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Open Source Decompilation of Rock Raiders


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trigger_segfault

Over the last few months (starting with the CFG In-depth research), I've started working through the entire `LegoRR.exe` assembly and identifying functions, global variables, symbols, and data types. Since then, things have progressed to the point where most of the game code can easily be navigated. Much of this is thanks to the recent GODS98 engine leaks, which sped things up 10 fold!

 

(This page is going to go through numerous rewrites, to better organize most of the found information)

 

General Info

 

LEGO Rock Raiders is written entirely in C (with an exception of C++ with AVI and VideoPlayer classes, which have C wrappers).

 

British spellings are being used for symbols to match DDI's naming conventions:

i.e. Initialise, Finalise, Colour, etc...

 

Naming conventions also aim to use accurate internal names, rather than commonly-known names seen during gameplay:

i.e. Spade (shovel), OohScary (sonic blaster object), BirdScarer (sonic blaster boom), Immovable (solid rock),

  Medium (loose rock), Loose (dirt), Lake (water), Water_unused (flood water feature that was never implemented).

 

All functions in assembly are easily identifiable and separated by address. The same goes with global variables (to an extent). DDI likes to group global variables for a module into one large structure, this is what causes most global variables to appear in an organized fashion.

Even better, all game-specific modules for LegoRR appear in alphabetical order, making identification infinitely easier.

 

Ghidra

 

All reverse engineering work has been done through Ghidra. This is a free alternative to IDA, and offers a rough C decompilation of individual functions that works well enough, but chokes when handling heavy use of pointer arrays.

 

 

Code Modification

 

Based on the same manner of DLL-injection used by LRR:CE, it's possible to replace individual functions within LegoRR for testing (or for messing around). Cleaning up this approach and making it more user friendly will help as a base for creating an open-sourced version of LegoRR (in similar fashion to OpenRCT2). There are no immediate plans to start this, but it is already 100% possible to make useful and meaningful changes to the game through this approach.

 

Below are some tests that have already made use of this:

 

First-person controls in Top-down view

 

kKy2cDo.gif

 

Changing drilled walls from spawning spiders to Tool Stores

 

Spoiler

Well done! You've found the Tool Stores!

1m2F6hG.png

 

Breaking everything with cycle-able wall spawns

 

Spoiler

Rdf3ASz.png

 

Multi-colored and level-based crystal coloring

Yup, crystals support levels, and LV1 Crystals can be spawned with the CryOre map secondary values.

 

Spoiler

Dig up the rainbow~!

i0HNIIC.png

 

In the top-right corner is a red LV1 energy crystal, in the bottom left, is a green LV0 energy crystal.

j8Yqyxj.png

 

Resource monitoring

 

Spoiler

LKWPDwu.png

 

 

Links

 

All work is being published to the same GitHub repository as used for the CFG research, among other things.

 

Ghidra archive - An archive of the project where all reversing and symbol labeling is done.

DDI data - Useful source leaks, including the GODS98 engine, a half-finished GODSPSX engine, and LegoRR PSX debug symbols.

Source dump - Export of Ghidra's decompiled code (this is messier than hand-decompiled code, but will span the entire codebase).

Modules map - Same as the section below, but with more information.

LRRMonitor - Modification of LRR:CE for injecting and replacing self-written code into LegoRR.

Decompile - Hand-written decompiled code, cleaned up from Ghidra's most unreadable messes.

ModeSelection - Hand-written decompilation of the entire Mode Selection dialog, shown before booting LegoRR.

CLGen - Hand-written decompilation of the entire CLGen tool for modifying LegoRR's standard command-line arguments.

 

 

Modules map

 

All functions in assembly are easily identifiable and separated by address. The same goes with global variables (to an extent).

 

LegoRR modules

 

Game code specific to LEGO Rock Raiders. All LegoRR game modules appear in alphabetical order (or at least almost every module*). Many names are based off of the PSX symbols dump, or based on commonly used names in CFG, NERPs, etc.

Many enum names are a dead giveaway for a section's module, as the GODS engine also follows the pattern of prefixing enum names with the module name.

