Monday, July 20, 2009

Test Drive of UbuntuOne Private Beta

I signed up for Canonical's UbuntuOne private beta last week and just got my invite today. The service lets you upload files to Canonical's servers where you can seamlessly sync directories and files across any number of computers. This is generally known as 'cloud storage.'

When you sign up, you are directed to add their UbuntuOne repository and download/install a small gtk applet (only compatible with Jaunty and higher) that will integrate the service with your Ubuntu installation. On my Karmic alpha system, the applet had already been installed, which is what led me to seek out the service in the first place.

There are two main ways to access your cloud data: via the aforementioned system integration or through a fancy AJAXy Web interface:

The Web interface gives you a lot of management options, including file and folder management:

as well as options to add more users to share your files:

The GNOME integration is also super-swanky, with a notification bar applet that lets you connect/disconnect to the cloud:

and a folder that appears in Nautilus with a handy button that handles connecting:

I haven't run into any bugs/issues yet, but I'll update this post as things arise.

Friday, July 10, 2009

How To Hack Street Fighter 4 On PC To Unlock Everything

Update 7/01/11: If you're here looking for info on modding AEPC, hit up the AE modding wiki. All of the vanilla SF4 mods should work on AE with just a little bit of work (see this tutorial for instructions).

Update 7/26/09: Go check out the modding wiki I helped set up with SRK forum user SeedyROM. We're going to try and collect as much information as we can related to SF4 modding and put it all in one convenient spot. SeedyROM has already collected tons of skins and we have a lot of tutorials and utilities compiled already. http://sf4mods.pbworks.com

Just to get it out of the way: this will unlock everything EXCEPT alternate costumes. Also, these unlocks may corrupt online account saves, so you should probably only use them on offline accounts.

Update 7/11/09: Cheat Engine method now allows enabling alt costumes, but it doesn't really *unlock* them, it just swaps some files locations (i.e., only you can see them online; your opponent sees the normal costume).

Update 7/13/09: Alt costume trainer! Just drop it into your SF4 directory and point it at your SF4 Launcher. Use the F-keys to toggle costumes.

All credit goes out to Shoryuken forums user AceKombat, who made this possible.

The cheat is possible in a couple of ways. The easiest method right now is to use Kennykilla's trainer, which is based on AceKombat's hex codes.

To use the trainer, launch SF4 just like you normally would (go to the options and run the game in windowed mode if it is not already) and sign in to your offline account. Then, open the trainer and click the boxes to choose what to unlock. Once everything is unlocked, go into one of the options, such as the sound or system options, and change something to force a save. This will make your unlocks permanent.

To make sure, back out of the menus and quit the program, relaunch it and check to see if everything is there. You should be all set. However, if nothing is unlocked or you have a corrupted save file, you'll want to try the longer method:

First, download the Cheat Engine program (these codes are confirmed to work with 5.5 but should also work with older versions). Note: this program shows up as a trojan on some antivirus programs, but I assure you that it's fine. Next, download the updated list of AceKombat's hex codes (thanks to Game Vixen forum user fly19840303man for finding the alt costume codes and to Cheat Engine forum user 'dental' for combining them into a single file).

Once you have Cheat Engine installed, run SF4 in windowed mode. While it's running, launch Cheat Engine, click on the top-left computer icon and select the StreetFighterIV.exe process from the list. Next, click on the folder icon to browse to the combined list (it will be called "SFIV Unlock.CT"). A bunch of entries should appear in the list area toward the bottom of the Cheat Engine window.

Click any of the entries in that area and select the ones you want to enable. In the area labeled "Change these values," replace the '0' with '1'. Go through the list to make sure everything was applied with no conflicts, which can happen when you've already unlocked some things the legitimate way. Now, just go into one of the in-game options and force a save by changing something and you should be all set.

For the alt costumes, you can't change the values until you are at a character selection screen. Once there, switch to Cheat Engine and change the values and click the box to 'freeze' the value at 1. From this point on, if you use the initial color, the standard costume will appear, but if you cycle to a different color, it will switch to the alt. This system will stay in effect until you close Cheat Engine (i.e., it will not save even if you force an in-game save like with the other unlockables).

If you have any problems with using the Cheat Engine program, AceKombat made a sweet little tutorial video that will walk you through unlocking Seth.

The procedure is basically the same for unlocking everything, except you're loading the combined file instead of typing in the codes individually.

The modding community is also making some serious headway, though they don't have any dead-simple ways to apply the changes yet. Until that time, I'll just leave you with some teasers: Goth Chun Li, Cammy not-quite-nude (mildly NSFW), and swapping movesets among characters, e.g. Chun Li with Zangief's moveset or with Sagat's moveset:

Update 7/12/09: Here's my video of the Chun Li Goth mod applied:


Various color mods:
Note: if a color doesn't have a convenient number for you (e.g., it's 01_04 and you would rather it be 01_02), open the emz file with a hex editor, scroll all the way to the bottom and you will see the number appear 2 times. Change that to your desired number, save and rename the file to your desired number and you're all set.

