Downgrade Enemy Unknown to Patch 4 (356266) R&D

[mfitzy54]

Thankyou dubiousintent.

I've got LW running now.

 

And thanks to Bertilsson and all others involved for making this possible.

[llaftuo]

I haven't been able to successfully downgrade the game yet. I've posted elsewhere, and was told the problem is that I didn't disable hash checks, and was directed to the Basic Guide to Installing Mods and the "Disable Hash Checks" section. That guides me through disabling hash checks for "xcomgame.upk" and "xcomstrategygame.upk" but, after downgrading, this is what I get in the logs:

 

[0008.27] Log: === Critical error: ===
SHA Verification failed for '..\..\XComGame\CookedPCConsole\Core.upk'. Reason: Bad hash

Address = 0x76e2c41f (filename not found) [in C:\Windows\syswow64\KERNELBASE.dll]
Address = 0x4b7081 (filename not found) [in D:\Steam\steamapps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\Binaries\Win32\XComGame.exe]
Address = 0x2e006b (filename not found) [in D:\Steam\steamapps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\Binaries\Win32\XComGame.exe]
Address = 0x82e0d3 (filename not found) [in D:\Steam\steamapps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\Binaries\Win32\XComGame.exe]

 

 

I tried to disabling hash check on core.upk, and that crashes the game even worse (0.52 on the log...)

 

I've deleted the game from steamapps and from MyGames directory, and downloaded it again. Updated to the latest patch, and then used this mod to downgrade, still get the same error.

 

Help?

 

-- Edit --

 

I should note that I've tried downgrading with and without disabling hash checks, and get the same results.

Edited February 1, 2014 by llaftuo

[dubiousintent]

I haven't been able to successfully downgrade the game yet. I've posted elsewhere, and was told the problem is that I didn't disable hash checks, and was directed to the Basic Guide to Installing Mods and the "Disable Hash Checks" section. That guides me through disabling hash checks for "xcomgame.upk" and "xcomstrategygame.upk" but, after downgrading, this is what I get in the logs:

...

Hmm. Obviously something is going wrong. Time to step back and look carefully at HOW you are following the steps.

 

You don't mention if you have seen the video by Phwop in this link of the similar thread in the Uploaded Files section of the Forum, but if not you should if only to see how a successful Downgrade process looks.

 

1) Did you disable the 'hosts' file blocking of the 'phone home' addresses before verification? (Meaning you let it 'phone home' during verification.)

2) Once you 'verify files', does the EU launch correctly without modifications?

3) Did you start EU TWICE? There are actually two update stages, which is why this is necessary.

4) Are you certain you are in the EU rather than EW folder (XEW) when attempting hex changes?

5) At what stage of the Downgrade process did you attempt to disable hash checking? It should be after the Downgrade is complete.

* Are you aware that both ToolBoks and XComModHelper can handle that for you? No need to hack manually. Just open and close ToolBoks v1.5.2 after the downgrade, no need to even toggle anything. (Haven't used XComModHelper myself, yet.)

* Hash checking is disabled ONLY in the EXE, not by changing any of the UPK files.

6) Did you test launch EU again after the Downgrade and before attempting to install any other mods (including any tweaks from ToolBoks)?

 

-Dubious-

Edited February 2, 2014 by dubiousintent

[llaftuo]

#0 - Yes, I've seen the video. Yes, I'm following the steps exactly.

 

#1 - Yes, I disabled 'phone home' correctly.

 

#2 - I verified files. I even deleted the install, and reinstalled, and verified, and played the vanilla game for a bit just to be sure.

 

#3 - Yes, started EU more than twice before attempting to downgrade.

 

#4 - Yes, I'm certain it's EU. I don't own EW.

 

#5 - I've attempted to disable hash before and after, on completely fresh installs. I've posted elsewhere [and you replied, thanks :)] about the core.upk and bad hash in the log. Before that, I attemped downgrade without changes hashes, still get the same result.

 

Yes, I'm aware toolboks and XComModHelper can handle it. I was just following your suggestion from another post. Besides, doing it manually helped me learn a little more about programming. :)

 

#6 - on step 10 of the downgrade, the instructions say "start Xcom" and that's where it fails. I've seen posts claiming "on the second try it started" but no luck for me. I've tried launching Xcom the next day, no luck. I've tried uninstalling, reinstalling, downgrading - no luck. I tried uninstalling, deleting anything related (except Steam), reinstalling, downgrading - no luck. Always on step 10, game crashes and log generates the "core.upk bad hash" entry. I've moved on through the downgrade and followed the last instructions, but still, game crashes.

