SprintfCat
On the train to Cardiff yesterday, I was creating a fixed function shader generator for the Athena engine. I kept using strcat() with if statements, and in a lot of places I kept using sprintf() then copying that in with strcat().
So I decided to make SprintfCat(), all the wonderful joy of sprintf, with the ability to concatenate with a already existant string like strcat.
//
//
size_t ath::SprintfCat( char * inoutBuffer, const size_t inBufferSize, const char * inFormat, ... )
{
const size_t offset = StrLen( inoutBuffer );
size_t ret = 0;
va_list arg;
//
va_start( arg, inFormat );
{
ret = VSprintf( inoutBuffer + offset, inBufferSize - offset, inFormat, arg );
}
va_end( arg );
//
return offset + ret;
}I had already created my own wrappers around strlen() and vsprintf(), the reason being the fault of Microsoft. With their implementation of the standard library, they decided to deprecate non-safe versions complain at you until you either used their own _s variants, or defined a certain preprocessor.
//
//
size_t ath::VSprintf( char * outBuffer, const size_t inBufferSize, const char * inFormat, va_list inArgs )
{
#ifndef ATH_PLATFORM_WINDOWS
return vsnprintf( outBuffer, inBufferSize, inFormat, inArgs );
#else
return vsprintf_s( outBuffer, inBufferSize, inFormat, inArgs );
#endif
}
//
//
size_t ath::StrLen( const char * inString )
{
return strlen( inString );
}While I do prefer to have safe versions, their _s variants are not present in the standard and so it makes the code not portable.
I'm still not quite sure about my naming convention for a variable that is an input and an output. While I do like the in or out prefix, I don't think inout looks right, being slightly too long. I wasn't a fan of io either. I have however grown to like the truncation of Athena namespace to ath.
XBox 360 Elite Repair
On the 11th of this month, my XBox360 finally stopped being able to work anymore. After checking the receipt I noticed it was still under warranty, so I went onto the XBox website and found the repair center, and initialised a repair.
A couple of hours later, they had already sent me a prepaid UPS label that I had to print out, and all I needed to do was arrange a pickup. So I arrange for a collection on the 15th (They don't allow you to return it in the same box you bought it in, otherwise they don't return it), and by the 16th it had already arrived in Frankfurt.
And then on the 17th, it was already on its way back to me. I reckon they've probably just replaced the console rather than replace the disc drive.
I'm glad I didn't spend the extra money for the Game insurance, I'd rather pay Microsoft for an extended warrenty for the fast job they've done. Too bad I'm in work on Monday morning so I won't be able to collect til Tuesday / Wednesday.
Athena: XBox 360 Pad and Mac OS X (cont further)
The past couple of week's I've really gotten into writing code that communicates with gaming devices (the Mac is limited in this part of itself).
One annoyance I had was with getting rumbling working on the XBox 360 pad, eventually after essentially pinging all messages, I found and worked out the format for the rumble message, which was annoyingly nothing like the others listed.
Well after that I got kinda bored with the 360 and decided to turn towards another console controller, the Wiimote. And I thought I'd write my own driver.
Long story short, when I was having trouble getting my driver working, I looked at the code for the driver for Tattiebogle's XBox 360 pad driver, only to find out that it has redefined the rumble message to it's own format, namely the 4 byte one, only to forward on the settings to the 360 pad.
Well I'm glad I figured out why the message was different, kinda annoying that wasn't in his FAQ. Hopefully others will find this post and go "ohhhhhhhh" like I did when seeing the code.
As for the Wiimote, writing a driver for a Bluetooth device I've decided doesn't make sense, the device is already designed to communicate with another bluetooth device, so I made a class instead, using a Bluetooth API and documentation I found on WiiBrew.
I'll hopefully post my Xcode project for testing the 360 pad in a few days. And I'll probably write up my Wiimote stuff once I get it working the way I want. I'm really tempted to buy lots of cheap USB and Bluetooth devices on eBay now just to see if I can write drivers for them.
Athena: XBox 360 Pad and Mac OS X (cont)
In my previous entry, Athena: XBox 360 Pad and Mac OS X, I began work on getting the XBox 360 pad working in my game engine. I also said that I'd post how to change the LEDs and get rumble working when I figured it out.
I had no trouble with getting the LEDs flashing, but for some reason the rumble actuators just would not respond to my message with success.
