Cheat Engine Forum Index Cheat Engine
The Official Site of Cheat Engine
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 


Time Troubles

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Cheat Engine Forum Index -> General Gamehacking
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
DJK
Cheater
Reputation: 0

Joined: 13 Sep 2010
Posts: 34

PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 3:58 pm    Post subject: Time Troubles Reply with quote

Hey,

I got a countdown timer in my game, like starting at 0:04:00 and goes each second down until 0:00:00.

I'd like to freeze this timer but I don't know how to search for time values Sad

I tried searching as text and while I do find a result that goes down with every second, altering or freezing this address has no effect on the timer... I'm guessing it's writing the timer count to memory but isn't using that specific value to read from it back...

Any suggestions ?

Thanks !
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
XaLeX
Expert Cheater
Reputation: 0

Joined: 19 Aug 2008
Posts: 226

PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 5:17 pm    Post subject: Re: Time Troubles Reply with quote

DJK wrote:
I tried searching as text and while I do find a result that goes down with every second, altering or freezing this address has no effect on the timer... I'm guessing it's writing the timer count to memory but isn't using that specific value to read from it back...


Your guess is right. You searched for text and found text (a string) that contains the stringified number to be shown on screen. The actual timer value is more likely to be some sort of number (int / float).
But hey, better than nothing at all. I suggest finding the code that writes to the string and then tracing it back to find the real number.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DJK
Cheater
Reputation: 0

Joined: 13 Sep 2010
Posts: 34

PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 5:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmm I know for you this is is ezcake but I'm really a 1s time user on this and well this is what I tried after reading your post (which is prolly the wrong way to go about it)

I added the text value to my table, I then right clicked it and selected "what writes to this address".

I unpause my game and almost immidiately it gives me the following information:

7336547c - 89 44 8f fc - mov [edi+ecx*4-04],eax
733654ce - 88 07 - mov [edi+01],al
733654d3 - 88 47 01 - mov [edi+01],al
733654d9 - 88 47 02 - mov [edi+02],al

And well here I'm kinda stumped again, are those 7336547c for example the possible addresses ? Don't really know how to continue from here , if I'm on the right track to start with Embarassed

Thanks for the help !
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Geri
Moderator
Reputation: 111

Joined: 05 Feb 2010
Posts: 5627

PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 6:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If You don't know what are those codes, probably You will not be able to backtrace the value to the source with this method.

Just try to search for increased or decreased values and maybe You find the address which holds the value for the timer.

Sometimes, seconds are counted as Float values. Like 1 second = 1 in float. In other cases they are stored as 4 byte integer values and You can find them with increased/decreased scans.

If You can stop the timer in the game somehow, it helps alot in the search because You can search for unchanged value too.

_________________
My trainers can be found here: http://www.szemelyesintegracio.hu/cheats

If you are interested in any of my crappy articles/tutorials about CE and game hacking, you can find them here:
http://www.szemelyesintegracio.hu/cheats/41-game-hacking-articles

Don't request cheats or updates.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DJK
Cheater
Reputation: 0

Joined: 13 Sep 2010
Posts: 34

PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 8:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmm I tried using the value changed / unchanged but well ... not sure if my 3.3gb of mem is limiting me (I can't go higher unless I install a 64bit OS). But a lot of times CE just crashes on the second search... the 1st one gives me roughly 2 billion results (unknown value) but goes relativly quick... the second scan however usually just crashes my CE...

A few times I had it going through but I end up with a LOT of results that seem to endlessly coherent with whatever I throw at it (changed, unchanged, increased, decreased (accomplished with reloading the level), and well I tried the green ones (as I learned the black values are never the ones I need :p) but I can freeze every single green one and the counter is still merely ticking on ..
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Geri
Moderator
Reputation: 111

Joined: 05 Feb 2010
Posts: 5627

PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

DJK wrote:
Hmm I tried using the value changed / unchanged but well ... not sure if my 3.3gb of mem is limiting me (I can't go higher unless I install a 64bit OS). But a lot of times CE just crashes on the second search... the 1st one gives me roughly 2 billion results (unknown value) but goes relativly quick... the second scan however usually just crashes my CE...

A few times I had it going through but I end up with a LOT of results that seem to endlessly coherent with whatever I throw at it (changed, unchanged, increased, decreased (accomplished with reloading the level), and well I tried the green ones (as I learned the black values are never the ones I need :p) but I can freeze every single green one and the counter is still merely ticking on ..


I think You need some more HDD space for the search.

"Black values" are not useless. Green values are stored on static addresses, black values are stored on dynamic addresses. And yes, most likely Your timer is a "black value", as it is in most games. So try those too.

_________________
My trainers can be found here: http://www.szemelyesintegracio.hu/cheats

If you are interested in any of my crappy articles/tutorials about CE and game hacking, you can find them here:
http://www.szemelyesintegracio.hu/cheats/41-game-hacking-articles

Don't request cheats or updates.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DJK
Cheater
Reputation: 0

Joined: 13 Sep 2010
Posts: 34

PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the reply, I moved CE from my C to my D drive (C had about 30gb free but my D drive has over 500gb free Smile) I'll see if it makes a difference.

I'll also won't discard those black values that easily. Thanks.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Cheat Engine Forum Index -> General Gamehacking All times are GMT - 6 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group

CE Wiki   IRC (#CEF)   Twitter
Third party websites