Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
279 lines (209 loc) · 12 KB

README_old.md

File metadata and controls

279 lines (209 loc) · 12 KB

OWL/OWC Season 2022

OWC

It seems you can no longer earn Contenders skins by watching on https://overwatchleague.com/en-us/contenders based upon the new rules. You can check the new rules for 2022 Contenders here where it clearly states Youtube is the only platform you can earn skins on. Sad to see this change.

What is strange is that they didn't remove the banner on the website for the rewards and the mechanism to track watch time. Blizzard's tracking endpoints still accept requests to track time and send OK as response. However I seem to be unable to unlock the skins. I might disable OWC for the next releases of the app.

OWL

This season has been very problematic for rewards(tokens) due to Blizzard's random errors in their website and tracking endpoints. This applies whether you use the app or watch on overwatchleague.com. You may randomly see:

  • the "green circle" disappearing -> the app tells you it "Watched x minutes" and goes back to checking mode or says "OWL seems Live, not tracking"
    • this is due to Blizzard's tracking endpoints responding with "stop tracking" when trying to track time even though the stream is still live (issue #15). If this happens on overwatchleague.com you need to refresh the page to solve a pause/play again is enough to restart the tracking process, however note that the "green circle" only contacts the tracking endpoints again after 1min has passed
  • sometimes the whole video panel on overwatchleague.com disappears -> app says "Not live" or says "Page incorrectly formatted"

Hope all these problems get fixed because at the end of last season (OWL and OWC) there were almost no issues at all.

Overwatch Omnic Rewards

Windows Build Linux Build MacOS Build

A System Tray app designed to help players earn Overwatch League tokens and Contenders skins(*). Cross-platform (Windows/Linux/MacOS). Created using Python and PyQt5.

Features

  • Earn OWL tokens and OWC skins(*) in the background
  • No Login Required
  • Very lightweight, doesn't inflate Youtube views
  • Uses the same mechanism as OWL/OWC website (Small colored dot)
  • Stats - Show Hours watched/tokens earned (also csv file)
  • Can Shutdown computer after stream ended
  • Open current stream with middle mouse click on icon (customizable left/middle click with set actions)

Table of Contents

Install

Check the releases section for Windows/Linux/MacOS executables.

Can't be sure that the MacOS executable works (never used/don't have a MacOS). Open an issue if it doesn't, and I'll fix whatever is wrong. Last resort, MacOS users should check out the How to run section to run the app.

FAQ

How does it work? The app checks every 10min if OWL/OWC is currently live. If it's live, it will start to "watch" and track watch time. It uses the same mechanism as the OWL/OWC website to track your watch time.
What does it need? No logins, no passwords. It only needs your Blizzard user_id that you can obtain in <5secs. Follow the steps on the app to get it.
Does it work? It does. I've been using it since June 2021 and earned all my contenders skins and tokens this way.

This mechanism was already found and implemented before (with minor differences). See these repositories:

Is it more reliable than the website? It is as you don't rely on the youtube player status (playing/not playing) to track. Also you can have ad-blockers blocking the necessary tracking endpoints. However I can't guarantee the OWL tracking endpoints are stable (sometimes they go down).
Won't this get detected/broken? This app behaves like a normal browser/user and should be undetectable. I reverse engineered the mechanism that is used to track the user on OWL/OWC site. The mechanism itself is very simple.

If the devs change the mechanism, it should be possible to patch the app fairly easily. Can't guarantee it will work forever.

I am a developer. Can I see this method/code? You should check out the utils folder and the examples inside. Any python programmer should be able to see what it does in <5min. Feel free to use/reimplement.
Can you make this app run at startup/login/boot? You certainly can. Just download the executable and follow the steps below

Any doubts on how it all works or if you want more specifics, open a discussion and I'll try to explain everything with the best of my abilities.

