Lua Decompiler LuaDC Beta 0.9.20; Now with wildcards in commandline

[Age2uN]

Version 0.9.20 does work with wildcards now.
So you can issue a command like:
LuaDC *.lua
LuaDC *.ship
....
and get all the files matching the wildcard translated at once.
http://www.extreme-archive.de/LuaDC.zip

===================================

OK 0.9.15 online now:
These scripts command.lua etc. in soundscripts directory
do a weird nesting of "if then else end"s.
I had to fight with them hard !
but now LuaDC decompiles them smothly !
So Riker: give it a try ...

==================================

OK. 0.9.6 online now.
Has a new commandlineswitch:

If you say

LuaDC xy.lua

you get an outputfile xy.lua.LuaDC,
which you can rename or whatever.
The original xy.lua is left untouched.

If you say

LuaDC xy.lua -o
or
LuaDC -o xy.lua

the inputfile xy.lua is read in,
and the outputfile overwrites it.
So you only keep the translated file with the name xy.lua.

======================================
OK. 0.9.5 online now.
decompiles TAILCALL and PUSHUPVALUE opcodes now.

Two opcodes still missing:
OP_PUSHSELF
OP_PUSHNILJMP

I'm looking for files,
where these are used,
to verify my translationroutines.

======================================
OK. 0.9.4 online now.
Decompiles complex IF / WHILE clauses correctly
(as in the AI scripts)
Decompiles without rounding numbers.
Outputfile's name is equal to inputfile's name plus .LuaDC

Tested on complete set of .ship, .events,
.levels and SP campaign .lua files
ai and allmost all ui files in hw2.big.

Give it a try now.

btw. don't try to decompile undumped .lua files.
LuaDC wants to feed on compiled (binary) .lua files only
(as you get them when extracting from .big files).

Open for GUI wish-list now !

=======================================
OK. 0.8.9 online now.
Decompiles big lists correctly now
(like hgn_mothership.events).

Tested on complete set of .ship and .events files in hw2.big.

=======================================

LuaDC the Lua Decompiler.

Feed him with compiled .lua files and get
readable and moddable .out files.

This is still Beta, but I've tested on
.ship, .level and different level.lua (SP campaign) files

If you encounter a problem compiling a .lua file,
send the .lua and the .out file created by LuaDC
via eMail to Age2uN@gmx.net

Have fun.

[Skeeter]

Cool ill try this out later

[edit]

Ok trying the deathmatch.lua with ur tool and using a bat file to run the conversion but doesnt seem to be making a decompiled lua at all or anything.

Can u do a example of how to use this please and possible later in coding add a gui with a convert this file button for easy usage.

Also if i move the lua file onto the tool it says error 52 bad file name or number.

Cheers...

[Age2uN]

First of all, thanks for your feedback.

I uploaded a new version 0.8.3 with two bugfixes.
This version decompiled all the .ship files
without errors (formatting of output not perfect).
Testplay with decompiled scripts was ok !

Now a few hints:
- LuaDC does only decompile real compiled .lua files
(not dump output from LuaC)
- LuaCD is Beta
- Versions 0.8.x will only handle decompiling from commandline
when this is working flawless
- Versions 0.9x will get a nice UI

A mini docu:
- copy the files you want to decompile into the same dir as LuaCD.exe
- open a dos-box
- change directory to the directory you've put LuaCD.exe into
- start LuaCD with the filename of the file you want to decompile:
example:
LuaCD hgn_scout.ship
- copy the resultfile hgn_scout.out to the HW2\Data\Ship\hgn_scout directory and rename it there to hgn_scout.ship
- try it
- edit it as like

[CnlPepper]

Damn Age2uN how did you get this written so quick? It's taken a me a fair while to get my decompiler to the state it is currently (slightly further ahead than yourself). How long have you spent writing this!?

Btw how did you set about decompiling? I use a stack tracing system.

CnlPepper - May not bother finishing his tool.....

[CnlPepper]

I've noticed your code doesn't detect if-or statement correctly.

btw did you use a stack trace to determine which pushed values stay on the stack to identify when a local var is created?

CnlPepper - hasn't got round to writing a stack tracer yet...

[Age2uN]

OK. 0.8.9 online now.
Decompiles big lists correctly now
(like hgn_mothership.events).

Tested on complete set of .ship and .events files in hw2.big.

More to come tomorrow.......

