Patching extra functionality into <gamemd.exe>

[~Chronojam~]

And that definitely is something cool for Pd to add later, eh?

Perhaps our friend here has concerns about the flight level and doesn't know you can adjust it for aircraft, too...? Just a thought, because seemingly many people don't know.

[pd]

Kinda bad news here, about CnC: The First Decade.
Result of an interview by GameSpot:

The interview has absolutelly no news, except that the games from the package will already be patched.

Eeeek... this could mean the end of my work here.
YR is likely to be changed and therefore different from 1.001.

Porting all the stuff I edited to a new exe would be so much work that I'd probably cancel it :mellow:

Either EA makes a 1.002 patch or we'll have two different versions.
But, hopefully, maybe they don't touch it at all (which I doubt since I know people having problems due to XP...)

[Renegade]

Huh? Since when do we care about EA's crap?

We've got the real YR, the real 1.001, the real Rock Patch? Who says we need to adapt to their attempts to kill us?

[DCoder]

I have a feeling their patching will disrupt the network code due to insufficient testing, and the EA-patched YR won't be able to play against the older versions anyway.

But then again, (EA's) talk is cheap. We shouldn't start worrying until that package is actually released and we can see what exactly they did.

[jonwil]

Is there any reason to think that this new pack wont just ship YR 1.001?

[DCoder]

What was not mentioned in the press release is: ALL the games in the collection pack will be playable on Windows XP on DVD. This is not a simple export code to WIN XP process. It's actually a very complicated technical process and we have a development team dedicated to making it happen.

[Blade]

No problem, just make a patcher that back patches the new YR 1.002 to Rock patch, call the community project 1.003 and call it done. With the addition of the SabreHawk XP fix, XP compatibility is resolved anyhow IIRC. They may not even touch gamemd, so lets not worry about things until they have happened.

[Bobingabout]

yer, i'm thinking that the ones that are going to be re-done are pre-VXL/Pre-TS anyway. CnC and RA1, since they don't run on NT based operating systems (ok, XP is 2000 based, but 2000 is NT based, so, technically, XP is NT based.)

the rest i see as simply re-packaged with latest patches pre-installed. so, its likly RA2 1.006 and YR 1.001 will be packaged on the same DVD.

[pd]

You name, the same DVD.
That requires a change of the exe already, since YR only accepts a CD with the label YR1, while RA2 requires RA1 or RA2...

[Bobingabout]

that would simply be in yuri.exe, ra2md.exe or ra2.exe or whatever. since they handle the copy protection, not game.exe/gamemd.exe.

man, you've got me worried now :???: :blink:

[pd]

RP 1.07 also allows RA2YR.
I made that hack for Sabrehawk since he wanted to compile the three to one DVD with the RA2YR label.
It didn't work with gamemd.exe, and there is a CD check routine in it.

I'm worried myself, and that not reasonless as you may notice...

Aaron Kaufmann doesn't seem to reply to a PM I sent him at GameReplay.
He was online there today so he must have read it... at least I hope so.

I asked for info about CnC: The First Decade YR changes, possible bug fixes (100-unit-bug) and whether EA would be interested in supporting my hack.

[Blade]

What is the nature of the CD Check in gamemd.exe though, I thought all the safedisc2 checking was done by the loader. I doubt EA will do anything but change the loader to check the DVD (what copy protection schemes can be used on a DVD anyway?) and probably change the exe to point to this disc instead of the CD's. Doing much else I expect would cause conflicts with the CD based versions when using multiplay unless they release an official 1.002 patch.

[DCoder]

(what copy protection schemes can be used on a DVD anyway?)

StarForce :blink:

But from what Saberhawk told me, yuri.exe handles SafeDisc 2, and gamemd.exe only searches for files on the CD/game directory, with no difference between the two locations. Cause Saberhawk's fixed yuri.exe and RP 1.07 work perfectly with the old ISO version I used a while ago and dug out now for testing, and that ISO was not generated from the genuine protected CD.

[Marshall]

In case anyone's at all unsure, the program I made checks to make sure that RA2MD.EXE has not been altered.
If RA2MD.EXE has been altered then it won't allow you to install the Rock Patch.

This is, of course, not neccessary for the Rock Patch to work but was included as a way to demonstrate to EA, and anyone else, that we will help to prevent pirating.

We have not done the same for YURI.EXE (just haven't got around to it yet).

This post was just to clarify for anyone who wasn't sure.

[Saberhawk]

Here is how the whole CD checking thing goes.
ra2md.exe:
It checks CD for Safedisc sector checksum specific to YR
If it finds the checksum, it launches up gamemd.exe at a specific loadingpoint, not the same as if it was launched manually
If not, it shows this "Please insert CD" message.

gamemd.exe
If launched, that means copy protection scheme worked.
it loads up the list of all cd/dvd drives in the system, puts them in an array.
It checks the array for any disc named YR1 or RA3. If it finds such disc, it continues loading the game. Come campaign time, if the wrong disc is in the drive, it will show the Please insert BLAH CD.

EDIT: BTW, it's Saberhawk, not Sabrehawk.