Research/WIP: UI Editing/Lua Decompiler

[alpaca]

The background movie was changed with the patch 1.4. The new video does not replace the original file (frontend.bik) but, instead, it's a new video (warpath_fe.bik). I suppose that somewhere in the file patch.pack there is some way to change the path to the video (probably in the .luac files)...

Yeah this should be somewhere in the UI luac files.

[Cursisanafou]

Sorry to revive this, anything new in this department?

[A1_Unit]

To decompile a .luac, do you have to do it by hand?

[erasmus777]

To decompile a .luac, do you have to do it by hand?

No. A compiler takes a high-level language like Lua or C++ and turns it into assembly or machine language. Decompiling does the opposite: it turns assembly into something easily read by humans. It varies from language to language, but decompilation can be next to impossible. In this case, it's tough, but doable. Ideally, once you figure out the patterns in the compiled code, you program your decompiler to generate readable text from it. At that point, it takes seconds. Getting there, however...

[alpaca]

Well I didn't continue working further on the decompiler. I don't like the code too much (it's very messy and not well documented) so it's a pain to edit. It has a few quirks I know that are easy to fix after decompiling but not easy to automate. And I still sometimes have to go into the disassembly for more complicated code pieces.

[A1_Unit]

There are a whole lot of .luac files in the ui.pack that would be nice to edit though....

[alpaca]

There are a whole lot of .luac files in the ui.pack that would be nice to edit though....

Like what? These files only modify what you see on the surface, nothing more. Also, have you done any scripting so far so that you're confident you could even make sensible changes to them? If you send me your email address I can mail you my current version of the decompiler but as I said it still has known bugs and I won't do any support for it.

[A1_Unit]

If I wasn't so busy right now with RL, modding projects and ETW research work I would take you up on your offer.

[alpaca]

If I wasn't so busy right now with RL, modding projects and ETW research work I would take you up on your offer.

I've repeatedly stated that I'll send the program to anyone who asks. I do, however, not release software that has known issues and isn't safe to use. The reason for this is that releasing it would just mean a huge lot of additional work. Supporting stuff that's easy to use and fairly safe is already bad enough but supporting things that have known issues is a nightmare I don't really want to go through.

Anyways, as I said, the files would most likely be almost worthless for you. If you want to change anything in the game with these, you'll have to create a whole framework that actually allows you to do something worthwhile with them and debug the scripts without going insane. I (kind of) did that for APE:TI 1.1 but it's not released yet and I don't feel quite comfortable enough with the procedure I set up yet.

[Cursisanafou]

My question is have you found anything interesting in the files at all?

I mean there was the family tree, although not exactly functional..

Maybe surrender, prisoners, ransom... etc..?

There are database entries for diplomacy attitudes like dragged to peace by ally, but we all know you can't actually do that...

[alpaca]

My question is have you found anything interesting in the files at all?

I mean there was the family tree, although not exactly functional..

Maybe surrender, prisoners, ransom... etc..?

There are database entries for diplomacy attitudes like dragged to peace by ally, but we all know you can't actually do that...

Not really, you can't do anything substantially different than what CA did without a lof of work. The primary use of them is that you can in theory change them to reflect any changes you make better than in the old games (where the UI was always a problem).

[Deemyu]

Hi Alpaca

Can you send me the actual version of your decompiler?

My mail chishck@gmail.com

Thanks very much

[dast0011]

Hi,

just a me too, please :-)

Send the decompiler to stefan(at->@)dantzer.de please.

Since i first saw EU3 i wished for some liberate, warscore, occupation like mechanics in empire.

Now i think i have an idea that might work and i would like to make a proof of concept :-)

I would like to do the following:

1. saving game state in an esf file
2. change some values (like ownership) in the esf
3. load the esf

do you think this can be done ?`

Everything would be far more simple if the 'gift region procedure' would be public ...

Kind regards ...
Stefan

[Deemyu]

Hi all.

I have troubles in the decompilation process of two critical scripts for my mod project (Army.luac and template.RecruitmentCard.lua)... I tried to use the luadec application with the patched version of this scripts but unfortunately the tool returns me a critical exception. I can disassemble both with the -dis option parameter. Any idea which helped me with this problem???

Another question is if someone knows how I can edit/decompile the files without extension in the ui folder.... (they have "Version033T" in the header of the file.

Thanks!

[dast0011]

Could anybody please upload the file please ?

Thanx

[dast0011]

don't know since when the decompiler is attached to this thread, i just saw it now :-)

Thank you ...

[risorgimento]

I'm also interested at the code, Alpaca. Could you drop me it at fassan88 at gmail.com, please?

God, I repent of skipping the chapter about LUA whenever reading my favourite game programming book...

It seems finally I found a good reason to try learning it. At the moment I don't have too much free time but hopefully it won't take me too much to be ready to fully understand that reversing's pdf you posted here. Won't make really sense otherwise as I'm still wondering how to work around the crash on OP_SETUPVAL (even worse, I didn't know what a upvalue was! ).

Thank you.

[seregavlg]

Hi alpaca !
Could you send me decompiler at sergei.strizhak@gmail.com, please

[seregavlg]

Someone decompile patched army.luac & recruitment.luac?

[p.jakub88]

If you decompiled lua files ( whatever it means ), tell me how to open and edit *.luac files?

I would like to add new events to Grand Campaign and i would like to find the vanilla events description messages. I found their images and icons.


Anyone knows how i could open these *.luac's?
Which editor or program i need?

Thanks in advance!!