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Author Topic: On The Fly Font Patching?  (Read 118 times)

total_ass

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« on: September 30, 2004, 10:55:00 AM »
don't flame me as i am just suggesting this and i think it would be a good idea for someone to incorporate.
ok you are all familiar of how the UDE moves the fonts and some games attempt to access it (not just updates), but they are not there so the game gives an error 21. this means that games that do check the fonts, and if upcoming games check for fonts, then the UDE is indeed screwed. also i can't use star wars extras dvd without dvdx2  sad.gif .
anyway the point is, if there are bioses that are capable of on-the-fly patching of media checks and region checks, and nkpatcher patches the signature i believe, then why is it not possible to create a live font patcher and incorporate it into either an app, a bios loader, or a BFM bios?
this 'UDE bios' would mean that error 21's due to fonts would be eliminated. it would indeed mean that auto-updaters would update, but doesn't the UDE have to be taken off, then updated, then reinstalled anyway? this would just skip out the 'taking off' of the UDE.
it would mean that if on the rare occasion i wished to use a font requiring disc, such as Star Wars, i could just load the app, then load the dvd and it automatically edits the XBE to look for f0nts instead.

Would this work? I think it would be a great idea.
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PedrosPad

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2004, 11:19:00 AM »
QUOTE (total_ass @ Sep 30 2004, 06:58 PM)
why is it not possible to create a live font patcher and incorporate it into either an app, a bios loader, or a BFM bios?

This is possible - in a number of ways (some of which you identify) - but AFAIK only Dashboard related files (inc. dashupdate.xbe) use C:\fonts, along with the SFX EXE's used on Hulk Demo and SWBF Demo.

Because both xonlinedash.xbe and the SWBF Demo, have their XBL component, you wouldn't want to have any patches in effect during their executon anyway, or you'd get banned from XBL.

So I don’t see much use for this right now.

If I’ve got this wrong, or underestimated the application, please let me know.
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Chicken Scratch Boy

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2004, 11:24:00 AM »
if it's font  refs, then they can easily be changed with in a binary mode copy...

maybe mod the dvd2x source?

the thing about media checks, is that they are always in the same place (in the header)

but these refs can be ANYWHERE

meaning that launching an xbe would require reading through the xbe (imagine a 120mb demo unpacker xbe!)

not that desirable in the bios IMO, but i'm unsure  unsure.gif
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total_ass

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2004, 11:42:00 AM »
QUOTE
If I’ve got this wrong, or underestimated the application, please let me know.


nope i think you got it wink.gif

also i think a guy in another topic in this forum (cant remember the games) cant load two games that came with his xbox because of error 21s, most likely caused by moving of fonts.

QUOTE
Because both xonlinedash.xbe and the SWBF Demo, have their XBL component, you wouldn't want to have any patches in effect during their executon anyway, or you'd get banned from XBL.


first of all, not all of us are live users.
secondly, it could only be executed when in a modded state, which would get you banned off xbox live anyway wouldn't it? regardless of the state of the XBE.

it could be incorporated into the UDE boot process, or alternatively in the rare circumstances that it is needed, then launched as an app, then once loaded, launch the desired xbe.
i mean you hear rumours of halo 2 checking for fonts before it loads, well if this is running and it does, it would indeed find them wink.gif
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Chicken Scratch Boy

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2004, 12:13:00 PM »
total, the 2 games are the starwars/tetris disk...

yeah...

they use a launcher menu, if you split them,the disk should work fine...
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total_ass

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2004, 12:56:00 PM »
yeah but this is also for future things, i reckon if they continue to make font required things, then either this or a fontless exploit is gonna be required.

anyway the star wars disc has nothing to do with tetris, its running off its own disc, and requires the fonts to unpack and run.
and some two game disc i think its called top spin and amped doesnt work.
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Xustu

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2004, 02:16:00 PM »
total_ass,  He was talking about the old disk that contains both tetris and starwars games.  Not the dvd with the demo of BattleFront.
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Chicken Scratch Boy

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2004, 03:21:00 PM »
the can be patched by hand using a hex editor like you would do for the MS dash...

only 2, no problem at all.

but... if you dont want to copy it to your hdd or burn it, on teh fly patching would be required, but having an additional launcher would be the easiest way IMO all you would need to do is do a modified launching script....

but i have no idea how the media patching works, so it might be easier that way, but it would require loading the bios.... which might not work on some xbes (too big?)
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RiceCake

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2004, 03:23:00 PM »
You could make a UDE-install-uninstall deal in say, EvoX, to rename the font folders around so there correct again.

Morden made something like this in an actual XBE to do the trick with custom soundtracks. I bet someone else could make this too.
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Chicken Scratch Boy

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #9 on: September 30, 2004, 03:28:00 PM »
wasnt the game stub system a MXM script?
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RiceCake

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #10 on: September 30, 2004, 03:29:00 PM »
Nah that was an XBE. If it wasn't you'd need to run an uninstall-install script.

Morden's XBE's basically TSR'ed until your game closed, and then it reapplied the hack.
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Chicken Scratch Boy

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2004, 03:33:00 PM »
yeah

it might as well have been a script... would have been just as effective.
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RiceCake

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2004, 03:35:00 PM »
Not really, since a script would need to be run to apply and uninstall the hack.

The XBE's Morden had made it transparent.
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Chicken Scratch Boy

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2004, 03:39:00 PM »
on boot:
if file "hacked.db" exists, rename "st.db" to "org.db"; rename "hacked.db" to "st.db"

...

seems work able to me smile.gif
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RiceCake

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On The Fly Font Patching?
« Reply #14 on: September 30, 2004, 03:45:00 PM »
Yeah, my idea would be...

On boot
rename f0nts to f1nts;
rename fonts to f0nts;
rename f1nts to fonts;
then TSR
rename fonts to f1nts;
rename f0nts to fonts;
reanem f1nts to f0nts;

Or basically the same thing in an EvoX, MXM script whatever.
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