Project Artemis

[Lazy Bastard]

I've spoken with the owner of BountySource, and it would seem he's fixed the issue we've been having.

I'm going to take a look at detecting syscalls, so we can write code that will work for any game, if I get a chance in the next few days...

[Hextator]

Lazy Bastard told me to post my apparently brilliant ideas for more code searching features.

I come up with these pretty easily when and if I'm actually doing a code search; now that I actually have access to my account again, I might start pouring ideas in here.

Except I don't really mess with hacking anymore, sadface.

Anyway:

(12:21:50 PM) Hector of Chad: Search for initial value
(12:21:52 PM) Hector of Chad: love this one
(12:21:55 PM) Hector of Chad: you search for a value
(12:22:00 PM) Hector of Chad: you change it, search for changed
(12:22:03 PM) Hector of Chad: you change it BACK
(12:22:08 PM) Hector of Chad: the initial value is unknown
(12:22:16 PM) Hector of Chad: but it's definitely whatever it was the first time
(12:22:19 PM) Hector of Chad: search for initial value
(12:22:21 PM) Lazy Bastard: Oh, right!
(12:22:25 PM) Lazy Bastard: Nice function!
(12:22:31 PM) Hector of Chad: Cheat Engine has it
(12:22:33 PM) Hector of Chad: it's wonderful
(12:22:34 PM) Hector of Chad: but get this
(12:22:44 PM) Hector of Chad: what if the second value you're changing something to is always the same too?
(12:22:46 PM) Hector of Chad: Search for second value
(12:22:54 PM) Hector of Chad: CE doesn't have this and it'd be sweet if it did
(12:22:55 PM) Lazy Bastard: We could even expand that to include something that factors in several different unknown values.
(12:23:04 PM) Lazy Bastard: Exactly!
(12:23:04 PM) Hector of Chad: Yes
(12:23:11 PM) Hector of Chad: "Same as x scans ago"
(12:23:14 PM) Lazy Bastard: Well, post these in the Artemis thread.
(12:23:17 PM) Hector of Chad: increase the buffer size accordingly
(12:23:24 PM) Lazy Bastard: We need activity in there, anyway.
(12:23:28 PM) Hector of Chad: On KW I hope
(12:23:37 PM) Lazy Bastard: To let misfire and the other developers know that there's still interest in the project.
(12:23:40 PM) Lazy Bastard: No, damn it
(12:23:42 PM) Lazy Bastard: GSHI.
(12:23:50 PM) Hector of Chad: I suppose I can see if my account works
(12:23:54 PM) Hector of Chad: anyway
(12:23:56 PM) Lazy Bastard: If not, I can always fix it.
(12:23:59 PM) Hector of Chad: I was hacking flash games the other day
(12:24:04 PM) Hector of Chad: and while this feature wasn't necessary
(12:24:11 PM) Hector of Chad: I got this idea for a search type
(12:24:17 PM) Hector of Chad: where the value changes by a multiple
(12:24:31 PM) Hector of Chad: for example, suppose your currency in a flash game changes by 5 on screen
(12:24:35 PM) Hector of Chad: but flash games are gay
(12:24:50 PM) Hector of Chad: and might change it by 30 or 40, storing the value as a multiple of 6 or 8
(12:25:07 PM) Hector of Chad: instead of searching for changes of 5, search for changes of 5, 10, 15, etc.
(12:25:50 PM) Lazy Bastard: Hmm, so search by multiples.
(12:25:53 PM) Lazy Bastard: Good idea as well.
(12:26:06 PM) Lazy Bastard: "Value has doubled", etc, but with the ability for the user to change the multiple.
(12:26:20 PM) Hector of Chad: i.o.w. if (newVal - oldVal) % 5 == 0 && (newVal - oldVal) / 5 == -1 or something
(12:26:27 PM) Hector of Chad: no see
(12:26:34 PM) Hector of Chad: if you use modulus you can probably do ALL multiples
(12:26:39 PM) Hector of Chad: but it may help to be more specific
(12:26:52 PM) Hector of Chad: or to be able to specify a list of possible multiples
(12:26:56 PM) Hector of Chad: Also it'd be nice if
(12:27:08 PM) Hector of Chad: you don't know whether the value is a float or an int or a double
(12:27:17 PM) Hector of Chad: so you do an unknown initial value search for all data types
(12:27:57 PM) Hector of Chad: if ((float) newVal - (float) oldVal) == 5.0f || ((int) newVal - (int) oldVal) == 5
(12:27:57 PM) Hector of Chad: etc.
(12:28:08 PM) Hector of Chad: Actually, that'd be hella sweet
(12:28:26 PM) Hector of Chad: Call it a union search
(12:28:28 PM) Hector of Chad: for the data type
(12:28:31 PM) Hector of Chad: you know how you have
(12:28:33 PM) Hector of Chad: type to search for
(12:28:37 PM) Hector of Chad: and search method?
(12:28:44 PM) Hector of Chad: in the type to search for dropdown, pick "union"
(12:28:57 PM) Hector of Chad: yay, it does an || of all the different data type matching methods
(12:29:22 PM) Hector of Chad: no more having to do searches of all kinds of different types when you don't know the data's format

One of the main forums I post on would ban me for using the word "gay" in that context, so let me just assure you that if you have a problem with it, you're misinterpreting its use for the sake of being a jerk and need to cut it out. Actual homosexuals would probably agree.

