PSForever.net and PS1 Packet Capture

Chord · 2015-10-02, 11:18 PM

Hey PSU.

I finally got around to getting more official towards a PlanetSide emulator project. I'm dubbing it PSForever. It's a bit more accurate to my goals and has less name conflict on Google. The good news is that I scored a great domain, psforever.net (no content yet). Me and anyone else interested in this project should probably move our discussion over there. I plan on hosting a webserver, forum, wiki, and any other services that we might need, including a game server when it comes to that.

I don't have a good estimate on when the website will actually have content, but for starters I'll host the PS1 GameLauncher and PS1 GameLogger tools.
Speaking of that, the PlanetSide GameLogger is finally ready after way too much time. Sorry about that!

Anyone still playing the game, please take the time to download the capture tool and capture packets as you play. The more packets we capture from different sources, the more likely PlanetSide can still be preserved, even if the servers go down. While running the tool, you can save the capture files to your local disk and hold on to them until I make a way for you to upload them to the PSForever team for inspection.

PS1 GameLogger Release

The capture tool captures all of the important packets, except for login packets, which contain plain text usernames and passwords. It will on the other hand, capture everywhere you go with your character and everything you say and do in game. The tool does not communicate with the network in any way. While capturing, there is an option under 'Edit -> Metadata...' that allows you to talk about the capture file. By providing a good name an description, you help anyone analyzing the capture files. For example, if you got in to a liberator and died, feel free to write that in the description. If you have a long capture session, then I wouldn't worry too much about putting everything in there. Maybe just the highlights, such as what continents you were on.

To use the tool, run it and run a PlanetSide instance. You can use my PS1 launcher or the regular PlanetSide launcher. Once PlanetSide is running, you should see the name and PID popup in the drop down menu. You first hit 'Attach' and then 'Capture' when you are ready. The more packets you capture, the better. If you are trying to capture a specific game feature, such as transferring to a new world, then feel free to make many captures.
If you choose to help, thanks a lot! We should plan to meet up online and try to capture packets with more than 2 or 3 people.

Anyways, too much talking, the PS1 GameLogger tool 1.0.0.0 is attached for download. Here's are some external links as well:
GameLogger 1.0.0.0: https://mega.nz/#!nhsFSSRa!TsmGVuHJF...4fR5FIQZsbaAnA
GameLauncher 1.0.0.3: https://mega.nz/#!7xtmQLpZ!ZdUC8uXho...5rL1kh1n-k-jlg

And some screenshots

Remember this tool is beta, so please report any bugs that you find while using the tool and attach the corresponding log files. Let me know if you have any questions

KingFeraligatr · 2015-10-03, 03:07 AM

Finally! I still have my doubts that this will take off, but congrats to getting here. I'll still be testing like usual, despite my doubts. Also, are we going to be able to modify the game's assets? I have several things I want to change, add, fix, rebalance, etc.

Anyways, V-V-F and V-V-E. And V-V-T.

Calista · 2015-10-03, 09:34 AM

So you plan on coding from scratch an MMO it took many people many years to create by using a packet sniffer tool?

Chord · 2015-10-03, 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by KingFeraligatr

Finally! I still have my doubts that this will take off, but congrats to getting here. I'll still be testing like usual, despite my doubts. Also, are we going to be able to modify the game's assets? I have several things I want to change, add, fix, rebalance, etc.

Anyways, V-V-F and V-V-E. And V-V-T.

Thanks for sticking with it, regardless. Doing this with community support is much better than without.

If by assets you mean damage values, rates of fire, etc. then yes, but first is figuring out all of the existing values. But essentially, making a server will allow you to make completely different game with different rules.

If you are interested in messing around with game assets (such as models / textures) in general, I believe an old hacker named itburnz has a tool that can extract actual game assets from DDS files. Also secant has done a lot of work in this area.

Originally Posted by Calista

So you plan on coding from scratch an MMO it took many people many years to create by using a packet sniffer tool?

Sounds brash, I know. But luckily all of those difficult graphics problems are already solved for me. Creating a game server, is a simpler problem as we just have to send data to the client(s) for presentation. Not saying it's easy, but I'm not remaking the whole game, just the server.

Plus, all of those years of work boil down to the messages being sent and received. There is a ton going on behind the scenes to get this to work, but it's not black magic. It can be replicated.

