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Release: DISE v0.1.7.3-hotfix1

This is a hotfix built in May 2014. It contains a few important fixes, and maybe some minor ones which I cannot recall. I did not consider it ready enough for official release at that time, but as I believe it has not made DISE any worse (only better), I am releasing this fix officially right now.

Beware of scams in news area in DISE v0.1.7.3

I was made aware that DISE shows malicious content in the news area, and I have verified it for myself. For example, I saw a fake Norwegian news site; someone else saw a fake virus threat and a popup message telling the user to call some phone number.

Dying Light save editor, trainer, and a need for a good name

It's a bit early to say anything conclusive about whether there will actually be a save editor, game trainer, or even other modding tools; however, I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to spare a little time to tell me where your interest lies.

Release: Updated and more EDI tools (version db9c02e)

I've made more progress with Escape Dead Island. That's not to say that there's a lot to do with the game though. The most helpful tool right now is the one that dumps save-data into a human-readable format. Everything is sorted as well, so we can easily spot difference between save-points.

Release: DISE v0.1.7

Finally, this update brings FULL support for modding PlayStation 3 saves! Game Genie is NOT required!

Modded DI saves without Game Genie? Yes you can!

I hereby proudly present you with great news for you and your PS3 console.

I've cracked the extra security layer for Dead Island: Riptide saves! This means good-bye to Game Genie, and you will be able to mod PS3 saves as much as you want to, for free!

Release: DISE 0.1.4.2 (Riptide)

A crash report is not needed this time. Instead, please install DISE manually [broken link removed] if updating crashes. After starting the new version, cancel the old update and delete it.

Release: DISE 0.1.3.4 (Riptide)

I can understand if some people have been annoyed with how DISE didn't sync (Steam) Riptide saves, and didn't even find the game-saves if you used not-strictly-legal versions of the game (please buy the game). This update will hopefully make you more at ease. :)

Release: DISE 0.1.3.3 (Riptide)

More ammo types are supported, but special ammo can actually only be modified by changing the quantity in your inventory (add the items if needed).

Just a little injury and maybe delays

Hello, and thank you for the continued support! Because the majority of you probably don't read my few tweets, here you go...

After coding too much without sleep, I've somehow managed to injure my secondary arm. Needless to say, I need to take it easy for a bit and not type so much. This means means I probably will not be on the public/private chat much, but will try to respond to e-mails and comments on the blog (but not for chit-chatting).

I'll be working as much as I can, behind the scenes. :)

Thank you so much for the support! :D

I'm so excited about improving DISE, and of course supporting Riptide. With all of your cooperation and heartfelt donations, you have my big and warm THANK YOU SO MUCH! :D

Riptide update #1

Yes, I'm still working on it, and I've added hero level data and such into DISE. This is all that is needed for DISE to not crash while loading saves, but there's one problem I need to sort out before I can release this early build.

Support for Riptide

I've received lots of questions about Riptide, and I've done my best to not answer them officially. Now, I can finally confirm that I'll be working on supporting Riptide in DISE itself.

Upcoming website downtime (update)

This is just a heads-up just in case you find that the blog and/or Contribution Center is inaccessible, or there are other web server-related troubles, while I migrate data over to the new server. :)

DISE and PS3 game-saves

Since someone asked me recently, I'll share this with everyone. DISE can edit PS3 saves with a little effort. I have however not been able to make the modded save work on the PS3. If any of you get it working, please do let me know the right way to do it! :)

Finally more love for Xbox users! (update)

DISE has so far been more convenient for users of the PC game. Xbox support came 2nd, but I didn't forget you. Development of STFS support has just been slow and difficult, so what you got was very basic.

DISE will be powered by CyaSSL

While I continue (slowly but surely) working to finish the new auto-updating system for DISE, the next version will provide more security for you all. DISE will use secure, encrypted connections to the server, using CyaSSL.

Release: DISE 0.0.55.34

Thanks to Caolan O'Sullivan for reporting the mentioned bug. It seems like the quality assurance team failed miserably.. Yes, that means myself. :/ I mean, it was pretty obvious that it wasn't working.