[Age2uN]

Originally posted by CnlPepper
Damn Age2uN how did you get this written so quick? It's taken a me a fair while to get my decompiler to the state it is currently (slightly further ahead than yourself). How long have you spent writing this!?

Btw how did you set about decompiling? I use a stack tracing system.

No, no stack tracing, but being the stack.
The local vars have a set of info (e.g. startpc and endpc), which defines their scope of validity.

It took me about 8 hours to look into the lua internals (documentation and source) and about the same time again to get this far.

I've noticed your code doesn't detect if-or statement correctly.

do you have an example lua, where I can check that ?

[CnlPepper]

ah you're looking directly at the compiled files, I'm working from the disassembled files hence the need for a stack trace (there is no scope reported in the disassembled files as far as I've looked)

To check for if-or statements compile the following with luaC

if (a==b) or (c==d) then
    dosomething()
end

if (a==b) or (c==d) then
    dosomething()
else
    dosomethingelse()
end

it gets quite difficult if you want to decompile more compilcated statements like if-or-and-or.

I had to completely rewrite the method I used for determining if statements to cope with if-ors, it was very irritating. Look out for the fact that part of the if-or has the logical opposite op code to a normal if.

I've spent about 20 hrs working on this in total though I'm not really sure I've got the time to finish it. I'm quite glad you started your own tool

CnlPepper - Going to withdraw from HW2 modding completely.....

[Skeeter]

Hey it actually works

i open a doz box and done what u said (bat files dont work) and it decompiled them rather good

Well done there and hope to see that GUI soon

Btw why dont u and pepper hook up and share code? Might get things even more done.

[Ta_erog]

This may help, I found this error . . .


-in Your classdef

function FastAddToClass()
NYI !!!
NYI !!!
classid()
end

--------------------------------------------------------------
-in relic's classdef

function FastAddToClass( tbl, classid )
for a,b in tbl do
AddToClass( b, classid )
end
end

[CnlPepper]

I would guess NYI !! = Not Yet Implimented !!

CnlPepper - Better get back to work...

[Tarkin]

Small error i think line 345 :
friendly =
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,
= ,

I dont think that normal !

Very nice job !!!
= {,

[Age2uN]

Hey, I told you it's beta.

Yes, there are 6 opcodes missing.

Right now I'm concentrating on the
conditionals (eg. if-clauses).

Tarkin: what file was that.

New version tomorrow.
- with all opcodes
- with if-clauses working correctly
- with (almost) perfect formatting

I would guess NYI !! = Not Yet Implimented !!
CnlPepper - Better get back to work...

Want a race ?

[Age2uN]

Decompiles complex IF clauses correctly
(as in the AI scripts)

Tested on complete set of .ship, .events,
.levels and SP campaign .lua files
ai and allmost all ui files in hw2.big.

Give it a try now.
Open for GUI wish-list now !

[Tarkin]

Sorry, i am very stupid !!!:yech:

ATI.lua

[CnlPepper]

Originally posted by Age2uN
Want a race ?

hehe, I don't think there is much point, you seem to have a lot more spare time to code in

I've given up writing it, you seem to have it pretty much done.

btw you said before you are decompiling by being the stack, this is how I approached the problem too. A string stack where the relavent strings were pushed/popped according to the opcodes.

CnlPepper - Time to leave....

[Age2uN]

Hey, not a matter of time, but of concentration/meditation.
I went down to my think tank,

and <<blonk>> there was the solution .....

[CnlPepper]

lol

funnily enough I had the idea of using a string stack to decompile the lua scripts in just such a place of meditation......

CnlPepper - Maybe just a little too much info....

[Age2uN]

I've been approached with the request to build into LuaDC
some kind of decompile-barrier.

Maybe some local var to be defined at the beginning of the lua source, like

local NoDecompile="Go ask xy for permission"

Then LuaDC would stop decompiling and
would prints this line to the user.
So he would be made aware of his need to get the
originators permission to use/change/read the sources.

What do you modders out there think of that ?

[CnlPepper]

I vote no, if you did I'd finish my decompiler.

Mod communities grow though supporting each other with discoveries etc...

The early HW1 days were like that, loads of groups discovering things and not tellling each other, it slowed down modding and made it harder.

If people want to be selfish and keep discoveries/features to themselves then they may as well leave the mod community.

I hope you tell the modders who asked you exactly what I just said.

CnlPepper - selfish modding = slow progress...

