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Nyerguds

Command & Patch
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Everything posted by Nyerguds

  1. Nyerguds

    source ?

    Note, since the release of the source code, I have kept a close eye on the source when researching any issues I've found, and have reported them on the VanillaConquer bug tracker. So some stuff is on there. Some of the stuff mentioned there will make its way into a new version of this patch which I'm preparing. OpenRA never cared about keeping any parity with the original games, though. It's basically just its own game, in a C&C skin. I don't see much of a point in it from a C&C preservation / patching point of view.
  2. Nyerguds

    source ?

    Oh, I've dug into the source code extensively, and have often used it as reference material in assembly patches I made for Kilkakon's "Dawn of Tomorrow" C&C95 mod. (for which, learning from my earlier mistakes, we made sure to meticulously keep track of all edits ) But still, I'm not a C++ programmer. From knowing c# syntax, yes, I can read the code, but that still doesn't mean I can program C++. Not to the extent I can in asm, anyway. In the raw bytes, anything is possible. As for "a long time ago", well, the source code was published in 2020. My patch was made between 2008-2012. So, just to put that into perspective... since C&C95 was released in 1997, that means that at the moment the source code was released, C&C95 had already existed longer with my patch than without it. I know why Vanilla Conquer does not support my patch; it's mostly because I added a language switching system into it, and to optimise that a bit, I split off the sounds.mix file into two files; sounds.mix for sound effects, and talk_eng.mix for the unit voices. This allowed me to add a talk_fre.mix, talk_ger.mix and talk_jap.mix without needing to include duplicates of the sound effects four times. I also made some edits to make the sidebar expand, and those edits require increasing the game's graphics buffer, otherwise it's not large enough to load the entire expanded sidebar sprite. Music should not be an issue; I just use the unmodified Covert Ops scores.mix file as far as I know. I added some extra soundtrack-versions of some tracks too, but they're added in an external mixfile, so that should not affect anything
  3. Nyerguds

    C&C 1 Documents

    That was just C&C3 marketing fluff, no?
  4. Nyerguds

    source ?

    I'm not sure what you mean. This whole patch was developed without access to any source code, and wasn't written in C++ itself. My "source" is a combination of undocumented hacks, and a whole mess of text files with asm code, and from a lot of those I'm not even sure if they're obsolete or actually the final stuff that ended up inside the game. Many of them are later updates of the same parts, and I know the exe contains undocumented edits where I just pushed existing parts of the exe a few bytes back or forward to put my own code in, and for such edits it never seemed worth it to transcribe the entire code block I moved, since the only real edits that were involved for me were changing the jump distances of things connecting to such moved blocks. I've been trying to use binary diffs to reconstruct all of it in a more sensible manner, but it's a huge work, and I don't have a lot of time these days. And since this isn't C++ code, it's also not something that can easily be integrated into projects like VanillaConquer. Absolutely none of this has ever been compared to the source code to see where it would even belong as actual C++ patch. And I'm also very sure that a lot of the stuff I hacked in could be done in a much more elegant way in the real source code. You also have to understand, I'm not a C++ programmer. I'm a C#/Java programmer, and on the C++ front, I mostly just know what it looks like when compiled to bytecode. So I'm familiar with very high-level and very low-level stuff, but the C++ in between those two extremes is something I'm really not familiar with in terms of syntax and overall structure.
  5. Nyerguds

