Modpatcher

[grenademagnet]

Actually, Long War was using modpatcher until its latest release.

 

@grenade, Until Bok updates toolboks, your best bet may be resourcehacker in the near term, although I'm not sure what it will do with EW.

 

Even better is that we've got a workaround now that lets you make a one-time change to your exe, and then any changes to DefaultGameCore.ini are automatically read into the game. We don't have an installer-patcher for that for EW yet, but the hex change for your exe is posted in the EW discovery thread and is working.

@johnnylump Ok, thanks: I am looking at your mod now, and can observe how you modify EXE to point to the DefaultGameCore.ini file

 

I'm fine either way, just need some clarification on who's tool I should use, since I have not been monitoring this forum since the Slingshot release.

 

Does anyone know if the ModPatcher author ever made his code open-source? ModPatcher was pretty convenient. However, if I have to instruct people to copy over the DefaultGameCore.ini file in the local folder and patch their EXE then that solution will work as well.

[UberJumper]

 

There is a onetime modification to the XCOM EW executable you can apply, that allows XCOM EW to read DefaultGameCore.ini directly from XEW/XComGame/Config/DefaultGameCore.ini (it works fine on Enemy Within)

 

I am updating my tool to support EW right now, to apply said patch.

 

Thanks, UberJumper. Sorry to be rude, but which mod is yours again? I'm supporting the Implassic mod, which relies on the ModPatcher utility to embed the updated DefaultGameCore.ini file into the game's EXE file.

 

However, I see Firaxis decided to implement EW inside it's own EXE file. Which mod or utility download link is yours? I'm more than happy to use your tool instead, and give credit to you in my mod page, of course.

 

 

It was a tool made for the long war mod, because i could not get XShape/Modpatcher to work properly. It basically patches some xcom executable address to resolve this.

 

 

I updated the XCOMModHelper to support XCOM Enemy Within: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper

 

For Enemy Within, the only thing that it does is, patch the XCOMEW.exe to make it so it Reads DefaultGameCore.ini from XEW/XCOMGame/Config folder, without needing Modpatcher. It also should automatically determine where the XCOM executable is located (if you have it installed in another steam library it should find it now).

 

Binaries: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper/releases/tag/v0.2

Code: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper

Documentation: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper

[grenademagnet]

It was a tool made for the long war mod, because i could not get XShape/Modpatcher to work properly. It basically patches some xcom executable address to resolve this.

 

 

I updated the XCOMModHelper to support XCOM Enemy Within: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper

 

For Enemy Within, the only thing that it does is, patch the XCOMEW.exe to make it so it Reads DefaultGameCore.ini from XEW/XCOMGame/Config folder, without needing Modpatcher. It also should automatically determine where the XCOM executable is located (if you have it installed in another steam library it should find it now).

 

Binaries: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper/releases/tag/v0.2

Code: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper

Documentation: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper

 

Ok, UberJumper, thanks very much. I just found your mod reference right before I read your post response.

 

I will look into making a change to my mod so it will use your tool instead for Enemy Within. I will probably include your EXE file with my mod, but will also include a reference to your mod links in case people should get the latest version if they run into problems.

 

Any suggestions or changes please let me know, thank you.

Edited November 13, 2013 by grenademagnet

[UberJumper]

 

It was a tool made for the long war mod, because i could not get XShape/Modpatcher to work properly. It basically patches some xcom executable address to resolve this.

 

 

I updated the XCOMModHelper to support XCOM Enemy Within: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper

 

For Enemy Within, the only thing that it does is, patch the XCOMEW.exe to make it so it Reads DefaultGameCore.ini from XEW/XCOMGame/Config folder, without needing Modpatcher. It also should automatically determine where the XCOM executable is located (if you have it installed in another steam library it should find it now).

 

Binaries: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper/releases/tag/v0.2

Code: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper

Documentation: https://github.com/fperks/xcom-mod-helper

 

Ok, UberJumper, thanks very much. I just found your mod reference right before I read your post response.

