Author Topic: Updating BC  (Read 5537 times)

Offline eclipse74569

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #40 on: May 24, 2018, 06:11:28 AM »
Bump for interest sake

Anyone speak to Scotchy lately???  Might use his Galaxy for this!
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Offline JimmyB76

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #41 on: May 24, 2018, 11:58:13 AM »
why Scotchy?  Wiley's Galaxy Class is alot more sharp looking and IMO the best one ever done (with DJ's Gal just a half step behind)...

Offline eclipse74569

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #42 on: May 24, 2018, 12:19:33 PM »
Because I asked Wiley about helping out a while back, he doesn't think it will take off.  So I didn't ask him to use his Galaxy.
Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return, to obtain, something of equal value must be lost.  That is alchemy's first law of equivalent exchange.  In those days we really believed that to be the world's one and only truth~Alphonse Elric

Offline JimmyB76

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #43 on: May 24, 2018, 08:19:00 PM »
ill talk to him... 
also, DJ's Galaxy is far better than SNS's...
Scotchy is long gone, others have tried to get in contact him before in the last several months to no avail...

Offline Morgan

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #44 on: May 25, 2018, 01:57:00 PM »
ill talk to him... 
also, DJ's Galaxy is far better than SNS's...
Scotchy is long gone, others have tried to get in contact him before in the last several months to no avail...
Scotchy's isn't bad looking by any means, and it has the added benefit of having all the game's registries included AND is actually free use with credit if I remember right.

Offline eclipse74569

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #45 on: May 27, 2018, 08:10:25 PM »
Scotchy's isn't bad looking by any means, and it has the added benefit of having all the game's registries included AND is actually free use with credit if I remember right.

Definitely not bad at all.  I had planned on making new textures for it to kinda update it.

ill talk to him... 
also, DJ's Galaxy is far better than SNS's...
Scotchy is long gone, others have tried to get in contact him before in the last several months to no avail...

I hope you’re successful!
Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return, to obtain, something of equal value must be lost.  That is alchemy's first law of equivalent exchange.  In those days we really believed that to be the world's one and only truth~Alphonse Elric

Offline eclipse74569

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #46 on: June 20, 2018, 07:23:14 PM »
bumping to see if there's more interest LOL I have an unseen subforum for this!!!
Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return, to obtain, something of equal value must be lost.  That is alchemy's first law of equivalent exchange.  In those days we really believed that to be the world's one and only truth~Alphonse Elric

Offline Blackrook32

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #47 on: June 21, 2018, 04:06:19 PM »
Hey eclipse,

I'm currently planing to re-establish the BCF database on Gamefront.

I believe the problem here; your dealing with a limited audience. You may want to make your hidden forum public. Start off with posting ideals on your threads, and see what happens.

Once I get the Gamefront news archive back on line; I can help you promote your project to a larger audience. If your recruiting, then let folks know what help is needed; by placing stickies in your forum. Things can get drowned out in a conversational thread.

Just be specific in what you want to communicate. People will want details; plus posting about updating BC on Gamefront, may draw a larger crowd.

I'm very interested in your project, and will help; with my limited skill set. You know my strengths; novice scripting, ship/bot retextures and mega packs.


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Offline newhalo123

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #48 on: June 22, 2018, 05:08:18 PM »
So considering the circumstances, can the ban on my record be expunged? pretty sure it had to do with messing with the EXE, and was told way back then that that was a nono.  :icon_lol:

that is, if it is still on my record. the last huge server fuckup may have gotten rid of it, idk.  :funny
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Offline Tethys

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #49 on: June 22, 2018, 06:51:26 PM »
I have (limited) disassembly experience and can provide a readable EXE with IDAPRO free version. That is, when I have time to do so. I don't see it happening anytime soon. It's probably going to be a few months before things settle down around here with work and bills. Anyone wanting to view a decompiled EXE will need some disassembly program and possibly a hex editor (HxD is a good free editor) or some form of compiler which can be used to recompile the EXE and/or create a patch from decompiled code. Which is where I have literally no experience.

