alex/sots-re
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions
Sword of the Stars (2006) reverse-engineering worklog. Infra docs live in trikilli services/re-lab.md.
203 commits 1 branch 0 tags 44 MiB
Find a file
alex 58c2cd14b4 lane E3: ten addresses for the visibility record, and the standalone's new distance 
The NVE writer 0x00756300 and its four siblings, `ltis`'s writer 0x00743ec0, the
encounter-placement routine whose unserialised field feeds Eid, the tail phase that
calls the writer, and the resolution of an indirect edge lane B5 left open --
ServerSystem primary vftable 0x00a2044c slot 7 is 0x007480b0, and it writes only a
runtime mask, so it never reaches the wire.

None of the ten collides with an address already in the DB (checked against all 714
addressed entries across addresses.json and every fragment); gen_addresses.py
validated to a scratch path at 1019 entries, no duplicate names.

Standalone report regenerated from the lane worktree:
  turn1 -> turn2   209 -> 158   closed 51, regressed 0
  turn2 -> turn3   108 ->  87   closed 21, regressed 0

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01ARBgSooAfokKUy6wKUKEyZ
2026-09-08 13:38:57 -04:00
campaign dashboard refresh 2026-09-08 13:28:52 -04:00
findings lane E3: the per-system visibility record read from the instruction stream, and the prediction before the build 2026-09-08 13:26:46 -04:00
ghidra lane E3: ten addresses for the visibility record, and the standalone's new distance 2026-09-08 13:38:57 -04:00
guides rules: 18 - measure first, the lab exists; static reading explains what you measured 2026-09-08 11:20:30 -04:00
notes init commit 2026-09-07 12:31:56 -04:00
objects regenerate both headers (669 addresses); track objects/generated so the shared clone stops sitting dirty 2026-09-08 07:36:16 -04:00
scripts lane V2: vtable inversion — resolve indirect call edges image-wide 2026-09-08 12:05:05 -04:00
tools tools/displacement.py: the honest progress metric - what fraction of the game runs on our code, by rung, with coverage caveats attached 2026-09-08 13:08:06 -04:00
verify lane E3: ten addresses for the visibility record, and the standalone's new distance 2026-09-08 13:38:57 -04:00
.gitignore lane D: automated struct recovery from the IStreamable serializers 2026-09-08 05:51:37 -04:00
README.md guides: RE how-to for 2000s MSVC/DX9 games (98 sources); queue replay-checksum, class recovery, apitrace/TTD 2026-09-07 18:05:58 -04:00

README.md

sots-re

Reverse-engineering worklog for Sword of the Stars (2006, SOTS1) — the 32-bit DX9 original + expansions. The nitty-gritty: static/dynamic analysis notes, Ghidra & ReVa scripts, function/struct maps, D3D9 call traces, decomp progress, findings.

Where this runs

Analysis lab on spicy (PVE, 192.168.3.201):

  • CT111 sots-re — Linux workspace: Ghidra + headless ReVa server, radare2/rizin/cutter, binwalk. Hosts the Samba share and this repo's working tree at /srv/re-lab/notes.
  • VM140 sots-re-win10 — Win10 runtime + dynamic analysis (x64dbg, Cheat Engine, RenderDoc/apitrace, DXVK→CPU-Vulkan for GPU-less rendering).

Infra (guests, storage, network, share, ReVa endpoint) is documented from the system-maintainer POV in trikilli → services/re-lab.md. This repo is everything else.

Layout

  • findings/ — the running findings log (append-only), one file per subsystem.
  • ghidra/ — exported scripts, data-type archives, struct definitions.
  • traces/ — D3D9 / Win32 API call captures + analysis.
  • scripts/ — helper tooling (loaders, extractors, parsers).
  • notes/ — session notes, scratch, hypotheses.

Ownership / legality

Game binaries come from the owner's own GOG/Steam copy. RE is for personal interoperability, bug-fixing, and preservation. Binaries themselves are not committed here (see .gitignore) — they live on the lab's Samba share /srv/re-lab/samples.

Campaign (how this repo is run)

A 4-agent crew (defined in ~/.claude/agents/re-*.md) runs the exploration: re-quartermaster (backlog + board) → re-analyst (maps via ReVa) → re-verifier (proves vs real data; old-vs-new differential once reimpl starts) → re-scribe (files the note, links it, commits).

  • campaign/board.md — live status board (start here).
  • Live tracking = Forgejo issues on alex/sots-re (labels status/* are the kanban columns; type/*, conf/*). campaign/board.md is the editable mirror — publish with scripts/forgejo_campaign.py bootstrap (needs FORGEJO_TOKEN).
  • campaign/backlog.md — prioritized target queue.
  • campaign/open-questions.md — unresolved threads.
  • findings/_template.md — the record format every finding follows.
  • findings/{objects,control-flow,subsystems}/ — the growing engine map.
  • verify/{parsers,traces,harness,results}/ — validation: struct parsers now, golden-trace replay + shim compare-mode for reimplementation.
  • ghidra/ — exported scripts + datatype archives.

Approach & north star: findings/00-strategy.md. Binary facts: findings/01-fingerprint.md.

Sibling repo

alex/sots-engine — the from-scratch engine source (clean-room, public-capable). This repo keeps the evidence + planning for both; binary facts cross over only via ghidra/addresses.json → tools/gen_addresses.py.

  • guides/re-windows-2000s-howto.md — annotated bibliography + how-to for RE of mid-2000s MSVC/DX9 Windows games, with our-experience call-outs.