    Real Command & Conquer

    Already saw it on Reddit, but, yea, cool stuff
  6. Brute-forcing with extra characters added in the dictionary entry list ( ! . - _ ? , ) gave some matches for the bibs one, but nothing plausible. F7867BF0 = "!GEARECLEANUP" F7867BF0 = ".BUSHELSJOULING" F7867BF0 = ". DENOTE HAJJ" F7867BF0 = ". KERNED YACCA" F7867BF0 = "- COMBY OVERFEE" F7867BF0 = "-DEFUNDSFARAD" [edit] Apparently, in the RA Play Codes, "ANTHRAXROCKAWAY" is a somewhat plausible match for Paul Mudra's code; he was a sound guy, and Anthrax is a thrash metal band from the 80s. It's quite long compared to all the other ones though.
  7. Interesting! Yea, the special #8 and wchat ones do seem pretty plausible. I uploaded my code now, in v1.0.7 of the tool. Though note that it's not very polished; some of the controls don't disable as they should while the operation is in progress. I'll probably release a 1.0.7.1 soon to fix these small details. The tool can accept a list of hashes, so that tends to speed things up a bit, since the result of one hashing operation can be compared to all of the values. Though in that aspect, the command line parameters and ini options still need to be treated as separate categories, of course, since the ini ones can contain spaces.
  8. The tool I used was something I wrote before in C# with the original intent to brute force hashes from mix files. When we started digging into these secret password hashes, I added the obfuscate algorithm into it. http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2014/CnCMixNameFinder/ I'm not sure if I got the latest version of my tool uploaded (it's possible that the uploaded version does not contain the dictionary attack support), but anyway, it's a rather unoptimised C# desktop app. It doesn't have any kind of special way to distribute loads; it's plain CPU-powered, without multi-core processing or anything like that. To do parallel hacking, I generally just started it 8 times, assigned each instance to another core manually in Windows Task Manager, and gave each instance another range to go over. I mean, it was originally just meant to brute-force hashes from mix files, which means pure ASCII filenames up to 8 characters of which the extension is generally already known. So yea, for that purpose, it was good enough Note that the Obfuscate algorithm I use was partially rewritten by Tomsons26, with findings which I think were based on earlier reverse-engineering. Toms noticed that certain operations cancelled each other out, and have no effect on the end result. So the c# code I have is in fact more optimised than the version in the original code, and thus, more suitable for brute force operations. [edit] Ugh, seems the whole Obfuscate method isn't in the currently released code yet. I'll upload it asap.
  9. Oh wow, a lot of these are unknown. I brute forced on these a lot, but I never thought of including underscores or exclamation marks, because the algorithm just substitutes them for alphanumeric characters anyway. Never made the obvious realisation that that didn't mean they didn't use them. I found JURASSIC, FUNFUN, GONEWILD, CHOMPCHOMP, and a few others you got as well; basically, purely alphanumeric dictionary stuff. The #2 one you're missing matches "RAPATTACK", but I have no clue about #8 either. #4 actually has a lot of fun dictionary matches, but none seemed very plausible. I like the "ANKYLOSAURTOWEL" one though "OBWAN" is completely confirmed. First of all, it's obviously a Star Wars reference, and secondly, It's Joe Bostic's developer password, and Joe has always used "Joe B Wan" as online nickname. In fact if you look in the Petroglyph Discord, "Joebwan" is his nickname there. PARM_EDITORERIK (0xC2AA509B) matches "SUPEREDIT", so that seems extremely plausible too. Red Alert also has a bunch of hashes like it. I got a spreadsheet on which I keep track of everything found and confirmed so far: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EnkKM28eDt1VbhtFKHnD1PCm-FmboygiuIyehFfSudo/edit#gid=0
  10. Basically you just have to do the calculations right and find a nearby resolution... For 3840x2160, if you divide both sides by 4, you get 960x540, which is within normal functioning parameters for the game. If you then apply the fix of multiplying the height by 5/6th, you get 960x450 So 960x450 pixel-upscaled (filter "nearest") to 3840x2160 should do the trick in your case.
  11. Have you tried... simply not playing the game in your native resolution? The game was never designed to go over 640x400, and even the 1.06 patch is not deigned to go over a screen width of 1024 pixels. There are stretch options available in the config tool. Use those to upscale the game to your actual resolution.
  12. Nyerguds

