forum.vdsworld.com

ShinobiSoft · Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 11:38 pm Post subject: View DSR

Hello all,

I've been tinkering with a program that can read VDS resource files and
gives the user a preview of the bitmaps contained within the resource file.
This utility only detects bitmaps at this time, but I am working on some
methods to detect other image types as well. Shocked

IMPORTANT
This is not a hacker tool. I only wrote this tool to preview the images in
VDS resource files because it is a pain to exract each individual image to
preview it.

I am thinking of adding the ability, for registered users of VDS 3 or 4,
to allow a user to specify his/her own offset (requires the original map
file) to extract/preview images/files from VDS resource files. With these
functions it will be easier to determine which kind of image resides at a
specified offset in a resource file. Hence, I will be able to preview more
image types.

Anyone interested in this program, either post a reply here or send me
an email. If I get enough requests, I'll consider uploading it for all to
download.

Happy coding... Cool

FreezingFire · **Admin Team** Joined: 23 Jun 2002 Posts: 3508

I'm interested. Smile

ShinobiSoft · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:31 am Post subject:

Here's a screenshot::

Preview

FreezingFire · **Admin Team** Joined: 23 Jun 2002 Posts: 3508

That looks pretty cool! Very Happy

Did you make it in VDS or another lanugage?

Boo · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 1:54 am Post subject:

I'm interested, too! Cool

ShinobiSoft · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 2:06 am Post subject:

I've written this utility in 'C'. It's a useful tool and a very good learning
experience for me. Shocked

As most of you know, I wrote the SSrc.exe resource compiler/extractor.
But this is written in VDS. Although, I have my own version that is written
in 'C' as well. Cool

Anyway, I've also managed to add a 'Image Properties' dialog to this
new utility that displays the bitmaps size in bytes or Kb if its size is
greater that 1024 bytes, the bitmaps width and height, the number of
colors contained within it's color table, and wheteher the image is
a compressed DIB (Device Independant Bitmap) or not.

ShinobiSoft · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 2:40 am Post subject:

I know there are several resource compilers for VDS out there already,
but I was thinking Shocked

, if I add some of the special features to this
utility that I'm thinking about, I might as well go and make this a full blown
VDS resource compiler/extractor/viewer Wink

Any thoughts???...

jules · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:47 am Post subject:

Does anyone still use DSR files instead of proper compiled-in resources? VDS 3 and 4 only accessed resources this way because I couldn't figure out how to add proper resources.

ShinobiSoft · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 4:50 pm Post subject:

I on occasion use the .dsr files, but I have also written utils for myself
that extract resources from dlls as well. I mainly just use the extra dll
for holding resources. Smile

I have had a thought of writing an app that can add remove resources to
the actual VDS3 & 4 exes. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to this for one, and
if I am, should the app be a dll or an exe? Confused

FreezingFire · **Admin Team** Joined: 23 Jun 2002 Posts: 3508

Bill I think you'd be ok with doing this. Anybody can extract a resource,
and it doesn't matter anyway because it's all there, non-encrypted etc.

All you have to do is open it with Notepad or a hex editor and you can
see it all. It's not like decompiling an EXE. Smile

ShinobiSoft · Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 3:28 am Post subject:

Hiya FF,

I wasn't actually referring to the .dsr resource files, but a utility to add
resources to and extract them from a compiled VDS exe as well as
working with .dsr resource files.

Happy coding...

PGWARE · **Web Host** Joined: 29 Dec 2001 Posts: 1566

I don't see why this would be a problem, you're simply adding a great feature to vds 3 and vds 4. Adding/reading resources from vds 3/4 I would expect would be something users would like.

However you may want to see how many users still use either vds 3/4 around here before expending resources and time to something a handful of people may use.

ShinobiSoft · Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 5:20 am Post subject:

Hiya PGWARE,

Thanks for the heads up. I realize, that there may and or may not be
that many VDS 3 or 4 users around, but VDS is the reason I actually
managed to catch on to 'C' Shocked

, so I'm willing to donate some time to the VDS
community and it's also a great learning experience for me. Smile

Sounds like I'll be making a small console app or GUI app for adding and
updating resources to compiled VDS exe's and a small VDS dll for
reading the resources from the exe.

And since I made mention of the VDS style resource compiler/extractor/
viewer, I'll post it as well for those who are comfortable with the old VDS
resource files. This app will at least make it a little easier to deal with them
anyway.

Happy coding...

GeoTrail · Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 11:36 pm Post subject:

Speaking of resources...
I've added a wave sound file to a program, I can see from the compiler and the filesize that it is included properly, but I can't seem to play it.

tried using
play #filename.wav, wait
but I just heard that ding sound which indicates something is wrong.

Any ideas?

ShinobiSoft · Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 11:45 pm Post subject:

My guess is that you're using VDS 5, which I don't use. The only thing that
I can guess is that VDS 5 isn't designed to detect that kind of resource.

From my knowledge of Windows programming, the only way I can think
that this type of resource would be added to an .exe is in the form of
RT_RCDATA, which is basically a carbon copy of the resource stored in the
.rsrc section of your executable.

You might try posting this question as a forum topic. Confused