that are more technically inclined and want the nitty gritty, I will include a more technical explanation at the end of each category in a box like this.
Instructional Video
This video shows you how EveVision is used from start to finish.
To save you some time, it’s simple - you just download the EXE and run it. Now log into EVE. Done. You will see draggable icons like your notification menu in the bottom right for your favorites and minimized windows, and a welcome screen will appear.
What is EveVision?
It’s like the old ingame browser, but way better, making external tools feel feel like they are actually a part of EVE. Every major (and not so major) third party EVE tool is conveniently included. It works exactly the same way as Discord/Mumble do to draw things on top of EVE.
EveVision is an Electron app like Discord that simply draws the Chromium windows offscreen and sends the framedata to EVE. A DLL is injected into the EVE process space that hooks the DirectX and User32 libraries, receiving that framedata from Chromium and sending EveVision any inputs. The app was very carefully designed with React/CSS3 to look exactly like the EVE UI. In the future, developers will be able to add native plugins akin to Atom.io packages with nothing but basic HTML/CSS/TypeScript skills.
Is this against the EULA?
THIS IS NOT A FINAL APPROVAL FROM CCP.
I am working directly with Aurora and other CCP employees to ensure that EveVision remains EULA compliant and healthy for the game. There are more things some CCP employees would like to look into and potential problems we are pondering about. CCP will make an announcement at a later time if something changes, but EveVision is CURRENTLY OKAY TO USE and will not result in a ban.
However, EveVision is a means to whatever end you choose. While I am not aware of any, if you decide to use a web based tool that somehow violates the EULA or you find ways to use EveVision that violate the EULA, that is still entirely on you.
Please don’t discuss the EULA legalities in this thread - it was already discussed to death in the last thread and resulted in it being locked. CCP Aurora has asked us to leave that to them.
While EveVision does inject a DLL into the process space, CCP cleared this type of ‘client modification’ years ago in this article: Overlays, ISK Buyer Amnesty and Account Security | EVE Online. It is necessary for a DLL to be injected for game overlays to be possible. However, the process of injecting does not actually replace any of EVE’s executable instructions. It does not change EVE itself whatsoever. It simply lives within the same process space, giving it the ability to directly draw to DirectX.
FAQ/Common Issues
Does this have access to my cookies/history?
No. This is an entirely self-contained browser, much like if you installed another desktop browser yourself. It does not rely on your existing browser.
You can find all of EveVision’s data inside of
%Appdata%/EveVision. You will notice that it looks almost exactly like Chrome’s appdata folder.
How secure is this? Can a website hack me?
EveVision essentially uses the latest open source version of Google Chrome, which includes the latest security fixes. As such, for the purposes of loading external sites, it is as secure as Chrome as long as you keep EveVision up to date!
There are also extra security considerations, like that if you are redirected to ESI auth, the edge of the window will glow green to confirm you are on a real CCP website.
We are using the latest version of Electron, which is also what Discord, Slack, Visual Studio Code, and Atom are based on. If there is a security issue, it will likely be handled by those behemoths long before it ever becomes an issue for EveVision.
Do you know when I’m using this?
I only know how many characters are online due to EveVision checking for updates every 15 minutes. I have no idea who is using EveVision. It knows who your character is simply by reading the title of the EVE client once you’ve logged in.
EveVision currently uses an S3 bucket to store a file saying what the latest version is. I read this every 15 minutes. I just use the S3 request count analytics to determine how many characters are online.
How do I know you aren’t lying? How do I know there isn’t a virus?
This will require some knowledge about how automated software compilation works, but EveVision is entirely open source and built publicly on GitHub. Think of it like being able to sit near the chefs of a fancy restaurant watching them make your food versus just having your food handed out of the greasy drivethrough window.
It is almost impossible for me to sneak in malicious code, even temporarily, without everyone noticing. You can see the full logs of the build process and even watch it happen live when I make new releases! This contrasts strongly to web-based apps, which cannot be proven to be secure like EveVision can.
I personally spent a lot of time making the CICD process as transparent as possible. Additionally, I made the actual developer build processes as simple as possible. You just clone it and run
yarn ez:dev. There is not a single binary executable that comes with EveVision’s source - I even made sure to compile the C++ dependencies as part of the build process.
Nothing draws ingame
- Ensure DirectX 9 is disabled (DX9 support will be reimplemented soon)
- Antiviruses very commonly delete EveVision’s DLL. You will need to add EveVision to an exclusion list if it is doing so. There will be an installer version soon that fixes this.
Opening windows is slow or doesn’t happen OR EveVision doesn’t work reliably across all clients
This is usually caused by Windows Defender. Need to add an exclusion.
WD appears to interfere with the interprocess communication of EveVision, and at random. Hundreds of people use WD with no issue, but there are a few that couldn’t use EveVision until WD was disabled.
I get a ‘Process not found’ error
If you run EVE as admin, you must also run EveVision as administrator.
EveVision does not require admin permissions, but if EVE is running with elevated privileges it is impossible to inject it without admin permissions.
When I click on a link, nothing opens
If the website opens the page in another tab/window normally, it currently won’t work in EveVision. This will be fixed soon.
How do I go back/forward?
Mouse buttons are currently the only way of navigating. Regular buttons and keyboard shortcuts will be added soon.
If you’re still having problems, please join the EveVision Discord and I will help you personally get to the bottom of it!
Where do I download it?
Go to eve.vision, click on ‘Download latest release’, and click on the EXE listed under assets.
Can I send you love in the form of ISK and IRL dollars?
At Patreon or by sending ISK to Jaydubs or EveVision. Thank you! 