Offline JimmyB76

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #50 on: June 22, 2018, 10:29:14 PM »
So considering the circumstances, can the ban on my record be expunged? pretty sure it had to do with messing with the EXE, and was told way back then that that was a nono.  :icon_lol:

that is, if it is still on my record. the last huge server fuckup may have gotten rid of it, idk.  :funny
youre not banned from anything, youre able to post it would seem...

Offline Darkthunder

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #51 on: June 23, 2018, 10:16:09 AM »
What ban are you referring to? Banned from Gamefront?
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Offline Tethys

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #52 on: June 23, 2018, 06:11:32 PM »
Peekaboo.. I see u!  :readme:




Offline Darkthunder

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #53 on: June 24, 2018, 09:56:03 AM »
That's all Greek to me. What does it mean? :P
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Offline Tethys

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #54 on: June 24, 2018, 11:24:00 AM »
Well I searched a text string in the exe for my buddy at 333networks called "heartbeat" to see why BC master server broke after they updated it and started using something called query ports (BC uses port 22101 for query but in stbc.exe its hardcoded 0). I followed the subroutines back as far as they would go, scrolled up a few pages and found Activisions original master server info embedded in the exe by chance.

It is my hope to try to find something significant and post it up on here for some programming wizard to come through and solve all our problems.. like the memory leak and stuff :) Like I said I do have access to the exe but it would be better if someone with programming knowledge took over (I am 2 steps below a novice)

Offline Mario

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #55 on: June 25, 2018, 01:49:37 PM »
It is my hope to try to find something significant and post it up on here for some programming wizard to come through and solve all our problems.. like the memory leak and stuff :) Like I said I do have access to the exe but it would be better if someone with programming knowledge took over (I am 2 steps below a novice)

Looks like alien language to me too. Once the game has been compiled it is no longer in the original language it was written in (C++ in this case). When compiled it will be translated into machine code (to oversimplify things). What you are showing is an assembler code (I think). If you use time travel you can still find a person which could help you with that. Most modern programmers use higher level languages which are actually human readable and a small percentage of people can actually read this.

Oversimplified procedure goes as follows:
A programmer writes in a language of his or hers choice
Compiler translates that code into machine code (in certain environments that works differently. For example C# this can be decompiled as the code is not directly compiled into machine code)

The process of analyzing this is called reverse engineering and is very time consuming and hard (very very hard). There are tools out there which claim they can decompile C++ binaries but the output is not something you can directly compile again.

I reckon that simple modifications can be achieved by hex editing but this can be used for simple edits, not for anything revolutionary.

TLDR; To sum up a discussion I had on this topic late last year it is easier to re-write the game in a new engine.
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Offline FekLeyr Targ

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #56 on: June 25, 2018, 02:06:41 PM »
TLDR; To sum up a discussion I had on this topic late last year it is easier to re-write the game in a new engine.

Agreed. In fact, the possibility of rebuilding BC in Unity is being discussed over there:
http://www.bc-central.net/forums/index.php/topic,10464.msg219325.html#new
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Offline Tethys

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #57 on: June 25, 2018, 06:36:20 PM »
I found a program called Snowman that claims to be able to convert the machine code to C++. I am currently running it to see if it will translate the information. The drawback is that we probably won't be able to recompile it. But who knows, maybe we'll get lucky.

Offline Defiant

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #58 on: June 26, 2018, 09:12:50 AM »
..except that compiling is not bijective function..

And yes Mario, that is intel assembler. There are still a lot things done in assembler, e.g. the core of operating systems.

To me decompiling the whole thing does not make much sense to me since we already know quite a lot thanks to App.py

Offline Mario

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Re: Updating BC
« Reply #59 on: June 26, 2018, 03:04:50 PM »
Quote
And yes Mario, that is intel assembler. There are still a lot things done in assembler, e.g. the core of operating systems.

The point I was trying to make is that you had more people who had this skillet in the past (80s era for example) than today.
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