darkSpyro

Ok, so decided to write a tool to view your figures in windows.
Firstly, in the interest of NOT getting this thread deleted, what is this tool NOT?
1) It is NOT a hacking tool
2) It does NOT clone or copy figures
3) It does NOT edit data or change your figure data

So what IS it?

1) It allows you to backup and restore your figure in case of corruption during play
2) It allows you to VIEW your stats out of the game.

This program runs in Windows and has been developed with the wireless portal (Others should/may work but your mileage will vary lots!) It shouldn't need any special drivers installed as the portal is detected as a USB HID Device. If it doesn't work you MAY try installing the SpyroWebPortal Driver but that shouldn't be needed.

It runs as a normal Windows program, no need to use command prompt! A window will open with some nice big buttons to click.

The decoded stats will show your your characters money, Level, Hat, Nickname as well as their upgrades/path and which Heroics they have or have not completed.

For anybody that has a large number of figures and actually plays them on the game rather than just collecting (which is fine, but you don't need this tool) I hope that this would be a great way to see what figures had/have what.

This tool WILL NOT contain the Activision Key for decoding figures. You will need a key file which can easily be created from the existing information on the net distributed with the old Skylander Editor tool.

So to make this clear. This tool will not contain anything copyright or patent Activision. It will not allow hacking or editing of figures in any way and will be completely legal.

That said, I would like to get some feedback on what people WANT and how much desire there is for this!

Please feel free to reply here and discuss.

I think the ability to see a figure's Hero Level (Skylanders Universe) would be nice. It's a useless stat now, but it used to be there and I honestly feel like it's a part of the franchise history. Also, we don't currently have any way to see a Giant figure's Hero Level(though if they never got that written to them it's pointless anyway...).

Also, maybe viewing Quests would be nice?

Hero level should be easy to add, I will do that.
Quests? Is that like Heroic challenges ? Are they also part of the online system?
If so I don't think they are stored on the figure at all.

I am also putting in a feature where it will load an image of the figure in question.
At the moment it is a generic picture for each figure, just one Image for "Eruptor" instead of a picture for each version of him.
these are 150x150 24bit bmp images that you simply place in the "images" folder.

The Quests are a system from Giants stored on the figure.

Seriously? I play Giants and am unsure what you mean by Quests?

Go into your figure's stat screen and select the Quest option and you can view Quests. They're basically little tasks you can complete with each Skylander to unlock some hats. Each element gets several different ones in addition to three universal ones, and each Skylander has a unique task.

Example: Ghost Roaster's Quest is to defeat 100 enemies using his Skull Charge.

Oh! Yes those!

I am pretty sure that is all stored in the game save and keyed off your figure ID.

If you have a "visiting" figure to try, ie one that you didn't earn those quests on that game with, try and see if they still appear. I think not, but I will look into it further.

Quote: Arc of Archives

I think the ability to see a figure's Hero Level (Skylanders Universe) would be nice. It's a useless stat now, but it used to be there and I honestly feel like it's a part of the franchise history. Also, we don't currently have any way to see a Giant figure's Hero Level(though if they never got that written to them it's pointless anyway...).

Also, maybe viewing Quests would be nice?

Yes a way the see the hero level would be great!

Will it contain a database that stores all figures placed on the portal? If i could somehow tie the figure from the database to a video link or a locally stored video of the character's intro/tagline, my son would love that!

i think that backup option will be nice, i got a none working spyro and it was a hassle to send by mail. this tool will make me save my figures and no more sending by mail. it is great

You don't need to send by mail if they simply corrupt, you can just "Reset broken toys" on most version of the game.

If you cannot recover the figure by doing the in game reset then it is BROKEN and will need to be sent off, this will not fix actually broken toys, just recover corruption from a backup.

However, resetting DOES erase them totally, so you could then restore them easily with this tool so you don't lose all your progress.

Currently it saves each figure as a single file with the file name of your choosing. I could make some kind of database that held all dumps and maybe even multiple versions to allow for older backups to be recovered. Is there any real need for this though?

I would love a program like this, as I have been wanting a way to back up my figure data.

I was thinking the database would be more for tracking what figures you have backed up, some sore of easy way to inventory everything. I have lots of figures.

Quote: the48thronin

I was thinking the database would be more for tracking what figures you have backed up, some sore of easy way to inventory everything. I have lots of figures.

This would be great.

I will look into making a database file that contains all your backups, maybe store the date they were made too.
That would allow me to add a list of figures you have backed up to the app too.

Nice ideas guys!

I would love to see the code for this (software developer), but yes, the app would be great, too.