Also if you want any features/changes, open a discussion and I'll try to implement it if feasible. If you can code you can also PR it

How to Run

Run the executables from the releases section

OR

  1. Clone the repository
  2. Install Python (3.10 recommended) and then pipenv
pip install pipenv
  1. Run the app under pipenv environment
pipenv install
pipenv run python app.py

Docker

Build docker image

docker build -t overwatch-omnic-rewards .

Run the app inside docker container (Put your ID of your account instead of 123456789)

docker run -d -e ACCOUNT_ID=123456789 overwatch-omnic-rewards

Developing

This app uses pipenv to manage its requirements. Install the dev requirements if you want to develop and test the app

pipenv install --dev

and then start a shell to get to the virtual env and then run the app.

pipenv shell
python app.py

(Optional) You can compile your own pyqt resource file. I already provide it for ease of use but you should make sure the code is right.

pyrcc5 resources.qrc -o resources_qc.py

Testing the app

Given that the OWL/OWC isn't always live it is unfeasible to test the app. I created a simple flask server to mock the requests - test/flaskapi.py

cd test/
python flaskapi.py

You can comment/uncomment certain lines to get the desired behaviour you want to mimic or even change how many minutes you want to fake "watch".

To run the app using local endpoints

python app.py --debug

Debugging the app

Run the app with verbose mode (logging level: info)

python app.py -v

You can also set the logging level (info, warning, debug)

python app.py -l <logging level>

If you need to get the logs in a file format with a timestamp (<filename> is optional, defaults to omnic.log)

python app.py --file-log <filename>

Building/package the app

Run PyInstaller

  • Linux build
pyinstaller app.py -n omnic_rewards_Linux --onefile
  • Windows build
pyinstaller app.py -n omnic_rewards_Windows -w -i icons\iconowl.ico --onefile

Code/PR away and feel free to criticize my code. I would really like to get real advice as it was my first time using PyQt.

Common Problems/Additional Questions

Any bugs/problems that are not covered by these questions, please open an issue

The app is displaying errors The app should tell you what the problem is. Make sure your account is set and you are connected to the Internet. Also open an issue if it persists.
Getting "Watcher Bad API Response" It is probably the tracking endpoints having a breakdown. When people complain the circle is disappearing on the website it's this error.
"OWC/OWC seems Live, not tracking" - Getting 0min watched warning When the stream ends, the OWL website takes a while to remove the live now panel. The app detects it is "live" but it can't track/"watch". This is most likely the reason. (2022 season) This is happening randomly when the stream is still live due to Blizzard's endpoints. This is the same as the "green circle" disappearing when watching on overwatchleague.com.
My app dissappeared That indicates a hard crash. Try to reproduce it and open a issue on Github so I can fix it.
My PC didn't shutdown after the stream ended The app tries to shutdown the computer on the next false live check.
  • Linux: Depends on systemctl
  • Windows: Not tested but should work
  • MacOS: Can't test if the method used to shutdown works at all (open issue on Github if it doesn't)
My problem isn't listed here Open an issue on Github so I can try to fix it
Can I change the time between checks? You can via Settings->Experimental or manually changing the config file (config.json) but you might get 0min watched warnings (at the end of a stream) if it's too low. I feel 5min (default) is a good compromise.
Can I run this with multiple accounts? You can. To do this you should
  • Place the app in different folders with different config files (config.json) for each account

OR

  • Create multiple config files and run the app multiple times using the --config argument (CLI mode is also recommended to eliminate the multiple system tray icons -> --cli argument)
python app.py --config config1.json
python app.py --config config2.json
Can I get my watch history with more detail? The app creates a csv file with your watch history. Check the created file - history.csv
Can I run this without the system tray icon or on a server? You can using the CLI mode. The argument -c or --cli makes the system tray not visible, and runs exclusively on the command line. 
python app.py --cli

This mode doesn't require any graphical dependencies so you can run it on a server without a display. This mode assumes that you already have a config.json with accountid field (copy one created previously and change it accordingly or create a json file with the accountid field).

This app is really good. Can I hire you? My resume consists of 4999SR Genji main with coding on the side. I accept food as payment. Email me

Contact me/Open a discussion for further explanations or anything else not explained here