Cheat System

[awsdert]

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.

[Saiki]

we have several guides *points to sig* like mine), and the cheats are raw, just like MOST of action replay's

[awsdert]

I don't disput that, what I'm saying is that most users like myself would prefer a more robust cheat system like ARMAX and supporting their codelist file would immeadiatly allow a large set of games to be cheated on without ever waiting for the ARMAX disc.

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

For now the internal cheating system deals only with the RAW codes... mostly those "robust" features are encryption and protection which has nothing to do with the "cheating system" at all.

Well, not everything... they provide special functions, like allowing loops, master codes, joker commands and so on... in such extent than emulating them is practically making another emulator for each codebreaker, armax, action replay and whatever cheat engines exist out there. Can be done, probably will be done... but I can't see it being done in near future unless someone comes up specifically to work on it.

PS: bear in mind the "compromise" of the PCSX2 devs is with emulating "PS2", everything else is extra.

[awsdert]

I wasn't saying that it should become a prioty, just that whoever is currently focusing or will focus on it to cut out a lot of work by simply building support for pre-existing codelist files that have independent codelist managers being developed already.

[Saiki]

that's like saying codebreaker and action replay should be compatible with each other. they're not for a reason.

[awsdert]

who said anything about the brands being compatible? I was saying that their codelist files should be supported, the user can simply select mode via a combo box or something, then the corrosponding function will feed the codes to PCSX2's cheat functions such as:

Code:

void readARMAXBin (FILE) {
  Code* codelist; int r = 0;
  // code that filters information from codelist.bin or whatever bin the user chooses
  switch(r) {
    case 1: hack(codelist); break; // r would be set to 1 if no problems occur
    case n: ...; break;
    default: break;
  }
}

[Ensavier]

who said anything about the brands being compatible? I was saying that their codelist files should be supported, the user can simply select mode via a combo box or something, then the corrosponding function will feed the codes to PCSX2's cheat functions such as:

Code:

void readARMAXBin (FILE) {
  Code* codelist; int r = 0;
  // code that filters information from codelist.bin or whatever bin the user chooses
  switch(r) {
    case 1: hack(codelist); break; // r would be set to 1 if no problems occur
    case n: ...; break;
    default: break;
  }
}

The dev team is supporting this emulator out of the simple kindness of their hearts. If they're not willing to write code to convert codes from code breaker to raw I wouldn't hold it against them. They've made a beautiful program thus far.

If its so easy to do why not download the source, implement the feature yourself? I can't say for sure but I think the dev team does take outside contributions.

[awsdert]

If I could get the program to compile I would have done so already, however every time I try the compiler fails and spits warnings and/or errors at me. And before you ask I did try reading the guide but I still failed. As a final note I'm also busy with several other personal projects (2 of which are open source but nobody has expressed any interest in actually coding them), add that to my jobs and relaxation time and I don't have much time to try harder.

Edit: This is why I use the forums a lot, because then I can at least make sure my ideas are out there and perhaps being considered.

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

Like said before, the idea is good and has its merits but is far from that simple. Anyway, you could just use the original cheater devices.

PCSX2 cheat engine began simple, it was meant just to put in the given address the given value which should then be identified by the tokens byte, short or word to explicitly tell the value's length. and the "patch=#" was provided to tell the cheat should be applied once by game session or once by frame.

That's a very simple engine which need the "RAW" codes, meaning the "actual" address offset is provided as so the actual value to be put there. Notice it was not meant to be tied with any commercial cheat engine. On the other hand it brought a serious issue when used with converted codes from them.

First and someway "fatal" was the address was literally taken, it means the code should begin necessarily by 0 or 2 as the first digit. Any other value there (which in the original code is not part of the address but the flag for the code type) would crash the emulator, mainly the value 1 which mean the PCSX2 "hardware area" was being messed and so... boom.

Because of it all codes that used the old token format (byte, short or word) must have that address first digit changed to reflect the real address offset (0) or a mirror to it (2).

Later, the imbedded PCS2 cheat engine implemented partial support for the codebreaker flag model, where those digits are used to actually tell what to do with the code and included another token "extended" with the meaning of extended capability, with this that first digit became required to be kept as they are in the original codes. When using "extended" the first digit is automatically converted to 0 after being used to indicate the code type and then it MUST NOT be changed from the original code.

Still that support is limited, not all functionality was implemented, doing so would be totally emulate the original device and because of it the original commercial cheat database can't just be used. Many codes types are not implemented and would lead to crashes or strange behaviors, possibly indelibly corrupting the game saves. Let alone this would force to implement the whole decryption thing too.

Well, and we return to this post first line, what you want can be done using the original commercial cheat engine...