AC09 file formats

[AbBh]

Thats the path where the devs must have had their source code while developing the game. Those files aren't present on your PC and aren't being accessed. They aren't game specific either. Microsoft provides them. PDB files are used to assist in debugging.

 

[surendar]

Thats the path where the devs must have had their source code while developing the game. Those files aren't present on your PC and aren't being accessed. They aren't game specific either. Microsoft provides them. PDB files are used to assist in debugging.

Yes, they had the source code there. After linking and during execution, definitely object files will be searched in that path. If it is not present, relative path configured (somewhere ) will be searched & even if it's not present there, it will lead to error. This is the drawback of using absolute path in linking.

So I take object files are present in the relative path, which is the path where .w32 is present. ( my assumption ) This search causes obvious slow down by default. High spec game can't have a minor lag also, because it will be a good enemy to user friendliness.

Thats why I asked, do VC++ programmers know the possible decompression formats where you can put the obj files and execute. Like jars for java.

surendar added 2 Minutes and 26 Seconds later...

But the .lock file gets created in our path, they had specified in linking. Lock files are generally for security/synchronous from my understanding. I may be wrong. This means, the an extra file create during the execution and destroying after execution is there. Hence, the methodology which they follow to protect the game has turned out as a natural slowness of the game.

Had they programmed better, I am sure, the game will run in better speed than the present one.

 

[AbBh]

Object files are intermediate files produced by the compiler for use by the Linker. They aren't needed by a compiled application. C++ isn't an interpreted language like Java.
PDB files contain debug symbols which are helpful when debugging code. Again they are not needed to run a compiled application.

 

[surendar]

Object files are intermediate files produced by the compiler for use by the Linker. They aren't needed by a compiled application. C++ isn't an interpreted language like Java.
PDB files contain debug symbols which are helpful when debugging code. Again they are not needed to run a compiled application.

So .w32 should be containing the entire linkage/binaries. I thought since C++ supports OOPs, the object files should be there. That(full linkage in one) is even more bad. This will cause the slow down as the age(time of running) increases. bad design!

Since you seem to trace the data from memory, out of curiosity I want to know, did you get hold of any trace in cache during the running of AC09?

 

[AbBh]

No, the w32 file contains media not code. The compiled code is in the exe file. Other than that it links to required DLL files statically and dynamically. Its not a bad design.

While debugging I saw a string containing name of the lock file on the stack but didn't trace it down. I don't think there is any use of doing that either.

 

[tutsipoppy2]

Hi guys,

Well, I've haven't been able to following the patching development for AC09. But I suppose we haven't found a way to edit the AI (since it my domain ). Well as far was batting is concerned, I think Codies had the right idea behind the batting zone which would be narrow for god batsmen and wide for tailenders. The only problem is that with top end batsmen, it gets very easy to find the gaps as some of the default fields have wide open gaps plus AI's fielding sense is not too great. I don't blame the Codies as this sort of a thing is very very hard implement while getting the realism.

I don't know if this could be done though EXE editing or some other EXE patch or not, where we can increase the width of the zone for top end batsmen as well, that would really create an ideal situation of timing the ball perfectly straight to the fielder.

Also, for medium and hard difficulty mode, it should had been made mandatory for us to press either frontfoot or backfoot button for playing a show. Automatic mode makes batting a tad easier even on hard mode. So, can it be done so that, either there is automatic mode is not selected by default so that batting is challenging and every ball is played carefully even if we are defending it.

I have no idea if whatever i suggested has already been suggested or not or if it is possible by any means or not. But it was in head so I thought, its better to post it here than keeping it up over there....

 

[MasterBlaster76]

All sounds should be replaceable. Just a matter of figuring out the header to the file so we can import different files to replace. AbBh is also working on a different method of importing which will most likely be far, far easier than me figuring out the .w32 file format!

You know what the problem is, don't you? There aren't enough different sounds for each event in the game. For example, there isn't a 'quiet' boundary cheer and a 'loud' one, there's just one type from what I've heard. Also, I can't discern any individual sounds for each team either, so that's proper team specific chants out the window as well.

MasterBlaster76 added 0 Minutes and 47 Seconds later...

Hi guys,

Well, I've haven't been able to following the patching development for AC09. But I suppose we haven't found a way to edit the AI (since it my domain ). Well as far was batting is concerned, I think Codies had the right idea behind the batting zone which would be narrow for god batsmen and wide for tailenders. The only problem is that with top end batsmen, it gets very easy to find the gaps as some of the default fields have wide open gaps plus AI's fielding sense is not too great. I don't blame the Codies as this sort of a thing is very very hard implement while getting the realism.

I don't know if this could be done though EXE editing or some other EXE patch or not, where we can increase the width of the zone for top end batsmen as well, that would really create an ideal situation of timing the ball perfectly straight to the fielder.

Also, for medium and hard difficulty mode, it should had been made mandatory for us to press either frontfoot or backfoot button for playing a show. Automatic mode makes batting a tad easier even on hard mode. So, can it be done so that, either there is automatic mode is not selected by default so that batting is challenging and every ball is played carefully even if we are defending it.

I have no idea if whatever i suggested has already been suggested or not or if it is possible by any means or not. But it was in head so I thought, its better to post it here than keeping it up over there....

You made some excellent patches for Ckt 07, didn't you? Let's hope you can work your magic here as well!

 

[tutsipoppy2]

Ya, we need a tool to open, import and export files from the main .w32 file before I can even think of making AI patches for AC09, like I used to do for EA Cricket games.

 

[diaskasun]

Ya, we need a tool to open, import and export files from the main .w32 file before I can even think of making AI patches for AC09, like I used to do for EA Cricket games.



I've found a solution for this myself . But I guess we can't release the modified EXE as of now.

Does anybody know the "technical" name for the batting "V" / "ZONE"?

hi mate, cant we atlest change the AI stupid field settings problem, without editing .w32

 

[Max Peters]

Well we can't as we can't delve into the depths of the .w32 file yet.

 

[AbBh]

Ya, we need a tool to open, import and export files from the main .w32 file before I can even think of making AI patches for AC09, like I used to do for EA Cricket games.

You can't be sure that anything that affects the AI is in the .w32 file. Stuff like AI is coded in the game rather than read from human understandable text files. EA's games were generous in this regard.

 

[diaskasun]

You can't be sure that anything that affects the AI is in the .w32 file. Stuff like AI is coded in the game rather than read from human understandable text files. EA's games were generous in this regard.

so there is no real hope of patching AI !!!

 

[AbBh]

Didn't say that. All I was saying that people who are expecting the AI in the .w32 file could be wrong. It'll be harder than patching EA's games.

 

[diaskasun]

Didn't say that. All I was saying that people who are expecting the AI in the .w32 file could be wrong. It'll be harder than patching EA's games.

cool mate, you know million times better then i do about patching the game, so i am cool with what ever you say!!

 

[tutsipoppy2]

That's really bad....I've seen some values in the EXE which kind of suggest that some files might be responsible for the AI.