File Injection

[Revan 15]

Whats your opinions on the best way to inject a file so that it loads into GTA IV memory?

I have tons of debugging software that can do the job but thats a tad messy imo

[LMS 2,065]

It depends on the file type. In some cases a simple CreateFile hook could do the trick so you can pass a modified file. You could also call an engine function with your modified content/path to load it into the game. Just give some more information about the file type you want to inject (handling, texture etc.) please.

[Revan 15]

Its a DLL file I could load it with a debugger, but I find that messy because I have to leave the debugging application loaded in memory if I close it it will close the game..

I tried just dropping it into the main directory but it wasnt loaded into memory, because its not created specifically for GTA IV. I was just curious what type of methods other people use.

[Cyan 4,990]

rename the extension .asi and drop it into the iv directory.

[Revan 15]

Doing that had it loaded.. but returned an address of 0x00000 and crashed IV. When I inject it with a debugger it works properly. So im assuming it has something to do with asi trying to be loaded specificly for IV...

*edit*

This doesnt need to turn into a support topic. I was just curious what methods other people used to inject files

Edited October 2, 2011 by Revan

[cp702 1,931]

Out of curiosity, what DLL are you trying to inject?

[Revan 15]

Just a simple test file just trying to figure out the best way to get something into memory for IV without scripting specifically for IV. (I love to mess around for no apparent reason) Its pretty much how I learn.

[LMS 2,065]

Ah sorry, I thought you are talking about injecting actual new game files into IV. Well you can - as Jay already said - rename your file to .ASI so a asi loader will load it. An address of 0x00000 means loading failed, but you said it works via debugging software so I think it's maybe a permission conflict here. You can try to use a debug version of xliveless to get an actual error code. Anyway, there are other methods to inject a dll into a process. You could create a proxy dll of a file IV needs, e.g. dsound.dll, so the game will load you custom dsound.dll instead the one from Windows32. Make sure you forward all calls to your custom dll to the real dll. Another method would be to create a launcher tool, which would create a remote thread in the target process and this new thread would load your module into the process. There are more than enough examples for these methods in the internet, simply google them.

[cp702 1,931]

Is there a way to inject textures? (sorry if this is considered threadjacking)

[Revan 15]

Ah sorry, I thought you are talking about injecting actual new game files into IV. Well you can - as Jay already said - rename your file to .ASI so a asi loader will load it. An address of 0x00000 means loading failed, but you said it works via debugging software so I think it's maybe a permission conflict here. You can try to use a debug version of xliveless to get an actual error code. Anyway, there are other methods to inject a dll into a process. You could create a proxy dll of a file IV needs, e.g. dsound.dll, so the game will load you custom dsound.dll instead the one from Windows32. Make sure you forward all calls to your custom dll to the real dll. Another method would be to create a launcher tool, which would create a remote thread in the target process and this new thread would load your module into the process. There are more than enough examples for these methods in the internet, simply google them.

+1 thanks for the info Ill be sure to try the mentioned methods out :happy:

[Iconography 1,384]

Is there a way to inject textures? (sorry if this is considered threadjacking)

Threadjacking... Well I haven't actually heard it called that before.

As far as I am aware, there currently isn't a way to inject textures into the game. Something might come along some time but at the moment, I don't think there is a way.

[cp702 1,931]

OK. I thought I saw somewhere that the devs were looking into it, but I guess it is not easily available.