Developer Mode

Found on a crate in
Syndicate Warehouse

Developer Mode is a bundle of features created by Bungie West to help them develop Oni: a console line for entering scripting commands, manual camera controls, and various debugging features. It is enabled by the cheat code thedayismine (see "Download it..." below before trying the code).

Despite being hinted at by a crate texture (right) and leaked as part of a list of cheat codes during beta testing, this cheat code did not work upon Oni's release, and it was long believed that Developer Mode had been cut from retail versions of Oni. However, Dev Mode is actually present in all available versions of Oni. It just needed to be unlocked, as the community learned back in 2006.

Below you will find download links, unlocking instructions, and finally an overview of the Developer Mode's features. For Dev Mode features lurking in the PS2 version of Oni, first discovered in 2017, see Oni (PlayStation 2).

Getting it to work

Download it...

In Windows, you can install the Daodan DLL to unlock Developer Mode; note that the Anniversary Edition installs the Daodan DLL automatically.
On the Mac, the Intel build of Oni already has Dev Mode unlocked; note that the Anniversary Edition installs the Intel build automatically.

          

...or do it yourself

...or do it yourself

You may want to read this if your Windows version of Oni is not covered by the above DLL (e.g. if you have an odd language version) or if your Mac is not running the Intel build (though a Dev Mode-enabled version of the last PPC build is HERE).

First, get a good hex editor. Ideally, it should allow you to search for sequences containing joker characters (that is, wildcards or bit masks). One such editor for PC is XVI32. On Macs, CI Hex Viewer is free, powerful, and can perform the search you need, but Hex Fiend has a better comparison function so you can check your work afterward (open original and edited binaries and choose File>Compare "Oni" and "Oni").

Cheat code lookup tables

Cheat codes and IDs

shapeshifter 0x00 liveforever 0x01 touchofdeath 0x02 canttouchthis 0x03 fatloot 0x04 glassworld 0x05 winlevel 0x06 loselevel 0x07 bighead 0x08 minime 0x09 superammo 0x0A

thedayismine 0x0B reservoirdogs 0x0C roughjustice 0x0D chenille 0x0E behemoth 0x0F elderrune 0x10 moonshadow 0x11 munitionfrenzy 0x12 fistsoflegend 0x13 killmequick 0x14 carousel 0x15

Cheat overview

There are 22 cheat events in every version of Oni, indexed from 0 to 21 (or 0x00 to 0x15 in hexadecimal). See table on right; the cheat code omitted by Bungie, thedayismine, is in bold. The four italicized cheat codes are "one-way" cheats that do not have on/off states, which affects the table described below.

The order is the same in every version, so we can refer to the cheats by their ID, or by the cheat code used to activate them.

Cheat lookup table

When you type characters in the "pause screen", the text you enter is progressively compared with all the strings in the cheat table.

When and if there is a match, the corresponding confirmation message is displayed for enablement/confirmation or for disablement if the cheat was already on, and the corresponding cheat event takes effect when the Pause screen is closed.

In full, each row of the cheat table consists of:

• a pointer to the cheat code string
• a pointer to the "enabled"/recognition message
• a pointer to the "disabled" message (if any)
• the internal ID of the cheat event to launch

There is a row for every cheat, and they appear by order of increasing ID. In most Oni builds, the developer mode cheat (ID 0x0B) is simply skipped over; reservoirdogs (0x0C) comes right after superammo (0x0A).

Data size on different platforms

In the Windows retail, Windows demo and macOS PPC builds, every row of the lookup table takes up 16 bytes; the 3 pointers and the ID are 4-byte data words (Little Endian on PC, Big Endian on PPC Macs); if a cheat has no "disabled" message, the row's third pointer is null.

In the Mac OS 9 builds, the pointers and the ID are 2-byte words (Big Endian); regular rows take up 8 bytes; for one-way cheats with no "disabled" message, weird stuff happens to the third pointer and to the ID, and the row takes up 10 bytes... the ID can be found in what would be the first byte of the ID field instead of the second, and the remaining 3 bytes are garbage. An additional garbage byte is added between consecutive one-way cheats (0x06 and 0x07).

