Auto Update for new plugin HOW TO ? : Developer's Corner

OK got my plugin for SWG stable enough to post now. Its for SWG and exposes your X,Y loc and all the current HAM and secondary stat levels (not wounds yet). There is also a Heading value available but it only makes sense if you are in third person mode as it calculates your heading based on a line from the cameras position to your characters position I cant seem to find the value of your heading that the actual client uses. Anyway with the new publish due today I may have to do a little re-jigging but then I will be ready.

My question is How do I make it so it will auto update. I can see I need to edit the .xui file but what URL should I put in ? I have no wenspace of my own to use so I was just going to post it on the plugin forum but doesnt a download from there tag a load of characters at the start that will screw up an automatic doenload ?

DrDE@th

Zip it up, and I can fix it up for ya. Create a thread in the plugins download forum and attach it there.

If it is a vb plugin, be sure to include all sources (else admins will delete it).

If it is a script, post it in the downlaod scripts forum.

very nice btw.

The new forums hopefully should allow a better uploading/download mechanism for plugins.

For Autoupdate there are two places where to set the download adress.

1. In the .xui file
2. in the DLL (Sorry, dont know the handlername yet)

drdeath, did you post it? I cant find it. Give me a link.

Its in the SWG Plugins forum Wyv. Only posted it today.

drdeath, couple of questions before I make some suggestions.

What are you doing in the code cave functions?

Do you really need them? Ie, can you read the memory directly instead of going through your code cave?


Finally, this will need to be updated on every patch. It is much better to use "signatures" and scan for the signature and hook into the code via a signature and not the actual memory address itself. I can help you with this if you want, as I am putting it in all of my code now.

Wyv

The Player loc and HAM values are not static. Everytime you log in they are located somewhere else in the data block. I first though id be able to do as you suggest and search for some static data as an initial reference point but I couldnt to find anything that would suit. The only option I could see was to find out where the values were being accesed using a debugger and hijacking the code at that point. Basically what happens is the code injection stick a jump in to the code cave. In there I store off the dynamic value to a static location, then jump to the next instruction after I hijacked the code. This happens twice, once for the Loc and once for the HAM. If you can find a better way of doing it then I am all ears.

Oh btw one of my friends tried this on his PC and it looks like the Camer x,y doesnt work on his PC. Seems that the memory address is static on my PC and static on his PC but in a different memory address ??? So I will have to do some more code inject I guess to get that too.

As you say this may need updating after every patch so any tips on scanning for signatures will be appreciated.

DrDE@th

Did you find the offsets in memory or via disassembling? If you found them via memory, then yes they can change from computer to computer. You will need to find the pointer to the memory address and not the memory address directly. This is probably what is going on with your player loc as well. I'll look at the swg code and give you some ideas since you have a good start.