I had searched at all other documentation on the pad on the internet, but although I found two variations of rumbling, neither worked.
It has taken my a week or two, but then I got the inspiration to just fire all possible messages to the pad, nullified apart from the header, and see responds with success. So I wrote some code to send 255 different type ids, with 255 different lengths.
//
//
void HIDInput::TestDevice( IOHIDDeviceRef inDeviceRef )
{
unsigned char reportData[255];
// Nullify Report
memset( reportData, 0, sizeof( unsigned char ) * 255 );
// Loop through most possible messages
for( unsigned char reportType = 0; reportType < 255; ++reportType )
{
for( unsigned char reportLength = 0; reportLength < 255; ++reportLength )
{
// Setup Header
reportData[0] = reportType;
reportData[1] = reportLength;
// Send Report to Pad
if( DeviceSendReport( inDeviceRef, reportType, reportData, reportLength ) )
{
printf( "Success - Type(%u), Length(%u)\n", reportType, reportLength );
}
else
{
printf( "Failed - Type(%u), Length(%u)\n", reportType, reportLength );
}
}
}
//
printf( "Finished\n" );
}
I'll explain show the function body for DeviceSendReport in a minute. After running this, only two reports returned with success, one was the LED report, and the other was of Type 0 with length 4.
Since the header take two bytes, I guessed the last two must be Actuator A and Actuator B. And after setting one of them to 0xff, I successfully managed to get one of the actuators rumbling, and then the other actuator with the other byte.
Now for the code for sending reports to the pad.
//
//
bool HIDInput::DeviceSendReport( IOHIDDeviceRef inDeviceRef, const unsigned char inType, const unsigned char * inReportData, const unsigned char inReportSize )
{
return IOHIDDeviceSetReport( inDeviceRef, kIOHIDReportTypeOutput, inType, inReportData, inReportSize ) == kIOReturnSuccess;
}
As you can see it takes a parameter called inDeviceRef, this is the value that was passed to DeviceMatchingCallback in the previous entry. And now here is the code to get the LED flashing, there are a few status values for it, so I've created an enum with some comments explaining what each do.
//
//
enum LEDStatus
{
kLED_AllOff = 0x00, // All LEDs are turned off
kLED_AllBlink = 0x01, // All LEDs repeatedly blink on and off
kLED_P1_FlashOn = 0x02, // Player 1 LED flashes then stays on
kLED_P2_FlashOn = 0x03, // Player 2 LED flashes then stays on
kLED_P3_FlashOn = 0x04, // Player 3 LED flashes then stays on
kLED_P4_FlashOn = 0x05, // Player 4 LED flashes then stays on
kLED_P1_On = 0x06, // Player 1 LED turns on
kLED_P2_On = 0x07, // Player 2 LED turns on
kLED_P3_On = 0x08, // Player 3 LED turns on
kLED_P4_On = 0x09, // Player 4 LED turns on
kLED_Rotating = 0x0a, // LEDs flash on in sequence
kLED_CurrentBlink = 0x0b, // Currently active LED blinks
kLED_SlowBlink = 0x0c, // All LEDs blink slowly
kLED_Alternating = 0x0d, // Player 1 & 4 alternate blink with Player 2 & 3
};
//
//
void HIDInput::FlashLED( IOHIDDeviceRef inDeviceRef, const LEDStatus inStatus )
{
//
const unsigned char kReportType = 0x01;
const unsigned char kReportSize = 0x03;
const unsigned char kReportData[kReportSize] =
{
kReportType, kReportSize, static_cast<Core::byte>( inStatus )
};
//
DeviceSendReport( inDeviceRef, kReportType, kReportData, kReportSize );
}
As you can see, it is fairly simple to send a message, all you have to remember is that the first two bytes contain a header (one byte for type, and one type for the size of the report including the header size). And finally for rumbling the motors.
//
//
void HIDInput::SetRumble( IOHIDDeviceRef inDeviceRef, const unsigned char inBigSpeed, const unsigned char inLittleSpeed )
{
//
const unsigned char kReportType = 0x00;
const unsigned char kReportSize = 0x04;
const unsigned char kReportData[kReportSize] =
{
kReportType, kReportSize, inBigSpeed, inLittleSpeed
};
//
DeviceSendReport( inDeviceRef, kReportType, kReportData, kReportSize );
}
I had some minor problems with the rumble not changing after the first call to SetRumble originally, however it turned out that I had just accidently set the report data variable to be static, so the initialisation was only setup with the first values passed.
