[TEC] wide moding playground using a gamehook

[Klub Bilderberg]

Hello fellow modders.

All of us know that we are pretty much limited about modding this game. Because modding in its traditional way is mostly changing parameters or graphics given by developers.

At this point ive got an idea how we can overcome those limits and maybe offer much more exiting mods. Im talking about game hooks. Not sure if this has been ever tried before so lets discuss.

for lads im not talking about hacking the game. A game hook in its general form must not be a hack. Basically it is an external tool that injects code into running process (i.e. sh5.exe). It can read out what is going on inside the game engine and eventualy bring its own logic in by reading private parameters (what you would call "hardcoded stuff") and/or calling functions under certain circumstances.

just a few examples what might be possible when we use a game hook for moding the game:

+ we can change the game logic. Like spawn other submarines in order to make a real dynamic wulfspack operations.

+ we can make dramatic changes to the AI

+ we can change the way how the 3d engine renders the scene.

+ we can fix bugs that are outside of moding area in its traditional way

+ we can add new game content

basically our options are only limited by our fantasy and coding skills.
Actualy i feel absolutely confident about what is possible. Because i doubt that the devs has put much effort into hiding code entries because there is no need in a wallhacks or aimbots in a subsim.

discuss

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by Klub Bilderberg

Hello fellow modders.

All of us know that we are pretty much limited about modding this game. Because modding in its traditional way is mostly changing parameters or graphics given by developers.

At this point ive got an idea how we can overcome those limits and maybe offer much more exiting mods. Im talking about game hooks. Not sure if this has been ever tried before so lets discuss.

for lads im not talking about hacking the game. A game hook in its general form must not be a hack. Basically it is an external tool that injects code into running process (i.e. sh5.exe). It can read out what is going on inside the game engine and eventualy bring its own logic in by reading private parameters (what you would call "hardcoded stuff") and/or calling functions under certain circumstances.

just a few examples what might be possible when we use a game hook for moding the game:

+ we can change the game logic. Like spawn other submarines in order to make a real dynamic wulfspack operations.

+ we can make dramatic changes to the AI

+ we can change the way how the 3d engine renders the scene.

+ we can fix bugs that are outside of moding area in its traditional way

+ we can add new game content

basically our options are only limited by our fantasy and coding skills.
Actualy i feel absolutely confident about what is possible. Because i doubt that the devs has put much effort into hiding code entries because there is no need in a wallhacks or aimbots in a subsim.

discuss

In a way what you're doing is looking for security vulnerabilities, buffer overflows, and the likes so that you can inject code into them to call functions outside of the current application

[Klub Bilderberg]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

In a way what you're doing is looking for security vulnerabilities, buffer overflows, and the likes so that you can inject code into them to call functions outside of the current application

not realy. I was thinking about simple dll injection. after all sh5 is a windows process.

[skwasjer]

My speech mod uses an injected DLL. Technically, it's not even injecting, because you do not need to do tricky stuff, you can load any DLL from script. Hooking the DirectX functions or other functions, is very easy now (as opposed to SH3/4 where you actually need to inject a DLL using an injector). It all runs in the same process space so no memory related problems either.

[mobucks]

but doesnt each one become outdated as soon as a new patch rolls around? (not much of an issue for SH5 but....) Someone made an excellent hook for Empire Total War that solved all the 3d models turning into 2d sprites at X distance, but only for one patch, and he wont make it again because it was such a pain to go through all the variables ect.

[aergistal]

Before thinking about more advanced stuff I wish there was an easy way to just display a form on top of a fullscreen DX application.

[urfisch]

nice idea!!!