[Ta_erog]

CnlPepper

I vote no, if you did I'd finish my decompiler.
Mod communities grow though supporting each other with discoveries etc...
The early HW1 days were like that, loads of groups discovering things and not tellling each other, it slowed down modding and made it harder.
If people want to be selfish and keep discoveries/features to themselves then they may as well leave the mod community.
I hope you tell the modders who asked you exactly what I just said.
CnlPepper - selfish modding = slow progress...

:thumb: That was perfectly beautiful man No way I could have said it better . . an I have tried . . often . . . . but they don't get it .. .

[Tefeari]

People arn't selfish here, its just to make them ask the modder how they did it and/or for the cold, as opposed to simply stealing and using the code elsewhere without permission. Its like having to ask someone for a source file of their program as opposed to just making everyone include their program's source code with it.

Maybe we should get some modder opinions on this? Perhaps post a poll on Tanis?

[Ta_erog]

"If people want to be selfish and keep discoveries/features to themselves then they may as well leave the mod community." - (the origonal) CnlPepper

MODing need Sharing . . . you know a MODing community??

Have you people MODed before?? or am I just remembering the good old days?
"its just to make them . . . . . ." - - nice
And should I now be aware of the corporate new order, paranoia and my thoughtcrimes vs Big Brother?? (wow, I just sounded like Bert Gummer ) but it is getting that way . . (ok I exaggerate)

But really why does there have to be “proprietary” source code and permission?? Here??? just trying to MOD??
IF we are just making this stuff for our enjoyment and not personal gain . . . why BOTHER!!! Or is everything just . . Mine Mine Mine nowadays . .rather sad . . well ALL my MODs contents and code . .yada yada is public domain . .I need no power trip of having people ask for permission or a need to Keep my work hidden. (anyone heard of open source???)

[Tefeari]

Alright alright, I personally am open to giving out any code I make. And I'll drop this issue.

[ÜberJumper]

doesn't seem to de-compile the gamesetup.lua file properly.

[Age2uN]

.... but there is still one more file that doesn't decompile right:

hw2styles.lua

But I'll get that one too.

[bobthedog]

mmm... we have the same sort of problem over at the Freelancedr modding community. One guy has stolen everything in his mod from everyone else, and claims he invented it all. I understand the reasoning that it's a community and we should share, but I also would like a little credit for the things I do... hard to do these days...

I'd have to say "no" don't put that in. what if someone figured something huge out and put a stranglehold on the community? besides, I don't think that modders are gonna want to answer a ton of emails asking for the source. either way, it solves nothing unless the moder is never gonna let the source out. Example:

Cnl.Pepper makes X mod. he protects the luas. I want the source. I ask nicely. He gives me the source. I proceed to use it in my mod and either 1. give no credit, or 2. claim I coded it myself.

see? no use except for peeps who aren't gonna share.

which is not to say that there may be a need for encryption, but that should be up to the specific modder... for our mod (for Freelancer) we've found a way of circumventing the uncompiling process. but we did it ourselves. and we get a lot of flames about it too. people wanna hack/cheat/use our code, and they don't like it that they can't browse our files freely.

that said, add in a locking mechanism, and you are only asking for a large-scale flame war. at least if the HW2 community is anyhting like the FL community. I HOPE it isn't and I haven't seen anything to point that it is (yay). Fl community = bunch of backstabbing thieves for the most part... meh...

btw props for coding a good decompiler

[Erai_Hiryuu]

I vote no also even though I can bearly mod at all...bobthedog made lots of very excellent points in his post and I totally agree.

[varis]

Age2uN: The idea would not work, somebody could make their own decompiler or modify your decompiler (you might want to give out source too). However you could make it display a comment string if it's the first line in the file or something like that - at least that way there could be a warning to the user about copyrights if somebody feels that is needed. (Or one could put "feel free to use in your mod!" in there as well.)

Hey should we start a new thread about this openness/freedom thing? Free availability of existing materials would make modding so much easier. It's a kind of bother if you have to ask the modders for permission, even in cases that they'd give it anyway. Sometimes it can take a week - or maybe forever - to get hold of somebody.

Would it be possible to tack on some existing free software or open content license to our mods? I think the main problem here is that the materials are Copyright of Relic/Sierra, we can't just relicense them if we feel like it.

One could approach the freedom issue in the light of for example http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/Int.../SWEthics.html

I don't know if keeping closed/non-free would really make sense for us modders. The "Profit" value won't really figure in, some people might think they are getting money for their mod, but that is probably day dreaming. Or they might be totally open and get the money anyway. I think "Author's Priviledge" is an important point, but what is the loss there? In a community there is things like other people's judgement, so one would not do just anything with a mod, even if one had all the permission as regards to copyrights etc.

