Cheat Engine

[Alachas]

Hey guys,

I've been using CE for a while now and it's great, plus the forums here always have awesome tutorials which have helped me out a lot.

I am trying to make a trainer for X-Wing Alliance and have run into a problem. I have scoured the forums for a solution and haven't been able to find anything so far (perhaps I'm not searching for the right terms), but I'm hoping that someone can point me in the right direction.

Basically, I want the trainer to freeze shields ("hp"), lasers ("ammo") and whatnot. All of these values are stored in a block of memory, with a fixed offset from the "base" address of this block. For example, the forward shields are always [base address] + 1A2, rear shields are always [base address] + 1A6, etc.

I have succesfully created pointers that locate all of these values and can lock them with a hotkey toggle. This always works when I start a level and will last until the end of the level, unless there is a map change (i.e. going into hyperspace mid-level). When I go into hyperspace, this "block" of code is moved to a new memory location and I can't figure out what causes it to do so or any way to predict where it will move to. The original pointers stop working and I have to do a new search for the variables.

The old block of code stays exactly where it is, with all the values for shields, lasers, etc. remaining static. This means that I can just do a search for this block's "signature" because the original copy gets picked up instead. The new block of code is just a duplicate the values from the old block at the moment I enter hyperspace.

Typically, I just search for my front shield and then subtract the offset (1A2) to get the new base address and reconfigure all of the pointers.

Because the location of the new block is (apparently) random, I can't check it ahead of time to see what is there prior to entering hyperspace and locating it, so I don't know if there is anything of interest located there.

Now, the original pointer that points to this block of code is GREEN, meaning it is a static address. If I do a pointer scan on this address, or try to find out what writes to it, nothing comes up. Each subsequent pointer is also static, but they are different each time. Only the static pointer for the start of the level is the same.

At this point, I can only assume that there is another pointer somewhere that points to this static pointer, that then points to the block of memory, but I cannot find it.

Has anyone encountered a similar problem like this before or know of a way to solve it?

[danrevella]

What version of the game do you use?
I have the original win95 cd and I don't experiment your problem....

[Alachas]

That's a good point! I am trying to build the trainer based on the Steam version of the game, but I also own the original CD version and the GOG version. What can I say? I really like the game, lol

I will give it a try on the other two versions and hopefully that will sort it out!

I would still be interested to see what is causing the problem in hte Steam version (assuming that it's different in the other versions).

[danrevella]

In the past I experimented the same problem with Tie fighter 95: no problem with the original version, but it appears on the steam version.
BTW if you wanna try to switch from pointer to inject, you have to look for "what access" and not "what write" to this adress.
If you wanna try with the original cd, please remember to "execute as admin" and set the compatibility to "win 98".
Let me know about your progress.
Ciao!!!

[Alachas]

Ok, well, looks like I'm going to have to give up on this one, for the moment. I don't have enough hard-drive space to do a proper pointer scan. It is going to be morethan 250 GB and although I do I 4 TB of space, most of it is full. I am planning on building a new PC soon, anyway, and it will have plenty of free space for me to tinker around with.

If anyone else wants to have a go, I can give you a lot of tips to get started!