Tutorial: Using Cheat Engine to create CWCheat codes for PPSSPP

[pal1000]

After reading all the forum threads from here and the 2 issues directly addressing this topic on Github I decided to write this tutorial because I noticed most users of PPSSPP community are having a hard time making use of Cheat Engine in finding cheat codes for PPSSPP. A method has been discovered that involves enabling memory mapped scan in Cheat Engine (Edit - Settings - Scan Settings - MEM_MAPPED), however this old school method has the limitation of finding memory addresses that are allocated for only 1 game play session; once you quit, the addresses vanish and they are not allocated next time with the same role. The memory characterized by this phenomenon is called dynamic memory and since PPSSPP dev team doesn't have plans for static memory, the resulted addresses from cheat searches are difficult to convert to a persistent form (it's difficult to extract in-game memory addresses which don't change from them).

However, both PPSSPP and cheat engine have 1 feature each that helps avoiding this problem.
-Memory Viewer with memory dump in PPSSPP;
-search of Memory dumps in Cheat Engine.
The method I use and which was accepted as best solution for issue #3551 is comprised of the following steps:
I. Finding game's memory address storing the information we want to change
1 (optional) - pause emulation in PPSSPP. Click / tap Emulation - Pause from menu or press F8 or ESC. Do this step only if you need to freeze memory during scan;
2 - In PPSSPP menu navigate to Debug - Memory View or simply press CTRL+M;
3 - Right click on first memory address and click on Dump...
4 - Make sure that in the Dump Memory window you have the location set to RAM. You can customize the output filename if you want, but for the purpose of this guide I'll go with the default RAM.dump;
5 - Open cheat engine and in its menu navigate to File - Open File and then browse to PPSSPP installation folder where the RAM.dump file is located. Open it;
6 - Do your search as usual.

The only difference is that Cheat Engine will scan in that memory dump and not in PPSSPPWindows(64).exe process. Scanning like this will give you in-game addresses as results which is exactly what we need.
If you need to do subsequent searches you have to repeat steps 1 to 4 and step 6 in this exact order. Step 1 being optional, it can be skipped in subsequent searches as well, if not needed, eg. the value you are looking for doesn't change if you don't make any action in-game. Step 5 doesn't need to be repeated because Cheat Engine is capable of detecting changes to opened memory dumps in it, originating from external sources on the fly. You can do step 5 repeatedly as well, but it's superfluous.

II. Writing CWCheat code(s) for the discovered memory address(es)
I assume that you found the memory address you are looking for. Because this method provides us with the in-game memory address, now all that's left is to write the CWcheat code for it. Yes, no more offset calculation and other stuff like this.

A CWCheat code looks like this:

_C0 Edward tale - Edward Quick EVO
_L 0x203F7C64 0x00FFFFFF

This code for example allows Edward to reach level cap in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years in Edward's Tale. C0 indicates that this code is disabled, it modifies a 4 bytes memory zone (it begins with 0x20) starting at address 003F7C64 in PSP user memory and it constantly writes 16777215 (0x00FFFFFF) in that memory zone.

The cheat codes need to be written in a file located in ppsspp\memstick\PSP\Cheats which is named by the Game ID. The game ID is displayed in PPSSPP window title while the game is running. If this file doesn't exists it means the cheats haven't been enabled for the game yet. So, in PPSSPP navigate in the menu to Game Settings - Enable Cheats or CTRL+T. This should spawn the missing file.
Edit that file by entering the cwcheat code for your address. Use the above example as model if you are a beginner. You can also edit the cheat file after enabling cheats by pausing game with ESC,then clicking Cheats - Edit cheat file, but be warned, this latter method although it's easier it is also buggy, you have to make sure you click Back in PPSSPP before saving the cheat file in Notepad otherwise all the changes will be lost (Issue #6356).
The whole CWCheat syntax documentation for any possible type of code is available here.

Bellow it's a video on which I apply this method to have Harley reach level cap.

