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Help getting information from a non managed programme.game, but I have been struggling with this project for weeks now so would appreciate some help - although I understand what i'm trying to do is quite advanced. I'm doing this more as a learning excercise where the means is more important than the end. When you press 'caps lock' in the programme a heads up type overview is placed on the screen. The overview consists of coloured squares representing friends or foe. The squares are different colours depending on if they represent a friend or a foe. In addition to these small coloured squares shaded blocks are displayed which indicate the walls in the room (the parts you can't walk through). When you press 'caps lock' a second time the heads up view vanishes, so 'caps lock' toggles the view. When the heads up view is displayed you can walk around as normal it's just a overlay that appears on the screen. What I would like to do is create a form which recreates this overlay. So basically I would open the game and then open my form and the form would display the same heads up view (or similiar) to what you get when you press 'caps lock' in the game. How do I do this please? Any ideas would be appreciated, because this project is consuming too many of my weekends now without making any progress! Many Thanks, Gary- Try,
microsoft.public.vc.language Show quoteHide quote <garyuse***@myway.com> wrote in message news:1166264441.627052.164740@73g2000cwn.googlegroups.com... > Program is witten in C++ and runs on my windows xp computer. It is a > game, but I have been struggling with this project for weeks now so > would appreciate some help - although I understand what i'm trying to > do is quite advanced. I'm doing this more as a learning excercise where > the means is more important than the end. > > When you press 'caps lock' in the programme a heads up type overview is > placed on the screen. The overview consists of coloured squares > representing friends or foe. The squares are different colours > depending on if they represent a friend or a foe. In addition to these > small coloured squares shaded blocks are displayed which indicate the > walls in the room (the parts you can't walk through). > > When you press 'caps lock' a second time the heads up view vanishes, so > 'caps lock' toggles the view. When the heads up view is displayed you > can walk around as normal it's just a overlay that appears on the > screen. > > What I would like to do is create a form which recreates this overlay. > So basically I would open the game and then open my form and the form > would display the same heads up view (or similiar) to what you get when > you press 'caps lock' in the game. > > How do I do this please? Any ideas would be appreciated, because this > project is consuming too many of my weekends now without making any > progress! > > Many Thanks, > > Gary- > Carl, im writing this in C# :)
Carl Frisk wrote: Show quoteHide quote > Try, > > microsoft.public.vc.language > -- > ...Carl Frisk > Anger is a brief madness. > - Horace, 20 B.C. > http://www.carlfrisk.com > > > > <garyuse***@myway.com> wrote in message news:1166264441.627052.164740@73g2000cwn.googlegroups.com... > > Program is witten in C++ and runs on my windows xp computer. It is a > > game, but I have been struggling with this project for weeks now so > > would appreciate some help - although I understand what i'm trying to > > do is quite advanced. I'm doing this more as a learning excercise where > > the means is more important than the end. > > > > When you press 'caps lock' in the programme a heads up type overview is > > placed on the screen. The overview consists of coloured squares > > representing friends or foe. The squares are different colours > > depending on if they represent a friend or a foe. In addition to these > > small coloured squares shaded blocks are displayed which indicate the > > walls in the room (the parts you can't walk through). > > > > When you press 'caps lock' a second time the heads up view vanishes, so > > 'caps lock' toggles the view. When the heads up view is displayed you > > can walk around as normal it's just a overlay that appears on the > > screen. > > > > What I would like to do is create a form which recreates this overlay. > > So basically I would open the game and then open my form and the form > > would display the same heads up view (or similiar) to what you get when > > you press 'caps lock' in the game. > > > > How do I do this please? Any ideas would be appreciated, because this > > project is consuming too many of my weekends now without making any > > progress! > > > > Many Thanks, > > > > Gary- > > Oh. I just saw the Program written in C++ and non managed in the subject line with no reference that you are writing an
add-on in something else like C#. You do have an interesting task ahead in reverse engineering the C++ code. Without the source and or an API you are going to have to see what is exposed publicly. Try using Dependency Walker http://www.dependencywalker.com/ and or Spy++ which comes with VS 200x. You don't mention which application you are attempting to hook into. That would help. With that said C# may not be my 1st choice. C++ most likely would be so I would have ready use of pointers. But that's my own style of course. A lot of games have APIs to accomplish just what you are trying to do. Show quoteHide quote <garyuse***@myway.com> wrote in message news:1166266964.704536.299650@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com... <omiited>> Carl, im writing this in C# :) > > Carl Frisk wrote: > >> Try, >> >> microsoft.public.vc.language >> -- >> ...Carl Frisk >> Anger is a brief madness. >> - Horace, 20 B.C. >> http://www.carlfrisk.com >> >> >> >> <garyuse***@myway.com> wrote in message news:1166264441.627052.164740@73g2000cwn.googlegroups.com... >> > Program is witten in C++ and runs on my windows xp computer. It is a >> > game, but I have been struggling with this project for weeks now so >> > would appreciate some help - although I understand what i'm trying to >> > do is quite advanced. I'm doing this more as a learning excercise where >> > the means is more important than the end. >> > Show quoteHide quote > > Gary- >> > > On 16 Dec 2006 02:20:41 -0800, garyuse***@myway.com wrote:
>What I would like to do is create a form which recreates this overlay. What problems are you having?>So basically I would open the game and then open my form and the form >would display the same heads up view (or similiar) to what you get when >you press 'caps lock' in the game. Do you need help on how to read the Caps Lock key? Look at the KeyDown, KeyPress and KeyUp events. Do you need help with setting a transparent background for your overlay? If you can be more specific then we can give you more help. rossum garyuse***@myway.com wrote:
>What I would like to do is create a form which recreates this overlay. Clarify:>So basically I would open the game and then open my form and the form >would display the same heads up view (or similiar) to what you get when >you press 'caps lock' in the game. can you alter the source code of the game? are you trying to get real data from the game, or just trying to learn how to pop up an overlay? -- Lucian Thankyou sorry if i was vague.