Let's kill killmequick

In the Windows, Windows demo and macOS PPC builds, there's extra space at the end of the lookup table and where the cheat codes/messages are stored, so one can add thedayismine as an extra cheat. On Mac OS 9, the data is packed tighter (and the text strings are stored together with their size), so the only easy way is to replace an existing cheat. Since replacing an existing cheat is the only solution that works on all platforms, the following mini-tutorial will explain how to bind the Developer Mode cheat event to the Ultra Mode cheat code killmequick (since hardly anyone uses that cheat).

Finding the lookup table

Open the executable (or the data fork of the executable in the Mac OS 9 build), after backing it up of course.... We shall look for the last three elements of the table, corresponding to fistsoflegend, killmequick and carousel.

In the Windows retail and demo builds, look for 13 00 00 00 ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## 14 00 00 00 ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## 15 00 00 00

In the macOS PPC build, look for 00 00 00 13 ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## 00 00 00 14 ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## 00 00 00 15 (sample pic)

In the Mac OS 9 build, look for 00 13 ## ## ## ## ## ## 00 14 ## ## ## ## ## ## 00 15 (sample pic)

where the ## are joker characters (wildcard bytes). Once you've found that data (make sure it occurs only once in the file), replace the 14 with a 0B.

Developer Mode will now be enabled/disabled every time you type killmequick at the Pause screen; you'll get "Ultra Mode Enabled" and "Ultra Mode Disabled" as confirmation messages.

Using it

First check

Cheats are normally unavailable until you finish the full version of the game, and Developer Mode can only be activated through a cheat code. For unlocking cheats "manually" (especially necessary with the demos), see HERE. However, cheats are enabled all the time when the Daodan DLL is installed in Windows or when using the Mac Intel build.

Enter the Pause screen (default key F1) and look for a confirmation message after typing the Developer Mode cheat (thedayismine, or killmequick if you followed the DIY tutorial, or just x -- the DLL and Intel build provide that shortcut). However, you may not notice anything special when you get back to the game (although there should be occasional console messages appearing at the bottom-left).

The quickest way to tell whether Dev Mode definitely works, right after you get the confirmation message, is to exit the Diary screen and to press End. That should teleport you to where the camera is (usually back and up, possibly through walls and ceilings).

Here's another quick test, meant to see if the Control and Alt keys work fine (on Mac, use the Option key instead of Alt): Ctrl+Shift+U and Ctrl+Alt+U should both perform the "unstick" action; Konoko will shift forward by a small amount.

Console output

In Developer Mode, Oni prints debug messages about in-game events along the bottom-left of the screen. Past messages scroll up across the screen and fade. In some situations, messages don't fade (e.g. if character debugging is enabled or you are currently using the console line).

The easiest way to check whether that output works at all is to press F8: the character class change is acknowledged with a console message.

If you don't see anything, that means console output is unfortunately disabled in your version of Oni. If you're using the Windows version of Oni and you applied Ian's patch (the old WinXP patch, no longer offered because it is superseded by the Daodan DLL), that may be what disabled console output. In Windows demo Oni, both console output and console input are invisible (i.e. you can enter script commands, but you're "blindfolded").

Console input

By default, Oni auto-binds the "console" toggle to the key to the left of the numeric row. On U.S. QWERTY keyboards, this is the key with a grave accent, `, in the lowercase position and a tilde, ~, in the uppercase position. It is usually called the "tilde key" by users, and perhaps even elsewhere on this wiki; however, you would have to hold Shift to type a tilde, and the console is activated by just pressing the key without Shift, thus it is actually the "grave accent key" which activates the console.

On non-U.S. keyboards, that key may not be recognized. Just add a line like "bind leftalt to console" to key_config.txt in your Oni folder and you'll be able to open the console with that key. In some cases, this bound key will not close the console; however, pressing the grave accent key, oddly enough, may work. Or you can press the appropriate key for your layout:

Danish QWERTY: The ½ key to the left of the numeric row.

German QWERTZ: The circumflex accent key, ^. In Windows, if playing Oni in windowed mode, you should use "rightalt" as your alternative console binding because "leftalt" activates the window's menu, stealing Oni's controls.

Features

Many of the features listed below no longer work as intended, or work at all, either due to changes to the code made at the end of development or the absence in retail Oni of resources that the features were intended to call upon, such as level0_Tools. Nevertheless, some of these features are helpful for modders, most notably the camera controls and dev console.

