Need help to make starforce 3 maxi image.

[neptun]

Hi.I need to make maxi image of Prince of Persia T2T.I bought the DVD version and successfully made a backup copy of the DVD and now i play using this copy.Because of the fact that the chipset of my Motherboard is nforce 4 i need just to disable my IDE controller through device manager to play from my backup.Now on the topic i tried the method for making maxi image for securom 7 using blindwrite tweaker but the image didn't work.As POP T2T is starforce 3.6 game there is some sectors placed all around the DVD which are checked every time the game is started and they must stay in their original way in the maxi image.My question is how can i understand which sectors are needed so i can make orking maxi image.I think that the only way is to capture the requests of blocks sent from the starforce driver to the optical drive but how exactly can this be done?

[Mystique]

Dummy Images won`t work since StarForce 3.4 and every above.

The only way is a proper real image with unplugging the real optical devices.

[AnalCobra]

Maxi Images are possible for Securom 7:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=163498

[Zak]

Am I correct if I claim that current Safedisk (like BFME2) doesn't allow maxi images either? It seems to check for some parts of the image.
Is there a way for protocol read access in DT4? Then we could only include the neccessary parts in an image.

[Zak]

Actually it should be possible to create maxi images for Safedisk and StarForce.

The protection cannot check the entire disk, chances are it reads only a few bytes. I know its possible for current Safedisk.

If we could track all those bytes somehow, we could blank all other data (overwrite with zeros) and make a highly compressable image.

I played around today trying to find out which blocks get read and came up with the following ideas:

1) Use a software like Filemon that shows all access to HDD/CD. Filemon doesn't show sector/block information but its as close as I could get on my search

2) Mount from samba share and log the network traffic. This should give details about which blocks are requested. I haven't tried this yet but its a promising approach (yet complicated).

3) It would be easiest if DT would allow us to view the requested blocks or write them to a log file. There's probably a switch already for developers so they can see where apps are looking for data. I requested a feature like that and I hope the DT makers will consider it.

Whatever way is best, this would enable everyone to make maxi images of the current protection. Maybe someone could even make a tool for it.

[Kinlaadare]

No need to double post...

By the way, LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth 2 is NOT out...

[Terramex]

Actually it should be possible to create maxi images for Safedisk and StarForce.

Maxi images are possible for Safedisc (always the same ISO check), but not for actual Starforce DVD titles (ISO check is different at every gamestart)

P.S.:The trial of Bushound can only log 32 commands which is (when starting at the right moment) enough for Safedisc.

[Zak]

Maxi images are possible for Safedisc (always the same ISO check), but not for actual Starforce DVD titles (ISO check is different at every gamestart)

P.S.:The trial of Bushound can only log 32 commands which is (when starting at the right moment) enough for Safedisc.

Interesting, thanks for the Bus Hound tip.

Does Starforce have checksums for the entire disk or does it simply choose at random from a list of sectors? If they store checksums for all sectors then a maxi image would be impossible. It would be great if DT4 would give us the ability to monitor stuff like that in a controlled (emulated) environment. If there's some kind of pattern behind it one could try to make a maxi image that launches with a high propability.

[Terramex]

If there's some kind of pattern behind it one could try to make a maxi image that launches with a high propability.

Yes, it's a certain (BIG) range wherein the ISO checks are performed, e.g. TOCA3 ~600000 sectors + 1 (always identical) sector at the end; so i guess you can't save too much HD space.
Concerning Bushound: Only check 'CDB' under Settings/'Phases to capture' and under 'Columns to display' only 'Data' (principally you only need the last 6 commands for Safedisc)
*
*
*
28 00 00 00 05 ad 00 00 01 00 1453
28 00 00 00 05 ae 00 00 01 00 1454
28 00 00 00 05 af 00 00 01 00 1455
28 00 00 02 2a 4c 00 00 01 00 141900
28 00 00 08 79 a3 00 00 01 00 555427
28 00 00 08 38 96 00 00 01 00 538774
28 00 00 0d c4 10 00 00 01 00 902160
28 00 00 0b bf ec 00 00 01 00 770028
Gaps:
1456 to 141899
141901 to 142379*
142381* to 538773
538775 to 555426
555428 to 770027
770029 to 902159
902161 to last sector

* sector 142380 wasn't in Bushound log -> Try & error; but this only occured once

[Zak]

Thanks for the tips terramex! Will try that out as soon as I can.