Release: DISE 0.0.55.33

In the previous update, I simplified the area where you could add weapons to your inventory, and the area for the default values was removed. After getting negative feedback on that decision, I made an attempt at bringing it back. The area is still hidden by default but it's only one click away. :)

Release: DISE 0.0.55.32

I really hope that this release will appeal to a lot of you. I gave you a preview earlier, and I have more or less copied that post here.

Preview: DISE 0.0.55.32

First, please let me apologize for any delays the recent days with responding to all of your messages. People are working nearby and digging in the ground. You know how well that can go with cables underneath. :)

Release: DISE 0.0.55.31

Finally - as promised - here's an update. :) Not a lot of changes but I think some of them are meaningful. :)

Contribution Center (beta) goes live!

This is the website I've been working on while not working on DISE itself. It collects information, initiates payments and processes everything automatically.

Release: DISE 0.0.55.29

For the current lack of automatic updates, I hope this update will make it a bit easier to know when they are available.

Early preview: Xbox content package viewer

First of all: Please note that this is only an early preview of my current work.

As you can see here, it is possible to view the file structure of Xbox content packages in DISE. I have nothing more to show you at the moment, but I wanted to share some of the happy feeling I have after finally getting this working. :D

Preview: DISE 0.0.55.24 (update 4)

I previously mentioned that I would add more info about mod blueprints and such. I just want to show you my current solutions. The things you can see here are almost finished, but I also wish to display mods' effects/stats/additional damages (whatever I should call them). There are still a few things for me to decide regarding the stats. You can expect something that is somewhat simple, at least. :)

Mod blueprints, base- and required items

As you may know, I've had a break for a while now from coding (felt very tired), but I wonder if programmers can ever truly rest.. At least I always end up tinkering about something.

Feeling better, I finally got to writing scripts that gather more details about blueprints and generate messy C++ code.

More languages are coming along!

Support for multiple language in DISE is almost finished. Most of what's left now is loading the game's texts where those texts are used. Collectibles are working and inventory items are mostly working. Skills will take more time because I have previously done a lot of manual work and need to figure out how I should not do it manually again for 5+ more languages.

Release: DISE 0.0.55.21

Since there are both free and premium tweaks that work with the same skills this time (moderate and unlimited), you should disable one before you enable the other. If you make a mistake, it's no big deal, however. :)

Preview: DISE 0.0.55.21

I've had a break from DISE for a few days to rest, but I seem to always end up coding on something else instead. *facepalm*

Release: DISE 0.0.55.19

I posted this right before going to bed. After waking up, I saw that my post was gone. Turns out that I had the post editor open in two different tabs, and both saved automatically. I published the finished post, and the other tab saved over it . :(

I may not be able to rewrite everything, but here's my attempt at it. :)

Release: DISE 0.0.55.17

In the post for the previous release, I said that the max skill points (for the free edition) for 1-rank skills was -7 to +7, but I had somehow gotten that wrong. I meant original max ± 7, meaning -8 to +8 for 1-rank skills, and -10 to +10 for 3-rank skills. I have updated the post. :)

Skill tweaks (update)

Hi there!

I received a suggestion to make at least one of the skill tweaks on the premium tab free. That was your weapons always returning (Boomerang). The reason was to prevent people from stealing your stuff in online games, and I thought it was a good reason. :)

Release: DISE 0.0.55.14

A friend helped me realize how annoying it was to not see descriptions for skills when you needed them. I felt quite annoyed, I tell you!

This is how I study game-saves

I'll try to roughly explain the whole process of understanding game-saves' file structure without getting into great detail, and without making this post very lengthy. This may apply for any file, assuming you have the right tools for the job. This is my own way but there aren't that many different ways to do it. :)

Release: DISE 0.0.55.13 (for testing)

This post will be short, without a feature list. I decided to release this build because it should be stable enough for testing, and syncing should work. You will not receive an update notification in alpha 55, and this test build will not receive updates either right now.

Steam has been updated

I had hoped that I would be finished with the next version of DISE before syncing would be broken again. The next version will not have this problem at all, and I'll keep working hard to release it soon whether it's finished or not. :)

DISE and translations!

I received an offer to have DISE translated into a different language. It's my first time doing it using the wxWidgets C++ framework, but it's coming along!

Talk about the next version of DISE

Hello from the monkey cage!

