Note:

My new Universal Pointer Searcher Engine has been released. It's an updated pointer searcher with more features, strict quality control through automated regression testing and ease of use via the command line. Please check it out here and provide your feedback to help make this project even better. Thank you.

What does this do?

This project aims to provide a fast and platform-independent pointer searcher to aid cheat code and mod tool creation. It was originally developed and tested to function with Nintendo Wii U memory dumps but should be compatible with other platforms as well due to having highly configurable options.

Why is searching pointers useful?

Many memory addresses in processes or video games are not static. Hence, they change regularly. Using memory dumps and this application you can find static routes to destination addresses, so-called pointers or pointer expressions.

Which features does this program have to offer?

• Negative pointer offsets
• Selectable byte order
• Unlimited pointer depth searches
• Customizable starting address
• Customizable maximum pointer offset
• Unlimited memory dumps
• Generating and working with pointer maps
• Restricted base offset range to reduce pointer results
• Sorting pointers by different criteria
• Configurable maximum memory chunk size for low RAM users
• Many more...

Where do I download a compiled version?

Here.

How do I execute the JAR file?

Since this software is Java-based, you need to have JRE 8 or higher installed on your machine. On Windows, a simple double-click on the JAR file should suffice. On Unix, run the command java -jar "Universal-Pointer-Searcher.jar".

I started the application. How do I use it to find pointers?

A tutorial can be found here.

Why does the program not start or stop right after I start a search?

You're most likely running out of memory. You need to have at least as much RAM available as the full size of one of the RAM dumps you're using. If your machine does not have enough RAM, consider using smaller memory dumps or try Mr. Mysterio's Wii U Pointer Searcher. Also, if you run into freezing/lag issues before hitting your RAM limit, passing the -Xmx VM argument followed by your total available PC RAM (e.g. 16g for 16GB) can be helpful since it disables the general memory limit imposed by default by Java.

Also, I recommend using a 64-bit JRE because it supports more than 4GB of RAM being assigned to the process. Some searches will not finish if you have less memory than that.

Pointer searching is still too slow. How to speed it up?

• You can cut off bytes from your memory dump(s) at the beginning and at the end but make sure to keep all potential pointer base addresses and target addresses within. Make sure to increase the memory dump starting address accordingly if you cut off bytes at the beginning
• Using a higher pointer depth significantly slows down performance so do not use it if you want the search to complete faster
• Reduce the maximum offset since it makes search intervals bigger and thus can increase searching time by a lot
• De-select allowing negative offsets since it basically doubles the maximum offset
• Tick the native pointer searcher option instead of using the Java-based one

What are pointer maps and what do they do?

Pointer maps are files containing addresses and their values from the memory dump. Only potential pointers are listed. The pointer map file can also be used to perform pointer searches. Once you created a pointer map, you can theoretically delete the memory dump to save storage space on your PC and loading the pointer map by the pointer searcher may be faster than entire memory dumps. These are the advantages of using pointer maps.

How fast is this pointer searcher? Isn't Java suboptimal for tasks like this?

Kind of but the application is still quite fast. It uses optimized algorithms which matters more than a simple language choice. I however recommend you to always use the native pointer searcher option if possible since it outperforms the Java engine in terms of speed and memory usage. Furthermore, for that reason, only the native pointer searcher will be developed further. The Java-based pointer searcher engine is still significantly faster and more configurable than Mr. Mysterio's Pointer Searcher but has higher memory usage.

Who gets credit for the creation of this application?

BullyWiiPlaza