How about an option to reset "special" figures - Reset them to Level 5 and 2100 gold?

Granted, this could be abused for those who make "custom" fake variants...

A button to export the data to either an Excel-compatible format or copied to the clipboard in such a format would definitely be useful to me. That way, the data could be dumped into Excel (or a compatible database program) and be manipulated/viewed however the end user chooses. I like most of what Skylister has become, but with so many figures, it's a huge pain to enter all the data manually and keep it up to date.

-Doug

Quote: UncleBob

How about an option to reset "special" figures - Reset them to Level 5 and 2100 gold?

Granted, this could be abused for those who make "custom" fake variants...

People would know, because you can't override the character ID that is used to display on screen a character is "Special" etc.

I would like to be able to get a figure back to "new in store" configuration. Let the program determine what that is by reading the character id.

Quote: darkchylde28

A button to export the data to either an Excel-compatible format or copied to the clipboard in such a format would definitely be useful to me. That way, the data could be dumped into Excel (or a compatible database program) and be manipulated/viewed however the end user chooses. I like most of what Skylister has become, but with so many figures, it's a huge pain to enter all the data manually and keep it up to date.

-Doug

Integration with mobile programs would be a plus. An intermediate format would make it application agnostic--let the mobile app developer write to the specs you support.

Pyrofer: I'd like to be able to see my unique serial number...they took this away from us in Universe and I'd like it back in the event the secret code sheet that came with the figure becomes lost. (the serial number on the sheet is in fact on the figure itself).

Ok, the export idea is great. While you essentially get that with "save" I see the point that there should be format options.

I will have to get in touch with the Skylister guy to agree a format for exporting that can be imported into his app. I was thinking of making a fixed size DB that held up to 500 figures, I can't imagine people having more that they want to track So maybe we can just sync the whole DB over the internet to the mobile app so Skylister could know your stats too! There could be firewall issues with this and I would want to avoid requiring a middleman server...

I was planning a "reset to factory" anyway, if I can make this work for "specials" too I will.

As for serial number, I am not sure the UID from the RFID tag IS the Serial number. There is another one stored that is described as "Trading Card ID" which may line up?

I will need dumps of figures with comparisons of what people expect the numbers to be to help me locate the data.

Quote: Pyrofer

Ok, the export idea is great. While you essentially get that with "save" I see the point that there should be format options.

I will have to get in touch with the Skylister guy to agree a format for exporting that can be imported into his app. I was thinking of making a fixed size DB that held up to 500 figures, I can't imagine people having more that they want to track So maybe we can just sync the whole DB over the internet to the mobile app so Skylister could know your stats too! There could be firewall issues with this and I would want to avoid requiring a middleman server...

I was planning a "reset to factory" anyway, if I can make this work for "specials" too I will.

As for serial number, I am not sure the UID from the RFID tag IS the Serial number. There is another one stored that is described as "Trading Card ID" which may line up?

I will need dumps of figures with comparisons of what people expect the numbers to be to help me locate the data.

It is. The same number you get on the trading cards got evaluated in Universe when you placed the character on the portal. The previous individual who worked on the RFID data did get the block in was stored in. Trading Card ID sounds right---I called it Serial number but it's the same thing. I wasn't able to de-mystify the data block on the day I was entertained with understanding it, but I'd love to hear any progress you might make on it.

If you want the reset to be specific to the character, you'll probably need a list of character id and behavior expectations. In order for this list to be ever expansive you may have to pull down this information from a server somewhere; this is similar to how SkylLister works for expanding its inventory without needing an application update. It may prevent it from being a feature since I'm sure you're not going to take it that far.

I love the idea of using secure Web Services of exchanging information from your application to SkyLister, but that sounds like version 3.0

Lol, I was mostly done through writing a big thing about Skylister when I read the last posts.

Newly modified:

I've recently added an Export and Import function to Skylister (in current version), so I could see letting users use your tool to get the data, you generate an export that could be uploaded to my Skylister site. That would generate a file that could then be imported. My format is really simple as I don't collect everything about a character. However, if the data is out there, then I'd be fine adding more of that information in.

Also note: I have already submitted an iPad version to the app store which should be approved in the next day or two (or three). The extra screen space makes it way easier to show information.

For an example of the export file, http://skylister.azurewebsites...es/71b7b68c.txt. It's just JSON and it's exactly how I store the characters in the app as well. Copy and paste the content to a site like http://jsonlint.com/ and you can read it really easily. That file, is the latest export from my collection too. I think the main thing to coordinate is the id on the figures to the codes I use.

