Cheat System

[NiSeSo]

Personally I think pcsx2 first need to have something like a dialog window from which you can choose which codes you want to enable at the moment and which not.
Currently to do that you have to first disable the cheats the you don't want to use by editing the .pnach file and then start pcsx2 and if for some reason you want to use some of the other cheats that you disable already,you have to restart pcsx2 to do that(I may be wrong about that).

Something like the cheat engine(not finding cheats,just enable/disable them)in PJ64 for example,or maybe like PEC for PS1

If I recall, 0.9.2 or 0.9.4, had a patch browser that allowed you to do this. It was a good idea and deserves to be implemented again (I'm not sure if it's still in the source; I'm no programmer.) However, now that patches and cheats serve a separate purpose, they would have to code it to support cheats only. The patch stuff should remain in the "GameIndex" file. There are two methods I use to enable/disable cheats in PCSX2 without the need of restarting it. The third one should be obvious.

Method #1: Save states
Open the .pnach file for the game and enable any cheat(s) necessary. Save your changes, but don't close the file. Start PCSX2 like you normally would and load your save state. When you don't want the effect of the cheat(s) anymore, disable it/them (add "//" before the code line(s)) and save. Then, reload your save state. Do the opposite to enable them again.

Method #2: Anytime
Open the .pnach file for the game and enable any cheat(s) necessary. Save your changes, but don't close the file. Start PCSX2 like you normally would. When you don't want the effect of the cheat(s) anymore, suspend emulation, disable it/them (add "//" before the code line(s)) and save. Then, resume emulation. Do the opposite to enable them again again.

Method #3: Enable Cheats option
Suspend emulation, uncheck "Enable Cheats", then resume emulation. Do the opposite to enable them again.

This could all be avoided with a joker command, though.

I was wandering if who ever is dealing with the cheat system if they could just base it off of the ARMAX system. If they did then PCSX2 could do away with the codelist manager and just have a dialogue that chooses from *.bin files in a codelists folder. Reason for doing away with codelist manager is because there is already a good enough one on the web (totally free of course) called "Max Codelist Manager" - granted it requires windows but it takes a load off until PCSX2 is fully compatible with every game.
For hacking the games users could try "RenegadeEx", I don't know of any others but at least this one is reliable for the most part. Incedently if anyone wants to try there luck I just found out there are betas for RenegadeEx 2 (I'm trying it now ), just remove the file from the links url.

Why the AR MAX system? That system was "created" solely to work on games in which their software did not at the time. Yes, they implemented tons of commands, but a lot of them are of no use to regular users. In my opinion, it was just a ploy to get users of their previous device to upgrade. The other cheat devices have a much simpler system and can use RAW cheats by default (not advertised for the GameShark and Xploder devices. The GameShark v3-4 has some quirks in its software; I'm not sure about the Xploder.).

If you want PCSX2 to support AR MAX' .bin files (Swap Magic uses this extension, as well), then you might as well also include .cbc (CodeBreaker) and .p2m (GameShark/Xploder) files. However, this feature would work best in Omniconvert or a separate program. You could download a cheat file from a code hacking site or the device' own, and export it as a .pnach file.

If coded into Omniconvert, it could work as follows:

Code:

File -> Load Cheat File (needs checks to ensure that it is an authentic file despite what the extension says)
Input: Cheat Device (automatically detected by the file loaded into Omniconvert)
Output: Raw/Unencrypted (the device' own or PCSX2 raw)
Game Name (applies to "Game=" in .pnach file): Mecca's Game (U)
Game CRC: 04122011
Comment (applies to "Comment=" in .pnach file): Mecca

Then, you would just go to File -> Save As PCSX2 (.pnach). It should save the .pnach file in this format (I personally use this format to avoid the byte, short and word stuff):

Code:

04122011.pnach (open in Notepad or your text editor of choice)

Game=Mecca's Game (U)
Comment=Patches by Mecca

Infinite Health (100)
patch=1,EE,01234567,extended,00000064

Infinite Ammo (9999)
patches=1,EE,11234568,extended,0000270F

Max Money ($99999999)
patches=1,EE,2123456C,extended,05F5E0FF

As for cheating and not to take away from Viper's program, you can give ArtMoney a try. I have not had any success with Cheat Engine yet.

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

The advice is trying new cheat codes for the first time near a normal save (memcard). Whatever is saved in sstate is perpetuated and this is the cause for so many complaints about corruption in them. It is not the sstate corrupts the game but it does not forgive introduced corruption.

The risk is reduced somewhat on memcards because only significant data is saved (not the whole memory snapshot) and the game is rebuilt from the disc image, supposed to be uncorrupted, when loaded from the memcard. Just as an example, a wrong code may corrupt memory area destined to game's code instead the data area, the kind of error that can pass long time unperceived until it triggers and can be a total loss.

Still, for most situations, that corruption is gone when loaded from memcard and the now corrected code is rewritten in sstate, if the issue is not the kind that spread and accumulate the problems.

[awsdert]

Why the AR MAX system?

It has support for folders which makes it much easier to manage the cheats. Also if you had read my earlier post properly you would have noticed I left room for the others to be added after the most difficult and most useful one.

a lot of them are of no use to regular users

Don't be to sure about that, I found them useful long before I started hacking my own codes (via PCSX2 of course).
As a side note I'm sure that once PCSX2 is finished the developers won't mind hacking a few codes if they have the game. Also I'm perfectly prepared to maintain the main codelist.bin if multiple bins are supported (actually might be easier to implement mcmcode files that Max Codelist Manager supports), by which I mean the developers create and update their own .bin and one person (i.e me) updates the main file based on those lists.
That ArtMoney you suggested no good for small but large cheating e.g. FF12 inventory fill in ArtMoney would require every address be filled out but in RenegadeEx/Renegade64 slide codes help reduce the number of lines needed to be entered (basically supports the common RAW codes).

[awsdert]

Been working on a new hacking tool which is intended to serve as a branch sequel to Renegade series (got permission from author also), The GUI is about 98% complete but for now the hacking side of things is limited to windows only, everything else is relying on wxWidgets so it should be usable on other platforms as well (which ties in with PCSX2's goal of being cross platform). The name is HackerEX (HEX for short), anyone wanting to access it can find the source code at http://code.google.com/p/renegade
If you're impatient about a feature then just add it yourself because I'm lazy and only code it when I feel like coding (at most check on weekly or monthly basis).
List codes aren't supported by the de/builder functions yet so don't bother but all others should work.

[awsdert]

I've uploaded an executable for windows here: HackerEX Beta 2

Can't remember whether it's in 64bit or 32bit format though so I'll be modifying my compile options in a minute.

[ruiner6061]

So If I utilized a codebreaker cheat, saved the state, would it even be possible to 'overwrite' the codebreaker cheat using the pnatch?
IE codebreaker cheat makes a number never increase, and now in the current save state I need that number to increase..

[CK1]

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