Files

gamer147 30d2734df4 feat(a2b): asset-RE tooling + findings; render blocked on asset resolution

- tools/convert_agf.py (AGF->BMP stills), tools/frida/ (capture harness + README; Frida 17.15.3)
- docs/asset-resolution-re.md: foundational RE steering doc (resId->file; graphics+audio; not
  machine-verifiable -> Frida ground truth + human oracle). RE plan: parse SYS4INI, crack resId->name,
  backend render (A2b plan Tasks 3-5), audio, movies.
- Finding: SC0000 bg = slot-0 slideshow (res 0x23 first); resolution opaque (CGINIT not a name map,
  SYS4INI S4IC needs RE, Frida file-I/O noisy/memory-mapped, opening mixes MPEG movies).
- slice plan updated; texture ops already engine-driven (Task 1, prior commit).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-07-06 16:36:17 -04:00

capture_graphics.py

feat(a2b): asset-RE tooling + findings; render blocked on asset resolution

2026-07-06 16:36:17 -04:00

README.md

feat(a2b): asset-RE tooling + findings; render blocked on asset resolution

2026-07-06 16:36:17 -04:00

README.md

Frida runtime-observation tools

Runtime instrumentation of the live game (AGE.EXE) to capture ground truth for the subsystems that have no static/machine oracle — asset resolution, graphics, audio, and the opaque effectful opcodes. Frida attaches to the running (unpacked-in-memory) process, so the game's packer is bypassed for hooking.

Prereq: py -3.11 -m pip install frida (core only — frida-tools CLI is not needed and its pygments shim fails to install in this env). Installed: frida 17.15.3.

Standard workflow

Launch the game (via AGE Patch.exe to avoid the periodic system-check messagebox) to a safe point (e.g. the title). Attach after launch, not frida -f — spawning the patcher wouldn't hook its child AGE.EXE, and direct-spawn risks the messagebox.
Run the capture script (py -3.11 -u -X utf8 tools/frida/<tool>.py) — it attaches by process name and installs the hooks; run unbuffered (-u) so status prints appear immediately.
Drive the game through the target scene (SC0000's opening auto-plays on new game).
Stop the script; analyse the log in build/ and order-correlate with the engine's op sequence (e.g. vm0/the C# recording host's set-texture/play-voice order for that scene).

Tools

capture_graphics.py — hooks ReadFile on the graphics archives (DATA2/DATA5*.ALF), resolving each handle→path via GetFinalPathNameByHandleW (cached) + the read offset. Log → build/frida-reads.log (path<TAB>offset<TAB>size).

Known limitations (see docs/asset-resolution-re.md)

File-I/O offsets are noisy — spans don't match extracted AGF sizes; the game likely memory-maps the archives (so ReadFile offsets are OS paging noise, not clean per-asset loads) and/or uses async/OVERLAPPED reads. The robust hook is the game's internal load-by-id function (find via the opcode dispatch), not file I/O — a future tool.
Correlation still needs the SYS4INI (S4IC422) asset index parsed to turn an archive offset into a filename. That parser is the first foundational RE step.