Large Address Aware

[exodusprime1337]

Originally Posted by Mussels

or restore the backup they should have made

lol right heheh


on another note, i tried this in world of warcraft... at 1980x1050 it seemed to have positive effects in large cities such as dalaran and wintergrasp battles.. that and after playing for a while, the game loaded zones much faster, could be placebo.. could be good, idk it didn't lock up or ctd so it cant' be that bad.

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by exodusprime1337

lol right heheh


on another note, i tried this in world of warcraft... at 1980x1050 it seemed to have positive effects in large cities such as dalaran and wintergrasp battles.. that and after playing for a while, the game loaded zones much faster, could be placebo.. could be good, idk it didn't lock up or ctd so it cant' be that bad.

that is a quite plausible effect. Have a looksee how much ram it uses, after the fix in those areas

[FordGT90Concept]

The app only touches a single byte in the executable so the amount of damage it can do is very limited.

Yup, the closer the application is to 2 GiB RAM usage, the more likely it will be helpful. I haven't had any more crashes in The Saboteur either.


Expanding what I said last time: DIRT 2 (it is a SecuROM Launcher) and other applications that have a launcher + the main executable may disallow LAA from working. In the case of DIRT 2, the game just wouldn't run (click, busy signal, nothing). The only way apps like DIRT 2 will become large address aware is an official patch.


Edit: I am going to make a separate app that monitors the amount of RAM used by a specific application and also how many handles the process owns.

[FordGT90Concept]

App done:
Process Monitor

[Mussels]

awesome with the new app. that'll help troubleshoot this a ton.

[Mussels]

I've used the tool from this thread over here, to fix a problem with Sins of a solar empires latest expansion pack. I've linked to here, and I'm linking from here back to there so that all threads involved get some attention.

[FordGT90Concept]

I am going to release 1.0.2 soon which has command line argument support. Is there any other changes I should make?


Command line support includes:
-Drag and drop support for files.
-/removelaa flag which removes the large address aware flag in the files.
-/forcelaa flag which forces the large address aware flag in the files.
-No flag means it will switch. If the file is not large address aware, it will be made large address aware. If the file is large address aware, it will remove it.
-Supports numerous files at once.

Using Sins of a Solar Empire as an example:

/forcelaa "C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\Sins of a Solar Empire -
Trinity\Sins of a Solar Empire Diplomacy Dev.exe" "C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\Sins o
f a Solar Empire - Trinity\Sins of a Solar Empire Diplomacy.exe" "C:\Users\Admin
\Desktop\Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity\Sins of a Solar Empire Entrenchment De
v.exe" "C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity\Sins of a Solar
Empire Entrenchment.exe" "C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinit
y\Sins of a Solar Empire.exe"

I think I might start work on 2.0.0 which will support multiple files in the GUI. If no one has any suggestions, I might not release 1.0.2 and go straight for 2.0.0.

[FordGT90Concept]

How's this?

[Mussels]

looks shiny - can you put the old interface in as a 'basic' mode and default to it?

[Thrackan]

Originally Posted by FordGT90Concept

How's this?
http://img.techpowerup.org/100219/laa_2_test.png

If you do multiple file processing, I'd love to see an auto-backup function as well


Anyway, I had a little background question:

I run x64 win 7. Do I need to do the BCEDIT thing on x64 as well?
Just read the OP twice... I got it.

[FordGT90Concept]

Originally Posted by Mussels

looks shiny - can you put the old interface in as a 'basic' mode and default to it?

That's an odd request. Are you serious? XD


I do see your point. I'll have to ponder that one...


Would it be less overwhelming if I put all except the most basic (Add Files, Switch LAA Bit) options in a menu bar so they are hidden? I could move them all to drop down menus as well.

I think I thought of a way to do a "basic" and "advanced" mode without breaking anything...

Originally Posted by Thrackan

If you do multiple file processing, I'd love to see an auto-backup function as well

That's what "original" is for. If you already modified an executable though, it will be misleading. In any case, to return it to original run it again on that executable. It only alters one byte (after multiple checks) so the opportunity for failure is next to none. If it does fail, the change won't be committed so no harm done.

Originally Posted by Thrackan

I run x64 win 7. Do I need to do the BCEDIT thing on x64 as well?

Nope. That's just for x86 with >2 GiB RAM. Maybe I should make that a little clearer...


Edit: By the way, Files in Folder is recursive (it does every executable in the selected directory and every directory in the selected directory). You can make every executable belonging to a game large address aware in three clicks (Add...Files in Folder, Select...All, With Selected...Force LAA Bit).

[Thrackan]

Originally Posted by FordGT90Concept

That's an odd request. Are you serious? XD
That's what "original" is for. If you already modified an executable though, it will be misleading. In any case, to return it to original run it again on that executable. It only alters one byte (after multiple checks) so the opportunity for failure is next to none.

Hmm, I'd feel safer with a "real" backup. Just a rename to .old or something.

Btw, how do you "save" what the original state of the file was?

