I don't understand the need for gaming controller either... I just want to buy code that will stop some of Pokerstars annoyances.

+1

also, if you need a programmer to help .... i'd be glad to write a bit of code in exchange for getting the program

If the no focus steal part was standalone and worked with a mouse, this is something id be willing to offer someone elses first born child for.

Time for an update and to clear some things up.

I'm a bit surprised that the focus stealing fix is what's gotten the most interest. I always thought of it as icing on the cake, since the other functionality of Hjälper is what really makes it shine. I think a lot of you have your various setups with AHK scripts and/or TN and don't realize how much the experience can be improved. Those other solutions have tons of little annoyances that you've accepted as being "normal" without realizing just how tilting they are until they're gone. It's probably difficult to believe that. I and/or Gnum will try to make some videos later on that will try to highlight how much better Hjälper is than anything else. I'm not sure if it will be possible to get a feel for these little subtleties with a Camtasia recording, but I do know that when more users start using it, they'll not be disappointed.

Hjälper takes care of all the tasks the most common AHK scripts are used for: timebank clicking, dismissing dialogs (i.e. "Fold when Check is free", "you have been moved", "You busted the tourney", etc.), handling the tournament registration dialog, clicking "I'm Back" when you've timed out, and more.

It does this all without any lag. It doesn't lag PokerStars at all. It doesn't bog down your system. All of those dialogs are dismissed instantly, generally before the system has finished drawing them. A lot of the time you won't even notice that a dialog popped up at all.

All other existing products and AHK scripts lag the system and PokerStars by using expensive polling loops that run many times per second (the more frequent, the higher the load). Every time you enumerate through windows (EnumWindows in C, WinGet in AHK), you interrupt PokerStars and make it respond with information about the window...for every single window it has. Do that too frequently and you get very noticeable drawing lag in PokerStars; do it too infrequently and your program/script takes too long to figure out that, for example, a dialog has popped up and there is a noticeable delay before it gets dismissed. Hjälper does not do this. There is virtually no load on PokerStars or the system.

Hjälper works with any theme, deck, or background. It doesn't do any screen scraping whatsoever. As long as the buttons are in the right spot, it will work.¹

Hjälper allows you to navigate through the tourney lobby, register and unregister tournaments, all without giving focus to the lobby. I'm not aware of any other solution that can do this.

A lot of you seemed displeased with the Xbox 360 controller part. I personally think it is the best solution and I like it because Hjälper interfaces directly with the hardware—no intermediate layers like Xpadder or Logitech driver software—which means one less component that can break. But, I will make all of the features individually enabled/disabled, so you can choose which features of Hjälper you want to use, meaning that you can use it without an Xbox 360 controller if you like.

For those of you who want to use the mouse or your existing hotkey solutions, I'll add in support for mouse buttons and keybindings. I don't know if I'll get that added in by this Saturday—I'll have to rework some of the code—but I'll get it in there as soon as I can.

And, of course, Hjälper prevents new tables from stealing focus. It's quite beautiful, really.

I'm still planning on private beta for the 15th and public release on the 22nd. I've not yet decided on price or the licensing specifics—I want feedback from the beta testers first.

Thanks for all the interest in my software and please continue to post questions and comments in this thread. I'll keep my eye on it and post another update in a couple days.

¹Black is supported and AFAIK it is the only theme that has a different button layout than Classic—it's trivial to add additional layouts if I'm incorrect .

are you hooking window creation? i think i saw an example of doing that in AHK

I volunteer for beta testing. Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme.

Seriously, it all sounds great. But telling us about the hjalper stuff that also happens to prevent the focus stealing is like telling Stephen Hawking that you have an ointment that will clear up his acne and as a side effect will give him the ability to walk.

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if PS fixes the focus stealing pretty soon anyway. They do seem to watch the software improvement thread and implement fixes for the biggest complaints, even if they don't tell us what's coming until it happens. That said maybe it's a really hard fix and might take a while.

when i was programming i actually had to work out a way to get my window to get focus when it popped up (or rather to get it to pop up), so it wouldn't really surprise me if it was a matter of removing a few lines of code that have the purpose of stealing focus (well obviously they probably want to put a switch in somewhere so most users don't see any changes happen (i guess it's a very useful feature for the masses of people who register for 1 tournament and then wait for it to open while doing other stuff)).

Anyone else have an AHK folder on their computer that looks like this?



Don't get me wrong; there's nothing wrong with that. I've played with all sorts of setups on Stars, sometimes having seven+ scripts running simultaneously. I'm sure there's plenty of others reading this thread that can relate. I'd become comfortable, whether it was using TableNavigator, Stars HotKeys by Wickss, etc. to handle my main hotkeys, and a handful of other scripts to take care of the timebank, sitting back in, or whatever other little function I felt made me more efficient.

Maybe it's part of my nature. There's merit in wanting to play as many tables as possible to increase my hourly rate. Attempting to play 105, just to see if I could, was pretty far from optimal (nor in the realm of what I can handle while making good enough decisions). However, I found myself surprised that it was less torturous than I feared. It was still pretty terrible, but I can't imagine what that experience would be like while dealing with all the focus stealing and popups.

