ACE Development

ACE Online development and reverse engineering across 3.5 - packet structures, source modifications, custom content and emulator internals.

This is the section for changing how ACE Online works rather than running it as shipped: reading and rebuilding the protocol, adding items, maps and systems, writing tooling around the file formats, and the work of building an emulator where no server files exist.

ACE Online - also Air Rivals and AceOnline - keeps its private server files by episode, with EP2, EP3, EP3.2, EP3.3, EP3.5, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.6 recurring. Named sets: ACE-Pack Spoonfeed Edition, NewAce, X-Rivals files V2, a VMware Ep4.6 server/client, and the EP_35_Source, EP_43_Source_DA and EP_46_Source_VS2019 sources, retargeted to Visual Studio 2013, 2019 and 2022 with MFC. Setup is Windows with MSSQL 2005 or 2008 R2: restore atum2_db_account and atum2_db_1, use atum/callweb, put the ODBC names in global.cfg, copy AceOnline.atm to the client Res-tex/Res-exe and .obj/.dat back to the server. Server executables and admin tools need IPs XOR-patched; HackShield, Omi.tex edited with DatEdit, and .sma, .dat and .map editing recur.

Episodes covered here 3.5

Common questions

How do I start writing a ACE Online emulator?

By understanding the protocol. Capture the traffic between a client and a real server, work out the packet structure and any encryption, then answer the client's login sequence from your own listener. The threads here document that work for ACE Online.

Can I add custom content to ACE Online?

Yes, and how far depends on whether you have source. With source you can change server behaviour directly. With binaries only you are limited to the database, the config and the client files - still enough for custom items, rates and maps on most builds.

Where is the ACE Online source code?

Where a source release exists it is posted in the ACE Online releases section. Where it does not, the work in this section is reverse engineering it from the client and from captured traffic.

Tags used in ACE Development

• private server ace online
• ace online