OpolE · 2015-10-03, 11:05 AM

Wow nice going

RealGaretJax · 2015-10-04, 01:29 AM

HI,

Chord and all involved in this project. You should be aware, that the person king feraligatr has been revealed as the source of most of the hacking in PS1. Ingame he has many alts including v**************, all the czerocool chars, mcyxblueice, and many many others. This account who has posted above brags ingame about how he will be the hacker in PSEMU, that he will have all the power, that he has comprised the project and will own us all when its released. Be aware that you have a disease and infection in the project who only wants to gain inside knowledge so he can hack and destroy your good work.

You should remove this guys, hammer should revoke his forum access as this guy is the largest hacker in PS1 and he has no place in the game or on these forums.

HE will deny it of course, but we have proof of who he is, and what he has done. Feel free to PM me and I will provide a list of other players you can contact to vouch for my info.

King Feraligatr is a hacker, the scourge of our game, the person responsible for using pull hacks in game and destroying the fun of the few players left ingame. He needs to be removed and we need to be sure that PSEMU does not just become a place for him to further hack. Simply put, nobody will use this or take any interest in this project as long as he has any access or is involved in it.

KingFeraligatr · 2015-10-04, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by RealGaretJax

HI,

Chord and all involved in this project. You should be aware, that the person king feraligatr has been revealed as the source of most of the hacking in PS1. Ingame he has many alts including v**************, all the czerocool chars, mcyxblueice, and many many others. This account who has posted above brags ingame about how he will be the hacker in PSEMU, that he will have all the power, that he has comprised the project and will own us all when its released. Be aware that you have a disease and infection in the project who only wants to gain inside knowledge so he can hack and destroy your good work.

You should remove this guys, hammer should revoke his forum access as this guy is the largest hacker in PS1 and he has no place in the game or on these forums.

HE will deny it of course, but we have proof of who he is, and what he has done. Feel free to PM me and I will provide a list of other players you can contact to vouch for my info.

King Feraligatr is a hacker, the scourge of our game, the person responsible for using pull hacks in game and destroying the fun of the few players left ingame. He needs to be removed and we need to be sure that PSEMU does not just become a place for him to further hack. Simply put, nobody will use this or take any interest in this project as long as he has any access or is involved in it.

Garet, you're very much dead wrong man. I mean, you're free to believe what you want, but in this case it's wrong. I've got nothing to hide, so I'll be playing that way. It's a shame that the toxicness of the community has reached this all time high, but I hop the emulator takes off for that reason: so we can stop living in fear and trust our fellow players.

I'm sorry you came to this false conclusion. I hackusate all the time, but never hack. I've made it my mission to never scoop the hackers' level. I talk to you with many alts because i just so happen to have a shit ton of them on my two accounts (and I have VERY recent pictures showing all them on Steam. Plus there's the fact that you're getting several people's names wrong and the fact I've played with people like MCYxBlueIce and know that they're good players. You're mistaking me for a ton of people that I'm not. I hope you come around to the truth some day so you stop jumping at shadows.

Here are pictures of ALL my accounts and their alts (taken today):
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=529892335
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=529892437
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=529894270
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=529894374

Yes, I have barcode alts, but they're there so I can talk to hackers and assholes with them putting me on ignore. Barring two characters I've deleted (KingFeraligatrTROptimal and KingFeraligatrTRStealth), these are ALL the alts and accounts I've ever had in this game.

I sincerely hope you get over this so that we don't have to live in paranoia. It's eating away at the community. I hope this emulator changes that so we all live with some peace without fearing hackers around every corner. Chord, keep up the good work so we don't have to deal with what's happening here today. Garet, hope you get over this man. It's unhealthy.

darkBerry · 2015-10-04, 05:44 PM

Maybe you erased those alts or you have a secret account you dont want to show...

KingFeraligatr · 2015-10-04, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by darkBerry

Maybe you erased those alts or you have a secret account you dont want to show...

Or maybe I'm telling the truth and being honest? Why jump to unfounded conspiracy theories when there's a true, simpler, and more logical explanation (I don't hack and I'm not hiding anything). Logic is your friend man. Use it, and watch things make much more sense and be much more clear.

RealGaretJax · 2015-10-04, 05:55 PM

Hi,

Well King i am sorry but taking a screenshot does not prove anything. You simple dual box or have other steam accounts that you didn't take the screenshots of. I can easily do the same, what you have posted proves nothing.

