Cheat Engine

[efficacy28]

I'm not surprised to see that people who use Cheat Engine for pointer scanning (not using the debugger) are having problems finding the pointer...

It is simply because of this:
1. Your maximum offset value is TOO small!
2. Your pointer is usually at the top (after 10 seconds of scanning).

I will TRY to explain these two things, with the best of the small knowledge I have of Cheat Engine. Correct me Dark byte, or anyone with greater knowledge/authority please...

Explaining 1:
First of all, your maximum offset value is too damn small!



Explaining A from the image above ^^^^^:
I have replace the supposed address in the pointer scan window, with a, "POOPIE=)". It's supposed to be a real address like "0005029B". So let's call whatever the address it is, "POOPIE=)". You put "POOPIE=)" in the "To:" box, under, "Pointer path may only be inside this region:". This GREATLY improves pointer scanning speed (unless the address that is "POOPIE=)" is 7FFFFFFF), because there are many useless address above "POOPIE=)". For example, if "POOPIE=)" was "0005029B", then "0005029C" and anything else above that is USELESS; Because the pointer is ALWAYS the address, not above it.

So you won't see a pointer that says: POOPIE=) - POOP. <--- In this case, the pointer is above the wanted address.
You would always find a pointer that says: POOPIE=) + POOP. <--- Ooh, it's under the wanted address! Yay!

Explaining B from the image above ^^^^^:
There are big offsets, and there are small offsets. Not EVERY game has a SMALL offset.

Big offset: POOPIE=) + OMGWTFBBQ
Small offset: POOPIE=) + hi

Let's replace "OMGWTFBBQ" with 2C9F, and "hi" with C. Understand it better now?

Explaining 2:
This PROBABLY won't help, but it might give someone an idea. I've tested this on EVERY hackable game I play (which is like 3), and it seems fine. Most of the time, you won't even have to restart the game, then researching for bad pointers! Although, it is still recommended.

When you find your OVER 9000 results, just click the pointer on the VERY top . I think, that this is all organized from the offset that is closest to 0. The top, being the smallest offset (which is closest to 0), and the bottom, being the biggest offset (which is closest to infinity). Unless of course, you search for a multilevel pointer, then the bottom won't necessarily be the biggest offset.

I've learned in Memory Hacking Software (MHS) pointer scanning, you should choose the offset that is CLOSEST to 0. In this case, I think it applies to the pointer scanning thing as well. Being closer to 0.

I guess you could say, that I'm done explaining stuff. You can tell, that I cannot explain that very well, due to bad, kiddish examples such as, "POOPIE=)" . I hope this helps someone (even a little bit), in pointer scanning.

Thank you for reading my FIRST post (w00t (because I had trouble signing into the Cheat Engine forum for like a year, and I think I can sign it for real now!)). Not the best first post...

... Okay let's go back to the topic. If you don't know what pointer scanning is, then look for it. If you think using the debugger is better, then be my guest. This is only to help those who are having trouble look for pointers with the pointer scanner in Cheat Engine. Enjoy .

[Dark Byte]

Note about 1:
windows can allocate memory at random locations, not always sequential
for example:
the game is allocated at 00400000
and when it allocates memory for the game memory it gets address 00320000 (happens more frequently in windows vista and later than xp, but still)

this means that it wouldn't find the pointer because the address that holds the pointer is after the address you wanted to find "poopie=)"

As for 2: While it's true that the smallest offset is usually the proper offset, it's more a matter of luck most of the time

http://forum.cheatengine.org/viewtopic.php?t=505866 showed a good example that the top isn't always the valid address (he stopped it the first time before he found a valid path, which had a offset bigger than the one closest to 0)

[efficacy28]

Ahh, I see. So it IS recommended to scan for longer periods of time, and then restarting the game to remove false pointers.

I notice that, some games have debugger protection, which means they close themselves when it detects cheat engine using the debugger on the game. But when I use pointer search, there's no debugger. How do you find pointers without the debugger? It's pretty awesome though.

Edit: Also, thanks for putting up the URL for the picture

[rain-13]

Whas should I do with 160k pinters? I stopped scan, otherwise I would have more likely millions of pointers. I have probably 4 level pointer.