Cheat Engine

cholo · Cheater Reputation: 0 Joined: 18 Oct 2010 Posts: 33

I found the only 2 addresses that change as the timer goes down:

0269DFB0 Double 3586.2758...
0269DFC0 Double 3586.375

Doing a WATA on each gives many items, but each item gives the same "value of the pointer" to search for, and after restarting the game the 2 addresses are still valid.

Problem is I can't freeze/stop the displayed countdown (59:46), or change it. In other words, the addresses appear valid, but freezing/changing them in CE does nothing in the game.

Previously, I had managed to freeze another value that goes down periodically if enemy controls key positions (420).

The game crashed once while I had the values freezed, but can't be sure that was the cause.

What am I missing?

Geri · Moderator Reputation: 111 Joined: 05 Feb 2010 Posts: 5636

Maybe these addresses are used only to display the timer. Check out what codes are accessing to them and what are they doing exactly. If they are really just copies, You can try to backtrace the source of the value.

Dark Byte · Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 11:21 am Post subject:

also try looking at those addresses using the memory view
Could just as well be that you only found the string representation instead of the actual time

Also, countdown timers can be a bit tricky. e.g they might have been stored as "TimeThatTheCountdownWasStarted" and the displayed time is then calculated using TotalTimeAvailable-(CurrentTime-TimeThatTheCountdownWasStarted)

so yes, in worst case scenario trace back and perhaps you can find in the code how it's done and what to change

cholo · Cheater Reputation: 0 Joined: 18 Oct 2010 Posts: 33

True, will try to follow the code.

Do you have a game hacking tutorial that deals with tracing assembler code?

Tips like using Space & Backspace keys to follow code are very useful.

Geri · Moderator Reputation: 111 Joined: 05 Feb 2010 Posts: 5636

You need ASM and debugging knowledge. I don't think that a "general" tutorial can be made about that. But here is a useful hint:

Tools->Dissect code in CE is useful when You try to go "backwards" in a program. It shows if a jump or call is pointing to the code.

Example:

04567080: jmp 0670A100
.....
.....
.....
.....
.....
0670A100: code that You check

In this case, code dissection will display that 0670A100 is destination of a jump from 04567080 and so You can go "backwards" in the code.

It takes a few minutes to run the dissection usually, but it is worth it.

cholo · Cheater Reputation: 0 Joined: 18 Oct 2010 Posts: 33

That's what I was talking about, there are useful CE features I need to learn.