Other Rumble Reports
As I mentioned before, I've found other message formats for rumbling the motors, I don't know if its a version thing, or something, but here are the other two I've found if you have trouble with mine.
Version 1 (Tattiebogle)
//
//
void HIDInput::SetRumble( IOHIDDeviceRef inDeviceRef, const unsigned char inBigSpeed, const unsigned char inLittleSpeed )
{
//
const unsigned char kReportType = 0x00;
const unsigned char kReportSize = 0x08;
const unsigned char kReportData[kReportSize] =
{
kReportType, kReportSize, 0x00, inBigSpeed, inLittleSpeed, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00
};
//
DeviceSendReport( inDeviceRef, kReportType, kReportData, kReportSize );
}
Version 2 (http://euc.jp/periphs/xbox-controller.ja.html)
//
//
void HIDInput::SetRumble( IOHIDDeviceRef inDeviceRef, const unsigned char inBigSpeed, const unsigned char inLittleSpeed )
{
//
const unsigned char kReportType = 0x00;
const unsigned char kReportSize = 0x06;
const unsigned char kReportData[kReportSize] =
{
kReportType, kReportSize, 0x00, inBigSpeed, 0x00, inLittleSpeed
};
//
DeviceSendReport( inDeviceRef, kReportType, kReportData, kReportSize );
}
Athena: XBox 360 Pad and Mac OS X
Tonight I began the process of writing some using the HID APIs to be able to use an XBox 360 controller on my MacBook Pro for the Athena engine.
As usual, my Courage game played host to testing this new method of control.
First of all, the XBox 360 pad uses a 0xff device class (Vendor specific), so normal HID drivers (they use a device class of 0x03) will not attach to it, so I needed to download a driver for MacOSX that could handle this. Also I didn't have a Microsoft Wireless Gaming Receiver so I bought a wired pad instead.
I tried the Tattiebogle driver, and at first it worked, but after I logged into VMWare Fusion and used by pad in Vista it stopped working on MacOSX. Or it could have been that I got the Wacom Bamboo pad installed recently.
So after a bit of searching I found another driver, which although didn't work, sparked Tattiebogle's to life. This one is known as XBox HID Driver for Mac OS X.
Once it was all up and running, getting code to listen for the 360 pad was a breeze, and Apple has a nice section on your website for it Technical Note TN2187: New HID Manager APIs for Mac OS X version 10. I'll summarise the basics needed to connect to the pad.
None of this code cleans up properly, like I said I only just started with the HID manager, so I'll probably post an example App at some point that does clean up properly when shutting down.
Setting up HID Manager
The following code is quite straight forward, it just sets up two callbacks, one for when a device matches what we are looking for, and one for when a device is removed.
The IOKit.framework is required.
I also have two global variables, one for the HID manager, and another the device we going to be reading (this code can only do one device since we only have one buffer variable).
//
//
#include <IOKit/hid/IOHIDLib.h>
#include <IOKit/hid/IOHIDUsageTables.h>
//
//
namespace HIDInput
{
//
void DeviceMatchingCallback( void * inContext, IOReturn inResult, void * inSender, IOHIDDeviceRef inIOHIDDeviceRef );
void DeviceRemovalCallback( void * inContext, IOReturn inResult, void * inSender, IOHIDDeviceRef inIOHIDDeviceRef );
void DeviceIOHIDReportCallback( void * inContext, IOReturn inResult, void * inSender, IOHIDReportType inType, uint32_t inReportID, uint8_t * inReport, CFIndex inReportLength );
Boolean Device_GetLongProperty( IOHIDDeviceRef inDeviceRef, CFStringRef inKey, long * outValue );
long Device_GetVendorID( IOHIDDeviceRef inIOHIDDeviceRef );
long Device_GetProductID( IOHIDDeviceRef inIOHIDDeviceRef );
//
IOHIDManagerRef l_IOHIDManagerRef;
uint8_t * l_pReportBuf = 0;
}
//
//
int main( int argc, char * argv[] )
{
// Create a HID manager with a default allocator
l_IOHIDManagerRef = IOHIDManagerCreate( kCFAllocatorDefault, kIOHIDOptionsTypeNone );
assert( IOHIDManagerRef );
// Look for all device and open the manager
IOHIDManagerSetDeviceMatching( l_IOHIDManagerRef, NULL );
IOHIDManagerOpen( l_IOHIDManagerRef, kIOHIDOptionsTypeNone );
// Register Callbacks to be run with application loop
IOHIDManagerRegisterDeviceMatchingCallback( l_IOHIDManagerRef, HIDInput::DeviceMatchingCallback, NULL );
IOHIDManagerRegisterDeviceRemovalCallback( l_IOHIDManagerRef, HIDInput::DeviceRemovalCallback, NULL );
IOHIDManagerScheduleWithRunLoop( l_IOHIDManagerRef, CFRunLoopGetCurrent(), kCFRunLoopDefaultMode );
//
while( true )
{
// loop application
}
return 0;
}
The call to IOHIDManagerSetDeviceMatching() can have a dictionary passed to it to look only for devices matching certain criteria, but for simplicity, I'll just be checking all devices in this example, so I passed NULL as a second argument.