So, sounds good to me. I'd love that for my own uses for sure.

However, is it Swap Force compliant yet? Assuming not yet, not until everything is released.

What you two would need to do is compare how the data is stored and come up with a format that would work for Skylister. Not sure it's all lined up.

I like the idea of the program build a local db of your "inventory" and then combined with whatever data you can gather give it to Skylister in JSON.

Sounds do-able, but there's going to need to be some norming between you two to rationalize data format (in Skylister's case the decision to ignore or include additional details).

Quote: Arc of Archives

I think the ability to see a figure's Hero Level (Skylanders Universe) would be nice. It's a useless stat now, but it used to be there and I honestly feel like it's a part of the franchise history. Also, we don't currently have any way to see a Giant figure's Hero Level(though if they never got that written to them it's pointless anyway...).

Also, maybe viewing Quests would be nice?

and change your HERO level! Cuz... We don't have universe anymore

My App is already Swap Force compliant

However, I do not have anywhere NEAR enough info to start making it read the correct information. For example I need a complete list of Characters and their ID.
This is made slightly easier by my other work that will let me get a sneak peak at ANY character in ANY game by editing a special card with any character ID I want That however will not be public.

I also don't have dumps of any SF characters yet which I NEED.

If anybody has an early SF character and wants to send me dumps I can provide the latest version of this beta app to get them.

If the trading card ID is the Universe unlock code, it should be something like one of these:

xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxx-xxxxx

x being the appropriate letters and numbers. They're ten digit codes.

Also, Quests are stored on the figure. I got Gold rank with S2 Spyro on my Wii U (played him on that console until he had everything done) and playing him on the XBox 360 the Quests and Gold Rank showed up. Same with my S2 Drobot.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: UncleBob

How about an option to reset "special" figures - Reset them to Level 5 and 2100 gold?

Granted, this could be abused for those who make "custom" fake variants...

People would know, because you can't override the character ID that is used to display on screen a character is "Special" etc.

But, for SSA chase variants, they don't have the "Special" tag on them.

Quote: Pyrofer

I will look into making a database file that contains all your backups, maybe store the date they were made too.
That would allow me to add a list of figures you have backed up to the app too.

Nice ideas guys!

Do not do a one big file which will contain all backups. Make a folder(directory) in file system which will be you database. Create subfolder there named "backups" and put skylanders data into this subfolder (every skylander in separate file, file has creation date, modification date). In the root folder you can have catalog (registry) for list of made backups and any other information you want to associate with the backups - for example some comments from user which he/she can add during creating of backups. It would be nice if you create this registry in text format - XML, plain text, - anything, but text, not binary.

As one of possible use case for separate backup files for the same skylander - you have only one Spyro and you tried one path for him, backup him, then reset and tryed another path, backup it too and now you have very nice ability to switch paths on any fully leveled skylander - with all his bells and whistles aka heroics, quests, etc.

Since we cannot switch path for light cores and SSA skylanders - your tool wil get us such ability. There is nothing wrong with it - your tool will not hack skylander but just restore it to the state from the backup. All levels, heroics and quests were earned by users themselves, not hacked.

P.S. If possible I would like to take a look at the part of the source code how to read/write to the skylander's memory chip.

Quote: UncleBob

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: UncleBob

How about an option to reset "special" figures - Reset them to Level 5 and 2100 gold?

Granted, this could be abused for those who make "custom" fake variants...

People would know, because you can't override the character ID that is used to display on screen a character is "Special" etc.

But, for SSA chase variants, they don't have the "Special" tag on them.

In fact, I think the character id is EXACTLY the same on those...so no real solution there. Real geniuses

"Do not do a one big file which will contain all backups. Make a folder(directory) in file system which will be you database. Create subfolder there named "backups" and put skylanders data into this subfolder (every skylander in separate file, file has creation date, modification date). In the root folder you can have catalog (registry) for list of made backups and any other information you want to associate with the backups"

I just read that, after having spent the whole evening working on the app and already having come to the exact same conclusion.
There will be a small db index in the root and a subfolder containing all the figure files. So yeah, what he said

If the "special" variants etc ONLY differ in that they have some pre-loaded stats then there is no way to detect that, but also no real problem. The "special-ness" of them is based on the figure itself and the packaging, so just being able to set a figure to Level 5 2100 gold means NOTHING on it's own. I will probably put that as a reset option later on.