It has been a while since the last release of DISE. I've wanted to release it so much. At the same time, I was working really hard on solving the problem that happens when Valve releases updates to Steam; it breaks syncing in DISE, you send bug reports, I fix it, etc...

First release: Profile Editor

This is the first (beta?) release of the profile editor that I worked on the last few days, which will be replacing read_profile. No biggie, just a replacement. Please feel free to test it, and send me some hatemail as well if you find this useless. :D

Release: Alpha 55

I wish I had a clever (and legal) way to completely eliminate the need to update like this.

Release: Alpha 54 (only fixes syncing)

I managed to use the code from alpha 53 and copied the missing parts from the latest code. Syncing works again, and I haven't experienced any crashes. Please report any unusual errors if you haven't reported them already.

Release: Trainer r7.1

There are no new options this time since I'm busy with something for DISE, but it will be useful for some people with large text (high DPI).

Release: Alpha 53

I'm giving you two versions of DISE this time. The regular release build, and a special debug build with logging enabled.

Preview: Alpha 53 (update)

There will be a few more visible improvements in the next release. Some people have said before that the opening screen had gotten more difficult to use, so I am trying to make it better.

Release: Alpha 52

The assets package has been updated to include icons for Ryder's skill tree! Please find it on the download page [link removed]. :)

Super-jumping cheat (PC)

If you would like to jump really high in the game (on the PC), the next version of the trainer will let you do just that!

Trainer icon (update)

I've made a new icon for the trainer. I used DISE's icon as the base (obviously). A few details here and there can be improved, but I haven't planned any major changes. :)

Release: Alpha 51

I've had a break from DISE for a while, so I think it's about time with an update. :) Valve also rolled out an update to Steam which broke pretty much everything related to Steam in DISE, so I pretty much have to to update now, whatever little I have to offer. :)

The trainer and the features I promised

I promised to add infinite ammo and I have let you wait quite a while now. I can't help feeling ashamed because it didn't have to take this long. I just wanted more complex patches (I'll explain further down) instead of doing i the "easy way". That's why I spent most of the time simply rewriting the patching engine in my trainer just to support more complex patches. Hardcore, you know! Since it would have taken more time, I gave up on that and have now done it the easy way after all.

Downloads not showing up?

You may be using a browser that does not support something I use to pull info from my external database. Opera is one of them. Still, it's inexcusable to not support all browsers, so I'll try to find a way around it.

What's up lately

Burnout, new features, content management system (CMS) candidates and advertisement testing.

Virus alerts (false positives, of course)

Some people have seen their anti-virus/spyware/malware software complain about my own software (such as DISE). More people will see this. That's just how it works for us small developers who don't have the money or reputation to be completely whitelisted from anti-virus companies.

Release: Alpha 50

I just thought that this could be useful for some people. I have not tested this. :)

Release: Alpha 49

I've had quite a bit of both big and small problems, so it has taken a while to get this release out. Everything is still not finished or perfect, but I think it's better that you can choose use it anyway, even with a some faults. Especially since syncing works again in this release. (*゜▽゜*)

Temp workaround for syncing

I could release the new version after having some rest. Some things just don't work as I thought it would. In the mean-time, please check out " Corrupted/Disappearing saves" on this page. Don't worry. :)

Legendary weapons

I've uploaded 4 game-saves that I got from 360haven.com. They are for Xbox 360, but it's an easy task to move items over to your own game-save if you use DISE! :)

Syncing is broken but will be available again in the next release!

Steam has changed its internals, making all current versions of DISE unable to sync with the latest version(s) of Steam. It may crash, nothing may seem to happen, or something else could happen. I went on the OpenSteamworks IRC channel for help, and they showed me their awesome bot which looks for those changes! :D

Viewing maps in Windows Explorer. Useless but fun?

Well, at least the first time, for a few seconds...

While working on the map feature, I just felt like sharing this. I extracted this map from the game (256 tiles), and changed the window layout a bit (hid the panes) and icon appearance (large icons, hid text) while viewing them in Windows. I could view the whole map as well as scroll up and down this way. :D

Game-save repository

This is a free service for downloading saved games and other things for Dead Island, which have been uploaded either by myself or other people.

