Curse

ROTA · Nov 23, 2011, 08:03 PM // 20:03

Hi GW Modders,

I want to introduce you to Universal Modding Engine (uMod). It is an open source clone of TexMod and a how-to can be found here.

What uMod V1.0 (beta) can:

support the TexMod *.tpf Mods
starting GW through uMod (like TexMod) but with command line options
starting GW extern (e.g. double click on the GW.exe directly in the explorer, this method does somehow not work for GW under Win XP)
activate and deactivate mods while GW is running
you can save your mod settings into templates, one template can be set as default and is loaded when gw starts
you can mod more than one game simultaneously (e.g. GW Multi-Launch)

Benefits for mod users:

start GW with your favourite mods with 2 double clicks (start uMod, afterwards start GW)
atm it is not detected by any anti-virus program -> there is no need for a white list entry
error messages
no flickering of textures
no *.tmp files in your temporary directory
uMod loads the mods faster

Benefits for mod creators:

save all the textures which are loaded by GW (you can also select and save single textures)
reload textures while you are editing them to see how your changes take effect in GW (you can also add the *.dds file directly)

The development group is very small and we are looking for new members. Features we want to introduce in the next versions:

support of DirectX 8, 10, and 11 (DirectX 10 hopefully before the release of GW 2)
OnScreenDisplay (configure uMod without minimizing the game)

Keep in mind: Like TexMod also uMod is not supported in any way from ArenaNet. Before I start explaining with my German-English you better read the TexMod article on wiki.guildwars.com.

Best ROTA

Olle · Nov 23, 2011, 09:21 PM // 21:21

Sorry, but this sounds a bit fishy...
this is your first post..account made today probably..

If its legit, im amazed, but since theres no real proof that it is, im going to wait a bit for other more experienced people to find out.

wilebill · Nov 23, 2011, 09:29 PM // 21:29

Me not touch with 10 foot pole.

lorazcyk · Nov 23, 2011, 10:59 PM // 22:59

Have you guys even looked at the source code? Anyone can read it, anyone can change it, anyone can compile it themselves.

If you haven't read the source code, which is publicly available, then you have no reason to distrust this person.
Off I go to read the code. Good bye.

K A O S Theory · Nov 24, 2011, 03:04 AM // 03:04

Hmm, I doubt that this is a virus, as it is open source. When I get home I will definitely try this out, and come back with a report on how it went.

There is one part that worries me however. I looked into the program, and I believe they are using dll-injection to allow interfacing with the game, which means being able to change .tpf's when the game is already running. This is game alteration, which I believe to be against the EULA.

However, other than that detail, this is an amazing project with a lot of potential, and I will definitely keep an eye on the project.

EDIT: Tried it out, no virus, works very well, however, it can be confusing how it works at first.

Chthon · Nov 24, 2011, 04:54 AM // 04:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by K A O S Theory

Hmm, I doubt that this is a virus, as it is open source. When I get home I will definitely try this out, and come back with a report on how it went.

There is one part that worries me however. I looked into the program, and I believe they are using dll-injection to allow interfacing with the game, which means being able to change .tpf's when the game is already running. This is game alteration, which I believe to be against the EULA.

However, other than that detail, this is an amazing project with a lot of potential, and I will definitely keep an eye on the project.

This. I don't have time to read the source now, but the mere fact that it's being given to me strongly implies there's nothing fishy in it.

ROTA · Nov 24, 2011, 08:50 AM // 08:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olle

Sorry, but this sounds a bit fishy...
this is your first post..account made today probably..

If its legit, im amazed, but since theres no real proof that it is, im going to wait a bit for other more experienced people to find out.

Yes I created the account yesterday and yes this is my first post.

The question is not if it is legal but if it is compliant to the EULA of GW. But I posted also a link to wiki.guildwars.com. There you can find some information about how ArenaNet think about modding. But I must admit, this are general statements not explicit to uMod.

Yes the code uses dll-injection. I'm sure TexMod also does. One need to inject code into the game, otherwise one can't change the textures that way TexMod and uMod does. So dll injection is the easiest way and not less legal than other ways.

BTW: As TexMod also uMod can start GW. By that, the injected dll is written into the loading sequence of the started game. This part is the sole exception, which can't be downloaded in similar way from official Microsoft Websites (well except the GUI programming with wxWidgets, but this should obviously not be illegal).
But this also means, if you use the injection method with the hook, you really use only code which is supported by Microsoft in similar way. But I'm no lawyer, thus I don't know if uMod is legal or not.

DarkKnight · Nov 24, 2011, 10:03 AM // 10:03

Modifying of Guild Wars is in breach of the EULA period, end of story, always.

Any mod breaches the EULA as it clearly states that buying a key does not grant you the right of Modification. And legally the software's address space is part of the software.

