Hitman: Absolution (load time remover)

It's all about finding a proper address or a pointer. I'll try to look further for that.

Well, I think I've found a more accurate address, which should work for every loading (hopefully). Now I just need to figure out how to write that (since it's not base address + offset).


Scrap that. The address I've found was a bit glitchy. Instead I used 3 different ones. It's still not perfect, because I believe even if a level is loaded but cinematic still plays, the address that I considered to be for loading says it's "true". But oh well - there isn't anything which straight up says whatever there is a loading or not. This is also why, the timer didn't stop in mid-level loading. So, to circumvent that, I found an address which tells whatever the game is in Focus mode or not (when played it's true, when alt tabbed or in menu - it's false). However, I didn't want count out the menu navigation, so again - I found an address which tells whatever the menu is opened or not. And with these 3 bool values wrote when the timer should be paused and when not. It's a bit more heavy on CPU, though, but with all that hopefully mid-level loadings should be counted out now.

I only hope, I haven't created a scenario somewhere else in a game, where the timer will be paused (needs to be tested). Dropbox link and Github were updated.

Weird. Are you running a game in windowed mode? Maybe a behavior changes in fullscreen or even borderless fullscreen windowed mode (I'm currently stuck on one monitor, so I can't check that )

Basically now, it should pause on loading in before mission and each time there is a black screen with a loading mid-mission (it won't pause if the game is loading something in a background during in-game cutscene). Alt tabbing during the mid-level loading and then jumping back into a game will make the timer run again.

But.... if someone can be prove that it's possible to skip parts of the in-game cutscenes if the game has already loaded the next chunk of a mission (ergo: current method is too inaccurate), I'll look further into it.

OK, so I looked further. There is something in a memory which tells whatever the game is during a cutscene in which the level is loaded, but I can't for the sake of it find a pointer for it (since it's not static).

--EDIT--
I found something else. Got a pointer for that, but I'm not so certain about it. Do we know which cutscene are loading screens? The pointer I've found was for Terminus level 1 elevator, but I really need to test it further. The one at the end of Run for your life for me seems to be of a consistent length (what I say, is that there may be a minimal length for this cutscene, before you can skip and it may be in a moment when the loading screen pops up on slower machines). The one in the elevator in Terminus (part 1) however doesn't seem to have a minimal length and it may be skipped as soon as the 2nd part of a level is loaded).

Could you make a list of cutscenes / places, where you think a game is loading chunks of level in the background?
Doesn't have to be a full list - just few more than elevator in Terminus Hotel and the elevator in Run for your life.

And yes, I can clearly see now, that there is at least one place, which the current method doesn't exclude.

-the third part of the first level
I compared your old, new run and my loading times - seems consistent - almost exactly 12 seconds.
-The cinematic after the library
Yeah.
- Terminus Elevator
Is indeed a loading screen and you can skip it as soon as the next floor is loaded. (I have a pointer for that a new version should already exclude it)
-the cut-scene in the third part of the orphanage ( underground)
I wonder which. The one where the guy shoots at you - no. But the prerendered obviously is and it seems like a current addresses don't exclude it. So I added another one.
- Blackwater elevator
Yes. But the thing is - it's a mix of both prerendered cutscene and rendered in real time. Pre-rendered should already be excluded with current addresses.

Now I wonder, when it will happen that one of the addresses that I add, ends up being true in some random point of a game and breaks the game. Or maybe I'm dumb, and there really are addresses which say directly whatever the game is loading and I just can't find them and I'm working around them like a retard.

As previously - updated both dll and github.

Yeah, so... Rosewood elevator is incorrect.

I just noticed something every time there is a loading ~1min before a full level loading the full level loading is a common game-crash
-Manor second floor has a small loading during diana cutscene according to the pointer and chinatown is a common game-crash
-In chinatown we do a checkpoint loading to gain few seconds, Terminus hotel is a common crash place
- Orphanage underground has a small loading during the cinematic, The bar level is a common crash place
- The level loading of the bar would be what interfere with the guns store loading ?
There is one thing going against this though the tailor level is a ~18Secs split and i don't remember Blackwater being a common game-crash loading but this level also doesn't unlock any gameplay perk
By the way if someone i would like to know where the gameplay perks are stored since resetting the save file doesn't reset them

This is gonna sound dumb, but...
hm5 and savedata.dat are indeed storing most of the data (checkpoint, statistics, play styles, challanges). However, entire safehouse section (weapons, assassin techniques, disguises) seems to be taken directly from server (try running it Steam Offline mode, the result should be completely different).