Did loads on the app last night, so it's coming on well. I will need to look into the quests thing a lot more! I set up the Hero level thing and can easily access the Trading card ID but will need people to test and verify the right info is being shown soon.
I will need to do dumps of figures before and after achieving certain quests so I can track the data changes. This is going to take a while! (I still have 10 Heroics missing )

Quote: Pyrofer

My App is already Swap Force compliant

However, I do not have anywhere NEAR enough info to start making it read the correct information. For example I need a complete list of Characters and their ID.
This is made slightly easier by my other work that will let me get a sneak peak at ANY character in ANY game by editing a special card with any character ID I want That however will not be public.

I also don't have dumps of any SF characters yet which I NEED.

If anybody has an early SF character and wants to send me dumps I can provide the latest version of this beta app to get them.

I can help get you the character ids. I'm backing up my skylanders shortly after I finish ~8 more skylanders for upgrading.

This is the link to the latest .exe for this. It will NOT work without the key file and contains nothing copyrighted or patented.

https://mega.co.nz/#!NZ5VAJIS!...MvKcSI9WfUfzRZQ

This is version 1.0 (as were all previous versions). Any further updates will increment the version number which you can find in the about box.

Latest version, 1.2 (minor bug fixes from 1.1)
https://mega.co.nz/#!ANpESJLK!...B5ST1L29jXnCoJo


Now has list sorting enabled, by Gold, Experience, Series or game. Alphabetical sorting works now.
You will need to do a load then save on each figure to make sorting work as meta-data needs to be added to database.
Future added figures will work correctly from the start.

folder structure has changed, instead of a single images folder there are now a few. Add your photos as 150x150 24bit bmp files.

lcImages - for Lightcore figure photos
lgImages - for Legendary figures
saImages - for Spyro's Adventure figures (green base)
sgImages - for Giants figures (Orange base)
sfImages - for Swap Force figures (blue base)
dumps - for saving the figure data

Open the App, go to file open database. You can load a figure by double clicking them in the list or from the file menu.

i'm sure i can make a key file, but currently i have no idea what the key file is or even means? searched google and didnt find any answers. i have the source and (self compiled) versions of skylanders editor. little help?

Quote: Pyrofer

Oh! Yes those!

I am pretty sure that is all stored in the game save and keyed off your figure ID.

If you have a "visiting" figure to try, ie one that you didn't earn those quests on that game with, try and see if they still appear. I think not, but I will look into it further.

No, they're stored on the figure. EVERYTHING that is specific to a character is stored on the figure, that's how it's been all along, I'm surprised you have to ask. When I use my figures in my Nightmare save game, they're technically Guest figures, and they still have their Quests, and their Quest hats are still unlocked. And this also goes for when I use them on my nephews' Wii (I play on an XBox). There's no question, this is on the figures.

Quote: PlayableMoogle

I would love to see the code for this (software developer), but yes, the app would be great, too.

Yeah, ditto, LOL!

I don't know if this was suggested before (this is a pretty wordy topic), but maybe you could add collecter leaderboards and ranks. Maybe even achievement-type things.

Quote: Ryanator20x6

I don't know if this was suggested before (this is a pretty wordy topic), but maybe you could add collecter leaderboards and ranks. Maybe even achievement-type things.

This is a backup/restore tool with the capability of seeing some stats from your figure. Not sure where that request fits in.

I have PM'd you exosquad...

While this was originally meant to be a Stat viewer only, the database has been added and is extremely useful. I see no reason not to expand the app where it is within my means and seems like a good idea.

Showing some basic stats is a good idea, number of SSA figures, Giants figures etc, number of Lightcore figures and such are easy to count from the DB and show. You can sort them by various stats now in the figure list already.
If people give me good ideas and I can think of a nice way to present them in the app I am quite willing to do what I can!

When you say leaderboards though I assume you mean comparing against other people? This would need some kind of remote server which I don't have. I could probably mirror the in game achievements such as "collect 24 Orange base figures" etc fairly easily.
My concentration at the moment is on decoding the difference in the Giants data to SSA. The original author of the Editor did all the hard work (my credit to him, this wouldn't be possible otherwise) and decoded the data structure for SSA. However this has changed for Giants and is proving a nightmare for me to decode without hacking the game (which I am not doing).

Awesome to see someone working on a GUI of sorts.

Command line, although crude, does work, but as would be expected, a GUI version would be more well-received.


I have a 36 byte example.key in the same folder, I hope that's what it's looking for.

On the other hand I'm not certain this will even work with any of my wired portals...unfortunately I do not have a wireless one at all (360 Wired, Wii/PS3/PC/WiiU Wired, and 3DS).

If you have anything you would like tested, shoot me a PM.
I have a fairly exhaustive collection and VS2012...that and I like tinkering with stuff, hence the editor in the first place.