But breaching the EULA is not the end of the world, becuase the EULA also clearly states that NC Interactive merely "reserves the right" to terminate anyone in violation of the EULA.

So heck yes this breaches the EULA but that don't matter, just stick to graphical modifications and you wont get banned.

However if you do choose to use TexMod or uMod or whatever, and you do get banned you have no recourse as you did Violate the EULA. You just wont get banned for making textual modification to the game through this method.

Tripolityx · Nov 24, 2011, 11:14 AM // 11:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by lorazcyk

If you haven't read the source code, which is publicly available, then you have no reason to distrust this person.

I'm with this guy. DLL-injection worries me tho. As we all know, even if it's only just graphical shit, Anet might not like it. In my opinion same rules goes for this as goes for Texmod. Time shows how popular this gets. It's up to you if you wanna use it or not.

cormac ap dunn · Nov 24, 2011, 11:58 AM // 11:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROTA

Yes I created the account yesterday and yes this is my first post.

The question is not if it is legal but if it is compliant to the EULA of GW. But I posted also a link to wiki.guildwars.com. There you can find some information about how ArenaNet think about modding. But I must admit, this are general statements not explicit to uMod.

Yes the code uses dll-injection. I'm sure TexMod also does. One need to inject code into the game, otherwise one can't change the textures that way TexMod and uMod does. So dll injection is the easiest way and not less legal than other ways.

BTW: As TexMod also uMod can start GW. By that, the injected dll is written into the loading sequence of the started game. This part is the sole exception, which can't be downloaded in similar way from official Microsoft Websites (well except the GUI programming with wxWidgets, but this should obviously not be illegal).
But this also means, if you use the injection method with the hook, you really use only code which is supported by Microsoft in similar way. But I'm no lawyer, thus I don't know if uMod is legal or not.

Hmmmm...
Person who just made Guru account? check
Same person making claims that random program is great? check
Person says it may not be legal, but heck, give it a go? check
Person then states "But I'm no lawyer, thus I don't know if uMod is legal or not" check and check!
Call me crazy but this is a formula for some bannage. As to the ones who give this a whirl, guess you'll be testing how well those character roll backs work out...

On a side note if you read all of that this" Keep in mind that occasionally people get creative and might bring up the use of a harmless program to attempt to mask other harmful activities. We see that with other situations, such as where they say "But I was only using an alternative OS, why was I blocked?" and we discover they are using major bot programs." should shine a bit of light on the questionable nature of this fellas character. First time post and its a miracle? Maybe, but my account is worth far more to me then riding this train....

----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by lorazcyk

Have you guys even looked at the source code? Anyone can read it, anyone can change it, anyone can compile it themselves.

If you haven't read the source code, which is publicly available, then you have no reason to distrust this person.
Off I go to read the code. Good bye.

Have fun with that! LOL, we have EVERY REASON to distrust this person... But be my guest, try it out!

Silmar Alech · Nov 24, 2011, 12:33 PM // 12:33

ROTA is a german fellow and is active on the german Wartower forum since 2007. If you look at his user profile over there and check his posts, you will only find serious and reasonable posts. There is nothing suspicious about him, nothing at all. He simply didn't choose to register at guru until now.

If uMod will be tolerated or banned by Arenanet is yet to be seen. I hope, that uMod does nothing else to the game than Texmod and Arenanet will tolerate it. I hope that ROTA didn't implement any feature that could be abused as a real advantage against other players, since then it is reasonable to assume that Arenanet will tolerate it.

No texture flicking or false replacement of textures like in Texmod would be a huge improvement over Texmod! That is in fact the only reason I don't use Texmod on a regular basis but only for the cartographer title.

cormac ap dunn · Nov 24, 2011, 12:51 PM // 12:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silmar Alech

ROTA is a german fellow and is active on the german Wartower forum since 2007. If you look at his user profile over there and check his posts, you will only find serious and reasonable posts. There is nothing suspicious about him, nothing at all. He simply didn't choose to register at guru until now.

If uMod will be tolerated or banned by Arenanet is yet to be seen. I hope, that uMod does nothing else to the game than Texmod and Arenanet will tolerate it. I hope that ROTA didn't implement any feature that could be abused as a real advantage against other players, since then it is reasonable to assume that Arenanet will tolerate it.

No texture flicking or false replacement of textures like in Texmod would be a huge improvement over Texmod! That is in fact the only reason I don't use Texmod on a regular basis but only for the cartographer title.

No offence, but I'll lean towards the side of caution. I do hope it does all that is stated, it would be vast improvement over Texmod, but until we hear some official word from Anet, I'd say its best left alone. I find it best to get the "this won't get you banned for using it" nod from someone who has the say so. ROTA, I hope this is legit, but don't expect the roars of the masses for this program until we have a bit of confirmation as to their official stance on it.

martyn10011 · Nov 24, 2011, 02:50 PM // 14:50

First off, thank you for the program! I've been trying it out for the past few hours and it's worked flawlessly so far. The extra features are extremely handy and superior compared to Texmod.