    C&C 1 Documents

    Never heard of anything like that...
  13. Nyerguds

    Crash research

    Odd. Does the original unpatched game also show this behaviour?
  14. Nyerguds

    Crash research

    I've decided to make a new topic for this, simply because identified instruction addresses can be posted in one list in the first post this way. Guidelines for posting errors: Give the instruction address from the C&C95 error message (the "The instruction at XXXXXXXX" value from the error message) Give the referenced address from the C&C95 error message (the "referenced memory at XXXXXXXX" value from the error message). It's usually useless though, unless it's a small value, but post it anyway. You can post a screenshot of the error, just to be sure, but please, also write down the values. It makes my job a lot easier. Say if it is singleplay or multiplay. Describe what was happening at the time, and any specific action you (or anyone else in a MP game) were performing that could have caused the crash (e.g. click on something, mouse over the sidebar, give a command to a unit, place down a structure, etc) Give your PC details (Windows version, CPU, memory, video card). DO THIS EVERY TIME YOU POST A BUG, I don't want to have to look it up in your previous error reports every time. Note in advance: the instruction addresses The normal addressing range of program instructions in Command & Conquer is (hexadecimal) 00410000-004F0000. The code specifically added for the patch is in 005C0000-00640000. Overall, with the addition of data and memory sections, none of the addresses in the game can possibly reference anything outside the range of 00410000-00740000. If you do get a crash with an instruction address outside that range, they are not game bugs I can fix, but are most likely caused by some kind of incompatibility with the operating system, and cannot be fixed inside the program itself. This means external tweaks (compatibility mode, admin rights, external dlls like cnc-ddraw) must be used to resolve the problem. List of known crashes The values that follow are the Instruction Address you see on the typical C&C95 error messages. These represent an actual point in the exe, and I can check what code runs at that point, and the research in this thread might help me to figure out what caused it to crash at that point. Don't post repeats of the addresses listed under Fixed issues. If you have any additional information about the ones in the Current list, please share it. Current list: 0042a33b: Some IPXManagerClass error; internal C&C LAN-related code. No clues to solving this so far. 004386b1: Crash when a unit picks up an exploding crate that kills the unit. Additional information is needed on this one. 004afbf4: Seems to appear on game launch in cncnet. Marked in my db as "bug with player not being added to game." 004dbc37: Crash that occurred when scrolling down and to the left. Related to showing/hiding the mouse cursor. 004dbc4f: May be a variant of the same scrolling crash. Fixed issues: 00432421: Top-of-the-map crash. Fixed in v1.05. 00460b41: Stealth tank crash. Fixed in v1.06. 004b4002: Crash related to tree object T13 that appeared after adding the snow theater in v1.06b. Researched by Pichorra, fixed in 1.06b r2. 004dadde: Object overflow in multiplayer game. Solved by Myg, and fixed in v1.06c r2.
  15. Huh. Someone should ask him about it then.
  16. Those were not clones. They were the biological component of CABAL. CABAL's processing power are human brains. An interesting inspiration for the character of Kane was recently unearthed: Isaac's Asimov's short story "does a bee care?" As I summarised it on the C&C Wiki:
  17. As most people know, the C&C Remastered map editor has some issues. The special waypoints in TD are wrong due to some misguided dev putting in 8 multiplayer waypoints, and there are a bunch of random errors and usability issues. In September 2021, Rampastring took it upon himself to fix some of the most glaring issues, however, he soon stopped working on it, and on top of his fixes, his version also introduced a few serious problems. I've finally decided to continue this project, and have added a bunch of my own fixes on top of what Rampa built. So, without further ado: the C&C Remastered map editor, v1.4: https://github.com/Nyerguds/CnCTDRAMapEditor/releases/ Most important upgrades: Drag and drop file loading support. Menu shortcuts for New / Open / Save / Save As / Publish A default "open file" filter with the map types for both games. Steam is no longer required to run the editor, only to upload maps to the workshop. Tiles can be painted by holding down the mouse. Tool windows remember their previous position. Fixed damage states for the TD gunboat and the Red Alert buildings. Fixed placement of illegal tiles caused by incorrect filtering on which tiles from a template should be included. This is the problem which caused tiles that showed as black blocks in classic graphics. It is also the problem that made Red Alert maps contain indestructible bridges. Fixed colors of the multiplayer Houses. Fixed displaying of buildings so they are centered on their foundation size. Some things, like crates, were missing names. This has been fixed. All objects except map tilesets will now show a real name and their internal code. Special Overlay types such as the flag location point and TD's unused CONC and ROAD pavement can now be used. IQ of all Houses in Red Alert now defaults to 0, so they don't act in unexpected ways. For all changes, see the Releases page.
  18. Ah, I gotta try this out
  19. Well, the Remaster actually has skirmish in C&C1 :p
  20. Eh, I may be biased a little bit, since I actually worked on the Remaster (they invited me as part of a community group with access to the inside development, so we could give our input and remarks), but, just the remastered soundtrack and the hours of behind the scenes videos are totally worth it
  21. Yea, you can mess around with the resolution somewhat in the config tool to get something better. I've experimented a lot with that. Do note that the aspect ratio of C&C is a bit odd; DOS C&C is a 320x200 game that was meant to be seen in 4:3, meaning its pixels are not supposed to be square. Its height is actually intended to be stretched out by 1/5th. I usually keep that in mind when setting the resolution, to get the game as it was designed to look. Because of that, my game is currently set to 856x400 stretched to 1920x1080, using nearest neighbour scaling. Without this aspect ratio correction, the optimal solution for showing a viewport close to the original on a 1920x1080 monitor is setting the game's resolution to 712x400 and stretching it to 1920x1080. Of course you can adapt this however you want as long as you do the calculations right. Though, note that due to internal engine limitations, the width of the game must always be a multiple of 8 pixels. If you actually want "C&C in high definition", though, go buy the Remastered Collection.
  22. As you said, this is due to the map being smaller than the viewport. There is nothing you can do about it. The game simply isn't meant to be played at this resolution. Opening and closing the main menu will reset the area back to black, but it still won't refresh properly, and anything painted over it (like tooltips) will still remain. Just don't play on stupidly huge resolutions like this. The game was not designed for it. The unofficial patch was only designed for widths up to 1024 pixels, and that's already more than one and a half times the game's intended viewport of 640 pixels.
  23. Nyerguds

    What's the first game you really loved?

    Dangerous Dave; one of John Romero's really old ones Not that I had any idea who John Romero was back then
  24. I doubt it. Those are the main pieces the pack was sold for, so it wouldn't make sense for someone to buy the pack but then sell these pieces of it. You'll just have to get your hands on the whole pack.
  25. The oldest three games in the series are freeware. For links on those, I suggest you take a look here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/C-C-The-Ultimate-Collection/Is-red-alert-1-and-tiberian-sun-now-freeware/td-p/5420723 As for how to start the campaign mode, uh... it's simply the "Start new game" option in the game's main menu.
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