Need Help using Universal Extractor to Make file Usable for TriDef 3D..PLease help!

narhic_fd

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Hey everyone. I'm trying to find someone out there who is knowledgeable in using Universal Extractor or who can just plain help me.
I have a game i like to play called "The Hunter". Awesome game. Problem is, that i can't play it in 3D with TriDef because for tridef to work, TriDef must be able to start the game. But with "The Hunter" you have to start the game from the website and only the website. TriDef can't start it.
I found a 3 year old post from a person on the forum that figured out how to do some modifying to work around it. Here's a link to the post at "The Hunter" forum:

http://forum.thehunter.com/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=16831&p=118212&hilit=tridef#p118212

I would try to contact the person who wrote the post but his last login was 2 years ago and unable to contact. I've been trying to duplicate what he did explain it as well as i need it. I'm hoping someone out there might be able to give it a quick read and could help me out???? I figured if anyone could it would be on this forum. Thanks for any help you can offer.
 

atestofwill

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Ok, seems fairly straight-forward once you break it down:

1) Run "UniExtract.exe",and select the file you want to extract, "theHunter.2009072101.msi".
NOTE: The destination folder for the extracted files will be filled in automatically, or you can choose your own location.
2) It'll ask what method you want to use to extract the files, choose "MSI Administrative Installer".
3) Once the files are extracted, open the folder where you extracted the files, navigate to "theHunter.2009072101\PFiles\Emote\launcher"
4) right click on "launcher.exe", and create a shortcut to that file.
5) Log in to "thehunter.com" website. When you click "Hunt Now" using Internet Explorer, a window should pop up asking: "Do you want to allow this website to open a program on your computer?"
6) In this window, there's a link that looks similar to this: "address: emote://hunter/__PROFILE NUMBER HERE__/rpc.c001.thehunter.com/". Copy everything after "emote:"
NOTE: "__PROFILE NUMBER HERE__" will be your profile number.
7) Right click the shortcut you created in step 4, click "Properties".
8) In the "Target" field, append " -argv://hunter/__PROFILE NUMBER HERE__/rpc.c001.thehunter.com/" to the string, this is what you copied from step 6. Click apply.

So the shortcut's target field should now look similar to this:
C:\Users\%username%\Desktop\theHunter.2009072101\PFiles\Emote\launcher\launcher.exe -argv://hunter/__PROFILE NUMBER HERE__/rpc.c001.thehunter.com/

The folder path will be different depending on where you extracted the files in steps 1-2, and "__PROFILE NUMBER HERE__" will be replaced by your profile number.
If there are spaces in that folder path, it'll be encased in quotes, e.g: "C:\Program Files\Test\launcher.exe", in which case append " -argv:..." after the closing quote.
Also note the space immediately before "-argv:...".

If you're not using Internet Explorer, or just plain can't find that link you need, you'll have to hunt around, maybe your profile number shows up in the address field somewhere else on the website?

To play the game you apparently have to be logged in to your profile on the website, so make sure you do that before you run the shortcut.

Hope that helps.
Don't know anything about Tridef, but I guess you've got that covered.
 

narhic_fd

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I think the problem i'm running into is I'm not sure if there is a msi file anymore. I'm trying to figure out what the Hunter....msi file is. That msi file is an old file and I don't know if "The Hunter" uses that type of file. Just having a hard time trying to take old data and apply it to 3 years later.
 

atestofwill

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I think what you're looking for can be found with a search for "theHunter.2009072101.msi" on duckduckgo.com.
Third link down is a Gamefront page with an old version, but if you click "The Hunter Files > Clients" link near the top of that page you'll get a short list of client versions you can download.
 

narhic_fd

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yeah, I saw that file. i went ahead and downloaded it anyway. I can at least mess around with it and see how i can compare it to the new clients you download for the game. That client is an old client and the game doesn't use that anymore. having a hard time figuring out what to do with the new clients.
 

atestofwill

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Well you might be able to unpack the new client.
UniExtract can't do everything, but you might as well give it a shot trying out the different extraction methods (There's 3, I think).
If you find one that works, just find the launcher file in the extracted folder and carry on from there.
If not I think you're out of luck.
Can't really help any more than that I'm afraid.

EDIT:
The trouble is if the game's been overhauled, most of those steps in my first post will be useless. You'd have to click the web link to start the game, and monitor everything it's doing behind the scenes, what file it's calling, the link it's using, and any arguments it's adding in there.

I don't know anything about Tridef, but you *could* try creating a batch script to call the web link to start the game, and convert that to an .exe file.
I could be talking out of my backside with that suggestion, but it's all I've got!
 

narhic_fd

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yeah, so i downloaded that theHunter.2009072101.msi file and used the Universal Extractor and now everything goes exactly like the gentleman on that posted stated. I just can't use that file and everything is done diff now with The Hunter game client...I emailed "The Hunter" support staff and maybe that might be able to help me out. Thanks for your help.
 

narhic_fd

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atestofwill

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OK, I'm no expert here, I've only written a few simple scripts to launch programs in sequence, make them portable etc.