Anyway, to summarize:

"Initial/second/Nth value/Nth searches ago" search - search for values same as what they were during the 1st, 2nd, nth, or k-nth search

"Changed by multiple" search - Instead of searching for values increased or decreased by a specific value, search for values that have changed by a multiple of that value

"Union" type - When searching for values that meet the search criteria of this data type, consider the value as a possible candidate if it meets ANY of the requirements for the current search method for other possible types.

[Lazy Bastard]

Heh, oh, OK. I thought I remembered you having found a couple of inconsistencies in gsKit as well, but I guess I was mistaken.

[cosmito]

Hmm...what would you consider one "fixes", other than a bug?

Yep, we both agree that only bugs can be fixed but I expressed myself poorly. I meant to say that he did some bug fixing, but I personnaly don't recall to find ant bug from my own experience with gsKit.

[Lazy Bastard]

Hmm...what would you consider one "fixes", other than a bug? An incompatibility, perhaps? In any case, several of the times I've asked for explanations concerning portions of gsKit code, or gsKit functions acting strangely, the response has been that the issue I'm experiencing is a known bug of some sort or another (particularly, issues with flicker). I also remembering hearing for some time that there was a memory allocation bug in gsKit, though I think I remember that being addressed (but the fix itself caused some problems as well if I recall correctly)...

[cosmito]

Hmm? Most of ragnarok recent work was adding features and yes, he did one or two fixes... But I don't recall to find a bug...

[Lazy Bastard]

Heh, I'm referring mostly to the issues discovered by yourself and Ragnarok. And of course, no disrespect is meant to Neovangelist; the library is a very useful one, and has its areas of dominance.

[cosmito]

gsKit seems to be rife with bugs

Hmmm... OK. I think I never found any but actually I never used it deeply... Can you point me one please?

[Lazy Bastard]

Partly because gsKit seems to be rife with bugs, and partly because gsKit isn't documented very much at all. G2 is quite a nice, simple graphics library, though it needs to be updated and augmented considerably, which is what I'm up to

[cosmito]

I'm curious: Why did you prefer G2 lib instead of gsKit?

[Lazy Bastard]

Those should probably be quite feasible, once we have established proper methods for dumping to other locations during gameplay.

Having revamped the G2 graphics library built by DreamTime, I'll probably implement a decent GUI for Artemis in the next few days, after I toss together some suitable graphics.

[kh2k4]

Chances of dump via HDD on FAT ps2's? or via network to computer for Slim's & FAT's?

[Lazy Bastard]

Artemis update: a $100 bounty has been added to the task, "Output during gameplay" - https://artemis.bountysource.com/

[Lazy Bastard]

BountySource is back up.

I know what you mean. The same happens in all endeavors, actually. Yes, you are undoubtedly the most capable person of bringing Artemis forward (although I can't help but think that if Parasyte were clubbed over the head, and woke up in a secret, Artemis research facility, in which his only job was to master PS2 development and work on Artemis, he would be quite useful as well, heh), but you're not alone in the project. Other people are willing to contribute money, resources, concepts, and discussion, and all of these are important as well. But yes, your road isn't an easy one, which is why no one gives you a hard time when you take a break, or seem to give up.

I'd love to have the time to learn and master, or have already learned and mastered, the skillset you have, but I simply don't have that luxury. With that in mind, there's only so much I can do. I'm also working on ten other things in life, and I've taken a break from GSHI, as I mentioned in a thread under Announcements (however, one of the benefits of this is that I've been concentrating on a simpler project for PS2, which will allow me to hone some skills that I can then use in this project).

Also, we should pester Pyriel again; I believe he was quite capable of providing some great input for the project, and also of writing the USB dump modules I'm so theoretically fond of

And, let me know what I can do to help. Artemis has been my dream since the PS2 came out, and there's almost nothing I'm more interested in; I just feel relatively helpless in the entire process, having little to contribute. A GUI is great, but not really necessary until we have the ability to actually dump in-game.

All right, off to work...

[misfire]

I think our primary problem is not infrastructure, it is rather the fact that there're just too few developers (and users) seriously interested in Artemis. Less than a handful of people is actually contributing to it.

I've spent lots of time writing code for Artemis and seem to be the only person able and willing to bring this project forward. (Yes, there're other capable hackers but they don't share the same interests.) But for various reasons I haven't contributed something big to Artemis yet. Also, I doubt that there will be more developers sending in patches once my source code is released.

This scene is full of leechers and wannabes who don't care about other people's work. They're the reason why many hackers do not release their work to the public (not to speak of source code). This really pisses me off. I don't want to be like that... but it's not easy.