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Thread: Unlimited Zoom-Out aka Supreme-Keeper :)

  
  1. #1

    Default Unlimited Zoom-Out aka Supreme-Keeper :)

    ever thought "man, is that all i can zoom out?" at playing dungeon keeper 2? Modern Strategy games offer higher zoom levels... so c'mon.

    Well, after getting DK2 running on Linux, i felt this limitation should also be broken. Whith this hack, you can freely zoom out as you wish.



    I've created a Trainer to get your retail 1.7 Zoomed
    http://www.mediafire.com/file/nkyl2qoz23d/zoomhack.exe
    Download, place in DK2 dir, launch, press "Launch" to start the game or start it yourself, start a game session (singleplayer, pet dungeon, multiplayer), then press "O"-Key (oh not zero) to enable.
    This can be used to play with friends that dont have the zoomhack. would you consider it as cheating?

    i have also created a exe file that is prepatched for unlimited Zoom-Out (no trainer needet, only that exe):
    http://www.mediafire.com/file/zm1wgnnjjom/DKII.exe
    Just download, place in DK2 dir (overwrite or rename) and run.

    If you play it in multiplayer, other players need same DKII.exe.

    Please Note: Unlimited Zooming was not intendet by DK2 Developers. if you zoom too much, the game will crash. you can zoom very wide without problems and you will never expire a crash if you play normal... only if you want to see "man, how wide can i zoom?" you will notice it. (10 times more as seen on the screenshot)

    tested only on 1.7 US Version.

    Me and my Lanparty-Friends found that "feature" very usefull and handy. hope you also think so. took me some hours to create.

    comments?
    Last edited by darkbytes; May 26th, 2010 at 12:58.

  2. #2
    Your Majesty Hapuga's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlimited Zoom-Out aka Supreme-Keeper :)

    Excellent job!
    http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/6659/c2warlocki.gif

  3. #3
    Dragon DragonsLover's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlimited Zoom-Out aka Supreme-Keeper :)

    That sounds good!

    I guess that Bullfrog didn't wanted to allow a big zoom-out as it would require a lot of video card and processor processing to calculate everything visible on the screen for the old computers.

    A question though: does it apply the fix on the unsafedisced version of the executable or on the original copy protected DKII.exe?

    I don't think it would be considered as cheating as the fog of war is still present. It simply allows to see a larger area of the map which could be good.

    But I was wondering, do you know much about the executable? Do you think you could hack other things?
    I like dragons! They're the center of my life! I'll never forget them...



  4. #4

    Default Re: Unlimited Zoom-Out aka Supreme-Keeper :)

    Quote Originally Posted by DragonsLover View Post
    That sounds good!
    A question though: does it apply the fix on the unsafedisced version of the executable or on the original copy protected DKII.exe?
    the trainer "zoomhack.exe" does apply it to a running game; no matter if it is copy protected or not, as long as it is the right version i've made the hack for. it modifies the game code in memory. after restarting the game, the trainer needs to be re-applyd, but has the advantage that it works also on multiplayer with people that dont have the hack and dont require a unproteted version.

    the DKII.exe is indeed a unprotected version (i've created it using safedisk annihilator), so i was able to modifiy the known game code from the trainer directly into the executable using a hex editor.

    Quote Originally Posted by DragonsLover View Post
    But I was wondering, do you know much about the executable? Do you think you could hack other things?
    i know nothing about the executable, but when it comes down to execution, it is still x86 assembler which can be debugged, partly understood and modified. by unprotecting the exe, you can also modify it directly.

    as the game is not officially supported anymore, it is a interesting posibillity to modify it that way, because it basicly allows to modify everything in the game, and also fix crashes on newer operating systems. only problem is to find out, what exactly to modify.