 

Spoiler
Current Name Real Name Notes
Advisor   Chief animations shown in-game
AITask   All AI functionality
Routing BezierCurve(?)  
Creature

BasicObject(?) Bipedal(?)

enemy/player units: ae
Bubble   shown above RR heads
Building   building units: ae
Collision   possibly only building collision
Construction   Building construction and laying foundation
CryOre(?) ?? extension of Construction?
Credits   Just a single function to play the Credits
DamageFont   fancy RPG damage text when hit
Dependencies    
DynamicPM ??? World textures/mesh
Effect   particles/miscobjects/anims
ElectricFence    
Encyclopedia   unused menu feature
Erode   lava erosion
Fallin   land slides/cave-ins
Flocks   bats movement
FrontEnd   various out-of-game interfaces, menus (and in-game menu windows, like options), a very big module
HelpWindow   "you've teleported down a rock raider, now you can do X"
Info InfoMessage(?) in-game info icons e.g. "landslide has occurred"
Interface   in-game menu icons in top right
LRR / Game /
Level
Lego main LRR stuff, this module is really big
Camera LegoCamera  
LiveObject LegoObject live in-game objects
LightEffects   cursor spotlight
Loader   loading screen/LoaderProfile.txt
Map3D   3D surface map data of current level
MeshPoly(PM?) ??? LOD meshes for different views
Message   game actions/events/PTL
NERPs   scripting: like half of all LRR functions
Objective   mission requirements
ObjectRecall   remember RRs that have trained abilities/leveled up/or renamed, etc.
ObjInfo   more over-head RR info like health bar
Panel   in-game buttons and interfaces all over the screen
Pointer   mouse cursor images/flh's
Priorities   Order of operations for what tasks AI should do first
RadarMap    
Reward   objective front end, shown at end of level
RoofMesh ? world mesh for Roof, which is an optional part of levels
SelectPlace ? selection grid highlight when placing building, handles logic too
SFX    
Smoke   a special effect type
SpiderWeb   unused object type
Stats   object stats/levels
Teleporter   all player-owned units are teleported in/out via this system
Text   text message panel display, big green window
ToolTip    
Upgrade   upgrade ae parts
Vehicle   vehicle units: ae
Water   flood water unused feature
Weapon   Weapons (and some tools) stats and projectiles
??? ??? extension of Weapon?
VideoPlayer Movie video player for intros end-game AVIs (probably part of Gods98, but not in source leak)

 

GODS98 modules

 

Data Design Interactive's GODS engine. Code not specific to LEGO Rock Raiders. All names are source-accurate, thanks to legally-obtained dumps of the GODS engine (for Windows 98).

 

Spoiler
Name Notes
Container Wrapper around most primary game asset types
Viewport  
Util Utility string functions (includes std::_strdup)
Main Includes WinMain and Direct3DRM setup
Config .cfg, .ol, .ptl, and .ae files. (CFG) Most names have not been changed because I hate DDI's name choices here
Maths Includes Matrix
Font Extension of Image module
Sound3D Extension of Sound module
DirectDraw  
Image  
Animation Includes G98CAnimation and G98CSurface
Input  
File Managed file system for access to Data folder and routing through Wad files
Mesh .x and friends mesh files
Flic .flh files animation loading and playback
TextWindow Extension of Font for managed text rendering
Keys KEY* enum names/defines
Draw Pixel-drawing vector graphics (SLOW AF manual pixel-by-pixel CPU drawing)
Lws .lws LightWave scene files
Sound Basic sound file loading (using mmio), and Music management (using mci)
Mem Helpers for shared buffer allocations (only used by .map files indirectly through File module)
Material Just one function
AnimClone  
BMP .bmp file loading (internal use only)
Dxbug Part of Error, but separate file
Error  
Registry  
Wad .wad files
Lwt .lwo LightWave object files

 

Remaining modules

 

Misc groups of modules. Contains GODS module: Init, and GODS indirectly-related module: RNC.

 

Spoiler
Name Notes
<C Runtime>  
<Direct3DRM> D3DRM.DLL
<DirectDraw> DDRAW.DLL
<AVIFile> AVIFIL32.DLL
<DirectInput> DINPUT.DLL
<DSound> DSOUND.DLL
<RtlUnwind> KERNEL32.DLL
RNC RNC: "Rob Northern Compression". Optional file compression for entries in WAD files (unused)
Init Gods98Init: "Mode selection dialog". Also handles startup when dialog isn't shown.
<remaining C Runtime>  
<Unwind@>  

 

 

Edited by trigger_segfault
Creature module may be named "Bipedal"
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