Revision 159569094 of "Cheat Engine" on dewiki

{{Infobox software
| logo = [[Image:CheatEngine.png|32px]]
| screenshot = [[File:Cheat_Engine_5.6_Window.png|250px]]
| caption = Cheat Engine 5.6.1 running on [[Windows 7]].
| developer = [[Open Source]]
| author = Eric Heijnen ("Dark Byte")
| latest release version  = 6.0
| latest release date     = {{release date|2011|1|10}} 
| latest preview version  =
| latest preview date     =
| programming language = [[Borland Delphi]], [[Pascal_(programming_language)|Pascal]]
| operating system = [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| genre = [[Reverse engineering]], [[Debugging]]
| license = [[Open Source]]
| website = [http://www.cheatengine.org/ Official Website]
}}
'''Cheat Engine''', commonly abbreviated as CE, is an [[open source]] [[Memory address|memory scanner]]/[[hex editor]]/[[debugger]] created by Eric Heijnen ("Dark Byte") for the [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] operating system.<ref name="aboutce">{{cite web|url=http://www.cheatengine.org/aboutce.php|title=About Cheat Engine|accessdate=2008-03-20|work=www.CheatEngine.org}}</ref> Cheat Engine is mostly used for [[Cheating (video games)|cheating in computer games]], and is sometimes modified and [[compiler|recompiled]] to evade [[Cheating_%28video_games%29#Prevention_of_cheating|detection]]. This program resembles [http://memoryhacking.com/ L. Spiro's "''Memory Hacking Software''"], TSearch, and [http://www.artmoney.ru/ ArtMoney]. It searches for values input by the user with a wide variety of options that allow the user to find and sort through the computer's memory. Cheat Engine can also create standalone [[Trainer (games)|trainers]] that can operate independently of Cheat Engine.

==Features==
Cheat Engine can view the disassembled memory of a process and make alterations to give the user advantages such as infinite health, time or ammunition. It also has some [[Direct3D]] manipulation tools, allowing you to see through walls, zoom in/out and with some advanced configuration allows Cheat Engine to move the [[Mouse (computing)|mouse]] for you to get a certain texture into the center of the screen. This is commonly used to create [[aimbot]]s.

Cheat Engine can inject code into other processes, but doing so can cause anti virus software to mistake it for a virus. There are versions that avoid this false identification at the cost of many features (those which rely upon code injection).  The most common reason for these false identifications is that Cheat Engine makes use of some techniques also used in trojan rootkits to gain access to parts of the system, and because some executable files are too small (16KB or less), and therefore get flagged as suspicious. Newer versions of Cheat Engine are less likely to be blocked by anti virus programs so features like [[code injection]] can be used without problems.

==Coding==
Two branches of Cheat Engine exist, Cheat Engine [[Borland Delphi|Delphi]] and Cheat Engine [[Lazarus (software)|Lazarus]]. Cheat Engine Delphi is primarily for [[32-bit]] versions of [[Windows XP]]. Cheat Engine Lazarus is designed for 32 and [[64-bit|64]] bit versions of [[Windows Vista]]. Cheat Engine is, with the exception of the Kernel Module, coded in [[Object Pascal]].

Cheat Engine exposes an [[Interface (computer science)|interface]] to its [[device driver]] with <code>dbk32.dll</code>, a [[Library (computing)#Dynamic linking|wrapper]] that handles both loading and initializing the Cheat Engine [[device driver|driver]] and calling alternative Windows kernel functions. Due to a programming bug in Lazarus pertaining to the use of [[Exception_handling_syntax#Delphi|try and except]] blocks, Cheat Engine Lazarus had to remove the use of <code>dbk32.dll</code> and incorporate the driver functions in the main executable.

The [[Loadable kernel module|Kernel module]], while not essential to normal CE use can be used to set hardware [[breakpoint]]s and bypass [[hooking|hooked]] [[Application Programming Interface|API]] in [[Ring (computer security)|Ring 3]], even some in Ring 0. It is compiled with the [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] [[Driver development kit]] and is written in [[C Programming Language|C]].<ref name="dbksources">{{cite web|url=http://ce.colddot.nl/browser/Cheat%20Engine/DBKKernel/compileinfo.txt|title=Cheat Engine - Trac - compileinfo.txt|first=Kevin|last=Valk|date=2008-12-20|accessdate=2008-03-20|work=Cheat Engine [[trac]]}}</ref>

Cheat Engine also has a [[plugin]] architecture for those who do not wish to share their [[source code]] with [[free software community|the community]]. They are more commonly used for game specific features, as Cheat Engine's stated intent is to be a generic cheating tool. These plugins can be found in several locations on the cheat engine website, and also other gaming sites.<ref name="contributing">{{cite web|url=http://forum.cheatengine.org/viewtopic.php?t=58063|title=Contributing to CE|accessdate=2008-03-20|date=2007-01-24|work=Cheat Engine forums}}</ref>

Cheat Engine Lazarus now has the ability to load its unsigned 64-bit device driver on Windows Vista x64 edition, by using DBVM to allocate [[Paging|nonpaged memory]] in [[Ring (computer security)#Supervisor mode|kernel mode]], manually loading the executable image, and creating a system [[Thread (computer science)|thread]] at [[Kernel-Mode Driver Framework|DriverEntry]]. However, since the DriverEntry parameters are not actually valid, the driver must be modified for DBVM.

==DBVM==


Cheat Engine version 5.4 and above can interact with "DBVM" (''Dark Byte's [[Virtual Machine]]''), a [[Hypervisor]]/Tiny [[Operating System]] that boots immediately before any Operating System encapsulating it in a virtual machine environment, developed to help circumvent [[Cheating_%28video_games%29#Prevention_of_cheating|anti-cheating software]] and [[x86-64|x64]] versions of Windows' [[Kernel Patch Protection]] and anti [[Code signing|unsigned code]] loading technology. Because DBVM uses the newer [[Intel VT-x]] instructions it requires certain [[hardware]] to function, most importantly an [[Intel]] [[Core 2 Duo]] or newer. It is currently not compatible with [[AMD]] [[Central processing unit|processors]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.cheatengine.org/ Official Website]
*[http://forum.cheatengine.org/ Official Community Forum] Also known as Cheat Engine Forums. (CEF)
*[http://wiki.cheatengine.org/ Official Wiki]


[[Category:Video game cheating]]
[[Category:Windows software]]

[[es:Cheat engine]]
[[pt:Cheat Engine]]