Mass Effect 2 - 360h Edition v1.0

[rolly poly]

i mentioned it in another thread, and here it is.

--->*READ THE README!*<---

i've tested this pretty extensively and feel it's ready for release.

if you have any questions, please ask them in this thread.

Download: http://hotfile.com/dl/26733382/16c8c71/me2-360h.rar.html

- rolly poly / Team 360h

Code:

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      `~===*%"`        ""==*""        ^"==="`      `Y"   888  
                                                        J88"  
                           PRESENTS                     @%    
                                                      :"      


 ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │              Mass Effect 2 - 360h Edition v1.0              │
 └┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬┘  
  │                                                           │
  │ This is something I've spent the last week's worth of     │
  │ free time developing. I've seen interest in it on various │
  │ forums so I thought I'd release it for everyone to enjoy. │
  │                                                           │
  │ Simply combining all the game files for Mass Effect 2     │
  │ in one folder will allow you to play without the need to  │
  │ swap discs. However the game will still nag you to do so  │
  │ quite frequently. I have removed this nag and single disc │
  │ play is now seamless.                                     │
  │                                                           │
  │ I've also included a patch to remove the validity checks  │
  │ on game assets. This means you can now edit Coalesced.ini │
  │ with a hex editor. Mass Effect 2 will lock up if you try  │
  │ to edit it in a text editor. I'm not sure if this is      │
  │ another check of file size or not. It doesn't give an     │
  │ error of any kind. You may be able to edit other files,   │
  │ but I have not tested this. I will take another look if   │
  │ it is determined that there are other checks performed.   │
  │                                                           │
  │ Special thanks to KrK for insipiring me to start on the   │
  │ disc check removal. A very special thanks to all the      │
  │ teams and talented people in the 360 scene, without them  │
  │ none of this would even be possible.                      │
  │                                                           │
  │ Enjoy it while it lasts. Bioware/EA are sure to patch     │
  │ one if not both of these hacks in a future title update.  │
  │                                                           │
  │                                  - rolly poly / Team 360h │
  │                                                           │
 ┌┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴┐
 └┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬┘  
  │                                                           │
  │                       CHANGELOG                           │
  │                       ~~~~~~~~~                           │
  │ v1.0                                                      │
  │                                                           │
  │   * Based on retail US release of default.xex             │
  │   * Game asset files validity check removed.              │
  │   * "Insert Disc X" messsage removed.                     │
  │                                                           │
 ┌┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴┐
 └┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬┘  
  │                                                           │
  │                       LEGAL NOTE                          │
  │                       ~~~~~~~~~~                          │
  │                                                           │
  │ This release does not contain any copyrighted code. It is │
  │ simply a PPF3.0 patch that alters existing xex files. You │
  │ must have the 360 game files to make use of this release. │
  │                                                           │
 ┌┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴┐
 └┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬┘  
  │                                                           │
  │                    USAGE INSTRUCTIONS                     │
  │                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                     │
  │                                                           │
  │  * Extract / copy all game files from both discs to       │
  │    different folders on your PC hard drive.               │
  │                                                           │
  │  * Copy the contents of disc 1 into the disc 2 folder     │
  │    overwriting any duplicate files, or vice versa without │
  │    overwriting files.                                     │
  │                                                           │
  │  * Use xextool to decrypt and uncompress default.xex.     │
  │                                                           │
  │    xextool -e d -c u default.xex                          │
  │                                                           │
  │  * Apply me2-360h.ppf to the uncompressed decrypted       │
  │    default.xex with your favorite PPF3.0 supporting app.  │
  │                                                           │
  │  * OPTIONAL: Use xextool to compress and encrypt the new  │
  │    patched default.xex. Doing so will only save 13Mb of   │
  │    360 HDD space and is not required, the 360 won't care. │
  │                                                           │
  │  * Use your favorite method of installing the game on     │
  │    your 360 HDD, or play from an external USB device.     │
  │                                                           │
  │  * Enjoy Mass Effect 2 without disc swapping, and with    │
  │    the ability to edit game assets.                       │
  │                                                           │
 ┌┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴┐
 │                                                ASCii ART <3 │
 └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

[skel28]

will try later.
thank you

[mastha]

thankfully grateful for your effort and results!

[jelle2503]

awesome. thanks!

please use multiupload.com for file hosting

[Lush]

thank you.... works great

[rolly poly]

thank you all for the positive feedback.

thanks for the tip on multiupload.

http://www.multiupload.com/6B0H593O5N

[texy]

This is inspired work, I am very grateful for it!

