Can the "game" month and year be reset?

dedgren · May 02, 2007, 08:06:13 AM

The title says it all. Endless hours spent combing every possible thread here, at ST and elsewhere in the SC4 fansite world has produced not even a hint as to how this might be done. There does not appear to be any cheat that works, or way to access this setting through a program such as the Reader. Yet it would appear to be a simple issue- somewhere in each instance of a game file there is probably a several byte location that contains a number that is nothing more than an incremental counter, and that the game .exe interprets as a date each time the game boots up the instance and to which a new counter number is written each time the instance is saved.

Where is this memory location, and is it possible to write a simply utility to change it at will?

Or are we just doomed slaves to the unremitting forward progress of time?

The floor is open for discussion!

David

freedo50 · May 02, 2007, 09:52:07 AM

I don't know anything about where that may be, try saving a copy of the city's DAT and then running the city, and then exiting and comparing the DATs. Also, I don't really see the need to do this, what use would it be? No-one includes the date in their MDs so I just don't see how it could be of any use. It would be nice to be able to though.

Fred

Gaston · May 02, 2007, 03:17:50 PM

David,
I'm with ya buddy. I have done the same thing. I've searched for hours and tried everything to reset (more like set) the date. I can't figure it out either. I thought there was a cheat to do it but if there is I can't figure out how to get it to work.

---Gaston

wouanagaine · May 06, 2007, 02:23:35 PM

Hi David

The time must be saved in the savegame of the city, unfortunatly it seems that the bits where this info is stored is not yet found.
It should be in the MayorView City data entry. We need more investigation on that entry

Take care

dedgren · May 06, 2007, 02:52:00 PM

Has anyone ever created a map of the structure of the file? It would be vastly helpful to have a general idea where to look. I'm happy to do the "scut-work" of comparating two saved game files, but it would be great to have a point in the right direction as to where to start looking.

I presume the thing to do is take three small completely flat and undeveloped quads, stop the first on January 31, 01, the second on March 31, 01, and the last on May 31, 01, and just start comparing.

We'll see- thanks, Stephane (wouanagaine), for your feedback.

David

wouanagaine · May 06, 2007, 03:23:46 PM

Quote from: dedgren on May 06, 2007, 02:52:00 PM
Has anyone ever created a map of the structure of the file? It would be vastly helpful to have a general idea where to look. I'm happy to do the "scut-work" of comparating two saved game files, but it would be great to have a point in the right direction as to where to start looking.

I presume the thing to do is take three small completely flat and undeveloped quads, stop the first on January 31, 01, the second on March 31, 01, and the last on May 31, 01, and just start comparing.

We'll see- thanks, Stephane (wouanagaine), for your feedback.

David

Karybdis and old timers have done such a job, thanks to them
it is available here http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=SAVEGAMES

Comparing 3 save games of the same tile with just the time changed will help finding where the time is set
I think it should be in some of the 'unknown' of http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=RegionView

TheTeaCat · May 26, 2007, 07:47:34 PM

Hi David

Using SC4extracheats.dll (can't remember where I got this

) and bring up the cheat menu gives you these options

I have found that if you use Whattimeizit followed by a space then enter the time you want in 24hr format the game clock will change. Ie have day/night cycle running and during daylight hrs enter a time during the night and .....its nighttime and the clock coninues from there.

I have tried numerous variations using simdate but no luck. Maybe this might be of some use to anybody? But knowing a .dll works what else could the brainy people do with this?

Hope this was of some help

TTC

Gaston · May 26, 2007, 09:30:27 PM

Quote from TTC:

QuoteI have tried numerous variations using simdate but no luck.

Yup I have done the same. I wish I knew how to use this "cheat". It would come in handy.

---Gaston

Rayden · May 31, 2007, 08:36:02 AM

A lot of games today don't use normal date formats like yy/mm/dd or similar, but Unix Time format, that is, for every second after the 1st of January 1970 increment it's equal to one unit.

You can read something about this in here, and a online convertor so you can see how it looks and work, in here.

Maybe looking for this kind of numbers, it could be found something interesting

Shadow Assassin · June 05, 2007, 12:49:32 AM

Maybe try searching for the number -2208988800? (negative sign's included) That's 0:00:00, on the 1st of January, 1900. Just a wild guess.

That's using Rayden's Unix time link (speaking of which, Unix time's expected to reset on the 19th of January, 2038 at a certain time, because of memory limitations

)

dedgren · June 06, 2007, 01:45:14 PM

QuoteUnix time's expected to reset on the 19th of January, 2038 at a certain time, because of memory limitations

Well, seeing as how I'd be 85 on that date, I'll probably have reset by then too based on other limitations.

David

Gaston · June 06, 2007, 08:00:25 PM

I'll be 74. (If I make it that long. LOL) I'll most likely still be trying to figure out LE and all the other tools. I'll still have the same cities going. And I'll most likely still be on the same computer with the same dial up access. LMAO

---Gaston

flame1396 · June 12, 2007, 07:36:38 AM

Buggi made the cheat .dll

maybe contact him and ask how the simdate code works

Andreas · June 12, 2007, 09:02:14 AM

Quote from: flame1396 on June 12, 2007, 07:36:38 AM
Buggi made the cheat .dll

No, Maxis made the DLL - it was used for beta-testing the game. Buggi obtained it from Maxis/EA, as it seems.

flame1396 · June 12, 2007, 06:46:11 PM

well... thats a dead ender...

it would be awesome if we could make more .dll files for the game. couldnt that allow us to add new network types??

ACEfanatic02 · June 24, 2007, 02:37:13 AM

Quote from: flame1396 on June 12, 2007, 06:46:11 PM
well... thats a dead ender...

it would be awesome if we could make more .dll files for the game. couldnt that allow us to add new network types??

"DLL" stands for Dynamic Linked Library. It's the data the game engine (the.exe itself) runs on. However, unless something within the game code links to the .dll information, it would not be used in the game.

At least, that's my understanding.

-ACE

dedgren · June 24, 2007, 01:07:01 PM

Quote"DLL" stands for Dynamic Linked Library. It's the data the game engine (the.exe itself) runs on. However, unless something within the game code links to the .dll information, it would not be used in the game.

Yup. That's a sad fact.

I'm still working on this. If I can find where the savedfile the date is kept, I have a feeling it can be changed at will. It's just teee-deee-us to find, that's all.

David

flame1396 · June 24, 2007, 08:17:02 PM

Quote from: ACEfanatic02 on June 24, 2007, 02:37:13 AM
"DLL" stands for Dynamic Linked Library. It's the data the game engine (the.exe itself) runs on. However, unless something within the game code links to the .dll information, it would not be used in the game.

I read that the game will load em if they're in the plugins folder.

dedgren · June 24, 2007, 08:29:20 PM

Yeah, my friend. But they have to be called once they're loaded.

David

flame1396 · June 24, 2007, 08:35:07 PM

called? you mean like parsed?

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Can the "game" month and year be reset?