Dead Island Learn to Hex Edit and Recover Your Stuff from a Corrupt GS
This is the place where I will teach you how to get back those items you took hours to acquire. It is also the place to learn the details of the DI GS. I have examined many GS and all the ones that should work have the 5 hex bytes of:
FF FF FF FF 00
at the very begining and the last 5 is the reverse:
00 FF FF FF FF
However all the ones that died because of inventory overflow are missing those last 5 bytes because their tail has overgrown the DI GS size limit of 10,260 bytes!
So if your GS last bytes are nearing loc 2810 Beware!
I have examined my own GS and made sure their size remained well below 10K and have been rewarded with hundreds hours of non-freezing play.
Additionally I have accidently encroached in other posts and have even been accused of leeching! Thus I will try to provide my answers just in this Post or another of my own authoring. So please come to my Posts with any information you would like to share but have questions on and I will do my best to teach you what I know.
Re: Dead Island Learn to Hex Edit and Recover Your Stuff from a Corrupt GS
great find this will help alot of people with messed up saves
Re: Dead Island Learn to Hex Edit and Recover Your Stuff from a Corrupt GS
Quote:
Originally Posted by xMuRdoKx;
Well I suppose i could try and fix it myself.... I could learn from that as I also am trying to figure out how to start a new game, and hex edit in all collectibles, w/o having the file getting corrupted.
So if your willing to tell me how to do it correctly that would be nice!
I did dozens of save with just little changes between each of em to see how it affect the gamesave but couldnt quite figure it out as there s much more differences between each of em that i would have expected.
If I could just get a good hint/indication where to look at maybe i could figure it out but for now couple of hours of trials and error got me nowhere..... :(
I do have my serie of hex values ready to put in a save (its all collectible in the order i wanted 'em) but after in game it wasnt working and it seems to me that the difference in total lenght is different when adding just one id or just one herald or just one tape or just one mod.... so im kindda lost there cuz thinking they were all 4 bytes long only well i figured it would impact on the gamesave the same way tho its seems not....
unless im missing something
Any ways if anyone's got some insides on that, it'd be great to know thx in advance!!!
The unencrypted GS has no checksum. However it does have something else that will cause the game to be corrupt should you add one or more bytes or remove one or more bytes without adjusting. That is my hint for now.
The value of what you find is in proportion to how you think. The best way to discover what changes is by adding just one item and examining all the locations that are affected. In the command prompt is a tool called fc.
C:\Download\Game\DeadIsland>fc /?
Compares two files or sets of files and displays the differences between
them
FC [/A] [/C] [/L] [/LBn] [/N] [/OFF[LINE]] [/T] [/U] [/W] [/nnnn]
[drive1:][path1]filename1 [drive2:][path2]filename2
FC /B [drive1:][path1]filename1 [drive2:][path2]filename2
/A Displays only first and last lines for each set of differences.
/B Performs a binary comparison.
/C Disregards the case of letters.
/L Compares files as ASCII text.
/LBn Sets the maximum consecutive mismatches to the specified
number of lines.
/N Displays the line numbers on an ASCII comparison.
/OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
/T Does not expand tabs to spaces.
/U Compare files as UNICODE text files.
/W Compresses white space (tabs and spaces) for comparison.
/nnnn Specifies the number of consecutive lines that must match
after a mismatch.
[drive1:][path1]filename1
Specifies the first file or set of files to compare.
[drive2:][path2]filename2
Specifies the second file or set of files to compare.
C:\Download\Game\DeadIsland>
The following is my analysis of what happens when I add one more skill to change it from 2/3 to 3/3:
Added 4th Skill to leftmost row 2 3/3
Did not move or do anything other than add a 4th skill
files are already same length
So we can immediately compare files
C:\Download\Game\DeadIsland\Xmod\Begin\Lvl50\X>fc x50c1s4 x50c1s5 /b
Comparing files X50c1s4 and X50C1S5
00000095: 0C 0D <<< 14 min 4 sec>>>
00000096: E4 46 <<< 14 min 29 sec>>>
00000097: AD 02
0000009F: 00 01 ???
000000A1: 2C 07 ???
00000253: 02 03 Skill at 3 of 3 ??? (45 still avail)
0000026F: 02 03 Skill at 3 of 3 ??? (45 still avail)
0000034F: 43 45 44 43 AD 33 = 782.706237792969 ??? increase in health ???
00000350: AD 25
00000351: 33 FA
NOTE: Both above and below are respectively the same
00000353: 43 45 44 43 AD 33 = 782.706237792969 ??? increase in health ???
00000354: AD 25
00000355: 33 FA
The ??? are areas I am unsure of. The things within <<<...>>> are from another program I created called DIGS2CSV which dumps DI info in a way that I can put into Excel as well as prove that I know what's what in a DI GS. Not to say I know it all! However I know enough to do several things that I have not seen anyone else yet do.