    here is how i did that zoom hack, so you get an idea: i've used "cheat enginge 5.6" program. it is a program that is able to detect changed variables on the running game and also to debug and modify the running game. there are more programs like this out there, but that was the first i've found. i have started dk2 in pet dungeon mode and attached cheat enginge to it. zoomed maximum in, switched to cheant engine and started variable search, then switched to dk2 and zoomed maximum out, then back to cheat enginge and tolt it that the variable had be increased, dk2 zoom in, cheat enginge decreased, dk2 zoom out, cheat enginge increased. that way, it was possible to find out, on what position on memory the zoom level is stored. at the end there were 20 variables left, trial and error did the rest.
    after knowing what memory address is used, cheat enginge can be told to watch for code that writes there. i've enabled that, switched to dk2, zoomed a bit, switched back and tada: 4 places returned. with "show assembly" cheat enginge shows the corrosponding assembly code, marks the line that had written to and also the current execution path. little above, there was a "jump-on-less-or-equal" instruction. it is there because the code for a zoom level limit is something like

    if(currentzoom+zoomstep <= maxzoom)
    {
    currentzoom = currentzoom + zoomstep
    }else
    {
    // do nothing, because its zoomed out maximum
    }

    then i've modified the "jump-on-less-or-equal" opcode to NOP (no operation - do nothing) code so the statement becomes

    //do nothing
    {
    currentzoom = currentzoom + zoomstep
    }else
    {
    // do nothing, because its zoomed out maximum
    }

    which causes the game to appy the zoom and not check for maximum zoom level anymore. then i've created a trainer using cheat enginge. because that trainer did not work on linux, i also modified the unprotected executable with hex editor, which was no problem after i know what exactly iam looking for.
    a other way would have been to trache back the other operand of the less-or-equal operation and just modify the maxzoomlevel variable.


    this way, everything in the game can be modified, as long as you know what you are looking for. it is also possible to run the game with a full-featured debugger on newer windows version. in case of a crash, the debugger will tell you what was wrong, and you can look out if you are able to find a fix for it. there are some cheatenginge and many "cracking" tutorials out there that can help you to get started with x86 assembler and how to debug closed-source-executables.

    zoom level was the only thing i did not like so far; any other wishes what should be modified? except crashes

  5. #5
    Dragon DragonsLover's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlimited Zoom-Out aka Supreme-Keeper :)

    Quote Originally Posted by darkbytes
    zoom level was the only thing i did not like so far; any other wishes what should be modified? except crashes
    Enemy Keepers' AI? Or is it too much?

    But that's interesting informations. I'm still a bit beginning into programming and hex coding.
    Last edited by DragonsLover; May 28th, 2010 at 06:14.
    I like dragons! They're the center of my life! I'll never forget them...



  6. #6
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    Default Re: Unlimited Zoom-Out aka Supreme-Keeper :)

    Couldn't this be done for DK 1?
    Man I wish I could zoom out just a bit more in this game...

  7. #7
    Dragon DragonsLover's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlimited Zoom-Out aka Supreme-Keeper :)

    Quote Originally Posted by Skaruts View Post
    Couldn't this be done for DK 1?
    Man I wish I could zoom out just a bit more in this game...
    Ask Mefistotelis. Maybe he could find something.
    I like dragons! They're the center of my life! I'll never forget them...



  8. #8

    Default Re: Unlimited Zoom-Out aka Supreme-Keeper :)

    O_O How is your resolution so huge? I can't even run it at 1024x768 without it crashing every other minute or so... ):

  9. #9
    Demon Spawn Necror's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlimited Zoom-Out aka Supreme-Keeper :)

    In an other post he said it crashes less on Linux with whine its probably that

  10. #10

    Default Re: Unlimited Zoom-Out aka Supreme-Keeper :)

    yeah, linux + wine. its running very well with hardware acceleration and 1600x1200 resolution.

    this hack also works well with windows but does not fix win xp, vista and 7 crashing problems.

    keep in mind that dungeon keeper 2 is not a unstable, crashing game itself, its just windows xp and newer causing the problems. wine is doing a better job for windows 2000 compatibility than microsoft is able to do, which is in fact a little curious. i've now played 3 matches with 3 players on a maximum-size-map with maximum creatures, much action and 1600x1200 resolution - guess what? not a single crash while playing.

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