Dev's Limit Breaking 101 Techniques

1. In order to check crcs a specific flhook version is needed. A version that is not used on all servers. FLhook development took a different path on various servers. There are servers using the latest plugin version…. there are servers which have custom hooks based on the 1.5.5. sources. Many servers simply dont have such a crc detection and for some of them switching to the newest hook version would mean to loose custom features that are unique on these servers.

2. Checking for CRCs would require to know which files have to be checked. Checking ALL files could cause performance problems and delays in client responses.

3. Its not that MS does not want to release the source code… it is known that they can not release it.

Thank you for the explanation, I have not though of these kind of thing with flhook versions and custom features.

Sure you have to have a specific version and you have to have a client for it. Checking CRCs is to do on most important files, you can’t do it on all files because of what you said and because it really takes a lot of time to do it.

There are others existing anticheat but I never used it and can’t speak about.

I really think that is the server owner responsibility to protect against cheaters. If I go on a server and I found a lot of cheat, I don’t blame players first, but the admins who haven’t protected their playground, and by this fact I don’t want to play on it anymore. By expecting cheaters are everywere, we modders don’t have access to some kind of information, it stuck us in some ignorance. Anyway time is gone for this game to find a real importance about hundred of cheaters who can invade servers.

I had read here on TSP that source code had been lost by M$, if you speak about that, but I don’t trust it anymore, it’s more easy to say that you can’t when you don’t want, I think it’s just to stop the campaign for obtaining the sources that they said that. They have the power to change theirs rules to give the sources if they want.

It don’t prevent modding community to do some awesome work here, like on this thread.

You don’t seem to realize that this is a hell of a lot more difficult than it appears. How do you check for that hack? Scan Freelancer.exe or whatever DLL the change is in? Nope, it’s trivial to just write a patch that works in memory and doesn’t change the file. Scan dacom.ini? You’ve just prevented people from using certain entirely valid changes like HudShift, and they can sideload through a d3d injector too.

But wait, you can just not release that information (because it has EXACTLY ZERO PURPOSE aside from cheating) and solve the problem for everyone. The Starport will not facilitate cheating, and that’s the end of it.

As for the source code, get over it. Microsoft are under no obligations to release it, they don’t have to explain why (and they haven’t, everything is just rumors or speculations) and they don’t have to talk to us about any of it. It’s not them being evil, it’s not them being selfish, it’s not greed either, it’s what 99.95% of game developers do.

foxUnit01 wrote:

Act_PlayerEnemyClamp = 0, 999
Act_GCSClamp = false

hi all,

Does anyone know the offsets for the min/max values of

Act_PlayerEnemyClamp = 2, 2
```? (I guess that are them)

If not, adoxa maybe you can find them?

Greetz,
Gold_Sear

Nothing when they’re read (i.e. they’re stored as is), but I didn’t detect them even being used (testing Mission 12 after you exit the core).

Hmm, that’s odd.
Well, then those values (the edited ones via scripting) must be stored somewhere else (maybe the RAM, since I cannot find them in any files), since when FL exits, they are reset to their default 2,2.

I want them set to 0,999 (foxUnit01 already accomplished this in MP, but not SP) by default, because that makes the way NPCs target things more naturally.

@adoxa: you tested them in a mission, but does it make a difference when you test in freetime, when no mission script is active? Thanks for looking mate

Greetz,
Gold_Sear

EDIT: would you mind to give me the offsets?

You can find the default for both values of [c]Act_PlayerEnemyClamp[/c] at content.dll 02CB44; to make that the maximum and have a 0 minimum (untested):

02CB48    89460C894610->83660C009090
02CB54    8BC65EC20400909090->8946108BC65EC20400

```(If you're using NoCD, you may have something other than those last three 90s.)

Free time must use something else, since this is only read during a mission.

adoxa wrote:
You can find the default for both values of [c]Act_PlayerEnemyClamp[/c] at content.dll 02CB44; to make that the maximum and have a 0 minimum (untested):

02CB48    89460C894610->83660C009090
02CB54    8BC65EC20400909090->8946108BC65EC20400

```(If you're using NoCD, you may have something other than those last three 90s.)

Free time must use something else, since this is only read during a mission.

Hmm, doesn’t work for me :/… PlayerEnemyClamp still 2,2, must be read somewhere…

Do you know where the freetime offsets are (if any)? And how to set them to 0,max?

Thanks for the effort mate… greetz
Gold_Sear

We must be looking at different things. Where are you looking?

adoxa, sorry to respond so late mate, my holiday has just ended…:roll:

Free time must use something else, since this is only read during a mission.

You just hit it in the head. The problem is, PlayerEnemyClamp is not stored in your saved game (is it?), so it gets reset to its default value (which is always read) every time FL launches. But it can only be edited when a mission script is active. Thus, when you load game in freetime, PlayerEnemyClamp cannot be modified.

Greetz,
Gold_Sear

PS: [c]common.dll 18658D “set_player_enemy_clamp”[/c]
Is this used somewhere?

Ah, I should have done another search with underscores. You’ll find the defaults as two ints at [c]18C754[/c] in [c]common.dll[/c]. The function is only used by [c]Act_PlayerEnemyClamp[/c].

@adoxa: works like a charm Thanks once again adoxa!

EDIT: updated to wiki

@foxUnit01: looks like you updated the wiki, thanks! Hope you don’t mind I fixed a few bugs?

Is this for SinglePlayer only?
And if not… whats the effect of each of these two inits?

Greetings
J.R.

J.R. wrote:
Is this for SinglePlayer only?
And if not… whats the effect of each of these two inits?

Greetings
J.R.

It’s also for MP (see the code section of this post). However, in SP it wasn’t as easy to control, that’s why I asked adoxa’s help.
About what it does… I explained that here - these are problems I still like to be seen fixed/possible in FL.

Hope it helps,
Gold_Sear

Many THX for clearing things up a bit.
Much apprechiated…

Greetings
J.R.

@fox: updated post #918 and updated wiki

foxUnit01 wrote:
I kept the formation catch up multipliers separate as they do actually control two distinct behaviors (one of them affects trail if e.g. chasing a target in cruise, though I forget which).

Now properly indexed.

EDIT: M0tah fixed this problem (at least partially) - indexed.

Gauge colors (by adoxa):

color of power bar (blue,green,red,alpha)  Freelancer.exe  0D57AC  5E A1 A7 FF  ~adoxa
color of shield bar (blue,green,red,alpha)  Freelancer.exe  0D5843  B5 3D 3E FF  ~adoxa
color of hull bar (blue,green,red,alpha)  Freelancer.exe  0D588D  33 2A 78 FF  ~adoxa

I use this hack
http://the-starport.net/freelancer/forum/viewtopic.php?post_id=58738#forumpost58738
and
http://the-starport.net/freelancer/forum/viewtopic.php?post_id=60591#forumpost60591

But there is a problem when zoom in and move.
The player icon and the waypoint icon are outside of the map :
http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2016/09/20/160920072300115764.jpg

Someone have a solution ?

Just adjust WhiskasTM’s values to suit your needs.

EDIT: forgot to mention, but the problem that the zoomed map jumps back when trying to move is not solved yet.