Preview: Notification after saving

There are few more things left to take care of for the next release: making this optional + finishing the map feature. The latter has some bad performance issues, so I would feel embarrassed to show it to you (painting just one block takes about half a second on my laptop). If I can't find any tricks, I may have to rewrite the code for OpenGL or something (harder for me and takes more time).

Painting test :)

I am just testing the map feature and painting on it within DISE. Doesn't look perfect yet but it's coming along! :) Actually, after testing a bit more, I'm not entirely convinced that DISE does it wrong after all. Here's why:

Preview: Visual map

It's not ready for release just yet, and I still have some concerns regarding performance, and the explored area seems slightly off at the bottom... However, please check it out! :)

Would you like a notification when DISE finishes saving?

You know, a tiny popup in the main window or something that stays for a second or two, then disappears. It's just to see that something happened (DISE should never fail, though). Many programs has this fancy feature, even if it doesn't take long to save.

Application icon for DISE

I guess it was about time I made an icon for DISE. This is what I have so far, and I plan to use it for DISE. :) What do you think?

Release: Alpha 47

If you try to reveal the map, please look for anything that could be missing or wrong. :)

Revealing the map

I'm experimenting with revealing the map, and I think it's pretty successful so far.

Release: Alpha 46

Please don't use alpha 42-45 because backups will be broken/empty. I really am sorry for any inconvenience. I'll do better to make sure something like that doesn't happen again.

Release: Alpha 44

I chose to skip the official release of alpha 43 so that everyone receives this update. :)

Release: Alpha 42

Thanks for all your suggestions and for reporting issues. Your patience as well. :)

Release: Alpha 41

If you have trouble with user preferences or just want to reset everything, this should make it easier for you.

Release: Alpha 40

Yay for increasing the release number! It's easy to just bump it up and keep track of less numbers. I guess someone else thinks so, too, with Chrome 16. Wait, I thought it was 14, then 15 just moments ago. Oh well!

Release: Alpha 38

I have been quiet lately, but I did go back to work again, and I give you a better DISE now. :)

Alpha 38 coming soon :)

I'm doing some testing, and getting help from someone else with testing as well. If it goes well, I can release alpha 38 within 24 hours or so. :) Thank you for your patience!

This version should have improved support for Xbox 360 game-saves (my tests were successful but I'll test a bit more), optimizations and some other fixes.

Automatic extraction/injection of game-save (Xbox 360)

I happened to come across HashIt by synmuffin of zeropair.com [broken link removed], which is a tool for resigning/rehashing e.g. the save_0 file from the Xbox 360. From the looks of HashIt's code (I had a quick peek), it can extract and replace files, and of course resign/rehash the package. It's open source and coded in C++/Qt!

Release: Alpha 37

Those who don't have Steam installed may find this release less annoying. For everyone else, there's nothing new this time. :)

Release: Alpha 36

If you used an old version of DISE to change your character and/or reset your skills and you're having problems now, then you should reset your skills again. The reason is that only half the job was done before, and DISE now relies it being done properly. :)

Release: Alpha 35

Things can't always go right the first time! This fixes some mistakes I did in the last release. :)

Release: Alpha 34

For now, I thought about implementing something very basic for adding skills and such. I ended up putting some extra efforts into it, so it's a little less basic than I planned. Still needs some optimizing and other improvements, though. :)

Release: Alpha 32

Some embarrassing problems were fixed and some other things were improved/added. My lame excuse is that I was really tired before releasing, and I really wanted to release before going to bed. (; -_-) Oh, that's right! I work for free! :D

Release: Alpha 31

This should prevent the crash caused by corrupted updates. I know it's rude to point my finger at someone, but I'm doing it at my web host because I have problems with them lately. Of course, DISE could do more to fix corruptions, though (but it shouldn't happen this often in the first place). If an update fails now, you can try to update again. It's not deal but it's better than nothing. :)

Release: Alpha 30

A kind of small update this time, but not completely useless. But hey, it doesn't matter since you can skip it if you don't like it! :D

Corrupted updates

I'm seeing this again right now, and I don't really know why it happens. I did however notice that the connection to my web host's FTP server timed out several times, so it makes me believe that the issue lies on their side. I hope this doesn't keep up!