Checking for XBox360 Pad
With the code setup for calling back when a device is found that matches (or all devices in our case), we now need to check the device vendor id and product id to be sure they are what we are looking for.
//
//
Boolean HIDInput::Device_GetLongProperty( IOHIDDeviceRef inDeviceRef, CFStringRef inKey, long * outValue )
{
CFTypeRef tCFTypeRef = IOHIDDeviceGetProperty( inDeviceRef, inKey );
Boolean result = FALSE;
if( tCFTypeRef )
{
// If this is a number get its value
if( CFNumberGetTypeID( ) == CFGetTypeID( tCFTypeRef ) )
{
result = CFNumberGetValue( ( CFNumberRef ) tCFTypeRef, kCFNumberSInt32Type, outValue );
}
}
return result;
}
//
//
long HIDInput::Device_GetVendorID( IOHIDDeviceRef inIOHIDDeviceRef )
{
long result = 0;
Device_GetLongProperty( inIOHIDDeviceRef, CFSTR( kIOHIDVendorIDKey ), &result );
return result;
}
//
//
long HIDInput::Device_GetProductID( IOHIDDeviceRef inIOHIDDeviceRef )
{
long result = 0;
Device_GetLongProperty( inIOHIDDeviceRef, CFSTR( kIOHIDProductIDKey ), &result );
return result;
}
//
//
void HIDInput::DeviceMatchingCallback( void * inContext, IOReturn inResult, void * inSender, IOHIDDeviceRef inIOHIDDeviceRef )
{
if( !inIOHIDDeviceRef )
{
return;
}
const long kVendor_Microsoft = 0x045e;
const long kProduct_XBox360Pad = 0x028e;
const long kVendorID = Device_GetVendorID( inIOHIDDeviceRef );
const long kProductID = Device_GetProductID( inIOHIDDeviceRef );
if( kVendorID == kVendor_Microsoft && kProductID == kProduct_XBox360Pad )
{
// Assert if we're trying to create a second XBox 360 pad device
assert( l_pReportBuf );
// Get the size of the report for the device and allocate a buffer. The
// report size property should be right, however the packet header
// seems to want 20 bytes, so I'm allocating 20 bytes to be safe.
CFIndex reportSize = 20;
//IOHIDDevice_GetLongProperty( inIOHIDDeviceRef, CFSTR( kIOHIDMaxInputReportSizeKey ), &reportSize );
l_pReportBuf = static_cast<uint8_t *>( malloc( reportSize ) );
// Register a report callback for this device
IOHIDDeviceRegisterInputReportCallback( inIOHIDDeviceRef, l_pReportBuf, reportSize, DeviceIOHIDReportCallback, 0 );
printf( "XBox Pad Connected.\n" );
}
}
//
//
void HIDInput::DeviceRemovalCallback( void * inContext, IOReturn inResult, void * inSender, IOHIDDeviceRef inIOHIDDeviceRef )
{
// Deallocate report buffer
free( l_pReportBuf );
l_pReportBuf = 0;
//
printf( "XBox Pad Disconnected.\n" );
}
We have two constants in the device matching callback, one that is the vendor id for Microsoft, and the other which is the product id for the XBox 360 pad.
