Run Halo 2 on XP

[Sunray]

Originally Posted by 343guiltymc

Tsk..........Isn't there a rule in this forum for advertising illegal crap? Now that Zam seems inactive, the halo forum being pretty rampant. Wish there was someone who's a mod cough sunray cough could help me here.

Sorry, but I'm not a mod. I'm mere network staff, which means I work on one of the game sites (Halofiles in my case). I have no mod powers whatsoever. I can do as little as you in a situation like this. And Zam has ISP problems as far as I know, which means he can't get onto the forums properly. I reckon it's The Joelteon7 that is looking after us in his absence, as he seems to be lurking every now and again.

As for the link above, I am not in a position to comment. I am really wracking my brains trying to decide if this whole XP->Vista port is illegal or not. Even if it is, the only thing that I could do is report the thread. I am inclined to believe it is, but I will have to have a read around the topic and read the Vista and Halo 2 Vista EULAs. I'll try and get a result tonight.

[abcba]

Well, the package consists of software which I've written, except for XTaskDlg.dll which is written by P. J. Naugther.
So there's no copyright infringement, if that's what you're thinking.

In terms of how the software does the job, it's no different than from what fraps or any given antivirus software does.
I'll try to clarify...

In the first phase the program being loaded is created in a suspended state.
This allows the loader to resolve any missing imported functions.
Otherwise the exe wouldn't load at all.
For instance, CreateProcessWithTokenW isn't available on XP, so the loader changes the reference to that function so that the OS won't complain.

[abcba]

...
Once that's done the loader resumes the process, so that all it's DLL's are mapped and resolved.

Next it injects Wow.dl (Windows on Windows ) into the process.
When that's done the loader remaps the missing imported functions into Wow.dll, which contains my implementation of those functions.

When Wow.dll loads into the process it also hooks a number of functions in the OS.
These functions would otherwise fail causing the game to either crash or exit.
For instance, CoCreateInstance is hooked so that when the game requests an GameExplorer object I can return my own implementation.
...

[abcba]

The second portion of software consist of the mf.dll and MFPlat.dll which are dummy implementations of the Media Foundation.
Only the interfaces and functions which the game uses are implemented, but they don't do anything besides return success status codes.


Everything was done using the publicly available Windows SDK and Detours (a hooking library provided by Microsoft themselves).
As far as I know, none of what I've done is illegal in any way, however if I'm being ignorant to any legal issues, then I'm truely sorry.

[Sunray]

Very nice, if it works. You can see the EULA for H2V itself here:
http://files.filefront.com/EULAhtm/;7555219;/fileinfo.html
As far as I can see, the relevant section is the:

Originally Posted by H2V EULA

6.SCOPE OF LICENSE. The software is licensed, not sold. This agreement only gives you some rights to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights. Unless applicable law gives you more rights despite this limitation, you may use the software only as expressly permitted in this agreement. In doing so, you must comply with any technical limitations in the software that only allow you to use it in certain ways. You may not

·work around any technical limitations in the software;

The problem is that I am not any kind of official for Filefront so I can't say if this is OK or not. What I say is not the opinion or policy of Filefront so it is difficult for me to express an opinion without it being taken the wrong way. So:

THE BELOW IS MY OPINION AND DOES NOT REPRESENT FILEFRONT OR FILEFRONT’S POILICIES IN ANY WAY

I think that this is alright in reference to the EULA. As far as I can see, you have created a runtime environment for H2V to function in, which is not affecting or hacking the program in any way. Neither are you using components taken from Vista so you should not contravene the Vista EULA (http://download.microsoft.com/documents/useterms/Windows%20Vista_Ultimate_English_36d0fe99-75e4-4875-8153-889cf5105718.pdf) at all. I will need to check with some people that own the game to see if it works with XP, not that I don’t trust you, but I would like to check with someone who has access to both.

Again, what I am saying does not make it OK necessarily, but is merely my current opinion.

[GanondorfTM]

Originally Posted by abcba

...
Once that's done the loader resumes the process, so that all it's DLL's are mapped and resolved.

Next it injects Wow.dl (Windows on Windows ) into the process.
When that's done the loader remaps the missing imported functions into Wow.dll, which contains my implementation of those functions.

When Wow.dll loads into the process it also hooks a number of functions in the OS.
These functions would otherwise fail causing the game to either crash or exit.
For instance, CoCreateInstance is hooked so that when the game requests an GameExplorer object I can return my own implementation.
...

Man, I really thank you for what you've done. But there's a problem with your little prog. When it run the installer and I try to only install the game, it stucks on the window that says:"Installing Halo 2 for Windows Vista" and it overcome that window. The green bar shows that the instalation is in progress but thats it. No more than just that. It doesn't load any information from the DVD, since the light doesn't blink or anything. So, any suggestion? What you've done so far is great but not enough. I (and the ppl that want to play this on XP) would appreciate if you would do more than this.

Thanks man.

[GanondorfTM]

Sorry, I made a mistake while I was writting it:

"When it run the installer and I try to only install the game, it stucks on the window that says:"Installing Halo 2 for Windows Vista" and it DOESN'T overcome that window."

[abcba]

I did some cleanups in the code before uploading but forgot to test if the installer was still working. I'll look into what's going on tomorrow and hopefully upload a fix.

[GanondorfTM]

Ok man, and thanks for what you've been doing . Cya!

[motymen]

hello abcba ganon and sunray
i came to ask where could you download the windows on windows loader

cheers
moti