Release: Alpha 29

This release was meant to only add a feature to assign mod blueprints for items, but I guess you don't mind that I included some more improvements. :D

Xbox 360 support

I'm working on supporting the Xbox 360 format as well. It's not going to be completely straight-forward (yet), though. It's just that you'll need to extract the game-save first with Modio, Horizon or something else, then inject it again and resign the package when you're done. I don't have the time to make my own extractor/injector at the moment, so I may look into providing an addon in the future using a 3rd party program/library.

Release: Alpha 28

In order to get it out today, I had to leave out unlocking chapters. If you read my earlier post, you may recall that I had troubles with memory corruption and such, so it has taken some time for me to fix up things. The list of improvements and new things is a little longer this time, so I hope that makes up for the wait and that the promised chapter-unlocker this time. :)

Alpha 28 delayed

I have been struggling so much the last days and I have really burned out my energy while doing so. :(

The problem is memory heap corruption. If you know what that means, you know that it's difficult to find the exact location and it may be very time-consuming.

Release: Alpha 27

Another release so soon, which was mainly meant to fix an issue with date/time (after upgrading wxWidgets). However, I didn't feel good about releasing something that did nothing new for perhaps most people, so I managed to get a useful thing in here as well.

Release: Alpha 26

I've promised a few things before, such as changing weapons' color and required level and the other attributes (damage, etc). I've implemented the first two this time, but it would have taken some more time if it weren't for two people (Warefaroo and Daniel) who shared their knowledge about reading/writing the color and required level. :)

Release: Alpha 25

It may not seem like a whole lot has changed in this release, but a lot of things have changed internally and caused another bunch of problems. One problem after another. However, most of it is hopefully sorted out now. In the not-unlikely event that you find strange bugs, just spam my e-mail inbox. :)

Getting ready for releasing alpha 25 now

Finally, I have sorted out all the nasty and even silly problems (I hope), and getting ready for a release shortly (hours or less). :) Things should go more smoothly from now on. :D

Release: Alpha 24

Since I'm updating client/server code, I'll take this chance to discontinue auto-update support for DISE alpha 14 and earlier. All versions later than alpha 14 will continue receiving updates after changing a few things on the server. :)

Release: Alpha 23 (fixes a serious bug)

This release is only meant to fix the bug present in alpha 22, which deleted all of your backups and then crashed, if you deleted backups manually and then let DISE overwrite your old backup(s).

Release: Alpha 22

With this release, I hope to make some things a lot better for you all! Mainly a much improved backup system and more choices for you!

Preview: Alpha 22

More choices for the user is being worked on for this release. Regarding the categories, I think I can say that the people have spoken; they want more choices! :)

Release: Alpha 21

I've been working on retaining user preferences for this release, but I have also been struggling a lot with canceling syncing (bugs in wxWidgets or its documentation, mulithreading + race conditons, etc). Maybe that technical stuff isn't very exciting.

Release: Alpha 20

A basic feature that people have been waiting for, is now here. :) Browsing available weapons and other items should be easier with the categories implemented. :)

Advertisement(s) (update)

Update: Okay, please don't freak out because of the ads. I don't like this either. Popups and everything. Nasty! Please hold on while I fix it! Also, does my blog load horribly slow now? (after adding the ads)

Steam Cloud support in DISE

I have been playing a bit with Open Steamworks, so that I can perhaps implement automatic sync'ing of your game-saves. If it all works out, you should (hopefully) have no more problems with "corrupted" and missing game-saves with Steam! The first tests look promising! :D

Release: read_profile beta 2

After receiving a default.pro file, I confirmed a data type to be a wide string, so I have updated this tool to support it.

Release: Alpha 17

Some fixes and some new things! I think what you'll find interesting is the recovery feature this time, since it's a little better. All of your (salvageable) quest progress will be recovered. It doesn't check the quest tree and try to recreate earlier quests you have completed. I am not sure if it's needed either, but I still think that it would be ideal to do it somehow.

Preview: Alpha 17 (rescues your quest progress)

I'm working on a nice feature for this release, mainly recovering your quest progress instead of replacing it all with a fresh one or copy it from another game-save. Of course, only the salvageable data can be retrieved, so you will still lose quests, just not everything! :) Exactly how much depends on how much is actually in the file.