 

I will look into making a change to my mod so it will use your tool instead for Enemy Within. I will probably include your EXE file with my mod, but will also include a reference to your mod links in case people should get the latest version if they run into problems.

 

Any suggestions or changes please let me know, thank you.

 

 

Sure, if you run into issues let me know. Its hard to test these things. :/

[grenademagnet]

UberJumper, one question about your mod: If Firaxis releases a patch and updates the Enemy Within EXE file, will your tool still work with it, or will you have to build a new version of your tool to be compatible? Just trying to plan ahead on any possible issues that could occur, since I'm still getting familiar with your mod. Thank you.

Edited November 13, 2013 by grenademagnet

[UberJumper]

UberJumper, one question about your mod: If Firaxis releases a patch and updates the Enemy Within EXE file, will your tool still work with it, or will you have to build a new version of your tool to be compatible? Just trying to plan ahead on any possible issues that could occur, since I'm still getting familiar with your mod. Thank you.

 

I honestly can't guarantee anything.

 

The hex change to allow for DefaultGameCore.ini to be read from the Config Folder, still works and that is after a full blown expansion pack. So i can imagine it will keep working for awhile.

 

Modpatcher does something similar by patching the xcom executable, and it has more or less worked even after all the patches.

Edited November 13, 2013 by UberJumper

[ellesarath]

Edit<< There is a compatibility issue with current cracked verions of the .exe, anyone in Europe will have to wait.

 

UberJumper suggested that using compatibility mode for W7 might work, tried this with admin as well neither worked nor combined - you might have more luck?

 

I tried a manual edit using the HxD HEX Editor

It did not work.

 

Received picture verification from UberJumper that the tool does work for vanilla EW .exe file.>>

 

Had some trouble with non steam folder installation use of this tool, got help from UberJumper, posting conversation here as help for others.

Me<<Hi,
saw that you had updated Mod Helper to work with EW. I grabbed the new binary and ran it, no cigar. I do not have it installed in a steam library. How can I work around this? W7 x64, *limited* mod knowledge but generally good with computers and instructions.

Thanks for the quick reaction to exp pack ^^>>

 

UberJumper<<Try this:

XCOMModHelper.exe -g EW -c EWConfig.xml -x "<Path to the Xcom-Enemy-Unknown Folder>">>

quick hint - put the modhelper files directly into your user under c/users/usrnm to avoid havignt o specify anything beyond the installation dir.

Mad props to UberJumper for the help and the tool - edit: almost made my morning ;)

Edited November 13, 2013 by ellesarath

[Cutz]

Modpatcher doesn't work, anymore :sad:

 

If I make any change to the .exe the game will crash immediately, when I try to run the game, with a 0x0 error (0xc0000142).

 

My guess is that the game uses some sort of a hash system, now. So we'll need to come around this in future versions...

Edited November 14, 2013 by Cutz

[UberJumper]

Modpatcher doesn't work, anymore :sad:

 

If I make any change to the .exe the game will crash immediately, when I try to run the game, with a 0x0 error (0xc0000142).

 

My guess is that the game uses some sort of a hash system, now. So we'll need to come around this in future versions...

 

Modifications to the exe crash only if you are using a certain alternative version. The Crash is caused by the fact the people who made the alternative exe added a check to see if it has been modified.

[whiterabbit76]

 

Modpatcher doesn't work, anymore :sad:

 

If I make any change to the .exe the game will crash immediately, when I try to run the game, with a 0x0 error (0xc0000142).

 

My guess is that the game uses some sort of a hash system, now. So we'll need to come around this in future versions...

 

Modifications to the exe crash only if you are using a certain alternative version. The Crash is caused by the fact the people who made the alternative exe added a check to see if it has been modified.

 

 

Its actually in the .dlls. If you replace them with a different "alternative version" set (chinese I think), you can mod all you like and no crash on startup. Just got it working, so can't say anything on stability, but mods to the .ini files work fine and show up in game.