But as a basic guide, create a new text document, rename it batch_test.bat, drop the .txt suffix.
Now right-click > Edit that file, it'll bring up notepad. Write your script here, then save it and click the file to run.
A basic script to launch a webpage would be:

@ECHO OFF
START "Title" /b "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" www.bbc.co.uk

"Title" can be whatever you want.
The "/b" switch tells it not to open a new window.
Replace Firefox with your browser of choice.
Put the web link at the end, in place of bbc.co.uk.
(@ECHO OFF tells it not to display any of the following lines in the cmd window. Remove that line and use /WAIT after START to see what's happening with your script.)

As I said I'm no expert, so Tridef may well hate that method. You may have to get quite creative!

Anyway, here's a load of commands and their switches you could play around with:
http://ss64.com/nt/

To convert the .bat file, I use Bat To Exe Converter 1.4.
Good luck!
 

narhic_fd

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All i have is the basic word pad that came with windows 8. and notepad. Which one should i choose to create the text document??

Wonder if I could kidnap a computer tech person from Best Buy for the day. Now just have to figure out how to plug in The Hunter into all that, lol.
 

narhic_fd

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what should i be writing as my script??

Okay, things are starting to make sense now.

Is there a space between exe" www
 

narhic_fd

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Okay, so let me explain all i've done. Well, first of all. When ever i got to the Hunter website and start a game, through internet explorer, ill get a message that says.

"This want to allow this website to open a program on your computer"

then it says:

From: The hunter.com
Program: The Hunter Launcher
Address: hunt://gameserver.thehunter.com/73e3ae05203317dad3deadf8020e83e9812804d6/lang/en_US/access_token/af3531644453d40070c0c465a46fc342b2c6c55f/refresh_token/0c36db2f493a3a1223f5810d6cf8dc9ca4feb789

So, i plugged in the address:

hunt://gameserver.thehunter.com/73e3ae05203317dad3deadf8020e83e9812804d6/lang/en_US/access_token/af3531644453d40070c0c465a46fc342b2c6c55f/refresh_token/0c36db2f493a3a1223f5810d6cf8dc9ca4feb789 in place of www.bbc.co.uk

to get this:

@ECHO OFF
START "Title" /b "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" hunt://gameserver.thehunter.com/73e3ae05203317dad3deadf8020e83e9812804d6/lang/en_US/access_token/af3531644453d40070c0c465a46fc342b2c6c55f/refresh_token/0c36db2f493a3a1223f5810d6cf8dc9ca4feb789

I made the file as you mentioned and then used Bat To Exe Converter 1.4

success! I was then able to make a short cut tot he launcher and add it Tridef and tridef started the launcher....but...though it started the launcher and look liked it was going to start the game. The launcher came up where i could change the setting or start the game but then a error message came up and the launcher wouldn't give the option of starting the game. It has to be started from the website.

I'll do admit though. Its pretty cool that i can just type in

hunt://gameserver.thehunter.com/73e3ae05203317dad3deadf8020e83e9812804d6/lang/en_US/access_token/af3531644453d40070c0c465a46fc342b2c6c55f/refresh_token/0c36db2f493a3a1223f5810d6cf8dc9ca4feb789

in the URL address and it starts a game without having to log into the hunter website. Need to do some more messing around to see what else i can do.
 

atestofwill

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Hmm, maybe the launcher's looking for something, session cookies, referrer link, something like that?
OTOH, maybe you could find out what file the launcher.exe is running when you click play, and intercept it somehow. This wouldn't work if there's any sort of DRM checks, but you could replace the file it's calling with one of your own, and use yours to start the original file to start the game.

i.e:
-Go to website, click play.
-Launcher comes up, click play.
-Launcher calls .exe file that you've made.
-Your .exe file calls Tridef.
-Tridef runs the game.

I don't know the structure of the game, so I have no idea whether that'd work, but it might give you some ideas.

EDIT:
One last shot.
Have you tried appending the new link to the shortcut?
So in step 8 of my first post, use:
-argv://gameserver.thehunter.com/73e3ae05203317dad3deadf8020e83e9812804d6/lang/en_US/access_token/af3531644453d40070c0c465a46fc342b2c6c55f/refresh_token/0c36db2f493a3a1223f5810d6cf8dc9ca4feb789

In place of:
-argv://hunter/__PROFILE NUMBER HERE__/rpc.c001.thehunter.com/

in the target field of the shortcut.
The only thing is that it looks like that link was randomly generated for that session, so it might not work forever.
Also, I think the original post you linked to mentioned not using the installed launcher for that method, but you never know.
 

narhic_fd

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hey dude, just want to say thanks for your help. You taught me some good info to use in the future. Got an email from tridef and they got the game working with tridef now. It looks way better then it did with IZ3D. Thanks again for the little brief lesson.