Current status of modding?

[Nisk]

Aug 2, 2013 6:20:17 GMT Nemesis said:

The UK version has editor screens in ghost.exe. I've seen them.

Oh that's interesting. Any idea where I could see some of them?

Also, I assume I would still need to use the CD to launch the UK version, but I only have a US version CD. I'm not sure what the No-CD crack I've seen mentioned around here does, but I would guess it entails editing the exe and might mess something up. So if there are any other reasonable looking strings then someone else would probably have to test them.

EDIT: Well, the decompiler I was using refused to generate any strings for the UK version. However, I was searching for ways to uncover command line options and saw a program called Process Explorer recommended. I tried it out, and even on the US version it came up with a lot more strings. Unfortunately, there's a lot more gibberish as well. However, I did notice the string "no options specified on command line" which indicates that we're on the right track.

Here's a new pastebin (this is still the US version): pastebin.com/AN4w2MBd

[dark273]

What about writing a program, that starts the ghost exe with all the strings? Wouldn't that be way easier? You just need a way to find out if the real program is launched. I guess the editor wont start in fullscreen. So you could let your pc make a screenshot and check if it's black (I believe it does do that when a program is launched in fullscreen mode. However it might be, that it just shows the desktop. Could you code such a program? Else I believe I could. However I would need to know how to tell my program to start an exe with a commandline and of course I'm not sure if the screenshot is black if Ghost Master is launched in fullscreen. However there are other ways to determine if there is a program running in fullscreen. But I've never been into that, so I would rather go with the screenshot method if possible.

This would make checking the strings way faster and you wouldn't have to do a thing, expect coding the program.

[Nisk]

That sounds like a fairly good idea, although there are challenges. It takes time for the game to load up after issuing the command from the command prompt, especiallly because it needs to check whether the disk is in, so it would take a few seconds for each string. With 37,706 in the list, it would take some time. I suppose I could ignore ones that have spaces, ones that start with "TEXT_", ones that are clearly just filenames, etc. And if the editor does still launch in fullscreen, it would have been pointless unless I can find a better way to check. Maybe Nemesis can verify that it does not while I get the program ready.

[dark273]

The screens looked like non fullscreen. However I think, that if a programm uses DirectX you get a black screenshot. I'm fairly sure the editor does not use DirectX. I guess it doesn't even matter if it's DirectX. I think it's the same with all kinds of 3d Programms in fullscreen.

I got an exe, that works without cd. However I don't know if it can still launch the editor, since it's an edited exe.

[Nemesis]

I also only have a no-cd version at the moment. That shouldn't matter, though. If an exe is hacked properly, it should only be stripped of its copyright protection.
As for the screens: they're definitely windowed. I viewed them with a resource hacker. I thought it was simply called ResHack.

[Nisk]

I haven't done much with this since my last post, but I have more to ponder now.

I installed a No-CD crack from gamecopyworld.com, and checked the new executable with ResHack. It's missing several of the dialogs that the non-cracked version has. I'm not sure if I want to use it to test.

I did write a program that starts the game and takes a screenshot, but I stopped working on it before I could get the timing of the screenshot right to see whether it shows a blank screen or not. And it seems that the registry editor I was supposed to run according to the crack site now prevents both the cracked version and the CD version from working. Looks like I'm going to have to reinstall, and leave the registry alone next time.

I'm sort of having doubts about the whole program though. Those screens look like they would run parallel to the game itself (for example, the one to edit the camera position which doesn't look like it's in its own window, or the one which has buttons to recharge a ghost's powers). Would it launch the game itself in a windowed mode or something? If it still goes fullscreen, then the whole test would be pointless unless I test using some method other than whether the game is fullscreen. There's also so much junk in the list of strings. I know the command wouldn't be "fgqps" or "pqvr", but how would I distinguish those from something reasonable like "edt"?

I do have one other idea. Do we know where, if anywhere, the game's standard output and error streams are written to? That might be another thing to monitor with the program.

[Nemesis]

There is an error log somewhere in the Ghost Master data folder. It's been too long ago for me to remember where. Sorry.

[dosnite]

Hi I joined this forum yesterday. I have been coming here for years just never bothered to join. Sorry if this is off topic but I think I have some useful information on the bsp files. The following post from Nov 10, 2006 on the Model extraction thread, sorry if I used that word wrong, is what help me obtain ths info.
Re: Model extraction
« Reply #6 on Nov 10, 2006, 10:10pm »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just a starter!
Anyfile with the extension *.bsp is a 3D Scene/Model file.
the identify bytes for the file are as follows:
Hex: 47 47 42 54 00
I will continue to give you more as I get the rest together.
remember this is just a starter!
posted by adidassg2

47 47 42 54 00 translates to GGBT which I found out is a Getic 3D bsp, here is the site that helped me figure that out filext.com/file-extension/BSP .
Here is Getic 3d's website www.getic.net/ , hopefully this helps you.
Also I'm no good at programing anything or writing scripts so I can't help in that way. Again sorry if this is off topic but I didn't want to bump a thread that has been dead since march 29 2007.

[Nemesis]

That is definitely not off-topic. Thanks for the info and welcome to the forum!

[Nisk]

Hmm, if we could load the levels in an actual 3D editor, that would be a lot more useful than the tools in the exe (though those would certainly be useful as well). Has anyone ever experimented with opening them in getic?