This is just one trial in the middle of about 10 that took nearly two days to stage and analyze. I am now confident I know where Skills are stored and am thinking of providing a program that will allow anyone (who can use a command prompt on an unencrypted GS) to reset their skills and if they are at level 50, have 49 of them to assign as they like.
In this trial the file size did not change and thus just a few locations were affected. Even though I cannot identify all the locations I have identified where a certain skill was assigned and it changed from 2 of 3 to 3 of 3!
I realize that to you this may seem as having nothing what-so-ever to do with collectables. I am hoping that all you need is an example of how one discovers a location. I have provided not just a clue but an actual analysis I have done. Also the tool I used "fc". What you can do is spend a little time in the command prompt and become familiar with the commands. Try typing in HELP to start with.
All collectables are indeed a long or 4 bytes each. Each one has a unique value that identifies it to the game. They are all in the same list. Just like strings there is a count at the begining of the list indicating how many collectables are in the list. The count is a long also. That is a lot of info without actually telling you where in the GS it is.
My final piece of advice is that computers run at many millions of operations per second. You will be extremely lucky if you can identify just one thing that changes. Usually you have to identify where many things change and if any of them are of interest to you. Though that may sound confusing it is actually a way of understanding that even though there seem to be many changes, there is probably only one that changes by one that is of real interest and then a shift of 4 bytes that indicates where a new set of 4 bytes is stored.
Re: Dead Island Learn to Hex Edit and Recover Your Stuff from a Corrupt GS
Quote:
Originally Posted by
reppoHssarg
All collectables are indeed a long or 4 bytes each. Each one has a unique value that identifies it to the game. They are all in the same list. Just like strings there is a count at the begining of the list indicating how many collectables are in the list. The count is a long also. That is a lot of info without actually telling you where in the GS it is.
Oh!! You know I never thought of that... I dont have yet the reflexes to think about little details like that XD
But I did Notice a 00 00 00 01 just before my first collectible but didnt thought it could have been the amount of herald (in that case it was an herald) that I had.... I was thinking about continuing on my test with just exactly that try collecting anoter herald than another one, and do the same with id seperatly and together as well to try and see some paterns...
And the reason i still havent try that program you wrote is that I'm really not familiar with command promps (the only one i ever did was to check something in the system, helped by a technician on the phone back in the days I had a Dell computer .. :P )
I'll still get your program and if i can manage to start it up (lol) I'll defenetly go for the HELP command!! XD
THX for all the help AGAIN!
The skills if most defenetly what ill go for lastly since those seem to be bit more tricky than regular items or collectible (that I cant still fully understand yet)...
Re: Dead Island Learn to Hex Edit and Recover Your Stuff from a Corrupt GS
I think I found something interresting regarding skills...
Tho I wich i knew what was the formula for adding or removing bytes from the save games, cuz otherwise I cant test my theory but ill post it anyways just so, it might give you an hint (tho you might already know that)
but anyways... It seems to me that the skills works (like all else as long and their formats seems to be ; 00 xx 00 yy where the x identify wich skill it is and y the amount or upgrades to that skill thus ranging from 00 to 03
as for the skill my guess so far is that they are all identified differently or would it simply be the location on the skill tree..... maybe it would be possible to give one of purna's skill to lets say logan if my first guess is the correct one...
Ill try and see what i can find with a save editor, since the hex modification i do always end up in save corruption x_x
at least ill be able to work with a working gamesave to try in game :P
Anyway if you have any thoughts on that well tell my what you think!!
On second thought the format could also be xx 00 yy 00 , watching throught those saves again made me realize it could also be like that (then again if my theory is correct)
Hmm another thing I noticed is that there always seems to ba a 00 00 00 05 00 00 00 zz before the sets of skills and a 00 00 00 06 after it..... interresting...
zz seems to be the amount of skill you have unlocked! (27 would be the max as each character has 39 different skills and 39 in hex is 27)
well it seems it doesnt work as easily as i was hopping for.... :P
On a positive note, my saves werent going corrupt with my changes but then again it was very minor as I was just increasing the skills to cap em all out...
But still in game no way to make it work and I isolated a value that seemed to correspond to the total amount of skill point you have used but even by ajusting to 63 (99) wich is all skills capped,
it didnt seem to work...
As for switching a character skill to another, then again... fail.... I guess its writen on the disc so there's no way of doing that without ISO/Jtag or playing it on a PC....
and I am not gonna try and over cap a skill if I cant even get my skill all capped in the first place it would be pointless since it pretty much proves I still cant modify them -_-
Re: Dead Island Learn to Hex Edit and Recover Your Stuff from a Corrupt GS
Here is a windows command prompt application that I wrote to help you find important locations in your Dead Island GS. I call it DumpDI. For all the details and the program itself goto:
http://www.360haven.com/forums/showt...6619#post46619
Re: Dead Island Learn to Hex Edit and Recover Your Stuff from a Corrupt GS
Quote:
Originally Posted by
xMuRdoKx
I think I found something interresting regarding skills...
