https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/tags/unreal-engine-3/ Recent content in Unreal-Engine-3 on Reviving Fury Hugo en-us Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:30:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/two-doors-into-the-arena/ Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:30:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/two-doors-into-the-arena/ There are two ways to get a character standing in the map. I’ve been putting off choosing between them until I knew what the client actually needs. Now I do, so here’s the call and why. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-client-wont-talk-so-i-opened-it-up/ Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-client-wont-talk-so-i-opened-it-up/ The client stopped narrating what it was doing, so the trick that got me through the last four posts was dead. I had to stop watching the game and start reading the machine code underneath it. First disassembler of the project. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-clients-first-step-onto-the-map/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 23:15:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-clients-first-step-onto-the-map/ The server says WELCOME. The client, which has spent this whole project stuck on a transition screen, reads it, packs up, and tries to load the actual arena map. Then it asks to join the match. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-handshake-answers-back/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 21:30:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-handshake-answers-back/ Last post my server could hear the client say HELLO. This post it says something back, and the client, which has been shouting into a dead socket for eighteen years, answers with three messages I didn’t have to ask for. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-first-word-heard/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 20:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-first-word-heard/ I started actually writing the server. It’s about a hundred lines so far and it does exactly one thing: it hears the client say HELLO and understands it. But that’s the first time anything I’ve written has been on the other end of that conversation. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-pawn-before-the-player/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 18:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-pawn-before-the-player/ I traced the shortest path through Fury’s own code from ‘a player connected’ to ‘a character exists and can move’. The character turns out to exist first. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-clients-first-word/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 17:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-clients-first-word/ I pointed a 16-year-old game client at a server that doesn’t exist and listened. It said hello in plain English. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-server-nobody-kept/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 16:30:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-server-nobody-kept/ I went looking for an existing Unreal Engine 3 server I could build on top of. Every one I found cheats in a way I can’t. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/opening-phase-3/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/opening-phase-3/ Phase 2 is done. I’ve read the whole game. Now comes the part where I have to build the thing that’s actually missing. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/cracking-the-data-files/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/cracking-the-data-files/ The client ships every ability, item, vendor and map in a custom binary format with no docs. I cracked it from a hex dump in an afternoon, and then noticed that a huge chunk of the tables aren’t in the box at all. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-server-is-in-there-switched-off/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 08:30:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-server-is-in-there-switched-off/ I started reading the decompiled arena code and found the server logic sitting right next to the client logic in the same files, fully written, wired to a switch that’s soldered to ‘off’. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/tell-me-what-i-missed/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/tell-me-what-i-missed/ I’ve been working on this alone and some of my early conclusions are load-bearing. If you’ve cracked open an old Unreal Engine 3 game before, this post is me asking you to check my work. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-decompiler-reads-the-whole-game/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 07:30:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-decompiler-reads-the-whole-game/ Last time eight of ten test functions came back readable. Then I pointed the tool at the one class that actually matters and it fell over on 111 functions out of 150. This is the fix, and the moment the whole codebase finally dumped to disk. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/teaching-the-decompiler-fury/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 07:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/teaching-the-decompiler-fury/ The tool that turns Fury’s compiled code back into something readable crashes on the first file. A day later it is reconstructing real Fury functions, and I know the one specific thing still standing between me and the rest. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/no-shortcut-time-to-dig/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 06:30:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/no-shortcut-time-to-dig/ Half a day of poking the dead client with a stick is done. It’s in great shape. Every way in is bricked shut. So the next stretch is the slow one: decompiling. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/can-the-client-host-a-game/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/can-the-client-host-a-game/ The shortcut was: get the game to quietly host a match for itself, no server needed. I tried it. The door is welded shut, same as the last three. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/what-the-client-says-first/ Mon, 07 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/what-the-client-says-first/ I point the dead game’s login at a tiny program I wrote, just to eavesdrop on the very first thing it tries to say to a server that isn’t there anymore. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-client-runs-the-side-doors-dont/ Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-client-runs-the-side-doors-dont/ A 16-year-old game boots on Windows 11 and hands me the whole character screen with nothing behind it. Then every other door I try is bricked shut. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-client-has-the-server-inside-it/ Mon, 07 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/the-client-has-the-server-inside-it/ I set up the project, wrote a plan, had it audited, and found out the plan was aimed at the wrong problem. The client I have is also way more generous than I thought. https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/why-im-reviving-a-dead-mmo/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +1200 https://jamerlybob.github.io/fury-devlog/posts/why-im-reviving-a-dead-mmo/ Kicking off a project to reverse-engineer and revive Fury, a 2007 MMO that’s been dead since 2008.