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Unbirth freeze patch
Som1Lse Offline
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#1
Unbirth freeze patch

I don't know, if anyone is still interested in playing this but just in case, I might have found a way to eliminate freezes from Unbirth. After spending some time in a debugger, I noticed that whenever the game froze it was in a particular function in "aglScript.dll", and in order to figure out what it was doing I tried disabling the function and I stopped encountering freezes.

For those of you with a hex editor, the function is located at offset 20820, and in order to remove it you simply replace the first three bytes with "C2 04 00" (which is the binary coding of the "ret 4" x86 instruction).

Alternatively you can just download the patched version I've attached to this post.

I managed to get a good deal into the game without any Windows compatibility stuff enabled. Far beyond where I could go without the patch.

Of course it is possible that, at some point in the game, the function will actually be used and the game will break in a silly way, because the function now doesn't do anything but so far I haven't encountered any issues (specific to this patch at least).

Also note that freezing isn't the only way the game is broken, and there are several areas that are broken in various other ways; fortunately here is a patch for one of them, and for the rest you can just use the "map" console command to get past (I have since included this in unbirth_patch.zip).

Here is a walkthrough, in case you don't want to figure everything out on your own.

And in case you can't find a download, somebody uploaded it here.

Edit: I updated the patch adding two more files.

The first allows progressing into the mansion from street1 (same as one linked above but without the ammo patch, which isn't necessary). The second patch makes it possible to complete the puzzle for the cemetery key, which was broken previously. This makes the game completable without the use of the console.

The basement in house3 remains graphically broken but it is still beatable.

If you want to can also manually make the game run in windowed mode by changing "fullscreen = true" to "fullscreen = false" in "misc\default.cfg", which will allow you to alt tab. You might be able to use an external program to make the game borderless fullscreen.

Lastly I also added a backup in case you want to revert to the unpatched version.

Edit 2: Added a walkthrough for the bits not covered in the other walkthrough:
Spoiler below!

Getting the "Cematary" key:
  • After opening the gate to the street with three houses, enter the basement of the left most house.
  • The basement is graphically broken but it is still possible to beat despite half the walls not rendering properly.
  • Run straight ahead and you will encounter some pipes attached to invisible walls. Further ahead you will see coridor that is actually visible; go right and through the door.
  • This part of the basement isn't hilariously broken, continue ahead and find a Hammer inside a locker (the Cassette tape on top of the hammer is useless but you can pick it up if you wish).
  • Now make your way out of the basement and go to the top floor, and enter the apartment there.
  • Pick up the penknife, enter the diningroom and smash the statue with the hammer, to get the bent "Cematary" key.
  • Enter the apartment on the ground floor, enter the bedroom (door on the left at the end of the hall), use the penknife on the painting of Jesus and pick up the Locker key.
  • Go back inside the basement but this time, when you reach the visible coridor, turn left instead and use the Locker key on the locked locker to get a Pair of tongs. This is the bit that was broken, since the locker key was spelled incorrectly in the map script.
  • Use the Pair of tongs on the "Cematary" key to bend it straight. You can now enter the "Cematary".
Tool location:
  • The other walkthrough gives you a hint on where to find this tool, but since I had way too many issues with finding it I will write down the exact location here.
  • From the same street as before with three houses go in between the two left most houses and keep turning left until you reach a dead end with a bunch of trash cans in it. The tool is in the right most trash can.
Opening the door to the otherside:
  • The other walkthrough will get you most of the way but once you get the four-digit code use it to open the locker outside the chemistry room. This will give you two more chemical jars.
  • Now you have to combine the chemical ingredients in the correct order. If you get it wrong you can use the matches to start over. If you want you can figure it out on your own, the note gives you enough hints but if you just want to get it over with, the correct order is cloride, salt, iron, matches.
  • After you've made the correct mixture use it on the door at the bottom of the stairs, and enjoy your stay in hell.
The otherside key code:
  • Inside the third area in the otherside. This is completely optional and is only here for completeness sake. I have no clue how you are supposed to figure this out, perhaps something to do with the plaques in the first area, but the solution is 0264.


Edit 3: plutomaniac pointed out that if you open "misc\config.cfg", and change "name = d3d9" to "name = d3d8", "house3/basement1" will work render properly.


Attached Files
.zip   unbirth_backup.zip (Size: 878.16 KB / Downloads: 226)
.zip   unbirth_patch.zip (Size: 878.15 KB / Downloads: 277)
(This post was last modified: 07-17-2018, 08:40 PM by Som1Lse.)
05-31-2018, 04:27 PM
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Slanderous Offline
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#2
RE: Unbirth freeze patch

Top job with that, I think I'm gonna check it out
06-01-2018, 12:42 PM
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EnDash Offline
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#3
RE: Unbirth freeze patch

Nice, i'll check it out and see how it goes. I've also tried debugging the game and found an endless loop in the function you talked about but i didn't know how to fix it. I'm trying to name functions and figure out the code from disassembly but it's crazy, this game uses multiple threads and dynamically loaded libraries and function pointers and it's hell.

We'll crack this nut completely one day!

edit: I just finished the entire game using doors as intended, the only times i used the "map" command is when there was no in game way to proceed (going to the cemetery and going to the otherside). This works really well. Good Job!
(This post was last modified: 06-04-2018, 03:44 PM by EnDash.)
06-04-2018, 01:41 PM
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Som1Lse Offline
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#4
RE: Unbirth freeze patch

I updated the patch, which makes it possible to beat the game without using the console (school doesn't need a patch, the walkthrough just missed the solution).
06-05-2018, 09:35 PM
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Som1Lse Offline
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#5
RE: Unbirth freeze patch

Bumping this topic to point out that the last major issue has been fixed, thanks to plutomaniac.

Instructions are in the first post.
07-17-2018, 08:49 PM
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