Would you by any chance know if this works with the ME2 title update that's already out?

[rolly poly]

it is unlikely they patched this already.

according to xbox 360 update center, the title update was released jan 30th.

i have patched games in the past and used title updates. unless they explicitly patch the areas i've modified, it will still work.

i will test it to make sure when i get the chance, i'm pretty busy with real life at the moment. the recent east coast snow storm was the only reason i was able to get this released so quickly.

if anyone else feels like giving it a shot you can find the title update here : http://xboxupdates.24.tl/?searchString=mass+effect

[texy]

I will give it a shot myself! No harm in trying!

Thanks again for your work.

[Futaba]

Tryed to modify ini for FilmGrain=False - not working. I think thats cos ive added bytes for "e" of "False". Looks like filesize check...

[rolly poly]

did it give you an error (dirty/unreadable disc) message or just lock up?

when i tried to add length to the file, it locked up. this isn't really something i can track down in the code, with my knowledge and current tools/hardware.

the filmgrain setting is configurable in the game options isn't it?

[Futaba]

Its just locking up. Not important.
Is there some methodics of unlocking game? As example -if i want to unlock forza3(for mods), where to start?

[rolly poly]

forza 3 is tough... that is the first game i looked at as i wanted an insane amount of credits.

i start by looking for the dirty disc error message, and tracking it back through code to find where it starts. it can be really time consuming if there are a ton of calls to the sub that displays the dirty disc message.

all this would be a lot easier if we had something like the EvoX DebugTSR from the original xbox.

forza 3 i never succeeded in cracking. i could get rid of the message box, but the game won't accept input from the controller if you just remove the part that displays the error. also it will eventually freeze if i remember correctly.

someone with more skill than me could probably do it, but i'm self taught and working in an outdated version of IDA (it refuses to load xexs 75% of the time). i plan to buy myself the newest version of IDA for my birthday, but that is still a few months out.

[kartaq]

With the Title Update, the game won't boot ("This game has been patched to an incompatible version").
Without the TU the game runs fine and won't ask for a disc swap during gameplay.
I did not compress my default.xex, however, so I don't know if that is the problem. Since the DLC runs fine
without the TU, I did not bother to check.

The TU only fixes some streaming problems with the DLC, those don't occur for me (since we are playing the game
from our Harddrives anyway). Would be nice to know though, since future DLCs will require Title Updates.

[rolly poly]

i don't remember if i compressed the one game i know worked with a TU.

i will do some testing once i get home from work later today.

[kartaq]

I did some testing myself. In Short: ME2 only works with Title Updates if you compress and encrypt the default.xex
With an uncompressed and decrypted default.xex the game will always refuse to boot and an error message will appear:
"This game has been patched to an incompatible version".

Hope this helps. The "hack" itself works great by the way. thanks for that.

[rolly poly]

thanks for posting your results.

work took longer than expected and i didn't end up getting to it.

i'll include this info (with credit ) in readmes for any further releases.

[keine]

Does this allow you to change the credits amount?
If not, how would that be done? Editing the savefile or reversing the executable?

How did you accomplish this if you don't mind? I'm curious, as this type of work is very appealing to me. (The new Final Fantasy will need this treatment.)
You mentioned you were self taught? How did you teach yourself?

[slasherking823]

Does this allow you to change the credits amount?
If not, how would that be done? Editing the savefile or reversing the executable?

How did you accomplish this if you don't mind? I'm curious, as this type of work is very appealing to me. (The new Final Fantasy will need this treatment.)
You mentioned you were self taught? How did you teach yourself?

that would probably be an easy save mod, as long as the saves are not encrypted/secured
I dont feel like investigating something like that, but you can go ahead

[cory1492]

someone with more skill than me could probably do it, but i'm self taught and working in an outdated version of IDA (it refuses to load xexs 75% of the time). i plan to buy myself the newest version of IDA for my birthday, but that is still a few months out.

Getting a new version of ida isn't going to make a difference with xex, it's not like they are supported by an official targeted ida loader plugin (at least, not that I'm aware of at any rate.) As far as I'm aware, you can... recreate xor's plugin from scratch and fix the issues it has with some xex, hope xor updates the ida xex plugin, or just "manually" use xextool to extract the basefile to load (as a PPC bin not PE) at the load address xextool gives via the ida load dialog (and xextool again to create an idc to label the stuff after.)