 

I've looked at the log on a vanilla run, and it's fine.

[dubiousintent]

Well it's pretty obvious that the crux of the issue is that you are still getting a hash check on Core.UPK. The problem is that all the usual methods of disabling it don't seem to be working for you.

 

1) This isn't by any chance running under OS X or any other platform such as *nix? We know that OS X uses a separate hash file (location in the wiki article).

2) Did you rename the Core.upk.uncompressed_size file to something else?

3) What region & language is your game localized for?

4) Do you happen to have a split Steam install, where some are in the default path under "C:\Program Files" and some are elsewhere?

5) Or did you try to move Steam from "Program Files" without uninstalling?

6) When you manually try to disable hash checking, do you:

a) make sure you are searching in hex instead of string mode?

b) look for more than one possible match of your search string? If so, you may need to experiment to find the correct location.

7) The instructions given are only for two UPKs, because for most that's all that is needed. Obviously you need to disable it for Core.UPK as well. It should be in the table near the other two files.

 

-Dubious-

Edited February 3, 2014 by dubiousintent

[Drakous79]

I have never tried downgrading, but when it comes to hash checking, you can try XSHAPE.

 

If you get error 16, when runnig it, edit XSHAPE.bat as is stated in the quote:

16. Your exe is very different from mine for some reason. You'll need to edit the xshape.bat file, and use a lower starting byte number. 0 is guaranteed to work, but takes the longest amount of time to run (several seconds).

java -jar XSHAPE.jar 0

 

[llaftuo]

Well it's pretty obvious that the crux of the issue is that you are still getting a hash check on Core.UPK. The problem is that all the usual methods of disabling it don't seem to be working for you.

 

1) This isn't by any chance running under OS X or any other platform such as *nix? We know that OS X uses a separate hash file (location in the wiki article).

2) Did you rename the Core.upk.uncompressed_size file to something else?

3) What region & language is your game localized for?

4) Do you happen to have a split Steam install, where some are in the default path under "C:\Program Files" and some are elsewhere?

5) Or did you try to move Steam from "Program Files" without uninstalling?

6) When you manually try to disable hash checking, do you:

a) make sure you are searching in hex instead of string mode?

b) look for more than one possible match of your search string? If so, you may need to experiment to find the correct location.

7) The instructions given are only for two UPKs, because for most that's all that is needed. Obviously you need to disable it for Core.UPK as well. It should be in the table near the other two files.

 

-Dubious-

 

Sorry for the delayed response...

 

1) Windows 7

2) when I renamed the core.upk, the game crashes immediately. The log shows crash happens in a split second, like .03.

3) America, English? I couldn't find anything called "localization" anywhere...

4) No, when I installed Steam initially I changed the default directory to a drive I put all my games on - the OS has it own SSD, and I have 2 other drives, one for games and the other for general programs/storage.

6 a) Yes b) Yes

7) see #2...anytime I try anything with core.upk, the game crashes.

[Krazyguy75]

Wait, did you rename "Core.upk.uncompressed_size" or "Core.upk"? You're a bit vague on your answer to the second question.

[dubiousintent]

@IIaftuo: You seem to be doing everything right, but as Krazyguy75 pointed out, you are not quite clear as to what you are doing with Core.UPK. You should not be doing anything directly to that specific file. You do need to rename the "Core.upk.uncompressed_size" file to something else (i.e. "Core.upk.uncompressed_size_org") and then hex edit the XComGame.EXE file entry:

Find:
63 6F 72 65 2E 75 70 6B
// core.upk (only one occurrence)

Replace with:
62 6F 72 65 2E 75 70 6B
// bore.upk

That should be all that is needed. If that doesn't work, there is something else we are not seeing. Note that no one else has reported this problem or any need for that hex edit, so you are in unknown territory here.

 

-Dubious-

Edited February 10, 2014 by dubiousintent

[llaftuo]

Thanks folks. I was working on an Impossible difficulty game, and wanted to finish before trying anything else.

 

Changing the Core.upk as you suggest Dub didn't work; I tried that before. I renamed the Core.upk.uncompressed_size file as you suggested, and it didn't work.

 

I give up. It's vanilla Xcom for me it seems...