Release: read_profile beta 1

An addition to my internal research tools is the read_profile tool, but why not just release it to the public in case someone can have fun with it, or just to have a better view of the default.pro file? :)

Release: Alpha 16

A new version, with new and cool stuff. :) Bugs as well! :D There's one I need to track down. The crash happens when you close the editor sometimes. If you are able to reproduce the problem, please let me know! Of course, please also let me know if you see other strange stuff happening. :D

Game-saves sometimes still corrupted after fixing

Some game-saves may not be fixed properly with the editor, because of how the game sometimes seem to close up a broken section as if nothing was wrong (and the rest of the sections are missing). It makes my editor believe that it can restore more than it actually can restore, and your corrupted game-save will still be corrupted after "fixing".

Preview: Item categories

I decided to work on this as well, since it has mostly been there without doing anything. Mostly working now! :D

Release: Alpha 15

Finally! Lots of trouble on the way, but efforts usually pays off eventually. It just takes some time. :)

Easier method to find sections in game-saves

If you use Hex Workshop (like I), you can use my bookmarks. It locates and highlights sections 65 to 69 (hex) or 101 to 105 (dec). Just click on the section you want (in the list in the bottom-right corner).

I'm home!

Thanks for your patience! My trip back home wasn't problem-free, and I'm home a day later than planned, but I'll spare you the details. I'll be ready to make some extra efforts after resting. :D

Release: Alpha 14

Well, this is rather embarrassing... It's about the game-save "fixing" feature. All my testing prior to release showed that it worked fine. Then I learned that it didn't, and it was my fault as well (nothing appeared to happen in the editor). Well, I have now changed "return false" to "return true" in my code, and voilà! A brand new release!

Release: Alpha 13

I'm releasing this one because someone had troubles with a game-save loading in the editor.

I may be unavailable

I may be mostly unavailable for the next 1-3 days. My vacation in Japan is over, and I'm going home to Norway. :)

Release: Alpha 12

I tried to research how weapon level/damage/force/etc. works, but I haven't completely figured it out yet (I think). You can experiment with the values, and you'll get the result you want eventually.

Preview: Alpha 11

I'm implementing a feature for fixing game-saves. It should be ready in alpha 11. For now, it will try to fix it by using the same method as in my tutorial. :)

Release: Alpha 9

Sorry, no big changes in this version, but I came to realize one thing... It's kind of annoying having to check my blog every time for updates, isn't it? At least I would think so!

Release: Alpha 8

Phew. After some silly problems (with moving items between lists), as well as changing a few internal things, I guess it paid off in the end. I just hope that I didn't break something important. :)

Tutorial: Fixing a corrupted game-save

If your game-save was corrupted for real (because you had too many items in your inventory, perhaps), chances are that you will lose some data, and especially your quest progress. If you want to try fixing your game-save manually, I'll attempt to explain what I have been doing.

Release: Alpha 7

I planned to complete more features in this version, but since it shouldn't be completely bugged, I'll just release it now and finish the other things in alpha 8! After all, I wanted to release early. :)

Alpha 7 progress (update)

While I work on alpha 7, I would like to show you a small preview of what you can expect in the next version(s). :)

Alpha 5 delayed

While I was about to release alpha 5 today, I realized that I need to re-think a few things (such as how the inventory and equipped weapons are managed behind the scene, in the editor).

Release: Alpha 3

After breaking things and rebuilding them again, fixing some other things, and then realizing that it's 8 am in the morning already.. ((_ _))zzZZ Well, here you go. :)

Alpha 3 delayed (update 2)

I originally planned to release alpha 3 earlier since I fixed the issue causing the crash earlier, but I'm now facing some issues with loading the inventory. Currently, it appears to have something to do with mod weapons since they are stored differently in the game-save. I had not really tested this before, so now is my chance to figure out how go at it. :) I hope you didn't expect it to actually work! :D No, I am just kidding. It was my intention, actually. :( Now, I go back to work!

Release: Alpha 1

Dead Island Save Editor for the PC version of the game. Eventually, there will be support for Xbox 360 as well.

Early look

Hello! For the last 2.5 weeks or so, I have been working on a game-save editor for Dead Island, which is now kind of ready to show to the public. It's currently designed for the PC version of the game, but I plan to support other versions as well (starting with Xbox 360).