Yeah, I'm mystified by these claims of needed (and not providing) some key file... How are we supposed to get it, and why not provide it?

@niceguy1
posting a decryption key is equal to posting a pirated game and breaks all sorts of DMCA and other laws about reverse engineering stuff. activision would not be happy. so i can understand the vagueness of his claims. but then again, the key was easily obtained by the original author of the editor by just sniffing USB data from the portal. (the encryption was pretty weak)

everyone else:
this is my experience with the original skylanders editor and getting/restoring data from my figures. i highly recommend everyone to use the 3ds portal (ebay and they are cheap). its the most compatible one so far(you can use it over usb on wii/ps3/pc versions and skylanders spyros adventure for PC sees it and works perfectly with it). xbox 360 being the least compatible. wireless and wired shouldnt matter (but does vary), but wired is better-er and spyro adventure/giants portals, not the new swapforce portal. x86 windows, xp and 7 are fine. and if you need to run as administrator helps. as as the op says milage varies a LOT with alpha/beta type code and different windows/drivers/system configurations. my testing was done on 3 different computers using 4 different versions of windows.

im very excited that someone else has taken up this project. i love the ability to backup and restore things. having had many skylanders get corrupted in just playing the game, it sucks to lose all that info and have to start over.

sorry for all the edits

exosquad hit the nail on the head when he said I can't publish Activisions key. I just can't.

Also, it was made clear that the key exists on the internet already. When I publish the app I will give instructions on how to make a valid key file from the existing info on the net which was contained in the source for the original command line editor tool. It's not as simple as just copying their key into a text file but will be easy enough to do with simple instructions.
I am sure once somebody has done it the file will get shared around anyway. I just can't have anything to do with it.

I have been developing my app to work with the wireless portal that most people have. It was also designed to not need the spyro drivers, just plug the portal into USB on your PC and it will be added as a HID device. This should work perfectly with my app. No messing required.

I have been testing on a win7 64bit machine too. When I get closer to release I will start getting testing done on other systems to make sure it is compatible with them. For now I just want to get it working on mine

Just did a quick test, it worked with both my iOS and 3DS portals. 3DS one seemed to work best while the iOS one worked then went funny and stopped reporting figures. No idea why!
This was using a USB cable to the port on the side of both of these.
The PC wired portal also worked fine.

Interesting...My Wired and 3DS portals kind of did exactly what you stated about the BT portal. They 'went funny' (In my case the software hangs), and then they stopped reporting figurines. I was able to fix them by firing up giants and connecting the portals there, but strange nontheless.

Looking forward to seeing how this program develops, also awesome so see that x64 is the developing platform, resolves many many headaches that would happen otherwise.

I downloaded the latest version, but it indicates it is not a win32 file and will not run the downloaded executable. Am I suffering from PEBKAC?

Can you tell me what version of windows are you running? Is it 32 or 64 bit?

I have tried this with two machines (desktop and acer netbook) using x32 Win XP Pro. Is the .NET framework required?

win xp 32bit does not work, ive confirmed it.

Unfortunate. Thanks for the info!

Okay, I somewhat understand the issue - especially not wanting to be the one to betray Activision, as it were - though I'm still fuzzy as to why that information can't just be built into the tool at a code level instead of having some separate file...

My concern is also based on always being burned by things not being included. Ages ago when I got Visual Studio 5.0, it didn't include the help files (which I think is ridiculous that this version even existed, programming programs need help files more than anything else, who can remember the exact syntax for every command?), with assurances that they could just be downloaded separately from Microsoft. Well, by the time I got around to trying, said files were nowhere to be found! And now, even if I found them, I'm sure they're in a format that recent versions of stupid Windows will say are no longer compatible with Windows, and instead of helpful help I'll get a help file on why I'm not seeing my help file, that they only support Compact HTML now (which seems inferior).

So the concept of something necessary not being included really rings alarm bells for me. Sorry, rant over, LOL!

(To be clear, I'm not trying to change your mind, it's clear to me that's not happening)

I will try and find out why it doesn't work on 32bit XP.
Does anybody have 32bit Win 7 to test?

If I put the Activision Key IN the program, Activision can stop me developing and releasing the program. I don't want that.

I am sorry it's not as easy as download and run but I assure you the keyfile will be easy to get from information already on the net. I have not worried about this yet as it's still not finished and being beta tested by a few people for me.

Oh, and the latest visual studio express 2013 is free and DOES with with all the help files It's what I am using right now so I suggest you look into it.