The hacker characters you played yesterday and pull hacked everybody mentioned things that I had only mentioned to you. Ever heard of a canary trap mate? Well you fell for it.

You were leaked information that had only been leaked 1 person and then these rampant pull hackers started talking about that exact same thing. Now there is a chance that your not them, but you are obviously in cahoots with them passing along information to them. So you are part of the hacker group or are you suggesting they have somehow extracted this information from the ether.?

This character was bragging about how he was going to hack us all in the PSEMU, how he had inside access to everything and would tear it apart. Typical destructive sadistic behaviour that you have exhibited in game, and made mention of several times.

You are trying to play us all for fools, thinking that your far smarter and out witting us all. We know who you are, you took the bail and swallowed it whole, you are either the hackers themselves (far more likely) or you are communicating instantly with these people, so your just as bad. Either way you deserve to be called out for who you really are. A lying deceptive sadistic little boy who takes great pleasure from playing dual personalities and making people believe you are someone you are not. As for the hacking, just stop it, how can wrecking everyone's game be any enjoyment to you?

You exhibit classic split personality behaviour, one day nice and friendly, the next day, a total different person.

Please Chord and the others speak with players such as 1thundernuts1, hmfic, fjh, skeng ingame, they all witnessed it and were send tells etc that show they all came from one person.

Chord, thanks for your reply, I am a developer of 25 years (so old) so understand totally, but you still need to be aware of what's going on.

Just on a side note, have you ever considered pivoting this project into something like a ARMA mod instead.

The code required for a multi-player server is huge, not to mention integration of graphics engines, latency code, back-end management systems, etc, etc.

Using something like ARMA (although less players), could provide a firm framework to then build the PSEMU layer on top of give you a sandbox to play in now, so game mechanics and systems can be worked on, rather than base layers of game functionality.

Just my $0.02 worth

KingFeraligatr · 2015-10-04, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by RealGaretJax

Hi,

Well King i am sorry but taking a screenshot does not prove anything. You simple dual box or have other steam accounts that you didn't take the screenshots of. I can easily do the same, what you have posted proves nothing.

The hacker characters you played yesterday and pull hacked everybody mentioned things that I had only mentioned to you. Ever heard of a canary trap mate? Well you fell for it.

You were leaked information that had only been leaked 1 person and then these rampant pull hackers started talking about that exact same thing. Now there is a chance that your not them, but you are obviously in cahoots with them passing along information to them. So you are part of the hacker group or are you suggesting they have somehow extracted this information from the ether.?

This character was bragging about how he was going to hack us all in the PSEMU, how he had inside access to everything and would tear it apart. Typical destructive sadistic behaviour that you have exhibited in game, and made mention of several times.

You are trying to play us all for fools, thinking that your far smarter and out witting us all. We know who you are, you took the bail and swallowed it whole, you are either the hackers themselves (far more likely) or you are communicating instantly with these people, so your just as bad. Either way you deserve to be called out for who you really are. A lying deceptive sadistic little boy who takes great pleasure from playing dual personalities and making people believe you are someone you are not. As for the hacking, just stop it, how can wrecking everyone's game be any enjoyment to you?

You exhibit classic split personality behaviour, one day nice and friendly, the next day, a total different person.

Please Chord and the others speak with players such as 1thundernuts1, hmfic, fjh, skeng ingame, they all witnessed it and were send tells etc that show they all came from one person.

Chord, thanks for your reply, I am a developer of 25 years (so old) so understand totally, but you still need to be aware of what's going on.

Just on a side note, have you ever considered pivoting this project into something like a ARMA mod instead.

The code required for a multi-player server is huge, not to mention integration of graphics engines, latency code, back-end management systems, etc, etc.

Using something like ARMA (although less players), could provide a firm framework to then build the PSEMU layer on top of give you a sandbox to play in now, so game mechanics and systems can be worked on, rather than base layers of game functionality.