[FordGT90Concept]

It creates an original.sav (a binary file) in the same directory as Large Address Aware.exe. Without getting technical, it simple stores the earliest known state of the file and references it in the future.

If you are fine with only a single backup, I can do that.


Edit: I am going to add a basic (like 1.0), intermediate (enough options to get the job done), and advanced (all options available) mode. Instead of all those buttons, it will have a variable (pending on mode) menu strip at the top.

[Thrackan]

Originally Posted by FordGT90Concept

It creates an original.sav (a binary file) in the same directory as Large Address Aware.exe.

If you are fine with only a single backup, I can do that.

If you mean "save the original file" with a single backup, that's what I mean.

Let me explain it in full how I picture it, just so we understand each other

- You select file(s) like usual
- In the GUI, make a checkbox "Create backup of original file" at the top, in the section where you have the actions you can do on your selection of files.
- If checked, do a copy of the original .exe to a .old in the same directory
- Modify the .exe as usual

You could check if a .old already exists, or save the fact that you backed up a file in the .sav file.

I'm thinking of checking your program and run some benches on non-LAA games which are resource hoggers. Either way, thanks in advance

[Mussels]

personally, i'd prefer it it renamed the exe adding LAA at the end

Crysis.exe
Crysis LAA.exe

the basic view works, i've sent this to a few people and they like the simple browse, tick, close approach - menus and a gazillion buttons would just confuse em. For the techies who want to do it to batch files and such, clicking 'advanced' and having it drop down (or close and reopen?) into the shiny mode should work well.

[Thrackan]

Originally Posted by Mussels

personally, i'd prefer it it renamed the exe adding LAA at the end

Crysis.exe
Crysis LAA.exe

the basic view works, i've sent this to a few people and they like the simple browse, tick, close approach - menus and a gazillion buttons would just confuse em. For the techies who want to do it to batch files and such, clicking 'advanced' and having it drop down (or close and reopen?) into the shiny mode should work well.

+1 to that, I forgot I sometimes rename the original to .old when using no-cd patches.

Basic/Advanced sounds like a good idea to me too.

[FordGT90Concept]

Here's what I'm thinking now:


Options:
-Create Backup (check on or off)

Mode:
-Basic
-Intermediate
-Advanced

[Mussels]

you really only need two modes - basic for people who want a quick dirty mod to their game because some techie told them it'll fix their crashes, and an advanced mode for people who want to play with it more than that.

check for backup is good... but i muchly prefer renaming the MODDED exe

example: sins updated today, and the old exe no longer ran the game - the patch would have over-written the exe anyway, but its possible it would have crashed/complained or just broken the game having a different exe to what it expected

[Thrackan]

Originally Posted by Mussels

you really only need two modes - basic for people who want a quick dirty mod to their game because some techie told them it'll fix their crashes, and an advanced mode for people who want to play with it more than that.

check for backup is good... but i muchly prefer renaming the MODDED exe

example: sins updated today, and the old exe no longer ran the game - the patch would have over-written the exe anyway, but its possible it would have crashed/complained or just broken the game having a different exe to what it expected

True, but there is also the point of shortcuts and launchers that point to a set .exe name.
I guess both options have their problems.

[Mussels]

my method is fairly simple: mod an exe with a new name, and run a shortcut to that. That way game patches etc dont break, and you just need to mod the exe if it happens.

I do recall many games over the years breaking patches when i used... altered executables due to DRM issues, so its something i'm concerned about happening here (and thusly, post after post of "this broke my game, who has X game with patch Y, and can upload the original exe?!?!?!?")

[FordGT90Concept]

If a patch complains about the exe, just switch it again. The patch should run without issues. Likewise, if a game no longer runs after using LAA on it, do it again and it should run. It is its own backup because of the nature what I am doing (losslessly modify one byte). Do a binary comparison of the before and after's if you don't believe me. XD

I wouldn't want to rename the executable that is modified because then links will hit the old executable and not the new one.

[Thrackan]

Well, I've never had the problems you mentioned before, so I'll keep it at that we just have different preferences in creating backups of the original .exe file

This might get a little over the top, but it's possible to create an option there too: "Rename original .exe" or "Rename modified .exe"...

[FordGT90Concept]

To alleviate concerns, here's a comparison for you of Sins of a Solar Empire.exe:


All it does is change that one bit to true or false. It is an in-place modification that's easily reversed. Even if it isn't, in fact, the LAA bit, it always uses the same methodology so repeating the steps always sets it back to original. Checksums match and all that jazz so the executable is exactly the same as it was.

[Mussels]

checksums match? then no problems

[FordGT90Concept]

I tried LAA on an application (I think it was Mass Effect 2, a SecuROM 7 protected executable) and the application failed to run afterwards (never launches after clicking on it). I ran LAA on it again and the application started right up (limited to 2 GiB again though). Applications are pretty blunt with you if they don't want that bit changed. XD


Basic mode will look almost exactly like it did in 1.0 except it has the menu bar at the top.


Edit: Basic mode integrated and functional:


Intermediate mode integrated and functional:


Advanced mode integrated and functional:



The options menu is gone for the time being but I could easily add it back later.