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Working with Game Globals

PCDogs globals are known pieces of game data exposed through the SDK. When possible, use those helpers instead of raw addresses.

A global helper can tell you whether the symbol was found, read the value with the right type, and decide whether normal writes are allowed.

Reading globals safely

Read() returns DTTR_Result. DTTR_OK means the value was read; failures such as unresolved symbol or read failure are reported in result.status.

static int32_t last_lives;

DTTR_MODS_FRAME_BEGIN {
    int16_t lives = 0;
    if (DTTR_ResultOK(DTTR_PCDOGS_D_UI_LivesCounterLastValue->Read(&lives))) {
        last_lives = lives;
    }
}

Checking write policies

Writing game memory is not always safe. Check Policy() before writing to a global.

  • RAW_MEMORY: Write() may update the value after availability and memory-permission checks.
  • READ_ONLY: Use for inspection only. These are usually decoded tables, dispatch slots, jumps, opcodes, or indexes.
  • ENGINE_MANAGED: The game manages this pointer or state and may replace or overwrite it.
  • PATCH_ONLY: Change this through patch or hook flows, not direct writes.
  • UNKNOWN: The symbol has not been classified enough for normal writes.

Write() only succeeds for RAW_MEMORY globals. For every other policy, design the related functions around reading, patching, or hooking instead.

Read/write helpers return DTTR_Result, so callers always get a status and may also get a detail message:

  • Status() reports whether the SDK data descriptor is resolved.
  • Read(...) distinguishes unresolved descriptors from read failures.
  • Write(...) returns DTTR_ERR_POLICY_MISMATCH when the symbol is not RAW_MEMORY.
  • UnsafeWrite(...) still bypasses policy, but it reports unresolved and write-failed states explicitly.

Bypassing write policies

UnsafeWrite() bypasses Policy(). It still requires writable process memory but that does not imply the write is safe.

Using UnsafeWrite() in normal mod behavior bypasses the SDK's safety policy and can corrupt game-managed state. Reserve it for reverse-engineering experiments, explicit patching work, or SDK internals.

If another SDK API requires an address or if you are doing unsupported reverse-engineering work, see Manually Resolving Symbols.