Tho I wich i knew what was the formula for adding or removing bytes from the save games, cuz otherwise I cant test my theory but ill post it anyways just so, it might give you an hint (tho you might already know that)
but anyways... It seems to me that the skills works (like all else as long and their formats seems to be ; 00 xx 00 yy where the x identify wich skill it is and y the amount or upgrades to that skill thus ranging from 00 to 03
as for the skill my guess so far is that they are all identified differently or would it simply be the location on the skill tree..... maybe it would be possible to give one of purna's skill to lets say logan if my first guess is the correct one...
Ill try and see what i can find with a save editor, since the hex modification i do always end up in save corruption x_x
at least ill be able to work with a working gamesave to try in game :P
Anyway if you have any thoughts on that well tell my what you think!!
On second thought the format could also be xx 00 yy 00 , watching throught those saves again made me realize it could also be like that (then again if my theory is correct)
Hmm another thing I noticed is that there always seems to ba a 00 00 00 05 00 00 00 zz before the sets of skills and a 00 00 00 06 after it..... interresting...
zz seems to be the amount of skill you have unlocked! (27 would be the max as each character has 39 different skills and 39 in hex is 27)
well it seems it doesnt work as easily as i was hopping for.... :P
On a positive note, my saves werent going corrupt with my changes but then again it was very minor as I was just increasing the skills to cap em all out...
But still in game no way to make it work and I isolated a value that seemed to correspond to the total amount of skill point you have used but even by ajusting to 63 (99) wich is all skills capped,
it didnt seem to work...
As for switching a character skill to another, then again... fail.... I guess its writen on the disc so there's no way of doing that without ISO/Jtag or playing it on a PC....
and I am not gonna try and over cap a skill if I cant even get my skill all capped in the first place it would be pointless since it pretty much proves I still cant modify them -_-
I have added another incentive for you to learn how to use a command prompt. My program DumpDI located at:
http://www.360haven.com/forums/showt...6619#post46619
DumpDI will display the location in any DI GS of something I call Data Len1 and Data Len2. Both of these locations must change by the same amount as the number of bytes you are adding or removing from your DI GS. Otherwise the GS will freeze! If you just want the output of DumpDI that has been run on your GS send me your unencrypted save and I will reply to you with the DumpDI output.
The same output contains what I currently know about skills. An examination of it on one of your GS might help you with whatever it is you are attempting to do.
The GS does NOT contain a number regarding number of available skill points. The number of available skill points is determined by your characters current level minus 1 and then minus any skill points that have already been assigned. The number of assigned skill points is in the GS. The program has a set limit of 49 max skill points. However it might be possible to assign all the skills for a character. It is certainly possible to free up all assigned skills.
Regarding giving Purna a Logan skill. That is possible. However I am unsure of what the game will do with it. At best it will actually modify her abilitiy in some useful way. At worse it will freeze the game. Please let us know what you find out.
Re: Dead Island Learn to Hex Edit and Recover Your Stuff from a Corrupt GS
I have came across another interresting thing regarding skills... havent had the chance to try it yet with work and all but right before the skill section starting with 00 00 00 05 00 00 00 zz , where zz seems to be the amount of skills unlocked, there seems to be another section that has something to do with the skills... tho they dont seem to put the skills in the same order as the other section wich was placing them in the order you unlocked them but this time their format is xx 00 yy 00 00 00 00 00
xx seem to be a number corresponding to the skills (tho I havent yet figured out if they are in the same order as the skills in the next section) and yy is the amount of pts in that skill.
That also led me to another interresting thing, that section (wich I called just as a personnal reference skill check) start with 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 zz in wich zz is again the amount of unlocked skills!
Then I started scrolling up and what do I see, another section starting with 00 00 00 03 (dont know whats there tho), and another small one starting by 00 00 00 02 (then again dont know whats in there but this one always start right after the item section about 2-3 bytes after the last item comes the 00 00 00 02), so my guess is that the items are 00 00 00 01 and what comes before would be 00 00 00 00......
I dont know if that info is gonna be of any use to you but I just thought I could share it since someone might have use for it....
As for me Im still trying to figure out how to make modification to a save by adding or removing bytes without have the file going corrupt,,,,
I have looked up those len1 and len2 long you mention in the other post, but couldnt quite find a formula to make anything of it....
If I could fing how to add or remove bytes w/o save corruption, I could probably do w/e I wish for with my save x_x or almost!!