Hotkeys

Below are Oni's hardcoded mappings for Developer Mode functions. The Alt key (Option key on Macs) can be used in place of Ctrl. Ctrl is called "Strg" on German keyboards.

The "U.S. QWERTY" column gives the standard hotkeys (the keys intended by the American developers to be pressed). In the "German QWERTZ" and "French AZERTY" columns, the hotkeys differing from U.S. QWERTY are shown. If you have another type of keyboard that you would like to have incorporated into the table, feel free to add a column (or ask for it on the talk page).

If a hotkey's functionality has been restored in Windows using the Daodan DLL, it will be checked off here. Stuff that doesn't work has been grouped at the end of the table.

U.S. QWERTY	German QWERTZ	French AZERTY	Description	Windows	Mac
` (grave accent)	^	²	Displays console
Ctrl+Shift+O			Hide non-(visually-)occluding quads (1)
Ctrl+Shift+S			Hide non-sound-occluding quads (2)
Ctrl+Shift+I			Draw invisible quads
Ctrl+Shift+Y	Ctrl+Shift+Z	Ctrl+Shift+Y	Performance display (includes FPS)
Ctrl+Shift+T			Draw only character-colliding geometry
Ctrl+Shift+R			Draw only object-colliding geometry
Ctrl+Shift+F			Fast Mode (runs Oni at up to 24x)
Ctrl+Shift+G			Draw Every Frame Mode		(3)
Ctrl+Shift+X			Toggle show trigger volumes (formerly "Secret X")
Ctrl+Shift+Ins			Add flag		(4)
Ctrl+Shift+Del			Delete flag
Ctrl+Shift+U			Unstick player
Ctrl+Shift+\	Ctrl+Shift+#	Ctrl+Shift+*	Displays "Profile on"/"Profile off" (no other known effect)
Ctrl+Shift+L			Dumps a screenshot every frame
. (period)		: (colon)	Single Step Mode
/	-	!	Advance one step (when in Single Step Mode)
.+/	.+-	:+!	Exit Single Step Mode (press keys simultaneously)
Ctrl+Shift+Home			Cycle active camera
End			Warp to camera
Ctrl+Shift+B			Shows current opponent's logic
]	+	$	Freeze animation frame (6)
[	Ü	^	Advance animation frame (6)
F2			Cutscene Animation 1
F3			Cutscene Animation 2
F6			Kill all AIs
Ctrl+F7			Play dead
F7, Shift+F7			Cycle weapons (holster to get second weapon)
F8, Shift+F8			Cycle characters
F9			Start recording
F10			Stop recording
F11			Playback recording
Return/Enter			Cycle camera modes (see table below for camera controls): 1. Normal 2. Detached A - mouse still controls character aim 3. Detached B - mouse aims camera
U.S. QWERTY	German QWERTZ	French AZERTY	Description	Windows	Mac
Ctrl+Shift+Y	Ctrl+Shift+Z	Ctrl+Shift+Y	Secret Y (5)
Ctrl+Shift+Z	Ctrl+Shift+Y	Ctrl+Shift+Z	Secret Z (5)
Ctrl+Shift+N			Camera recording start
Ctrl+Shift+M		Ctrl+Shift+,	Camera recording stop
Ctrl+Shift+,		Ctrl+Shift+;	Camera recording playback
			Place quad
			Place quad mode
Ctrl+Shift+1		Ctrl+Shift+&	Test One
Ctrl+Shift+2		Ctrl+Shift+é	Test Two
Ctrl+Shift+3		Ctrl+Shift+"	Test Three
Ctrl+Shift+4		Ctrl+Shift+'	Test Four
Ctrl+Shift+K			Kill particles
Backspace			Enter AI debugger
7		è	Explode One
8		_	Explode Two
9		ç	Explode Three
0		@	Explode Four
Ctrl+Shift+J			Reset particles
Ctrl+Shift+W	Ctrl+Shift+Z	Ctrl+Shift+W	Drop flag and add waypoint
Ctrl+Shift+P			Display particle performance
Ctrl+Shift+;	Ctrl+Shift+Ö	Ctrl+Shift+M	Lock particle performance display

(1) This dev feature does not fully function in Windows, so the only non-occluding quads that disappear are console screens.