Since this code only supports the one pad, I've added an assert which will be triggered if a second pad is attempted to be matched that is a 360 pad (it checks to see if the report buffer has already been allocated).
Once a device has been removed, I free the memory for the report buffer. I think I'm suppose to unregister the input report callback by passing null as the callback, but I'm not 100% sure yet.
All the other helper functions were found on the Apple website technical note.
Reading Pad Status
XBox 360 pad updates come through on a report type of 0x00 and are 14 bytes long (though I have read on other sites of people getting reports of 20 bytes, this just seems to be padding).
I have skipped the checking of the report type in this code, but it should probably be checked, as well as the report length.
//
//
void HIDInput::DeviceIOHIDReportCallback( void * inContext, IOReturn inResult, void * inSender, IOHIDReportType inType, uint32_t inReportID, uint8_t * inReport, CFIndex inReportLength )
{
// Output hex for each byte in the report (always 2 characters long, making up the rest with 0)
for( int i = 0; inReportLength; ++i )
{
printf( "%02x", inReport[i] );
}
//
printf( "\n" );
}
That sourcecode allows you to read just the actual reports being sent from the pad, however if you want to be able to use it as a 360 pad. You'll get a message something like this...
0014000000002efcc70792ff9a06
The 0014 at the beginning is a packet header, first byte being the command, second being the size of the packet. The other sections are split up as follows...
0014aaaabbccddddeeeeffffgggg
a is an unsigned short of button flags
b is an unsigned char representing the left trigger (LT)
c is an unsigned char representing the right trigger (RT)
d is a signed short representing the Left Axis X
e is a signed short representing the Left Axis Y
f is a signed short representing the Right Axis X
g is a signed short representing the Right Axis Y
This can be put into a function like so...
//
//
void HIDInput::DeviceIOHIDReportCallback( void * inContext, IOReturn inResult, void * inSender, IOHIDReportType inType, uint32_t inReportID, uint8_t * inReport, CFIndex inReportLength )
{
unsigned char leftTrigger, rightTrigger;
short rightAxisX, rightAxisY;
short leftAxisX, leftAxisY;
unsigned short buttonFlags;
// Copy bytes to their respective variables (incase they are not aligned correctly)
memcpy( &buttonFlags, &inReport[2], sizeof( unsigned short ) );
memcpy( &leftTrigger, &inReport[4], sizeof( unsigned char ) );
memcpy( &rightTrigger, &inReport[5], sizeof( unsigned char ) );
memcpy( &leftAxisX, &inReport[6], sizeof( short ) );
memcpy( &leftAxisY, &inReport[8], sizeof( short ) );
memcpy( &rightAxisX, &inReport[10], sizeof( short ) );
memcpy( &rightAxisY, &inReport[12], sizeof( short ) );
// Output pad stats
printf( "Buttons %u\n", buttonFlags );
printf( "LTrigger: %u\n", leftTrigger );
printf( "RTrigger: %u\n", rightTrigger );
printf( "LAxis: %d, %d\n", leftAxisX, leftAxisY );
printf( "RAxis: %d, %d\n", rightAxisX, rightAxisY );
printf("\n");
}
I don't know what the 2048 button flag is, it is possibly the synchronization button that is on the wireless controller. So here is a list of all the other button flags and their bit number.
//
//
enum XBox360_ButtonFlags
{
XBOX360PAD_DPAD_UP = 1,
XBOX360PAD_DPAD_DOWN = 2,
XBOX360PAD_DPAD_LEFT = 4,
XBOX360PAD_DPAD_RIGHT = 8,
XBOX360PAD_START = 16,
XBOX360PAD_BACK = 32,
XBOX360PAD_LAXIS = 64,
XBOX360PAD_RAXIS = 128,
XBOX360PAD_LB = 256,
XBOX360PAD_RB = 512,
XBOX360PAD_XBOX = 1024,
XBOX360PAD_A = 4096,
XBOX360PAD_B = 8192,
XBOX360PAD_X = 16384,
XBOX360PAD_Y = 32768,
};
There is still a lot more to cover, so I'll probably make a follow up entry tomorrow or the day after for sending messages to the pad to make it vibrate, and how to clean up after you're finished properly. As well as post an example application.
I also found a few new variables to add to my list of debugging preprocessor. I'll explain on the next page since this one is getting rather long.