Second, I never understand why when people develop things such as these, people are extremely quick to be overcautious. Being on the edge of caution is understandable, but talking about banning people is insane. The entire project is open source, so trying to hide some sort of malware is the same as trying to hide an elephant in a bedroom. Absolutely dumb.

And if you are worried about the go ahead from Anet? On the wiki page for Texmod, there are quotes from Anet staff there and it's been said over and over again. This sentence summarises it well from Gaile Grey.

"What I want to say above all about this matter is that if you're going to mod, have fun, but do stick with the benign and positive uses of the programs and create mods that impact the game only in ways that are fun and harmless." http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guide...phics#ArenaNet

This mod is exactly that, and I recommend to anyone interested to try it. I am 100% sure your computer nor GW account will blow up.

Adult · Nov 24, 2011, 04:35 PM // 16:35

dll-injection is how anet detected the 3700+ botting accounts last year and banned them all. IMO if you use this thing anet will view it as botting and ban you.

The prior textmod incarnation did not use dll-injection and yes anet has said that textmod was fine. This is completely different, I would not even try it, just stick with the original.

ROTA · Nov 24, 2011, 05:02 PM // 17:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adult

dll-injection is how anet detected the 3700+ botting accounts last year and banned them all. IMO if you use this thing anet will view it as botting and ban you.

Any proof?

Why was nobody banned because of TexMod? They can detect if somebody uses TexMod. They also can detect detours which TexMod definitely use.

I am sure ArenaNet detect bot-users by analysing the user interaction.

If you will be banned because of dll injection, would mean that you will be banned while using global hot keys with programs like TeamSpeak.
Fraps also uses dll injection to detour DirectX functions. Was somebody banned because he used Fraps?

dll injection is a legal method supported by windows. This is only one example page of a whole range of official Microsoft webpages about dll injection

Adult · Nov 24, 2011, 05:15 PM // 17:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROTA

Any proof?

Why was nobody banned because of TexMod? They can detect if somebody uses TexMod. They also can detect detours which TexMod definitely use.

I am sure ArenaNet detect bot-users by analysing the user interaction.

If you will be banned because of dll injection, would mean that you will be banned while using global hot keys with programs like TeamSpeak.
Fraps also uses dll injection to detour DirectX functions. Was somebody banned because he used Fraps?

dll injection is a legal method supported by windows. This is only one example page of a whole range of official Microsoft webpages about dll injection

I lost my original account to botting, using the same dll-injection method used by the other 3700+ accounts. I could go into details but the mods on guru would censor it as it has a lot to do with...well...botting.

Text mod only modified the display properties on your end by uploading changes to your own computer. If this thing did the same I would say go for it, however this new thing goes one step further and uses....ta-da...dll-injection. Making it significantly different than textmod...as my prior post clearly states. And I don't think anet can detect the regular textmod.

Do you really think anet individually "analyzed" 3700+ accounts? No, they did a mass "assumption", if there was a dll injection, you got banned. Once tickets were filled then the accounts were individually reviewed but even at that most harmless dll's were still held as banned.

Fraps, TS and what ever else you think uses dll-injection do not use dll's in the way this thing or botting did. I'm not sure why you would even bring that up...

dll injection being "legal" with windows has absolutely nothing to do with whether anet considers it legal. I don't understand why you would think it would... That's like saying a car is made to go 120 mph but the speed limit is 70 mph so that means it's OK for you to go 120 mph without getting a ticket...

drok3n · Nov 24, 2011, 11:13 PM // 23:13

TexMod CANNOT be detected by guild wars with its current setup. Texmod is not Server Side its Client Side. This means it has 0 interaction with the server or mechanics of the game. Its simple what YOU see is what YOU get. No one else can see these alterations. This UMod is a D3D Overlay, Some of you are very familiar with these types of things, you just dont know it. If you use Steam/Origin/Xfire you will see what Overlay is when the windows pop up in game.

The only way guild wars could detect a dll injection is if it had some sort of anti software like punkbuster/shield guardian, but then again you can always bypass those.

I still have not used this or checked its code yet im just telling you mechanics behind it. I will check this out later when i have more free time.

But on a lighter note, If you were going to get banned for this you would be banned for anything that supports ingame overlay, and i use a multitude of these programs with direct draw overlay.

DarkKnight · Nov 25, 2011, 07:50 AM // 07:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by drok3n

TexMod CANNOT be detected by guild wars with its current setup. Texmod is not Server Side its Client Side. This means it has 0 interaction with the server or mechanics of the game.

