Anyone interested in client development?

[PixelEngineer]

Just an idea I was kicking around in my head. Obviously it would not be possible with more advanced libraries like FMOD but in terms of smaller libraries where I only use 1-2 functions from them, it might be useful.

Again, not something I am set in doing, just an idea.

And thank you for the great reply!

Cheers!

[Speedz]

Made a small mod for a live client like feel to movement.

camera.cpp line 53

if(ks[SDLK_UP] || ks[SDLK_w] || SDL_GetMouseState(NULL, NULL)&SDL_BUTTON(1))

[Speedz]

I hope you guys don't mind my type of submissions. I too am just learning. At this point I can do simple adds, and whatnot. But to do some grand feature addon is a bit beyond me. I like to make simple apps or make aesthetic type changes or addons. I have a local working copy with a bunch of changes that haven't made it to the svn. But thats ok if they are not needed.

As I do this I will get a grasp of C+. But my main experience is C# and I have just a basic grasp of that with the help of google and microsoft help links.

[PixelEngineer]

Originally Posted by Speedz

I hope you guys don't mind my type of submissions. I too am just learning. At this point I can do simple adds, and whatnot. But to do some grand feature addon is a bit beyond me. I like to make simple apps or make aesthetic type changes or addons. I have a local working copy with a bunch of changes that haven't made it to the svn. But thats ok if they are not needed.

As I do this I will get a grasp of C+. But my main experience is C# and I have just a basic grasp of that with the help of google and microsoft help links.

Don't be discouraged at all. What I would recommend is looking at a simple fragment. How about 0x21, the BSP tree. Look in the source for my handling of that fragment and compare it to the WLD documentation: ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/pub/sour...1.1/wlddoc.pdf

Then, pick a fragment that is not implemented, any one. Try to create a struct out of it. Try to implement a loading function mimicking the style that have already been created. And yes, I appreciate your contributions. Don't get down on yourself.

Cheers!

[Taurinus2]

PixelEngineer,

I know you aren't there yet but I would like to point you toward boost::asio for your networking. Boost as a whole is excellent and highly recommended.

[pfyon]

I was thinking about getting into the network side of things (as I have little interest in GUIs, but lots of interest in network code) and was thinking about using boost for cross-platform threading.

[Taurinus2]

Go for it.

When it came time to learn the asio library I decided to do a fun project to bang out some code with. I wrote a CLI client/server remote tool for my private server that features a handful of opcodes and a single port being utilized on either end. A modest project, but one that was finished in one sitting with all planned features.

Also, PixelEngineer, now that I am thinking of it, you will need a tighter timing mechanism because you are going to need to track your frame deltas. I say this because I foresee you needing to preempt certain operations if you do not have enough time to complete for that frame. Let's say for instance you arrive at some processing logic and you see that your delta is 15ms, you know that you must defer and return immediately (60hz = 16.6ms/frame). This assumes single-threaded execution with regard to that particular logic and your rendering but I believe that the principle will still be applicable in any case.

[PixelEngineer]

Great suggestions guys. You are welcome to start on the server/network component.

Also, a small update:

- Added support for fragment 29, which deals with regions with water, lava, PVP, etc.
- Added rendering support (temp) for these different regions.
- Plus/Minus keys now do not effect look sensitivity.
- F1 now takes screenshots
- Split, and moved the various text files (CHANGELOG, BUGS, LICENSE, README)

The underwater effect needs some tweaking and the specifics might be found in some of the unknowns in this fragment. I mainly added the fog effect so I could test the accuracy of the implementation.



It also implemented the PVP zones. As someone who has never been in Qeynos, can someone verify that the red X's were not areas that you would be in the PVP area? Only the green highlighted area is denoted in the zone files as the PVP area.



Thanks!

[Derision]

If you go in game, to the locations you have marked with an X, and then move back toward the centre of the arena, the client automatically generates the mesage 'You have entered an Arena (PvP) area', so I would say you have it right.

[PixelEngineer]

Originally Posted by Derision

If you go in game, to the locations you have marked with an X, and then move back toward the centre of the arena, the client automatically generates the mesage 'You have entered an Arena (PvP) area', so I would say you have it right.