But, I digress. I've known HG for a while. When he approached me and asked if I wanted to test his software, I was apprehensive at first. I'm not huge on change. Within a couple days of using his software, and adjusting to using a game pad, I was hooked. Over the course of the next week, I was playing longer sessions, adding more tables, and felt more relaxed while grinding. I definitely go through periods where I'm very burnt out on poker and it was refreshing to have it feel fun again. Switching from my old comfortable setup wasn't really a conscious decision; I just stopped using all my AHK scripts (about a year ago) and I've been playing with Hjälper exclusively ever since. I believe other testers would say the same, but I'll let them speak for themselves.

This was long before he added the Focus Fixer function. That was a huge bonus for me; a real, "omg, man, you're a ****ing genius" moment. I'm not sure if I'd hold my breath on Stars fixing it just yet. That was something I'd lived with since 2005 and suddenly it was just gone. So beautiful. However, even if Stars does fix their focus stealing issues, Hjälper also prevents HMHud and the Sitting Back In function (similar to the TimeoutHelper AHK script) from stealing focus as well. Even with a successful PokerStars patch, you'll run into that problem very quickly, just like I did while testing HG's Focus Fixer.

FWIW, I've tried using TableNinja. Again, there's nothing wrong with it. It's a good product. It just leaves several annoyances unsolved that Hjälper takes care of for me (i.e. I always play on PokerStars Black Theme). It might be a different story if I mainly played cash -- I've tried using TN with Xpadder while playing cash tables. But, Hjälper was written for tournament players because HAY GUYS and the testers, myself included, all play SNGs as their main game. It didn't seem fair to nag HG to add cash functions for my random urges to go spew money at 100NL.

Hjälper just works. Up until now, it's been multitabling's best kept secret.

I follow that thread and to be honest I wouldn't put much hope to it, even if it's a simple fix.

Well they fixed the HU tourneys right? And the fixed the blank note = no color problem. And the note focus moving from the note box to note dropdown. Seems like most of the other big things have been fixed.

It didn't happen soon. The problems they've fixed had been there for a long time.

LOL at waiting for the software improvement thread to bring about a fix. How many times has it been asked for? 100? 1000? I lost count. I'm sure they're working in shifts on it.

I made a video for Steve, the VIP liason at Stars, and posted it in the SNE thread. He's going to try and help us with the issue so maybe it will be taken care of, but this is needed in the meantime.

No focus steal + SNG counter = nuts. I will pay for them alone, and probs xbox360 controller thing gonna search how you use it on pc now.

OMG. Volunteer to beta test. I grind Hyper Turbos on PS and I'd probably give one of my legs for this program. Focus steal is soooo tilting.

⁵ (ducwidt?)

Ok, slight change of plans that should make everyone happy! As I said in my first post, Hjälper has basically been a finished (but not very customizable or pretty) product for over a year, so I've been polishing it up a bit before I'm comfortable releasing it. As you can see in Gnum's video and the OP, it had been a couple different components. I'm rolling those all into the main Hjälper for simplicity (and efficiency). Not much of a change, but still enough that it needs to be tested before release. I'm still targeting a private beta for Saturday to make sure everything is kosher. If it is, I'll release it for a public beta early next week. Then, if you're so inclined, you could use it to fix the focus stealing issue and ignore all the other features entirely! But, I do hope that some of you will try out the other parts and see just how mindblowing it is.

This first public beta will only have support for the Xbox 360 controller (and you can turn that off and use your regular setup for clicking buttons). After that is out, I'll gather feedback and fix any bugs that come up and get to work adding mouse and hotkeys support. I don't think that will take too long, but it requires me to rework enough important code that I don't want to do it sloppily. So, this will let those of you without the 360 controller to experience all of Hjälper's other features as soon as possible.

I hope that's good news for everyone. Now I must get back to the grind (on the Visual Studio...not on the felt).

Oh, don't use a 360 controller myself, so won't be able to beta test.

Might want to take a peek anyway. There's plenty of functionality that will still work, even if you lack the controller for certain hotkey presses (focus fix, auto-timebank, sit back in if you time out, etc are all passive). HG said he's planning on keyboard and mouse support for hotkeys in the near future.

In the meantime, if you can get your hands on a 360 controller, it's as easy as plugging it into your USB port.

I seem to recall that there's some kind of dll or something that will trick windoze into thinking that a non 360 controller is in fact a 360 controller. HAY GUYS do u know anything about this?

I would like to private beta test this weekend send me a pm plz.

Currently travelling, so no real access to a 360 controller, nor do I have any interest in using one.

Currently use TN; has the auto-timebank, sit in, timebank thing, etc. The focus fix would really only work if I actually played, which, AFAIK, I'd be unable to do w/o the 360 controller?

I have XBox 360 controller and should be available this weekend if you need me to test the beta.

im interested in this software please allow me to beta test

how much is this gonna cost once release...????
maybe you dont have a set price yet, but ballpark??

no focus stealing would make me a happier person