[Demon_Eyes]

I can understand people wanting to protect what they spent so much time on, but in the end its not really even their code, relic owns your code your using their engine for free.

[Mikali]

Hi, I was wondering if you and Spooky could team up and create a single tool. It would be nice to preview (read the data) what's inside the big file before actually having to extract and decompile it.

Or, extract and decompile from the big file in one shot.

[Age2uN]

excellent idea !
I'll PM him about it.

[Drache]

I tried to decompile deathmatch.lua, but when i try to run the game with the decompiled file it simply wont start! I dont have any error messages to send you or anything...I dont know what to do...
:rage:
I have been trying for DAYS to get a working and editable deathmatch.lua file...but it seems that my every attempt is doomed to utter failure! Someone please help me....i'll do andything....my mod must have that file....! If anyone has it out there PLEASE emai it to me so i can finally continue my mod....
:bow:
Someone please respond, this is driving me insane...I will be eternally grateful for your assistance!

[Mikali]

Originally posted by Drache
I tried to decompile deathmatch.lua, but when i try to run the game with the decompiled file it simply wont start! I dont have any error messages to send you or anything...I dont know what to do...
:rage:
I have been trying for DAYS to get a working and editable deathmatch.lua file...but it seems that my every attempt is doomed to utter failure! Someone please help me....i'll do andything....my mod must have that file....! If anyone has it out there PLEASE emai it to DracheMacher@msn.com so i can finally continue my mod....
:bow:
Someone please respond, this is driving me insane...I will be eternally grateful for your assistance!

http://hw2.tproc.org/data/leveldata/...deathmatch.lua

[Age2uN]

The deathmatch.lua problem is fixed in Version 0.9.2
http://www.extreme-archive.de/LuaDC.zip
(error establishing "while do end" loop)

[Drache]

Thank you guys so much!

I'd like to thank Mikail and Age2uN just for giving me such a quick response! I tried using Thought's translated deathmatch.lua before and it doesn't seem to change any of the actual in-game settings, just the menus(go figure). In the end it was LuaDC 0.9.2 that solved my problem, thanks Age2uN for this wonderful program(especially now that it works for deathmatch.lua)!
:tread:
Now I can begin to implement my original plan to create RU injections for deathmatch. I will update this post if and when I get it working...(5 munutes later)...Well, i still have a problem, it seems that when I add a line to the mainrule function it not only does nothing, but disables the entire function! When I try to add a new function it simply does nothing. Is there anything I can do about this? Has anyone else made RU injections or know how to do it? Has anyone else edited deathmatch.lua successfully?
:comp:
At least now I am making progress again, Thanks for all your help!

[Mikali]

Have you tried the Homeworld Classic Mod? It has RU injections.

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthre...threadid=22972







PS - LuaDC choked on utiltyfunctions.lua.

[Drache]

Thanks for the idea, but it doesn't work with my mod for some reason. What I really need is just to know how to do it myself. Is there any chance that I can get the lua file for the game settings from the HW original mod? I'd be happy to give credit for it in my mod.
:hmm:
Here is the function I added to deathmatch.lua maybe someone can tell me why it doesn't work(i also added a line to the OnInit function to activate it)

function ResourceInjections()
local playerIndexRU = 0
local playerCountRU = Universe_PlayerCount()
while ((playerIndexRU)<(playerCountRU)) do
Player_SetRU(PlayerIndexRU, Player_GetRU(PlayerIndexRU) + 100)
playerIndexRU = playerIndexRU + 1
end
end

[Mikali]

LuaDC surrounds equal signs (=), curvy brackets ({ and }), and possibly other characters with spaces. Could you make it not do that, because they screw things up when I try and compare files using diff?

[edit] Nevermind. I'll change the files I'm comparing them against.

[edit] I was looking at these lines in asteroid_1.resource:

NewResourceType.pixelColour = 
    { 0.65000, 0.58000, 0.46000, 1, }
NewResourceType.pixelColourDepleted = 
    { 0.50000, 0.40000, 0.30000, 1, }

LuaDC adds an extra comma after the fourth color value. I don't know if this will screw anything up.

[edit] I also think LuaDC rounds numbers to the fifth decimal place, when it shouldn't.

