Launcher

[NOTE: Use word wrap and fixed-width font] GTA Liberty City Launcher ------------------------This program modifies the needed parts of in-memory image of gta-vc.exe so that Liberty City can function properly. It is a launcher program which means that in order to run Liberty City you'll have to run it through gta-lc.exe, not gtavc.exe. How does it work ---------------The parts that need to be modified and the path to the exe are stored in the file gta-lc.ini in the same folder as the launcher itself. If this file is found and everything checks out (i.e. path to exe inside the ini-file is valid), the launcher asks no quesions and runs the game, performs all necessary memory hacks and exits. When the launcher can't run the game either because the executable is not found or ini-file is not found, it first displays a dialog allowing the user to choose the path to exe and modify the parameters that are going to be hacked. In essence, this dialog is the ini-file editor. In allows you to specify the following things: - Path to the exe. So, the launcher does not necessarily have to be in the same directory as the executable, although this is the default assumption. - Limits on buildings and dynamic objects (dummys). These need to be at least 7300 and 2900 respectively. - Wave acronyms that the game finds in the main.scm (referred to as "Wave Table"). The maximum lengt of the wave table entry is 7 symbols - Paths to wave files that the game uses. The path can be at most 24 characters long. Notice two things here: 1. If even one of the wave paths points to a non-existing file, all sounds in the game dissapear. 2. Indices of wave paths and wave table do not correspond, so you have to use original wave values to guess which wave table entry corresponds to which wave path. Indices are only used by the launcher to find values faster. - Dynamic object names that the game uses. The maximum length of each object varies and is shown in the firt column of the list. You can always invoke this config dialog at startup even when the launcher uses silent game run mode. To do so, add the line: ShowConfig = 1 in the [Exe] section of the ini-file. This line will be removed again next time you run the game, so it's a one-time thing. You'll have to add it every time you want to display the config dialog. If somehow, gta-lc.ini gets deleted, all the settings are lost! Credits ------Spooky for idea of launcher that modifies memory. Idle for vcdbg source code. GTA:LC team for the great idea of reviving Liberty.