Cheat Engine

hitmetwice

Hey,
Could someone explain me in.. say 10 sentences how to use the pointer scanner feature of CE?
I already did the onboard tutorial of CE and read alot of tutorials i found using google, but i'm not really able to find my base pointer (static pointer? is this the same?)

I did my testings using the Windows7 MineSweeper.
and I am looking for the Pointer of the counter that shows me how much time i currently played this round...
(btw using the manual method it was VERY simple to find the base pointer
(address: "minesweeper.exe"+868B4 ; offsets 1C, 10 ; type: float)
but I wanto to use the pointerscanner to train for some 'real stuff' like 16lvl pointer...
well..
-I started Minesweeper
-searched for the adress of the time
-and started the Pointerscan (170000 pointer were found, I saved it calling it abc.PTR)
-restarted minesweeper
-searched for the time adress again
-opened the file I saved before (abc.PTR)
-clicked rescann and wrote my new adress in the popup window
-still 70000 pointers
...
...
...
-still 40000
-the number is decreasing far too slow oO so what am I doing wrong? The tutorials I read told me that 4 scans should be enough to get my base pointer but it looks like it will need about 1000 scans :/.

I hope you can help me. Smile

best regards,
hitmetwice

Dark Byte · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 2:25 pm Post subject:

So you have 40000 pointers that are working through several restarts.
I'd say that's pretty good.

Try rebooting your system and then a rescan, or try it on another computer with the exact same version of windows/minesweeper

After that just pick one you like the most

hitmetwice · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:35 am Post subject:

Oh, ok, I will try that. If this will work I'm seriously wondering why not even one tutorial I read were telling me to do that...
I have some additional noob questions, would be nice if you could answer them for me:
Is a static pointer the same as a base pointer?
Lot of tutorials are telling you that a 'green' adress is a base pointer, but for me it looks like the pointer to this adress is the base pointer?
Can I do my additional scans using a vm and using a different OS?
I can change the state of a checkbox using CE, editing an edit box seems to be impossible tho. normal?
Can I update my pointers without starting the exe?
Is there a more automated way to get my pointers, I mean using the manual method I dont have to restart my programm..

Dark Byte · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:42 pm Post subject:

hitmetwice · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 4:04 am Post subject:

Thank you soo much for answering all my questions! Smile

I just tried to make a pointerscan for a pointer of a way more complex game and the fist scan gave me like 60000 pointers and the second one only 3(!), I think this is what it should actually be like, huh? Very Happy

I did't even restart my computer, I just restarted the game... So well, it looks pretty practicable.
(Anyway, I'm still wondering why Minesweeper had sooooo much pointers in the beginning (170000) and after 20 rescans still 40000...)

Dark Byte · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 4:13 am Post subject:

It depends on the level and structsize, the bigger they are the more results you get
Also, if you find that none of the 6 pointers you found after a mapswitch, or 5 more reboots, then try a bigger level/structsize

hitmetwice · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 4:19 am Post subject:

If I start another rescan, there are no pointers left, so what should I do? Take one of the 3 pointers i found in the scan before or will it give me a false resault anyways?
and is it a problem that the base pointers are starting from a dll-file?
I think the problem is that I am not able to delimit my adresses to less than 16, they all have the same value I was looking for...and for my rescan I probably took the wrong address.

Dark Byte · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 4:50 am Post subject:

The problem is that either the level or structsize was too small.
Try level 6 or/and a structsize of 3072

If you don't get millions of addresses it's usually not enough.

hitmetwice · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:05 am Post subject:

okay, well I know that am looking for a pointer with more than 12 lvls. Maybe I should tell cheatengine to search for like 30 lvls?

Dark Byte · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:48 am Post subject:

When you say you know it's more than a level 12, does that mean you did a level 12 and found nothing, or do you mean someone told you so ?

If you did it yourself, then try a level 14 first as each level exponentially increases the scantime

Also, try a bigger structure size

hitmetwice · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:10 am Post subject:

well, I started to search my basepointer using the manual method and when I reached lvl 12 I stoped and decided to use the pointer scanner...

Dark Byte · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:17 am Post subject:

Perhaps you got into a loop when doing the manual method. (e.g the same pointervalue more than once)

When scanning for the hexadecimal value, don't always pick the first address. Sometimes one of the other results is of use as well.

Also, there are multiple paths. Perhaps you where tracking the path from the game engine when it changes the address, but perhaps the path from the GUI when it reads it might be shorter

hitmetwice · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:44 am Post subject: