[Developing] New addition to AutoPause/New Tool

Rapture · Post by **Rapture** » 08 Sep 2005 20:03

Greetings,

I'm currently working on adding some functionality to AutoPause and with this new functionality I'll probably have to rename the tool. What will be included in the new tool is:

A window/tab that shows:
Current Money
Current Loan
Monthly Vehicle Income
Monthly Vehicle Costs
Option for your currency type
Delivered Cargo (All types)

Other:
Looking for translators for most languages. I'll add the english language files here at a later date.
Adding ascii/uni-code characters for new languages.

Anyways, I've decided I'm not very creative when it comes to names for my applications (they usually say what the app does) due to my programming mentality. So, I'm asking all of you for a possible new name for this application.

The application will include the functionality of AutoPause so I'm thinking of just making one app that will allow plugins (AutoPause, Game Info, vehicle stats, etc). I'm also toying with the idea of recording all the above mentioned for later review of the user. It will be something like the in-game graphs and charts.

I'm going to start the development of the application today, but I prolly won't have a test app running for a day or two (work, school, life, god these things love to interfere with my love of programming!!! ARG).

I'm also looking for a few beta testers. So if you are intrested, please post here or leave me a PM.

Thanx for your time,
-The Code Monkey

Purri · Post by **Purri** » 09 Sep 2005 06:26

Sounds interesting.
I can do the German translation, if you want.

chevyrider · Post by **chevyrider** » 09 Sep 2005 12:15

A very handy feature in TTD(patch) is that you can open a very small box where you can payback your loan.
In Locomotions that box covers almost have the screen.

Rapture · Post by **Rapture** » 09 Sep 2005 18:44

Hmm.. I could do a full loan payback feature, though I don't have the reverse engineering experience to do it in-game.

I'm up for any ideas you guys want. I'm kinda limited to out of game stuff. I mean, I can modify the memory addresses and such, but I don't think I'll be able to institute any in-game GUIs or anything like that (yet).

-Rapture

lobster · Post by **lobster** » 11 Sep 2005 18:40

Rapture, how does LocomotionPatch sounds to you?

sounds awesome this. very nice.

chevyrider · Post by **chevyrider** » 11 Sep 2005 20:12

astath wrote:Rapture, how does LocomotionPatch sounds to you?

sounds awesome this. very nice.

There is already one.
That's the official Atari patch.

My Locotool i've put in an extra folder.
This one i called Locochanger.
Idea?

MjD · Post by **MjD** » 11 Sep 2005 23:51

astath wrote:Rapture, how does LocomotionPatch sounds to you?

sounds awesome this. very nice.

Welcome to the Locomotion astath, you a Loco player yourself?

Anyway, back on-topic, sounds like a good tool for using early in the game when u need all vehicles profiting and for the harder maps.
Good Work private!!
Keep it up! And thats an order

Rapture · Post by **Rapture** » 12 Sep 2005 01:08

Some news:

I've begun disassembling Loco.exe. It's a tough one to figure out because Atari used all kinds of bit transfers (32 bit to 64 bit and back again) for all kinds of things. Mainly time critical things like dates, speeds, etc. This seems like poor programming, giving higher cpu driven function more things to process thus slowing down the whole game.

I've tried pretty hard to figure out how the game calculates the year and I haven't figured it out yet. I also learned something interesting on that topic. The game actually keeps track of leap years! No idea why, but it does. Though they made a mistake and didn't include the year 2000 into the leap year calculations, but who's criticizing, right?

I've broken down the exe into the main parts (file I/O, time, speeds, and monetary things) and now I'm in the process of figuring out exactly how each one works. I'm hoping to find enough information to begin large scale modifications (mainly real-time changes) so I can begin doing things like TTD Patch does with TTD. It is proving very difficult due to 2 things. One, my lack of ASM understanding and two, my lack of time to do such things.

For those intrested, the game has both static and dynamic memory allocations on a large scale (which is odd). For example, some of the static memory addresses include player data (money, loan, delivered cargo, etc). Some of the dynamic addresses include Years, vehicle speeds, and vehicle reliability.

So what does all this have to do with little mods like mine? Well, it makes it difficult for the average programmer (like myself) to achieve the results they want without modifying things blindly.

On a more positive note, I've begun programming memory reading functions and writting functions. I could make a cheat for Loco, but what's the point? We are here to have fun, not play god. I was messing around with modifying the loan and intrest rates and I accidently ended up with negative 8 trillion dollars. Unlike TTD, you can't buy anything you want when that happens. I'll be releasing the very primitive and featureless demo of my app here soon.

Still up for ideas on what you all want and a name for it. I was thinking along the lines of Loco Manager, but that doesn't exactly fit what I'm doing.

-Rapture

chevyrider · Post by **chevyrider** » 12 Sep 2005 09:41

During testing i came up with some game limits.
One of them is the 8 trilj. dollar overflow.
This seems only a cosmetic thing.

The counter of the total worth of your compagny down left keeps intact.
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?p=256698#256698

An other overflow is in the company values graphics.
The game doesn't crash when this occurs.
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?p=330599#330599

An other limit is the total amount of objects you can use in the game.
This is somewhere between 6000 and 6200.
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?p=242396#242396

I'm glad that someone atleast tries to explore the exe, learning to understand how the game works internally.
On this way we could perhaps rise our playing skills.

Rapture · Post by **Rapture** » 12 Sep 2005 09:58

Yeah, the cash you have is a static address, but the money earned per year/month is calulated sperately. The graphical bug with the company value is due to it being based off of your cash (thus making it go into cardiac arrest).

I would try and find the limiting factors for vehicles, but my system can't really handle anyhting over 200 trains. Guess I'll have to get a better CPU soon.

Loewe13 · Post by **Loewe13** » 12 Sep 2005 10:09

what about the maximum speeds of vehicles, what are the values for watervehicles or aircrafts? and can the maximum speed of trains exceed 413 kmh (257 mph) if yes, HOW because i wanted to make a highspeed train mod which drives up to 600 or 800 kmh and uses a new track system but for that i need higher max. speeds

btw. for all that think that a highspeedtrain with a max of 800 kmh cant be driven in that speed, because its already at the other side of the route, thats not true, because, when you drive a train at the corners of a map or drive it diagonal from one side to the other it will travel more than 3/4 of the way with 413 kmh.

Illegal_Alien · Post by **Illegal_Alien** » 12 Sep 2005 11:50

I think the main things to do is:

PBS <- Difficult to do i guess
Larger maps <- That one should be a hell of an improvement

Some other things can be done later i think

Rapture · Post by **Rapture** » 12 Sep 2005 11:58

RobH · Post by **RobH** » 12 Sep 2005 12:41

Path Based Signalling.

I really like the fact you are exploring the exe file. Could be some very interesting finds in there

.

I agree with the Alien, larger maps would be terrific if that were possible.

Rob

jules · Post by **jules** » 12 Sep 2005 14:33

Rapture wrote: I've begun disassembling Loco.exe. It's a tough one to figure out because Atari used all kinds of bit transfers (32 bit to 64 bit and back again) for all kinds of things. Mainly time critical things like dates, speeds, etc. This seems like poor programming, giving higher cpu driven function more things to process thus slowing down the whole game.

So what does all this have to do with little mods like mine? Well, it makes it difficult for the average programmer (like myself) to achieve the results they want without modifying things blindly.

-Rapture

im guessing that the different bit transfers might be used for this reason?

if i remember correctly chris sawyer doesnt greatly like modding to his games.

maybe im completely wrong..

lobster · Post by **lobster** » 12 Sep 2005 19:06

MajorDuck wrote:Welcome to the Locomotion astath, you a Loco player yourself?

from the very release, in fact. but i've stopped playing it after scrat decided to leave, there simply weren't any new additions to the game i found interesting.
yet now, i see there's something entirely new coming up. revolution is in the air. and albeit one that's not as extreme as you might think, i'm convinced it's one worth following. so i guess you'll see me around... again.

so, ís PBS one of the possibilities? or even pre-signals?

stafis · Post by **stafis** » 20 Sep 2005 13:19

Error-report:

I started Autopause 1.4 and then clicked on the "start LoMo..."-button.

I didn't have the CD inserted so I got the "please insert CD"-message..
here I clicked "Cancel"...

Then I tried to Close the Autopause tool - but it was totally unresponsive... - so I had to Ctrl+Alt+Del and force it to close....

I have tried this a couple times and the behavior is the same each time...

/Stafis

chevyrider · Post by **chevyrider** » 20 Sep 2005 13:39

My cd hasn't left my pc for more than a year now.
To be honest i've two drives.

another_lomo_player · Post by **another_lomo_player** » 22 Sep 2005 22:31

@Rapture: I have many of the memory addresses to current money etc, which I used to make my trainer. I will post them here if you are interested (not sure what your tool will really do).

You can get the source to the trainer at the page in my signature.
You'll find some static addresses there.
I can also help with some programming if you want...

marcf · Post by **marcf** » 23 Sep 2005 05:10

jules wrote:im guessing that the different bit transfers might be used for this reason?

if i remember correctly chris sawyer doesnt greatly like modding to his games.

maybe im completely wrong..

if noone modded transport tycoon deluxe (IE TTDPatch/OTTD), how many people would still be playing it, and how many people would have bought loco?

VERY LITTLE.

Transport Tycoon Forums

[Developing] New addition to AutoPause/New Tool

[Developing] New addition to AutoPause/New Tool

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