Fantastic, thank you.

[PixelEngineer]

Is anyone here experienced in reverse engineering files? I have been going through and documenting every type of file the client uses. There is one file however, which seems to stump me. The file is denoted by:

<shortname>_sounds.eff

This file is a counterpart to the other file <shortname>_sndbnk.eff which lists files that are either emitted or looped. This file is in plain text.

I am not that experienced in reverse engineering and wanted to know what you guys recommend. I assume the file contains things like x, y, z positions, sound file name, volume, radius and that sort of thing.

It's possibly ZLIB compressed or just a bizarre file format. It has no discernable header so I doubt it's a specific file format. Searches for .eff bring up EverQuest effect format but there are no specifics.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciate. (hint hint Windcatcher)



Cheers!

[Taurinus2]

Installing an api hook against the client and logging seek/read against files of that extension would be a start. That's half the picture, anyway. The other half is a memory scanner that locates what was just read in the client's memory. You can then trace execution from that point.

[PixelEngineer]

Originally Posted by Taurinus2

Installing an api hook against the client and logging seek/read against files of that extension would be a start. That's half the picture, anyway. The other half is a memory scanner that locates what was just read in the client's memory. You can then trace execution from that point.

Thank you.

Do you have a guide on how to do this?

[Derision]

Originally Posted by PixelEngineer

Is anyone here experienced in reverse engineering files? I have been going through and documenting every type of file the client uses. There is one file however, which seems to stump me.

The file is denoted by:

<shortname>_sounds.eff

I had a look a this, since it piqued my interest.

First of all, since you suggested it may be ZLIB compressed, I wrote a quick program to read one of the files and then move through it byte by byte and attempt a ZLIB decompress.
That failed, so it wasn't zlib compressed.

The next thing I did was open up eqgame.exe in IDA and found where the string %s_sounds.eff was referenced and looked at the dissasembly.

I could see that it reads the file 84 bytes at a time, and indeed, the few files that I looked at were all multiples of 84 bytes.

Next thing I did was write a quick program to read one of the files, 84 bytes at a time, and print out each group of 4 bytes as both an int and a float.

I could see from my output some floats that looked very like groups of co-ordinates to me, so I went in game and did a #goto to some of them to verify
there appeared to be a sound emitted in that location (some were obvious, like camp fires or steam geysers).

Anyway, this is what I figured out:

Offset
00		int8 Unknown[12]
12		int32 Sequence Number ?		// Increments by one for each entry in the file
16		float Y
20		float X
24		float Z
28		float Radius?			// Radius from position that sound can be heard ?
32		int8 Unknown[52]

[PixelEngineer]

Originally Posted by Derision

I had a look a this, since it piqued my interest.

First of all, since you suggested it may be ZLIB compressed, I wrote a quick program to read one of the files and then move through it byte by byte and attempt a ZLIB decompress.
That failed, so it wasn't zlib compressed.

The next thing I did was open up eqgame.exe in IDA and found where the string %s_sounds.eff was referenced and looked at the dissasembly.

I could see that it reads the file 84 bytes at a time, and indeed, the few files that I looked at were all multiples of 84 bytes.

Next thing I did was write a quick program to read one of the files, 84 bytes at a time, and print out each group of 4 bytes as both an int and a float.

I could see from my output some floats that looked very like groups of co-ordinates to me, so I went in game and did a #goto to some of them to verify
there appeared to be a sound emitted in that location (some were obvious, like camp fires or steam geysers).

Anyway, this is what I figured out:

Offset
00		int8 Unknown[12]
12		int32 Sequence Number ?		// Increments by one for each entry in the file
16		float Y
20		float X
24		float Z
28		float Radius?			// Radius from position that sound can be heard ?
32		int8 Unknown[52]

Absolutely gorgeous. Thank you so much. I have IDA in my toolbox but I don't really have a great understanding of how to use it. Did you read a guide on it or something?

That leaves virtually no files in the original EverQuest that are unknown now. I am in the process of interviewing for a job so that can explain my absence. I am still however, working on this project and am redoing the way the zones load with WLD classes with several levels of inheritance for their specific purpose.

Thank you again Derision. Very much appreciated.