You have just proved how computer illiterate you are. ALL of the "mechanics of the game" are client side, that is how bots work. They pick up data on the game environment from your computer's memory or hard disk and then make decisions based on that information. They may well use DLL injection to do that... but DLL injection is not what makes them bad, what makes them bad is the fact that they use the information obtained to do things that allow the game to be played without human interaction.

DLL injection alone doesn't prove anything. Countless programs use it. It is a safe bet that, Fraps, Ventrilo, TeamSpeak and yes TexMod all use DLL injection in some form or another.

DLL injection is a means to an end, and it is that end that decides weather or not what you are doing is "benign and harmless" or gets you a ban.

ROTA · Nov 25, 2011, 07:51 AM // 07:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adult

I lost my original account to botting, using the same dll-injection method used by the other 3700+ accounts. I could go into details but the mods on guru would censor it as it has a lot to do with...well...botting.

once again dll injection has nothing to do with what type of code you inject. You got banned cause you have injected a bot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adult

Text mod only modified the display properties on your end by uploading changes to your own computer. If this thing did the same I would say go for it, however this new thing goes one step further and uses....ta-da...dll-injection. Making it significantly different than textmod...as my prior post clearly states. And I don't think anet can detect the regular textmod.

do you really knew, that TexMod does not use dll injection?? Did you see the code?
But no matter how TexMod inject the code, but it does inject code. So lets call it code injection!! And TexMod does not upload changes on the computer. What should this be? It simply does redirect the fake texture instead of the original texture to the device->SetTexture function. How does TexMod do this? YES Code injection and Detour. Dll injection is only the easiest way of code injection. So don't tell me, that TexMod does something else than code injection and detouring.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adult

Do you really think anet individually "analyzed" 3700+ accounts? No, they did a mass "assumption", if there was a dll injection, you got banned. Once tickets were filled then the accounts were individually reviewed but even at that most harmless dll's were still held as banned.

ArenaNet has a very new thing, its called "Computer". These new things are extremely fast in detecting automatic behaviour. They could do a fft or calculate autocorrelations of the time interval the last keystrokes. Measure the aiming ability of the mouse of object (e.g. a bot always hit the skill in the middle of the icon). Well there are many more possibilities, which can be done for a mass of players.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adult

Fraps, TS and what ever else you think uses dll-injection do not use dll's in the way this thing or botting did. I'm not sure why you would even bring that up...

Fraps uses dll injection as uMod does. Fraps detour DirectX functions, as uMod does. Fraps read out the data from DirectX objects, as uMod does. But uMod also redirect the fake texture instead of the original texture to the SetTexture function, as TexMod does.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adult

do not use dll's in the way this thing or botting did.

What do you mean by that? Not using a dll in the same way?? You load a dll and call a function out of the dll. How can I use a dll in a different way, then loading functions on runtime? What you probably mean, that different dll contain different functions, but this has nothing to do, how to use a dll or how to inject a dll!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adult

dll injection being "legal" with windows has absolutely nothing to do with whether anet considers it legal. I don't understand why you would think it would... That's like saying a car is made to go 120 mph but the speed limit is 70 mph so that means it's OK for you to go 120 mph without getting a ticket...

I have never written something else. I always give the warning to take care about the EULA of the games!

But compared to you, I am not telling that dll injection is 1337 h4xX0rZ rul0r shit, and each program using it is an illegal bot and you will get banned for it.

I pointed out, that dll injection is a normal method, supported by windows and used from many programs. If the program is legal or not, if it is against EULA's or not, depends on what you inject! And if ArenaNet would ban players because they have detected an injected dll, than probably most GW players would have been banned.

drok3n · Nov 25, 2011, 05:47 PM // 17:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkKnight

You have just proved how computer illiterate you are. ALL of the "mechanics of the game" are client side, that is how bots work. They pick up data on the game environment from your computer's memory or hard disk and then make decisions based on that information. They may well use DLL injection to do that... but DLL injection is not what makes them bad, what makes them bad is the fact that they use the information obtained to do things that allow the game to be played without human interaction.

DLL injection alone doesn't prove anything. Countless programs use it. It is a safe bet that, Fraps, Ventrilo, TeamSpeak and yes TexMod all use DLL injection in some form or another.

DLL injection is a means to an end, and it is that end that decides weather or not what you are doing is "benign and harmless" or gets you a ban.

Your about as clueless as a box of rocks. These programs have nothing to do with the mechanics and neither do bots. The closest these programs get is reading packet flow and issuing clicks on x/y axis. If they were tied into mechanics i would be flying a dragon mount from a self made mod. You need to learn more about these types of things before spewing out some google response

Also, the reason people had been busted was due to calculations made by a computer.

Example: you clicked 10,000 times and all the clicks were .8 seconds apart. this would be detected by guild wars. Or you opening 40 stacks of something within a certian time frame, But they dont even care about these things anymore. I know so many people breaking these rules