Mac Laptop
I recently purchased a MacBook Pro laptop to go with my iPhone (The iPhone is a new environment for me to develop for), and although I've critised mac users for most of my time as a PC user, I can understand why they use it now, I prefer it over Windows now.
I think the latest advantage of the new MacBook Pro range is that they are Intel cores, meaning they can now dual boot Vista, so if I want to, I can still use Windows (which I only really use now for Microsoft Visual Studio and SVN.
Advantages to MacOSX
- For a start, Mac OSX supports multiple desktops through an application known as Expose/Spaces. There are things you can get for Windows to do this, and Linux does this natively, but the Mac is the smoothest transition i've seen.
- The battery life for a Mac is AMAZING. On my way to Bolton to return some library books, I was using Vista, it said I have 20 minutes left, I rebooted into MacOSX, I now have 50 minutes left. I've got this running for 5 hours unplugged with constant use programming. I've had it running even longer when not using it, with the battery barely losing any life. Not only that, but if you put the Mac to sleep by closing the lid, you can hot swap the batteries supposedly if you do it in 30 seconds. I have had reason to try this yet, but I'm looking forward to see if this is true.
- No shoddy plastic/tft screen, the MacBook Pro uses tempered glass, which is a hell of a lot easier to clean smudges off.
- The screen is backlit evenly by LEDs.
- The keyboard is backlit based on the amount of light from the webcam. During the the keyboard is not light, but if I move my hand over the camera it turns on and get brighter the more I cover.
- Interface Builder - what an amazing tool which just kicks the ass out of Microsoft's VS window tools. Not to mention with objective-c it can become very powerful.
- Networking, no having to screw around for hours to get things to work, to share files in a folder, I just add it to the shared list. Looking up networks is practically instantaneous, compared with the 5 minute wait Windows gives to check 255 addresses. I've had one problem with the WiFi in Bolton, and that was my MSN didn't work in MacOSX, it did in Vista, but that was it.
- My new laptop has a better Vista score than my PC.
- MagLock power cable. So many motherboards for laptops get broken because of them chunky power adapters getting stood on or bent or pulled. The Mac laptops use a MagLock power cable that is held in place by a powerful magnet.
- Cooling: I cannot believe still how cool the laptop runs, they really do use power efficiently and yet you wouldn't notice to use one. I left it on overnight to download something, and in the morning it was only slightly warm on the bottom, yet freezing on the top.
- Style: They are nice looking, especially the integrated cdrom on the side, they use things such as MiniDisplay or something to that extent, and some tiny ethernet to retain their low profile, but I can live with it (it supports WiFi n).
- Dictionary: Anything I type is has automatic OS spell checking ^-^.
- Updates: No more Microsoft Updates telling me to restart every 4 hours (or 10 minutes on XP). I choose when I want to update, it notifies me once, and thats all, I can update whenever. And when I do update, if I choose not to restart, I do not constantly get told that I should restart, it understands that I'm busy, that is why I'm doing things, unlike Windows when typing suddenly it pops up and if you type a word with a Y in or press enter, oh no looks like it restarting.. again.
- Terminal: I like how it comes with gcc, and I can just make a Makefile and source file and just compile in terminal.
- Multitouch pad: I love this one, one finger is left click/move, two fingers is scroll in the direction I move and right click. And three fingers when in finder, allows me to move backward and forward (like alt+left/right in windows explorer). Not to mention the pinch maneuver to stretch and squish images.
Advantages of Windows
- A lot of software is made for Windows only, which is annoying, I have to find either cross platform or Mac only downloads that are comparable, which isn't as hard as it may appear, but is a nuisance. Like TortoiseSVN, I haven't found a decent Mac version yet. I can always boot into Windows, but I do prefer MacOSX environment.
- Maximize, I love the maximize button and miss it a lot when in MacOSX, I hate everytime I open a window I need to stretch it to fill my screen. Is it too much to ask to have something that does it automagically. Maybe I'll write a program to do it...
- Print Screen, I hate the key combo for print screen on MacOSX, and I miss home/end.
Really there is good and bad things about both, neither will get it right since they want to be different from the other, but at the moment, I'd have to say Mac is slightly in the lead with design for the user. Microsoft let itself down with Vista by trying to make it more shiny than useful. If anything they made things more difficult, like going to the place where you can disable network adapters, etc.