Cheat Engine

[mouser]

I have this script at the moment:

[Zanzer]

This will store the base address of the player's location to the PlayerPosPtr symbol.

[mouser]

Hi Zanzer, thanks for the code. When I read your code I was like 'of course the esi register, how could I have not seen this' it's still difficult for me to make the connections.

I've tried it out and it should work, when I enter PlayerPosPtr and add the offset I can compare the value to my older pointers (that work in one level and stop working later) and I see they are the same. The game is paused at that moment. When I get back into the game I suddenly see that the pointeraddress changes now and then and the value is now slightly different than the value of the old pointer. I've lost the address.

Now when I observe the memory region before activating your script and go into the game and move/look around. Nothing changes, the instructions always stay the same, a solid block of text/bytes.
Now when I activate your script and follow the first jump, then go into the game and move around. I can see some instructions changing constantly and the more I move the more they change.

It's hard to explain but I guess this is what changes the pointers. I don't know why that changes all of a sudden?
At first I thought something happens to esi when the script is active... but I'm not technically knowledgeable enough to see how.

I've added a screenshot of the region of the jump, 3 addresses below the jump seen in the screenshot constantly change when I move. The mov instruction at the PlayerPosPtr address turns into an inc and back ( very quick).

Do you have any idea why that happens?

[Zanzer]

That instruction is likely run for all objects in the game, not only the player.
So when something else moves, the PlayerPosPtr changes to that object instead.
The code you see below the JMP is the location of the PlayerPosPtr variable.
So when something moves, those bytes are updated.
Since you are viewing those bytes as if they were instructions, it may look odd.

[mouser]

Do you think it's a lost cause trying to do this with a script like that? I have a feeling this will be a complicated matter trying to pursue this further?

I could just pointerscan for all the areas where there is a new pointer needed, it's messy and I'd rather not but if it's the only way...

Thinking about it, how does a pointer keep being stable when it has to point to an address in an area like that (changing constantly) ?

The pointer I have for the first few level of the game has 5 offsets (pointerscanned automatically), I don't really know how that relates to it's ability to find it's way to the right address though

[Zanzer]

Each offset in the pointer jumps to a different object in memory.

So the base may simply be a static object declared in the code. Lets call it GameData.
Then within that GameData object, it has a variable pointing to a Units object.
Within that Units object, is a Players objects. Being the host, you are the first one in the list.
Then within that Player object is the Location object. That Location object has XYZ coordinates.

So your pointer jumps through each of those objects to find the values you want.

The game has already setup those objects in memory to keep track of your player.
Cheat Engine just makes use of what's already there.

[mouser]

Ah, interesting... I maybe getting ahead of myself here but when I know the offsets of a pointer. Can I use this information in a script?

Let's say in level one my pointer with 5 offsets is working, in level two however it stops working but I can try and pointerscan for new offsets.

I always want to have hotkeys assigned to an address where I can increase and decrease the value, but I don't want to assign them again later to another pointer in level 2 because the first pointer stopped working.

So I'd need a script that incorporates both of these pointers and can somehow tell when one isn't working anymore and must use the other one, then it assigns the right one to an address where the hotkeys are assigned to....

Does that make any sense or is it overly complicated and I'd be better of finding the physics/gravity and try my luck with that?

(I wouldn't know how to write such a script anyway )

[mouser]

Hey Zanzer,
I didn't want to open a new thread for this as my question is based on your code above (putting the value of a register, which is the base address of a structure, into a custom variable.

This is the code-region I am targeting, I think esi contains the base addres for the camera structure: