Lesson 0

From Bo3b's School for Shaderhackers
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This is preliminary setup that everyone needs in order to be able hack shaders.


Objective

We'll download and setup the tools and game we are going to use for the first lessons.
We'll make sure that the HelixMod debugger is running.

Quiz

After it's all setup, we should be able to verify that the HelixMod debugger is running.
We'll make a screen snapshot to prove it's working, and share that here.



We are going to be using the game The Ball for our first game to examine. The main reason is because it has a free demo that everyone can get from Steam. And, it will help reduce confusion if we are all looking at the same game.

  • Game setup and installation
    1. Run Steam
    2. Go to the Store
    3. Search the store for "The Ball"
    4. Select "The Ball Demo" from the list
    5. Click "Download Demo" on right side
    6. Launch game
    7. Make sure that 3D Vision turns on



We will be using NotePad++ as our text editor. It's OK to use any text editor that you prefer. The reason to use NotePad++ is to make all the lessons and discussions consistent. It's also free and well suited to editing the ASM files.

  • Text editor setup and installation
    1. Go to http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/
    2. Choose the green DOWNLOAD button
    3. Run the installer
    4. Run NotePad++ and get a feel for it
    5. optional: Assign .txt files to open automatically in NotePad++



We will locate the latest version of the HelixMod from the HelixModBlog, download it and install the debugger version into the game directory.



Demonstrate that you have the game and tools working by sharing a 3D screen snapshot to the wiki.

  • Create page on wiki.bo3b.net