OctoBus

Arrival timers for the zeppelins at the Orgrimmar towers, plus the Sparkwater Port boat, for the vanilla 1.12.1 client (tested on OctoWow / Turtle WoW).

A small minimap icon opens a window listing every transport with a live timer: how long until it leaves if it is docked, or how long until it docks if it is away. Click a transport to put a bell on it and get a chat message shortly before it arrives.

OctoBus needs one extra file, ZepSense.dll, which you install by hand in the game folder. Your launcher can install the addon but not the DLL. See Install.

What you see

Window element	Meaning
Green check	Transport is docked now. The timer counts down to departure ("leaves").
Red X	Transport is away. The timer counts down to docking ("docks").
~ before a time	An estimate from stored data. It goes away once you see the transport dock or leave.
Bell on a row	Alerts are on for that route (click a row to toggle).
Footer	Calibration state, e.g. baseline established: 3m (last seen 2h ago). It turns orange when the data is over 5 days old, as a hint to walk past the towers.

Routes tracked (with built-in starting values, which refine themselves as you play): Undercity, Grom'gol, Kargath, Thunder Bluff, and the Sparkwater Port boat (hide it with /ob boat). You can rename any route with /ob name.

Requirements

1. ZepSense.dll, a small client DLL that exposes one Lua function, ZepTransports(), which returns the position of every zeppelin/boat the client currently has loaded. The addon cannot see transports without it. Without the DLL it shows built-in estimates only (marked ~).
2. A client setup that loads DLLs listed in dlls.txt.

Install

Installing takes two parts. The addon can be installed by your launcher; the DLL always has to be set up by hand.

Part 1: the addon

• With a launcher: add this repository's git address (https://github.com/Phridgey/OctoBus.git).
• By hand: download this repository as a ZIP (green "Code" button, then "Download ZIP"), unzip it, rename the folder to OctoBus and put it in Interface\AddOns\. The folder must contain OctoBus.toc directly.

Part 2: the DLL (manual, the launcher does not do this)

1. Download ZepSense.dll from the Releases page.
2. Put it in the game folder, next to WoW.exe.
3. Open dlls.txt in the game folder and add a line ZepSense.dll.
4. Start the game fully (a /reload is not enough the first time the DLL is added).
5. Type /ob debug. It should say the DLL function is present and show raw transport data when transports are in range.

The DLL only reads transport positions that the client has already loaded; it does not send anything anywhere. Its source is ZepSense_src/ZepSense_v5.c (built with i686-w64-mingw32-gcc -O2 -shared -static-libgcc -Wl,--kill-at -s). As with any client DLL, use it at your own risk and check your server's rules.

Saved data lives in WTF\...\SavedVariables\OctoBus.lua.

Using it

• Minimap icon: click to show/hide the window anywhere; drag to move it around the minimap edge.
• Auto-show: the window opens by itself in Orgrimmar and Durotar and hides elsewhere. The icon toggle always works manually. Add more auto-show places with /ob allow <zone or sub-zone> (use /ob where to see the exact names), or turn the behaviour off with /ob zone.
• Bells: click a transport row to toggle a bell. Belled routes print a chat message /ob alert seconds (default 45) before arrival. Nothing is printed to chat for routes without a bell.
• Move the window: drag it; /ob lock locks it in place; /ob resetpos puts the window and icon back.

How the timing works

Each route runs on a fixed cycle. Once the addon sees one transport arrive, it can predict every later arrival, even while the transport is out of view (transports are only sent to your client when they are near you, so they drop out of range for part of each trip).

• Automatic calibration: any arrival you watch near the towers calibrates that route. The first time takes two sightings, later refreshes take one. The cycle length is refined as more arrivals are seen, and the dock-time (how long a transport waits) is learned too.
• /ob calibrate (optional): watches every transport on purpose. Stand between the two towers where you can see the docks, do not /reload, and wait; rows are marked complete as each route is confirmed. A transport being out of view for a while is normal. If nothing at all has been seen after about 10 minutes, move closer to the towers. /ob calibrate stop cancels.
• Transports are not reported from deep inside the city (bank / auction house area), so calibrate near the towers.

Commands

/ob (also /transit and /zep)

Command	What it does
/ob	Show / hide the window (works anywhere)
/ob list	Print all timers in chat
/ob alert <sec>	Bell alerts fire this many seconds before arrival (default 45, 0 = off)
/ob chat, /ob sound, /ob flash	Toggle that alert type (chat on by default; sound and screen flash off)
/ob zone	Toggle "auto-show only in Orgrimmar / Durotar"
/ob allow <name>	Also auto-show in this zone or sub-zone
/ob allowclear	Remove the extra auto-show places
/ob where	Print your zone / sub-zone and whether the window auto-shows here
/ob boat	Show / hide the Sparkwater Port boat
/ob shape square|round|auto	Minimap icon placement. auto reads your minimap shape (tell it explicitly if you use a square minimap addon and the icon sits wrong)
/ob lock	Lock / unlock the window position
/ob resetpos	Put the window and icon back in their default spots
/ob name <n> <text>	Rename route number n (numbers from /ob list)
/ob period <n> <sec>	Set a route's cycle length by hand
/ob calibrate	Watch all transports on purpose (see above); /ob calibrate stop cancels
/ob reset	Forget everything learned and go back to built-in values
/ob debug	Show whether the DLL is answering and the raw data it returns

Troubleshooting

• "no DLL: estimates only": the DLL is not loaded. Check that ZepSense.dll is in the game folder and listed in dlls.txt, then fully restart the game. /ob debug shows the state.
• Times have a ~ and never confirm: walk toward the towers and wait for an arrival, or run /ob calibrate.
• /ob does nothing or prints a start-up error: the addon reports its own load errors in chat; copy the message when reporting a bug.
• Window did not auto-show: use /ob where to see your zone and sub-zone names, then /ob allow <name> if you want it there.
• Everything looks off after a big server change (new route timings): /ob reset, then calibrate again.