UE3 - General Smite: Battleground of the Gods MODDING

[warpdragon]

Ok. It was stated in an interview that Smite uses a "modified" Unreal 3 Engine for their game. I've done some research and found that the Smite datamining/modding community is miniscule. I've come here to find out some stuff about reverse engineering their in-house asset package cooking process. Unless one has access to their modified engine or to the cooking algorthm - any assets introduced into the game folder (overriding existing assets) will crash the game. What kind of effort would it take to reverse engineer a loophole to be able to do simple client-side mods? How do I go about finding the people who know about this kind of thing? I've looked on the company website, several subreddits, youtube and haven't been able to find much which is why i've come back to the source: you guys.

I'm on my notebook computer now, but I'll check back in later and I can post pictures of what I've found to give you guys more background info and hopefully build some momentum.

TLDR: What would it take to reverse engineer Smite's in-house asset creation and/or cooking algorithm?

 

[ambershee]

Client side mods for most Unreal Engine 3 games are not practically possible as various checks will be performed to ensure that clients are running the same version when they connect (it's possible this is what is causing the crash, it could be an assert, though I suspect it really is just content cooking issues - have you checked the logs?).

Reverse engineering the package format would not be impossible, but it takes very specific knowledge and a lot of time. There are very few people who know how to do this.

You'd also probably need to reverse engineer, and run, your own servers. This is how Tribes: Ascend can be modded. The SDK creator and the SDK itself may be able to shed some light.

TLDR: What would it take to reverse engineer Smite's in-house asset creation and/or cooking algorithm?

TLDR: A herculean effort undertaken by someone who really knows what they are doing.

 

[warpdragon]

various checks will be performed to ensure that clients are running the same version when they connect

The good news is that the crash occurred when the engine was trying to access the custom assets during gameplay. I have logged in and out of my accounts several times during testing and have not perceived any connection checks.

have you checked the logs?).

I have not. I was getting ready to do that just now when the game began a major update so I have to wait til it's done (i'm on DSL).

Reverse engineering... takes very specific knowledge... There are very few people who know how

What knowledge exactly: Assembly language/Hex editing? Where do these people hang out?

You'd also probably need to reverse engineer, and run, your own servers.

This because of the connection checks? Assuming the servers don't mind if clients' files are modded would this step still be necessary?