SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Taking MODs in another direction

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- SHIII Mods Workshop (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=195)

- - Taking MODs in another direction (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=143559)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hitman

Forgive my ignorance but....

this all sounds very interesting -and also frighteningly close to the ilegal modification of the program's core- but what exactly could be done with this? I mean, the things that are as of today still the big letdowns in SH3 like Wolfpacks can't be added like this. Or can they? What areas of the game could be improved using this technique?

To add an AI for submarines that allows submerging, evading and such -and hence allow wolfpacks- by adding it to an extra DLL and then telling the game to read it, you would need to know how the game is programmed inside its exe so you can use the same format, right?

Can that be done?

Can it be done without -ilegally- reverse engineering the whole exe? :hmm:

And will all this be worth it?

On the legal aspect: All modding is a breach of the user agreement and therefor illegal without permission. So I would not worry too much about that.

This is indeed an interesting topic...something which JScones "hinted" at a few Sh3Commander releases ago. There is quite a lot of stuff that can be "played with" in mem via a good TSR.

Takes me back to my Commodore PET days....oh bring back the 6502E....and the horse 'n cart.

:rock:

Actually, modding SH3 is legal...within certain limits.

Although it may or may not give explicit permission in the EULA, the fact that mods are listed and promoted in the Community section of the SH3 homepage and Ubi Forums does give an implicit permission.

Also, the mods we've seen so far do not require decompiling or reverse-engineering the game's program code, either with a tools like a disassembler or by hand (although you'd have to be an uber-programming god and/or crazy to do it by hand).

Ubisoft is very aware that SH3 has been far more popular and successful because of the efforts of dedicated modders. Nobody here is trying to steal Ubisoft's secrets, just make SH3 the best sim it can possibly be and all for the love of the game, not financial profit. It seems Ubisoft understands this and the "suits" are smart enough to realize the goodwill generated with this community can only ensure greater successes for the Silent Hunter Franchise in the future (if they listen to their fans).

As for what can be achieved with the methods speculated upon in this thread, I refer you back to JScones' post to contemplate some ideas.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graf Paper

Also, the mods we've seen so far do not require decompiling or reverse-engineering the game's program code

Even a simple skin replacement requires basic reverse engineering and it doen't
need to be part of the .exes or .dlls to be against the user agreement.
Even if there was a file called uboatskin.tga, you still have to change it, run the
game and see if the skin has changed. All such activity is reverse engineering.

Of course, there will never be any complaints from the copyright owners because
almost all modding is good for business. Same applies to the modding under
discussion here.

Back on topic:

I had a go at editing some of the .DLL a while ago. I got results, but not the
ones I wanted.

Thanks for the input guys. I think this would be a very interesting addition to the game. What are your ideas on how to make use of memory editing as such? Any new events/changes that havn't been mentioned yet?

This thread is for discussing the creation, use, and viablity of this idea from a programming standpoint. All issues regarding legality should be fought over in a seperate thread. Lets keep this on topic people.

If you could change the weather patterns.....that would be good.

Simdata.dll has to word "weather" in it several times. It might be a good place to look.

HTML Code:

While I don't have a clue what you guys are talking about , I'm impressed and even envious. :yep: :up:

Me too! Got to love this forum

Confused with no idea of what you guys are talking about but if
it concerns mods and mod abilities I LOVE IT.

Like a lot of others I can not mod so I depend on Subsims great
modders to keep this simulation better and better.

Never give up on thinking of more and more.

Me too! Got to love this forum