Just my $0.02 worth

You're still wrong man. I'm so sorry. I didn't play yesterday, never divulged information when I yelled at ******, etc. My "multiple personalities" likely some comes from my variety of mental health issues and very low self esteem. I know without a doubt you're wrong, but knowing how much everyone hates me, I doubt they'll believe the innocent party. I'm going to try and not to scoop to your level and try to treat you better than how you're treating me. I've been against the hackers from the start, and I feel vert sorry that you don't believe me,

Your former acquaintance-
The King of Feraligatrs, King Feraligatr

KingFeraligatr · 2015-10-04, 06:24 PM

Some TRx guys gave me some very disturbing screenies Garet. Link :
http://imgur.com/a/m4nA7

Chord · 2015-10-05, 08:29 PM

Originally Posted by RealGaretJax

Chord, thanks for your reply, I am a developer of 25 years (so old) so understand totally, but you still need to be aware of what's going on.

Just on a side note, have you ever considered pivoting this project into something like a ARMA mod instead.

The code required for a multi-player server is huge, not to mention integration of graphics engines, latency code, back-end management systems, etc, etc.

Using something like ARMA (although less players), could provide a firm framework to then build the PSEMU layer on top of give you a sandbox to play in now, so game mechanics and systems can be worked on, rather than base layers of game functionality.

Just my $0.02 worth

In terms of cheat protection, from what I know, the ARMA engine is nearly as broken as PS1 and I don't have any personal feelings for it. I'm trying to go for the more detailed approach and that means solving a lot of hard problems. I don't have a good grasp on how game servers really tick, so I want to figure it out by knowing one inside and out. My primary inspirations are TrinityCore, EVEmu, and the ShadowBane Emulator.

darkBerry · 2015-10-04, 12:22 PM

I believe and old hacker named Jolt made a similar work like "yours" 8 years before, also the same home page design looks similar too.

Chord · 2015-10-04, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by RealGaretJax

HI,

Chord and all involved in this project. You should be aware, that the person king feraligatr has been revealed as the source of most of the hacking in PS1. Ingame he has many alts including v**************, all the czerocool chars, mcyxblueice, and many many others. This account who has posted above brags ingame about how he will be the hacker in PSEMU, that he will have all the power, that he has comprised the project and will own us all when its released. Be aware that you have a disease and infection in the project who only wants to gain inside knowledge so he can hack and destroy your good work.

Hi RealGaretJax, thanks for bring this to my attention. The purpose of PSForever is to have a working implementation of a PS1 server with extra features such as cheat protection. The infamous pull-hack is incredibly easy to execute because the current server trusts the client by assertion. The server does not verify the clients word that "player A hit player B with bullet C". A game server is more than capable of verifying in real-time these assertions and ignoring any "impossible packets."

Lets say we do have a hacker among us. What exactly can he/she do to harm the project? The project is going to be open-sourced once I have something worth open sourcing. That means anyone will be able to see the code and all of the hard work put in to it. There is no way to gain "inside knowledge".

What would be interesting is if we gave a server just for the hackers to play with. Lets say you get banned, instead of not being able to access the regular server, you are regulated to a special hackers only server. That way, you get to hack all day and not affect any real players.

Also just to mention, the only reason this project is even remotely possible is because I'm literally "hacking" this game. I'm doing everything a normal hacker would do, except I'm using this knowledge to create something.
I use IDA Pro, OllyDBG, and DLL injection to get instrumentation on the game. It's all about what you do with these tools that makes the difference.

Originally Posted by RealGaretJax

You should remove this guys, hammer should revoke his forum access as this guy is the largest hacker in PS1 and he has no place in the game or on these forums.

HE will deny it of course, but we have proof of who he is, and what he has done. Feel free to PM me and I will provide a list of other players you can contact to vouch for my info.

King Feraligatr is a hacker, the scourge of our game, the person responsible for using pull hacks in game and destroying the fun of the few players left ingame. He needs to be removed and we need to be sure that PSEMU does not just become a place for him to further hack. Simply put, nobody will use this or take any interest in this project as long as he has any access or is involved in it.

While hacking to get an advantage over other players is reprehensible at best, there really isn't much to be done about it. If the game is broken and no GMs or companies care to keep it secure, oh well. I wouldn't worry too much about the hackers. I would only involve someone into actual project design / direction if I trusted them or knew them personally. At the moment absolutely no one has the authorization to make project decisions except me.

Originally Posted by darkBerry

I believe and old hacker named Jolt made a similar work like "yours" 8 years before, also the same home page design looks similar too.

I know Secant has for sure done something similar. I hadn't heard that Joltting did anything. Unfortunately absolutely no one released any code relating to their projects (probably because they were under legal threat). This time everyone will be able to have a copy of the project and the freedom to do whatever they want.