How does Game Ranger work?

Olaf van der Spek · Medic **Joined**: 28 Dec 2002

How does Game Ranger support for RA2 work?
I don't see the IPX protocol being installed and I also don't see a modified winsock file in the game directory.

DaRTzO · Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:47 pm Post subject:

Game Ranger creates a VPN for the players upon hosting a game on it's client, the players connect to each other upon joining the game lobby (in the software client).

At game launch Game Ranger sends some sort of commands through Ra2.exe to the game to direct players into the in game LAN lobby by default. How ever this automatic entry to the LAN lobby is restricted by resolution, which leads me to believe that some of the commands sent to Ra2.exe abuse the game's ability to record replays (which enables the game to effectively play itself through the recorded commands).

The recording and playback is handled by command line arguments such as :

Quote:

-record
Creates a game movie file (defaults to SESSION.IPB) in the Red Alert 2 directory1
-play [filename]
Plays a game movie file (IPB format)

Source : http://modenc.renegadeprojects.com/Red_Alert_2

Have you attempted to check if anything get's injected into the game or what data GR forwards to Ra2.exe at launch?

FurryQueen · General **Also Known As**: Fen **Joined**: 24 Jul 2010

If it's anything like Hamachi and Tunngle, it's just forwarding the network information to a different address. Could even rebind IPs on the fly, but I seriously doubt that. It's just a network forward or it has a temporary 'network card' that it changes RA2 to use since it launches the game itself.

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Olaf van der Spek · Medic **Joined**: 28 Dec 2002

FurryQueen wrote:

or it has a temporary 'network card' that it changes RA2 to use since it launches the game itself.

How does that work? What Windows functions does that use?

FurryQueen · General **Also Known As**: Fen **Joined**: 24 Jul 2010

If you run Hamachi or Tunngle then check RA2, it attaches a different network card, which is just an emulation of a card to attach to a different network. I'm not sure there's anything the specific Game Ranger would do except create a special connection in the background. Launch RA2 without GR then check the NIC MAC in the options. Then do it with GR, if it's different, you know exactly what it's doing. If not, it could be a temporary IP rebind.

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Olaf van der Spek · Medic **Joined**: 28 Dec 2002

What's a (temporary) IP rebind?