[ZeroX4]

"however this old school method has the limitation of finding memory addresses that are allocated for only 1 game play session; once you quit, the addresses vanish and they are not allocated next time with the same role"

about that that is not true

i found that only in god of war but thats cause i was searching for 4 byte addresses maybe later ill check on all search type but for the rest of the games i have no problem in finding solid address and making CheatTables or tabels whatever anyway for example for ys games i have cheat addresses that stay after even i restart pc just sometimes its 4 byte sometime is 2 byte and you need to add all addresses save it to CT file and than check which maintain after re-opening

for example in ys hp is float type

but tutorial good enough

[LunaMoo]

I don't want to kill that tutorial, someone will surely find it usefull, but for those that really want to learn something, I just want to say it's not the way;].
Just like if you want to make your game easy, you have to spent some time to cheat in it, the very same way you have to spent some time to learn using your tools properly, to cheat easily.

I understand this is just a very basic tutorial about creating simple cheats, but doing it that way is a big waste of time and ripps off any advantages over real console when using CE which already has very limited functionality over non pc native code. In short using memory dumps is the slowest way and makes some scan types practically impossible or at least very tedious.

I explained 2 better methods quite recently in for example this post.
Basically by either:
- making a pointer that will work for all games in one ppsspp version,
- using an aob scan script which will be valid for all ppsspp versions for one game(or series) ~ which is my choice and an example of it can be seen in any CE cheat table I ever posted here.
That way we can get all advantage of real time scans. Also while creating cw cheats of it is very simple, it allows you to continue using cheat tables for things you might want to easily edit without having to care about dynamic memory.

Which quite frankly I don't understand why people hate or ever would want it to change. Almost all native PC games and apps work that way, time to learn how to use what tools like CE offer, instead of being sad that the memory is not static. I mean seriously, CE dealt with this "issue" like 15 years ago, it's nothing new and there are countless tutorials likely way better than I could ever explain. >.>

[ZeroX4]

well Luna idk how about you or other CE users i just care about some small cheats like give me 999 hp or make my mana bar freeze i dont care about static values or advanced options cause i just play for fun and not to idk have an adventure

i understand you in 100% but for some ppl like me minimum is enough and even more than we need so keep that in mind

[XenoMonado]

the best tutorial is :
> go to google
> [game name] cwcheat
> profit

[seint]

sa can i use the solution above to a game that the cwcheat can't work properly?

[logtech]

Hey

how can i make max status codes for Final fantasy Complete Collection after years

using cheat engine

thanks

[ZeroX4]

(09-11-2014 01:30 PM)logtech Wrote:  Hey

how can i make max status codes for Final fantasy Complete Collection after years

using cheat engine

thanks

http://forums.ppsspp.org/showthread.php?...8#pid91478

[logtech]

hey

i do not understand what people mean by this

stop using cw cheat

try this

only thing u need to do before you want to use it with ppsspp

is go to edit>settings>scan settings>(check/enable)MEM_MAPPED:memory that is mapped into the view of a section. (E.g. file mapping, emulator memory, slow)
rest you have in post below
http://forums.ppsspp.org/showthread.php?tid=11863

[ZeroX4]

it 1st you run cheat engine and than you do this

go to edit>settings>scan settings>

now you ENABLE/check option named

MEM_MAPPED:memory that is mapped into the view of a section. (E.g. file mapping, emulator memory, slow)


than you just follow steps from this post

http://forums.ppsspp.org/showthread.php?tid=11863

[logtech]

Hey staff

I have no idea how to use the cheat engine program the right way at all okay

i am trying to get max Strength, Max speed, Max Stamina, Max intellect and Max spirit to 255 using cheat engine

but i do not know how to do that with cheat engine

thanks

[ZeroX4]

well im done you have all informations you need good luck

[logtech]

Hey ZeroX4

I tried everything to make my states go to 255 using the cheat engine

but i had no such luck

what am i doing wrong

[XenoMonado]

[Zidden]

somebody help me please
how to solve this problem