Ninja Vega/claw (replaces BLR_01_04). Credit goes to Shoryuken forums user providenceangle (very nice).
Black/white Balrog/boxer. Credit goes to deviantart's ztitus, who also created the goth Chun Li (both of which are awesome).
Super Saayan Gouki/Akuma (replaces his standard costume color #10)
Purple-veined Akuma (replaces his standard costume color #5) Credit goes to providenceangle.
Evil Ryu (credit goes to Shoruken forums user CptMunta)
Dudley Boxer (credit goes to CptMunta)
Commando Cammy (credit goes to providenceangle)
Plaid Sakura (credit goes to providenceangle)
Hollywood Hogan Zangief (credit goes to tekken57; great job!)
Dirty Ryu (credit goes to Shoryuken forum user ex inferis)
Dark Ryu (credit goes to Shoryuken forum user DjParagon; very good one!)
Nurse Rose (credit goes to ztitus)
Cammy's Juli Mod (credit goes to IceBreakker)
Harley Quinn Cammy (credit goes to Thand)
Cammy Evangelion (white and black), Rufus as Majin Boo, and Chun Li alt flower dress

For anyone who wants to do character mods themselves, here's a link to an automated extractor from Shoryuken forums user Lee Rekka (extract to C:\Program Files\CAPCOM\STREETFIGHTERIV). The resulting files can be viewed using Dragon Unpacker. To edit image files, you'll need a dds plugin for Photoshop (32-bit only) or GIMP (see this post from Game Vixens for details and links).

Update 7/13/09: Music mods! Think the music is shitty? Replace it with remixes of classic SF tunes. All credit for these goes to Shoryuken forums user mmaster_po so give him some rep.
Ken's theme - Hiroaki Yoshida Version (imo better than the ocremix version) for the "beautiful bay" stage:
http://www.mediafire.com/?3wgzzew2jtm

Balrog's ocremix music for the "drive in at night" stage
http://www.mediafire.com/?muuznujqlyk

Guile's ocremix music for the "small airfield" stage
http://www.mediafire.com/?3w1zycwzn4v

Blanka's ocremix music for the "inland jungle" stage
http://www.mediafire.com/?30mnyymjimj

Ryu's ocremix theme for the "old temple" stage:
http://www.mediafire.com/?yyejyg2yekw

Cammy's ocremix theme for the "Historic Distillery" stage:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gnlmeoq1mxk

Fei Long's ocremix theme for the "Deserted Temple" stage:
http://www.mediafire.com/?zmbtmhqozwz

Dee Jay's ocremix theme for the "pitch-black jungle" stage:
http://www.mediafire.com/?xalj44hhzjo

and heres Ken's ocremix theme (if you want to use this one instead) for the "beautiful bay" stage:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jznd5rizy0y

Sagat's ocremix - Beautiful Bay stage (this song fits the stage a lot better than Ken's)
http://www.mediafire.com/?zuwmvytmiy2

Ken's ocremix - Cruise Ship Stern Stage
http://www.mediafire.com/?0enmzjzqtht

Zangief ocremix - Snowy Rail Yard Stage
http://www.mediafire.com/?mmdltrhqwmo

Sakura's theme - Overpass stage
http://www.mediafire.com/?hqizmegyji2

Chun Li's ocremix - Crowded Downtown Stage
http://www.mediafire.com/?2yym2yl4ncy

copy files to:
\Street Fighter 4\Battle\System and replace the original file (backup original files first)
Get Rid of Menu Music (no moar Indestructible):
Go to the game/sound folder and rename BGM_MAIN_OM.csb and create a blank text file with the same name in its place (another popular option is to copy BGM_END.csb in its place instead).

Get Rid of the Announcer (credit goes to Shoryuken forums user PimpUigi):
1. Disables in game announcer annoyances
In the folder *:\Program Files\Capcom\STREETFIGHTERIV\Battle\Narration
Rename BTL_NAR_E.csb to something else, and make a blank text file named BTL_NAR_E.csb

2. Disables pre game/vs. screen/character selection screen announcer annoyances
In the folder *:\Program Files\Capcom\STREETFIGHTERIV\Game\Sound
Rename SELVS_SE.csb to something else, and make a blank text file named SELVS_SE.csb

He still says...
All the things at the beginning of the round...like "Let's Pick Up the Pace!"
"KO"
"Perfect"
"Time over!"
"Draw Game"
and "Double KO"

He no longer says "so and so wins" or anything else.
Update 7/17/09: Automated moveset switcher! (command line only, but still completely awesome; credit goes to Shoryuken forums user Buey):
Simple syntax is: "sf4moveswap.exe set ZGF VEG" to give Vega (Dictator)'s moves to Zangief. You can see the character codes in the program, so you don't have to look them up. Other commands can be seen by running the program without any command line parameters.

Program is available here: http://www.randomshit.org/autoit/
Here are 3 color mods I made: Scottish Honda, Collosus Zangief, Krang Seth, Seth Venom v3 (added mouth/tongue color and insignia on back), Mr. Fantastic (aka Reed Richards), The Invisible Woman (from Fantastic 4), Rufus as Dr. Robotnik, and some re-skins for the training stage: Escher-themed, holodeck (looks an awful lot like when you set backgrounds to 'low'), and Mario-themed. I did a model edit of Guile to give him a more normalish haircut, which really improves the look of some of his other mods are from a Solid Snake mod with my costume applied).


Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?4d0czzodtjm

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zogkhz3wvky

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nojqd2bgj4y

download: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kdybjnnoyxh

I just modified Miss Signoritas' Catwoman mod for Chun Li to have no hair buns and no dress flaps using col-based transparency to make it look more accurate (no offense to Signoritas; her version is very cool and keeps the Chun Li flavor). I also did a minor cos model edit to close the holes in her head that appear when the buns are transparent, but this edit is so minor that you can use this new file with the original costume with no problem (see screenshot):

Dhalsim as Oro from Third Strike:

I did some model edits for Rufus. First, I hate looking at his fat belly jiggling around, so I put him on a diet:

Next, I edited my earlier Robotnik mod to have a physical mustache and I closed the hole in his head:

I also edited Acethylen's amazing Maori Honda mod for use with the 01 cos file (the original version used the second costume, which I don't have):

Here's a preliminary version of something I'm working on (Honda in a tux):

Samus:

Yakuza Fei Long:

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