I'm trying to get real data from the game. I dont have source code for the game. So far I have come to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that i need to use P/Invoke and use functions of kernel32.dll for reading memory. But I dont know where to start looking for what parts of memory i should be reading etc.. I've never done anything like this before and am struggling to make a start. I hope I have clarified a bit, please ask if i need to clarify more. Thankyou, Gary- Lucian Wischik wrote: Show quoteHide quote > garyuse***@myway.com wrote: > >What I would like to do is create a form which recreates this overlay. > >So basically I would open the game and then open my form and the form > >would display the same heads up view (or similiar) to what you get when > >you press 'caps lock' in the game. > > Clarify: > > can you alter the source code of the game? > > are you trying to get real data from the game, or just trying to learn > how to pop up an overlay? > > -- > Lucian garyuse***@myway.com wrote:
>So far I have come to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that i need This is one of the most difficult reverse-engineering tasks there is!>to use P/Invoke and use functions of kernel32.dll for reading memory. >But I dont know where to start looking for what parts of memory i >should be reading etc.. I've never done anything like this before and >am struggling to make a start. And people in this newsgroup are oriented towards high-level programming rather than low-level reverse engineering. If you want advice on the reverse-engineering, what you'd have to do is explain clearly and in detail how the game works, what its user-interface is like, who wrote it, what's its name, ... And even then you're unlikely to get useful advice. I can tell you how I've gone about reverse-engineering stuff. (1) To reverse engineer a binary file format, I created some example files in the application, saved them to disk, printed out a binary dump of them, and just stared at them looking for patterns. Finding more and more patterns. Figure out what are the blocks, what is the block architecture. (2) To reverse engineer how win95 screensavers worked, I loaded a screensaver in a debugger (Borland C++Builder) and stepped through the machine code step by step. (3) To disable copy-protection on one of my games, I loaded it up in the debugger and looked for a call to the DialogBox API function which popped up "please insert the CD in your primary CD drive". Set the breakpoint here. And looked at the callstack when it got here. (4) To hack a game, I took a note of the number of my current health points in the game. Saved a snapshot of the game's memory state. Then searched through the memory looking for that number. Figured out the surrounding data-structures. It sounds like you want to query the game's map. This will be like a combination of (1) and (4), but much more difficult, because the map will be stored in some game-specific format, not just plain numbers. If it's a network game then it might be easier to sniff network packets. -- Lucian hmm thanks Lucian lots to think about there
Lucian Wischik wrote: Show quoteHide quote > garyuse***@myway.com wrote: > >So far I have come to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that i need > >to use P/Invoke and use functions of kernel32.dll for reading memory. > >But I dont know where to start looking for what parts of memory i > >should be reading etc.. I've never done anything like this before and > >am struggling to make a start. > > This is one of the most difficult reverse-engineering tasks there is! > And people in this newsgroup are oriented towards high-level > programming rather than low-level reverse engineering. If you want > advice on the reverse-engineering, what you'd have to do is explain > clearly and in detail how the game works, what its user-interface is > like, who wrote it, what's its name, ... And even then you're unlikely > to get useful advice. > > I can tell you how I've gone about reverse-engineering stuff. > > (1) To reverse engineer a binary file format, I created some example > files in the application, saved them to disk, printed out a binary > dump of them, and just stared at them looking for patterns. Finding > more and more patterns. Figure out what are the blocks, what is the > block architecture. > > (2) To reverse engineer how win95 screensavers worked, I loaded a > screensaver in a debugger (Borland C++Builder) and stepped through the > machine code step by step. > > (3) To disable copy-protection on one of my games, I loaded it up in > the debugger and looked for a call to the DialogBox API function which > popped up "please insert the CD in your primary CD drive". Set the > breakpoint here. And looked at the callstack when it got here. > > (4) To hack a game, I took a note of the number of my current health > points in the game. Saved a snapshot of the game's memory state. Then > searched through the memory looking for that number. Figured out the > surrounding data-structures. > > It sounds like you want to query the game's map. This will be like a > combination of (1) and (4), but much more difficult, because the map > will be stored in some game-specific format, not just plain numbers. > > > If it's a network game then it might be easier to sniff network > packets. > > -- > Lucian  
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