[edit] LuaDC shouldn't save files with the "out" extension. Maybe, "_new.lua" instead, like the ROT tool. I have trouble remembering the extension when I copy files to a new folder.

[Mikali]

Originally posted by Skeeter
i open a doz box and done what u said (bat files dont work) and it decompiled them rather good

Batch files work just fine.

[Age2uN]

Originally posted by Mikail
LuaDC surrounds equal signs (=), curvy brackets ({ and }), and possibly other characters with spaces. Could you make it not do that, because they screw things up when I try and compare files using diff?

Most of that makes the files more readable for humans,
so I'll leave it as it is.

I was looking at these lines in asteroid_1.resource:

NewResourceType.pixelColour = 
    { 0.65000, 0.58000, 0.46000, 1, }
NewResourceType.pixelColourDepleted = 
    { 0.50000, 0.40000, 0.30000, 1, }

LuaDC adds an extra comma after the fourth color value. I don't know if this will screw anything up.

As far as I have tested, it doesn't screw up anything
(and I've tried a lot of the homeworld2.big files now).

I also think LuaDC rounds numbers to the fifth decimal place, when it shouldn't.

Version 0.9.4 doesn't round anything any more.

LuaDC shouldn't save files with the "out" extension. Maybe, "_new.lua" instead, like the ROT tool. I have trouble remembering the extension when I copy files to a new folder.

Ok, I changed LuaDC so it leaves the original ending alone, but adds .LuaDC to it. So
xy.ship
becomes
xy.ship.LuaDC

I think that's done the trick.

[Mikali]

Originally posted by Age2uN
Ok, I changed LuaDC so it leaves the original ending alone, but adds .LuaDC to it. So
xy.ship
becomes
xy.ship.LuaDC

I think that's done the trick.

Thanks. But, Homeworld has some issues with filenames with more than one period in it. Better just to make it like "filename_new.lua".

[Age2uN]

Originally posted by Mikail


Thanks. But, Homeworld has some issues with filenames with more than one period in it. Better just to make it like "filename_new.lua".

Well, to insert into the game you only cut away the .LuaDC
I only wanted to leave the original nameing untouched,
so there would be no overwriting (like : if you decompiled
xx.ship and xx.events you got only one xx.out,
now you get xx.ship.LuaDC and xx.events.LuaDC,
that's way better)

[Age2uN]

This version adds some opcodes,
i didn't encounter before:
- TAILCALL
- PUSHUPVALUE
They were used in utilityfunctions.lua

Two opcodes still missing:
OP_PUSHSELF
OP_PUSHNILJMP

I'm looking for files,
where these are used,
to verify my translationroutines.

[Skeeter]

Btw instead of renaming the decompiled lua files why not when it is decompiling it makes a new folder of the same name as the lua ur decompiling and puts the newly make lua file in that new folder.

Or have ur program make a folder for all decompiled lua files and outputs them all to that new folder.

Saves time or renaming the damn things. lol

[ZuiljiN]

damn its working fine like that...if he add that youll spend time on moving the files instead of renaming them...no time save at all and its will create alots of uneeded folders

[Skeeter]

Well i put the tool and whatever lua i need in d:/ and then (with version 9.x) i drag the lua file over the tool and it makes a new file with.old at the end and i have to go through this all the time

delete the compiled verison of lua file
rename the .old to .lua

which if ur doing loads takes ages. simply have all lua files output into one folder called new lua files then u have a place for all ur new decompiled lua files and dont go through renaming at all.

Edit it as u want and then put it where hw2 needs it and then boot hw2 to test/use.


Or he could just overwrite the file and there fore no renaming or folders would be needed i would love this in fact.

And also maybe later he could adda a function to read say the ui folder and then read all files and folders and convert all lua or ship files or whatever could be converted and do a sorta large batch conversion. and then all them files in those folders would be decompiled ready to edit files

[Age2uN]

Version 0.9.6, which you can download now
http://www.extreme-archive.de/LuaDC.zip,
has a commandline switch to make it overwrite the
original file.

So now:
If you say

LuaDC xy.lua

you get an outputfile xy.lua.LuaDC,
which you can rename or whatever.
The original xy.lua is left untouched.

If you say

LuaDC xy.lua -o
or
LuaDC -o xy.lua

the inputfile xy.lua is read in,
and the outputfile overwrites it.
So you only keep the translated file with the name xy.lua.

Happy now ??

[ZuiljiN]

Nice Age2uN this is perfect for me

[Skeeter]

Yeah cheers dude