(2) This dev feature does not fully function in Windows, so the non-sound-occluding quads remain visible. However, the second aspect of this feature, which marks furniture with a red texture to indicate that it is partially sound-occluding, still works.

(3) On Macs, Draw Every Frame Mode speeds up the game almost to the extent of Fast Mode, but with glitchy animations.

(4) Please see talk page section "Insert key on Macs".

(5) Wouldn't Ctrl+Y and Ctrl+Z conflict with "Performance display"?

(6) "Animation freezing" works on the main character and means two things:

a) The character's position and pose remain exactly the same as they were at the time of freezing, along with collision shapes (spheres and body parts) and other stuff.

b) The actual character, unless "pinned" with chr_pin_character=1, will keep moving with the same velocity as at the time of freezing.

• For regular (grounded) animations, the vertical velocity is zero and the horizontal velocity is determined by the animation frame that was playing at the time of freezing.
• If airborne (jumping or falling) the current airborne velocity (both vertical and horizontal) at the time of freezing is maintained.
• Wall collision is disabled, as well as gravity acceleration and the "air" timer (so you can't die from falling for too long while frozen).
• Floor collision still works, as well as the "off" timer that starts when you step off a ledge, and the downward velocity that is applied then (see ONCC for details on this downward velocity).

If one sets chr_pin_character=1, then animation debugging works exactly as intended: there is no drifting, and one can conveniently advance through the frames of the current animation.

If one does not set chr_pin_character=1, then the frame-freezing functionality does not allow one to study animations, and instead provides a powerful (and risky) teleporting gimmick.

Camera controls

Note that the camera controls have default mappings, given below, but unlike the developer hotkeys, they are custom-bindable. In fact, on Macs, the default numpad bindings need to be customized or they won't work at all. See note HERE about how to bind these keys and fix the Mac numpad controls. Also, the definitions of panning left and right are reversed, as NumPad4 will turn the camera to the left, but its action is called "man_cam_pan_right", and vice versa for NumPad6....

After detaching the camera with Enter and flying it away from Konoko, the End key teleports Konoko to the camera position and attaches the camera to her position again. If you turn off collision with "chr_nocollision 0 1" before teleporting, Konoko will not fall out of the air when teleported to the camera position (just don't jump with collision off...).

Windows Key Result NumPad 1/3 Move camera left/right NumPad 8/5 Move camera forward/backward NumPad -/+ Move camera up/down NumPad 6/4 Pan camera left/right Up/Down Arrow Pan camera up/down

Mac Key Result Left/Right Arrow Move camera left/right Up/Down Arrow Move camera forward/backward Page Up/Down Move camera up/down NumPad 6/4 Pan camera left/right NumPad 8/2 Pan camera up/down

Runtime scripting

Basic idea

(Almost) anything you write in scripts you can enter at runtime with the console. The only thing you can't do is register new variables and functions.

You can call existing functions, check on the values of existing variables. "Existing" means either built-in ones, or part of the original level logic, or part of your own scripts for the given level.

If a function/variable was succesfully registered by Oni during level load, you will be able to refer to them from the console.

You will even be able to browse the registered variables/functions with the Tab key, while typing at the console. Tab autocompletes the command being typed, then cycles through all available commands in (hex)alphabetical order (A...Z come before a...z). Shift+Tab lets you go back.

Previous commands can be navigated with up and down arrows. You can't insert/delete text in the middle of a command; you have to use Backspace.

The only keys that have an effect while the console is active are: Escape, Enter, Backspace, (Shift+)Tab, ASCII character keys and the arrow keys.

If you press an illegal key during console input (such as F1), the input display will freeze; hit Tab a few times to fix.

Limitations

Obviously, if Oni is experiencing graphical issues and you have no console output, runtime scripting can be a bit frustrating. Even more so if console input is invisible -- you're in for some blindfolded scripting then. Still, there are a few commands which you can type in as equivalents to regular cheats:

chr_nocollision 0 1 and chr_nocollision 0 0 enable/disable no-clipping. When in no-clipping mode, you can't fall down; thus, jumping makes you flail in midair, and eventually you die (so be careful about that)

give_powerup shield gives you a force shield (which you can't have with fatloot)

dump_docs prints all the registered commands/variables to a file in your Oni folder (so you know just what you can type)